Promotion Strategies with Kalin Nenov

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This is part one of a long (3 part) conversation I had with Kalin Nenov of the Human Library on the subject of promotion strategies for books. We talk about:

1. Getting outside people involved (for example, by running contests and polls).
2. Giving manuscripts to lots of beta-readers (and giving them prizes!)
   1. C. M. Kosemen, Darren Naish, and John Conway‘s book, All Yesterdays, and their clever contest.
3. Going to forums to get help with background and worldbuilding.
   1. Alternate History Forum
   2. Speculative Biology Forum
   3. Deviantart
   4. Dinosaur Mailing List
   5. Hell Creek Forum
   6. TVTropes
   7. (suggestions for other good forums? Add them in the comments!)
4. Reading forums are often more useful than writing forums. (Writers must comment on other people’s work, not only advertise their own.)
   1. In Bulgaria, some forums are:
      1. Shadowdance: http://www.shadowdance.info/forum/viewforum.php?f=6
      2. Citadelata: http://www.citadelata.com/forum/
      3. Chitanka’s forum: http://forum.chitanka.info/literature.html
      4. Ivan Efremov’s forum: http://sf-sofia.com/forum/index.php?f=7&rb_v=viewforum
      5. Eurocon!
      6. Sborishte na trubaduri: http://trubadurs.com/
      7. SciFi.bg: http://scifi.bg/
      8. Az cheta: http://www.azcheta.com/
      9.  Knigolandiya: http://knigolandia.info/
      10. Anna Hells: http://annahells.wordpress.com/
      11. Preslav Ganev: http://literaturatadnes.com
      12. Branimir Sabev: http://chetene.blogspot.com/
      13. Parvi vpechatleniya ot posledno prochetenoto: http://zonkobg.blogspot.com/
      14. Palatkov lager za pingvini: http://alvinbg.blogspot.com/
      15. Stars in My Pocket: http://ikosmos.blogspot.com/
      16. Valentin D. Ivanov: http://valentindivanov.wordpress.com/
      17. Grigor Gatchev: http://www.gatchev.info/blog
      18. Priumici: http://knigoman.wordpress.com/
      19. TANSTAAFL: http://angelbogdanov.blogspot.com/
   2. In English:
      1. http://www.antipope.org
      2. http://aidanmoher.com/blog/
      3. http://joshuadavidbennett.com/
      4. www.scifireaders.net
      5. http://www.thetexfiles.com/
      6. Add your suggestions in the comments!

1. Talk to larpers.
   1. http://larp-bg.org/forum/.
   2. http://fantasylarpcenter.com.

(Thanks to Fix it in post for audio help)

And don’t forget to tell us what kind of shoes YOU think elves should wear!