Book Awards: The Gift that Keeps on Giving by Mary Greenwood

Book Awards: The Gift that Keeps on Giving by Mary Greenwood, author of award-winning How to Interview Like a Pro





1. Put award-winning book or award-winning author interchangeably with the name of your book or your name as the author. If you have won more than one award, use "multi-award winning."

2. Go through everything you write and change it to award-winning. This can include your profile on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Look at your blog and Website. If you have previously written ezines or other articles, update them with your new awards.

3. Use Google Alerts with the name of your book to see how much PR you are really getting. This will help you decide where to put your continued efforts. I like to google some key phrases periodically to see what Google alerts has missed.

4. Write a detailed Press Release every time you win an award. I like to tell the history of the award and even list the other winners in my category. I may even write some nice things about the other winning books in my category. Then I write an email to those other writers with a copy of the link along with my congratulations. Sometimes these other winners will reciprocate by putting something about me on their blog or website.

5. Send copies of the Press Releases to anyone who might be interested in publishing the information. For example, send to your current newspaper and other newspapers such as your home newspaper or a newspaper where you previously lived. Send to your alumni associations, your employer and your professional organizations such as the local bar association or Rotary. Send to your local writers' group newsletter.

6. Put book award information on your signature on your email account so that everyone who receives an email from you will see this information. This is sent automatically and often, I will get a response like, " I did not know you were an author," or "My daughter is looking for a job and could use this book on interviewing." If it is not relevant to your email, you can always delete the signature before sending.

7. Write blurbs or tips that people will want to share with others on Facebook or retweet. That will help your information go viral.

8. Send the information frequently. You don't want to be obnoxious, but sending something only once may leave out people who don't check Facebook or Twitter on a regular basis. Some things do bear repeating. You can always tweak the post so it is a little different from earlier ones.

9. Recycle your reviews especially if you won an award with the reviewer's book contest. For example, my books have won awards with Reader Reviews and Readers Favorites. When I share these links, I mention that I won a Reader Reviews or Reader Favorites book award.

10. Use your awards to get an interview or make a pitch. I have gotten many leads for articles mentioning my books about interviewing and negotiating as a result of (HAR0)) www.helpareporter.com. This is a free service and once you sign up, you will get several emails a day with the needs of journalists for future stories. If you see something related to your expertise, you can send a timely pitch which will be forwarded by HARO. My first sentence usually is "I am an award-winning author ..."

11. The list for promoting your book awards is endless and only limited by your imagination.

All of this may seem narcissistic, but if you don't not toot your horn, who will?


Mary Greenwood has won 29 book awards for How to Negotiate Like a Pro, How to Mediate Like a Pro and How to Interview Like a Pro.