The primary motivation for writing my book Go Ahead – Take the Wheel was to show people that getting into racing is possible for the average Joe, and break down many of the myths people have about racing. One area I continue to struggle with is how to effectively gain exposure for my book outside the existing racing community. (I have many ideas on how to gain exposure with new & existing members, although making it actually happen might be a somewhat different story. LOL) SCCA also faces the same challenges and continually seeks new ways to gain publicity for the various racing programs. Many people have joked about SCCA being the “Secret Car Club of America”. In various threads, particularly lately, people have talked about PDXs and how even for events held outside of large metropolitan areas, the exposure hasn’t been as much as they would have liked. I’ve been scratching my head trying to think of how both I (with my book) and the club can effectively accomplish this. There are millions of people who grow up dreaming about racing and simply are not aware of SCCA’s (and other clubs) programs. I grew up thinking that the only way into road racing was by attending a $3,000 Skip Barber school then participating in a very expensive racing series. If I had only known that less than 20 minutes from my house there were these autocross events where I could have taken my ordinary street car to race, HPDEs / PDXs, and so forth.
At first glance it sounds fairly simple how to gain exposure for both my book as well as the club, but how? Several of the things that first come to my mind are not very realistic and will not provide enough return on investment to justify the associated expense. For example, a black & white 1/3 page ad in one edition of Road & Track magazine costs in excess of $31,000. I’m curious to hear your thoughts and suggestions on how to gain additional publicity for my book and/or the club. Thanks!
Some quick notes:
Initially I wasn’t going to post this type of thread, but given the audience, topic and fact that IT.com already has a sticky for my book (thank you!!!) thought it might be o.k.
For my book, obtaining reviews in various car magazines would be ideal but actually getting them printed is tough. (Many of the auto magazines my “publicity director” spoke with stated they receive over 50 books each day to be considered!) This is where having a large publishing company with connections would have been useful. I’m also in the process of speaking with various track stores as well as other retailers.
I was very surprised with some of the things I’ve learned during this process about the book industry. The concept of selling books to major bookstores such as Barnes & Nobel or Borders, them not selling copies, simply tearing off the cover, throwing the rest of the book out and returning the cover for a full refund still has me shaking my head. I suppose it makes sense for a large publisher not wanting the copies back to store, but for a smaller publisher it's tough. All that requiring a distributor taking a decent cut, then the book store taking their share.
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