Best way to promote a nonfiction book?
I’m a literary agent, not an author, but in my experience, you’ll get the best bang for your buck on a website/blog to promote your book, a newsletter (if you have ongoing info that would be useful to your website visitors), and interviews (and don’t forget social networking). You’re right to realize that you’re going to shoulder a good part of the burden of publicizing–as I always tell my clients, your inhouse publicist has dozens of books a season, at least, to promote, but you have one, and it’s one you believe in and know well. With that in mind, providing your publisher’s publicist with any media contacts you may have that would be interested in reviewing the book would be helpful–don’t assume anything about what your publisher will be doing on your behalf. Unless your publisher is footing the bill, book tours are not necessarily the most time- and cost-effective way to promote your book these days, unless you already have a bit of a toehold in the marketplace already–I’ve had
