Writing Workshops

Book Promotion Your Way: Marketing Your Writing Without Anxiety with Eleanor Whitney

$175

2 sessions

Out of stock

Saturday & Sunday 11:00 am EDT - 2:00 pm EDT August 9 to August 10, 2025

Online via Zoom

Newsletters, social media, author events, and press, oh my! Whether you have a book coming out, are developing a book proposal, or learning about the publishing process as you write, the question of how to market your book and yourself as an author can feel intimidating. Publishers expect writers in all genres to build an audience and take an active, leading role in promoting their book. So what, exactly, do you need to do? And do you really need to be on all those social media platforms? Promoting your work doesn’t have to be a burden. In fact, it can be fun, sustainable, and a chance to strengthen your community and writing life.

Through big and small group discussions, brainstorms, writing prompts, and real life examples, we will explore how to strengthen your community, identify your target audience, and create a plan to connect with your readers. We will cover strategies to communicate about your book effectively and you will leave with a marketing plan outline.

You will be able to apply the work you create in this class to a book proposal, use it to promote a forthcoming book, or employ it as a toolkit to build your community and presence as a writer. Writers in all genres at all phases of their publishing journey are welcome! When it comes to marketing, we all always have more to learn, especially because media, technology, and culture are always evolving, and it’s more fun to learn together.

Course Outline:
This intensive and interactive online course will take place in two separate sessions, each three hours long. Each session will feature individual and collaborative exercises, writing prompts, reflections, brainstorming, and planning sessions.

Day 1: Defining Your Audience & Digital Platforms Demystified
- Welcome and course overview
- Introductions and connecting with your why: What are your goals for learning about book marketing?
- Identifying your literary community and audience for your book
- Finding your voice as a marketer: How do we translate our writing voice into our marketing?
- Defining your “platform”: How to reach out and connect with your audience and stay in touch with your community
- Assessing your options for a digital presence: Website, social media, newsletter?
- Making a digital presence plan, brainstorming ideas, and draft calendar
- Reflection, wrap up, and questions
Day 2: Pitching, Planning, Book Partying & Connecting with Your Community
- Welcome back, reflection on what success looks like for you, your writing, and your book
- Press, publicity, and pitching, understanding different types of coverage: reviews, author interviews, excerpts, or articles related to your book, and how to approach, prioritize, and pitch these for your book
- Planning and setting up book events, including identifying and pitching venues and other speakers
- Creative, long-term ways to promote your book, including podcasts, courses, and workshops
- Putting your plan together and next steps
- Discussion about sustainability and keeping promotion in perspective
- Closing and questions

All Levels

This course is held online via Zoom.

Led by

Eleanor C. Whitney

Eleanor C. Whitney

Eleanor C. Whitney is a writer, editor, and content marketer. She is the author of Promote Your Book: Spread the Word, Find Your Readers, and Build a Literary Community, the feminist essay collection Riot Woman, and Quit Your Day Job, a business guide for creative people. Eleanor has built public programs, marketing strategy, and engaging content at museums, art organizations, and tech startups, including the Brooklyn Museum and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Queens College and a Master’s in Public Administration from Baruch College. She serves as a nonfiction editor for MAYDAY magazine and publishes Promote Your Book, a monthly newsletter about book promotion and the writing life.

About this series

Writing Workshops

We strive to make our classes the most inviting and rewarding available, offering an intimate environment to study with award-winning, world-class writers. Each class is specially designed by the instructor, so whether you’re a fledgling writer or an MFA graduate polishing your novel, you’ll find a perfect fit here.

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