No 1 tip for authors – always have a book in your bag

It is hard to believe that 15 years have passed since the first edition of Career in Your Suitcase was published. And way back then one of my top tips for anyone wanting a ‘portable career’ was ‘always have something to hand out’.

I still stand by this rule, that if you run your own business, you simply must ensure you always have a business card, postcard, flyer or bookmark on you, so that if you meet someone while you are out and about you can give them something to take away with them in case they want to get in touch.

​But today, I popped a brand new, fresh off the press, copy of the 4th edition of Career in Your Suitcase in my bag and headed off to Marilyn’s cafe to meet someone I can only think of as The Engineer’s Wife.

​You see, before I came to Brunei for our  mini-posting, I Googled the words Brunei blogger and up popped The Engineer’s Wife, a blog about a Kiwi who was heading for the same town as me. I got in touch, and sorry to say, completely forgot about her! Then, last week she popped a comment on my BrieflyBrunei blog to tell me she was in town, and sitting most days in a cafe with wifi near me. So today, we met and I took along a copy of my book just in case.

Well knock me down with a feather, but whaddayaknow – Jenn (The Engineer’s Wife) is a career consultant! Just the person who might like a free copy of the book in exchange for a review!
Colleen, my co-author, and I are planning a virtual book tour to celebrate publication next month and are looking for bloggers to write a few words about the book around 19th April in exchange for a free book. So, today, I was able to hand over my first review copy to the perfect blogger – an expat partner and a career consultant!
​Nothing helps to spread the word about a new book better than a review on-line – on blogs, on-line magazines, on Facebook pages, via Twitter, and of course on Amazon. Sometimes authors are reluctant to give away copies of their precious book when really they would rather exchange them for hard cash. But, I believe that if a review is going to be seen by at least one other potential purchaser, then it is always worth handing over a book. Of course, with the high cost of postage not everyone can be given a real book, like Jenn, but Colleen and I are armed with proof PDF copies (that means they are lower resolution and have a little PROOF watermark on the pages) and Kindle and Epub versions that we are more than happy to give away to anyone who promises to write about our book online.

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