How many times has a conversation led to you saying that you’ve written a book?

The other person usually responds with awe and asks what the book is about. Wouldn’t it be nice to hand them a copy of your book as you answer their questions?

It’s why I always recommend that you carry a copy of your book with you, wherever you go. And when someone asks about it, show it off.

Doing so strengthens the connection this potential reader has with you and your book. As he feels the book in his hands and pages through it, as he reads the back cover – it’s like he picked the book off the shelf in a brick-and-mortar store or came to the Amazon.com sales page for your title. That connection greatly increases the chances that he later actually will buy your book.

Don’t carry the book in plain sight, of course, as if you were trying to evoke a conversation and wanted to show it off; this approach reeks of the annoying telemarketer. Instead, keep it in your computer bag or briefcase. Only when the book comes up in conversation has the time arrived to drag it out.

And what if you have multiple titles? Your purse certainly isn’t large enough to carry all of them. In that case, download them as ebooks and make sure they’re easy to access in your smartphone or tablet.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.