Going Local: Authors on the Payoffs and Pitfalls of Hometown Promotion

Going Local: Authors on the Payoffs and Pitfalls of Hometown Promotion

Going local often provides the surest path to meaningful publicity. Standing in front of a library audience, chatting at a farmers’ market stall, or fielding questions on community radio transforms a distant byline into a neighbor readers can root for. That face‑to‑face connection sparks genuine word of mouth—the signed copy passed to a friend, the snapshot shared on local social media, the casual mention that “the author lives just down the roa…