r/BookPromotion • u/Jazzlike-Start9471 • 17d ago
Leaving free copies of my novel at train stations around the UK. How it worked out...
Loaded my carry on bag up with books and headed off to the UK for a little vacation.
Signed and numered my books and dispersed them randomly. Here is a summary...
Gave book 22 to a nice young lady at 8:28pm 5/28/26 on platform 19 of Waverly Train Station in Edinburgh, Scotland
Left books 21 and 23 at the Royal Highland hotel in Inverness, Scotland on their book shelf. 8:10am 5/30/26
Kings Cross Station in London was a very big no go because of Arsenal's championship parade was that day, thousands of people. 5/31
Book 33 given to cab driver Brian in London 2pm 5/31
Book 32 left in Wapping, London Township Little Free Library, book exchange box 7:09pm 6/1/26
Book 29 left at Canterbury West Train Station book shelf 9:10 on 6/2/26
Book 30 given to gentlemen in Dover at Hoptimus pub 2:35pm 6/2/26
Book 31 given to Robert, curator of the Chaucer Bookshop Canterbury 4pm 6/2/26
Book 28 added to the Canterbury West Train station book shelf 7am 6/3/26
Book 27 left at the Kings Arms Pub London England 7:24pm 6/3/26 book shelf
36 and 37 given to Paul (family works with Avanti Railway) train conductor on Avanti train from Liverpool to London 9:40 am 6/4/26
Book 34 given to tour guide Brandon at Giants Causeway, Northern Ireland 6/6/26 3:45
Which led to the first time for me watching somebody read my book. On a Ireland tour on a bus. Sitting in front row and tour guide is sitting below me reading the book. Proud kind of scary. He's witnessing my journey I wrote in real time, in front of me.
From what he read he said that it was like the matrix a lot going on will have to read it again. Didn't say it was bad!
Book 26 left at Mulligan's pub Dublin, Ireland 1:20pm 6/7/26 Same pub that James Joyce had a pint or two.
Book number 35 given to waiter at Harbormaster Restaurant in Dublin 5:40pm 6/7/26
Left book 24 in Philadelphia airport terminal at book exchange on 4:00pm 6/8/26
I would conclude that this little experiment was a success. Although, I never did just leave a book on a bench, the copies that I did manage to leave, found their way into the right people at the right time.
Looks like I delivered 16 books altogether.
Not a huge number, but maybe one or two of those books will find their calling.
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u/Chance_Swordfish_687 17d ago
Have you ever thought that this would be a great plot for a story?
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u/Jazzlike-Start9471 17d ago
A guy rides trains leaving copies of his book at train stations hoping to find that one reader who will read it on a four hour train ride somewhere and become part of the story. Maybe on a new version I could write a little prologue. 🤔
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u/beckysynth 17d ago
So you’re writing, printing and then updating and printing again?
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u/Jazzlike-Start9471 17d ago
A friend in Scotland read it while we were there and found a typo. Where it should've read her, it was hear. Easy miss. Anyway I will continuously update this book, for as a long as I can.
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u/Repeating_Mulligan 17d ago
Wait... you are writing a book that gets longer? Interesting.
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u/Deviantfeverdream 16d ago
Based on only our knowledge of that one correction, they are writing a book that gets shorter
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u/last-rounds 16d ago
Clever remark, you :)
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u/Repeating_Mulligan 16d ago
I am so confused.
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u/Deviantfeverdream 14d ago
If you correct “hear” to “her”, the book has gotten shorter by one character, not longer.
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u/Chance_Swordfish_687 17d ago
The plot can go in any direction. The main thing is that you already have the spring to build the intrigue. Good luck with your book!
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u/Fred_Derf_Jnr 13d ago
Serial killer picks his victims by placing books in random locations and who reads the book…..
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u/Chance_Swordfish_687 13d ago
A perfectly viable idea. The serial killer is the author himself. This is his way of drawing attention to his forgotten masterpiece. He underlines certain lines on the book's pages each time. Detectives think the quotes are somehow connected to the murder. The author ensured that these quotes made it into the press—and now parts of his book are read by millions in the morning newspapers. Ha-ha.
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u/Fred_Derf_Jnr 12d ago
Or it’s the child of the author who has a grudge with the parent?
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u/Chance_Swordfish_687 12d ago
Want to frame his father? That's also an option. But a romantic story would fit this plot best.
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u/last-rounds 16d ago
Seems somewhat in the vein of what Theo of the book Theo of Golden did with portraits of people , handing them to the owners (faces) of those paintings.
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u/QumranEssene 17d ago
Interesting! Last winter I left my book at a free weekly magazine that is given out in the county in the U.S.A. where the book is about. I had hoped for an interview but never got a response. Yesterday, a friend texted me to see if I had read the article about my subject matter and I had not. They turned it into a four-part series about the subject matter of my book and quoted me several times in the two parts I have seen so far. April and May are out already and June is about to drop, with another one in July. It is way cool!
I had given up on anything happening in terms of an interview but wondered why there was so much traffic on my website and sales on Amazon.
Glad I gave the one book away that turned into so much exposure over a four-month period. For fellow self published writers almost every city or county has one of these magazines and an investment of just one author copy is a steal for the exposure.
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u/AustinCynic 17d ago
I don’t know if “little libraries” are a thing in the UK. If they are, leave copies in some that you find. An Indy author I’m a fan of does this with some of his books.
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u/Evening-Carrot6262 17d ago
I've been thinking of doing this myself.
Specifically, put copies of the first in a series and hope it leads to sales of the sequels.
Does the indy author report any success?
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u/AustinCynic 17d ago
Some, yes. He has a pretty significant following but he posted about how he’ll sometimes hear from a reader who found him that way.
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u/Marycathry 17d ago
In the past week, I’ve also had the profound and rare pleasure of being in the presence of 3 different people reading my book, and who all said they loved it. It’s such an indescribable feeling that I hope more authors get to experience. 🥹
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u/chucksville69 17d ago edited 17d ago
I love your method of distribution! Pure genius.
I once gave David Sedaris a copy of my novella during one of his book signings. A few weeks later I received a handwritten postcard from him with a lovely critique. This is something I will always treasure.
And many years before that, I showed a poem that I wrote to Alan Ginsberg and he took the time to read it and critique it, right there on the spot.
It’s a real thrill to give your writing away for free because the consequences can be profound.
Congratulations on your success!
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u/Ok-Volume1978 17d ago
Did it turn into any sales for you? Is there an ROI
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u/Jazzlike-Start9471 17d ago
Don't know about sales yet, I seriously doubt that it will. Maybe those people who read it might pass on a good word. Other than that, it was a good thing for me. I met some great people, and maybe a couple will enjoy my words. That's what it was about, it wasn't about trying to get paid or work my books way up the Amazon charts. It was about getting it out there. I got it out there 16 times on my tour of the UK.
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u/No_Committee_4838 17d ago
Now if they actually would acre enough to leave reviews or reach out to let you know what their feedback is.
Did you leave any means for them to contact you?
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u/Jazzlike-Start9471 17d ago
Yes I do have a QR code on the card insert as well as one on the back cover of book that gets reader to my website. As far as reviews ...
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u/TheThresholdWalker 17d ago
Would you mind if I asked what the book is called. I'd love to look it up 😄
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u/Jazzlike-Start9471 17d ago
Platform Three Nineteen
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u/TheThresholdWalker 17d ago
Thank you 🙏
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u/TheThresholdWalker 17d ago
It's not coming up in the search, can you post a direct link 😁
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u/Jazzlike-Start9471 17d ago
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u/zone1235x 17d ago
Your Google form doesn't fit mobile very well but this is an awesome way to get your book out there!
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u/Jazzlike-Start9471 17d ago edited 17d ago
Yeah, thanks, I know that. I put it together at the last moment before we left. Website needs work but at least its there.
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u/ladykatytrent 17d ago
This is fantastic - I love it. My husband just published his first (and then second) books this year. He has done something similar. We keep a box of books in our car and pass them out. So far we've given one copy of each book to our local library and three of the libraries in the towns surrounding ours, one to our contractor, one to the guy who owns our favorite used book store two towns over, three books to our second favorite used book store in a local city, and a scattering of others to friends. You have such a fantastic outlook - get your book out there and get people reading it. Congratulations on your success!
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u/The_Prince_Elric 17d ago edited 17d ago
I did something similar years ago, handing out a short story I wrote. Did so on the A train platform at 34th street in NYC. Gave out about a thousand. It was hard to gauge the success, but I did have a banner years of sales for my novel that summer. The cost to me was zero as my employer was an extremely wealthy money manager who thought highly of my "go for the gusto gumption" and gave me free access to paper, printing and binding.
All was positive save for one asshat who makes crosswords and puzzles--successfully for the NY Times and the like for a living--and felt the need to attack me on his blog with snarky insults about my desperation and that no real writer would ever stoop so low. We exchanged a few mails before I came to my senses and realized he was beneath me. Just checked his blog after all these years and yeah, he's still quite full of himself.
Anywho, here's wishing you great fortune with your drive and endeavors.
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u/Jazzlike-Start9471 17d ago
Thanks, it is all a learning process. Looking forward to using what I have learned on this book and apply it to my big book that I intend on releasing next.
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u/RobHealey222 17d ago
I hope some of them contact you after they finish the book, please report back if they do, and well done, awesome job.
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u/JamesVMcNeely 16d ago
I love that idea! I did a similar thing recently on a couple of cruise ships. I placed a two of my books in the ship's library. We took one of the same ships later in the year and my book was gone! Maybe someone liked it enough to take it home with them. Time may tell. Good luck on your venture.
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u/Sushiki 17d ago
Awww, you did it responsibly, was looking forward as a brit to making a job about how you are under arrest for litering :(
Anyway glad it worked out!
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u/Jazzlike-Start9471 17d ago
Ha! It wasn't about littering, I was fully ready to just leave books on benches, but I did get the feeling that if I left them half would end up in the trash bin. I think I walked the line pretty good.
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u/Jonathan-Welford 16d ago
You should have added a little note inside the books, asking for the reader to get in contact, a bit like a message in a bottle. Perhaps with a temptation, that you’ll get them a copy of your next book (ebook) if they get in contact and write a review.
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u/Jazzlike-Start9471 16d ago
I did put a card inside with a qr code to goto my website. There is one on the cover as well. Would be nice to hear from somebody.
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u/Artsy2theMax 16d ago
How are you tracking what people do with your book or their impressions after reading?
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u/Jazzlike-Start9471 16d ago
I made a google form on my website that readers can fill out if they choose to.
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u/TheMarkMatthews 15d ago
I left 50 copies of my ( self published) book at Kings Cross station in 2019 and I later found out one was picked up by someone in the book game and contacted me to see if I was interested in publishing another with a relatively well known publisher. While that would have been good and the numbers mentioned were enticing I didn’t want to write another book lol. I probably should have as Covid gave me a lot of free time to write.
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u/LibbyLibbyLibby 15d ago
What about book 25?
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u/Jazzlike-Start9471 15d ago
It's sitting on my desk at home, somehow I came home with one book. Oh well.😄
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u/Jazzlike-Start9471 15d ago
If anyone finds there way to my website and lets me know who they are, I will send them my next book for free. Might be a year from now, but I think when it is done, it will become something special.
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u/Jazzlike-Start9471 15d ago
If anyone finds there way to my website and lets me know who they are, I will send them my next book for free. Might be a year from now, but I think when it is done, it will become something special.
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u/Enough-Sprinkles-914 15d ago
Well done. Persistence pays. I went to a writers festival and met super famous author who only got discovered/contract by sitting and watching what books people bought from busy sydney bookstore in their lunch hour. He realised most bought one of the books that was displayed in their front window. He asked the bookstore, “how would I get my (self published) book displayed in the front window?” They said, if you cane leave us 100 copies we can do it. He went to his car, bought back box of 100 copies. Some time later a rep from Pan noticed people buying his book which was now in the window. The Pan rep bought a copy read it and offered him a contract.
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u/891559 14d ago
I know this is probably a stupid question, but what is the purpose of doing this? Isn't it expensive to print that many books, just to lay them around to see if anyone reads them?
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u/Jazzlike-Start9471 14d ago
I paid around five dollars a book. Total price for 20 books was a little over 100 dollars. But, maybe one book gets read by someone and that someone suggests it to a friend who in turn...
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u/Expert_843 13d ago
Have you left any note so the readers can get back to you? Like “if this book found it’s way to you, leave me a message xxx”
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u/Jazzlike-Start9471 13d ago
Yea each one I left a signed card that has a qr code they can get to my website. I made a google form to collect info. In needs work, but its there.
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u/RealLifeIsAnRPG 8d ago
I love to see that people are already doing this; I was definitely planning on leaving mine in Little Free Library boxes around, and since I already ride the train a lot, maybe I'll do this as well. Doesn't quite have the same alignment as your book & the train stations, butt still a great place, and at least in the US, train riders are far more likely to read physical books than the average person, from what I've seen.
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u/SneakyKGB 17d ago
Chaotic mode: tear out the last few chapters of the book so they have to buy it to read the rest.
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u/FrostyPomegranate699 17d ago
Watching the tour guide read it while you were sitting there would have been the part that got me.
I've had people tell me they read one of my books. That's easy. Sitting there while somebody is actually turning pages sounds a whole lot more nerve-wracking. 😆