I’m not naive to think that promotion and sales aren’t in a
Writer’s description, at least not in this day and time. However, building an
Author platform to sell more books has become easier than ever, but where do
you begin? For someone who hide
in a cave somewhere writing for months or even years, this can be
challenging. Finding that you now have
to sell yourself, can be intimidating.
Switching your mind from story telling to thinking about
Blog book tours, press releases, media pitches, promotional materials,
shrink your sound bites…. Ugh!
Since I’m one of those, writing cave women. I reluctantly stepped out into the light to
become a promotional saleswoman and
found that the air was breathable, and this might not be dauting. When it comes
to promoting my book, I’ve found there are
as many avenues in which to
promote my work, as there are places that can handle my needs. Most of which will do an excellent professional job that ravels publishing houses. However,
they are only asking for hundred of thousand of dollars to get the job done.
Ouch!
Indie authors are
often on a budget, we have to think
about things like cost, time, availability , user-friendly, the ability to make
changes when necessary as well as so many other things which could become
overwhelming. I’ve scouted around the web and different other places trying to
find quick and easy ways to promote my
book. What I’ve found are ways to
promote it without any money at all, or very little out of pocket expense. Yea!
Here are 7 Quick and
Dirty ways to promote your book
1) Here is a list of sites where you can promote your book
for free
2) You are a writer, write guest columns and essays. Pitch articles, interviews or blog posts to
media outlets ( they love this stuff and will promote your book so get in there
and get dirty)
3) Contact Book stores. Hey most will take self-published
books on consignment, and some coffee houses. There are print on demand place
like The BookPatch which will print as
many as one book at a time.
4) Got a blog, Facebook page, Twitter host a book giveaway
online. People love free stuff.
5) Work your Twitter account, make sure you have a picture, link to your site, a description
about yourself and don’t protect your tweets, obvious and add your location. Don’t forget about Google+
while you’re at it. Do all the same
things, but also check to make sure your personal tagline isn’t too long and
make sure your profile is visible in search. Want people to find you, right?
6) Create a free Tumblr page dedicated to one of your book’s
themes.
7) Get a Vine account to do a quick 6 second video to
promote your book. Don’t have to use
YouTube anymore, you can create a short book trailer right from your
phone. You can video yourself reading the first sentence, showing off your
cover, a promotional event. Upload to your profile, and share them instantly
with your followers on Twitter and Facebook. All right from your phone, easy
peasy.
I know that promoting a book isn’t an easy task, it often
takes years for a book to get noticed. However, these 7 quick and dirty ways
can help get you started toward that
goal.
Copyright © 2013 Glynis Rankin
