So you have written a book and joined the wonderful world of indie authors. But, what is the next step on this journey?
The answer to that is…even more work.
The next step after self publishing is promoting and marketing. After publishing my first novel, I pushed into this part of the process and discovered it was quite a bit more than just having an online presence (which does help.)
Because of my freelance work, I already had a decent online presence on the social networking sites, but what I didn’t know was that there was a lot more I should have done before I published. Here are several tips for promoting yourself and your book.
Website: your website is a great place for displaying yourself and your book(s). The best thing you can do is have a website where you bought the domain and have your name or the name of your book in it, this helps in the search engines. For example, my website was a free site from weebly, and in the address is said authorwebsite.weebly.com with a bunch of numbers and stuff. It almost never came up in the search engines. Then, I bought my authorwebsite.com one through the same site, it just upgraded it and nothing changed except the name, and I was first in the search.
Make your websites uncluttered, easy to navigate, and eye catching.
Blog often! Make sure that your website and your blog are linked together and update it often. People visit active pages more than less active ones.
Create a page on your blog specifically for your reviews. Sites like Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes and Noble do not always have all the reviews out there for your books. This is a great place to showcase yourself and the reviews for your book.
Social Networking: Social networking is not just a place where you go and plaster your stuff all over. You must learn the key words social and networking. To have a good fan base on any social networking site you must interact with people.
Learn etiquette of social networking too. If you go and friend a six hundred people on Facebook and then post your links all over their walls without asking, this is a surefire way for people to un-friend you. But, social networking is the key to online sales. People like to see their authors out there and active with them.
On Facebook, make sure to get a fan page for yourself or your books. See this article, How to get more Likes on Facebook, for tips on social networking on Facebook.
On Twitter, you must be consistent about posting, but always re-post for other people and thank them for their mentions about you. If you can’t think of anything to post then you can use simple stuff like quotes that will catch people’s attention. I like to post other authors work if don’t have anything of my own to tweet. Always, always, always take part in Follow Friday, this will build your followers. For more on this, check out this article, Tips for building a fan base on Twitter.
There are other great social networking sites, my other favorite has everything to do with books, Goodreads. Goodreads is a little hard to figure out at first, but it is so worth it once you get used to it. As an author you can apply for a Goodreads author account and then people can add your books, leave reviews, follow your reviews, and you can even link your blogs there. I like Goodreads very much.
Other great sites for authors are Wattpad, Library Thing, and Shelfari.
All right, we already know that having a website and social networking are the basis of online promotion and marketing, what else is there?
Book Reviews: Finding book reviewers is not really that hard. There is something called the Book Blogger Directory where you can find book bloggers listed by genre. Also, there are many who aren’t listed. So, what you can do is go to one book blog and more often than not, they have a list of other book bloggers somewhere.
Just a few things to remember when requesting book reviews. Always check to make sure they are your genre by looking at their review policy, make sure if you don’t have print copies that they accept e-books, and if they don’t answer, don’t be offended because these are people who do this for free. Book bloggers are regular people who just like to read and are kind enough to talk about your book.
Virtual Book Tour: A virtual book tour is a great way to promote your book online. There are several places, if you look around, that host affordable book tours. A couple of these are Sizzling PR and Walker Author Tours, both of those are very affordable. Another great one is Kizmet Book Tours they are a bit more on the pricy side, but include great prizes in their tours if you opt for that.
You can, also opt for organizing your own tour. This is always an option, just be very organized about it. I tried it and had a heck of a time finding enough book bloggers to fill my spots. The companies who organize the tours usually have a team of bloggers to help fill the spots.
Also, be prepared to give out review copies to each spot on the tour.
Book Trailers: There is a controversy over book trailers. Some people feel that they are more for fun than promotion. If you can make your own, or afford to have one done, I think they are a great way to promote your book. Book trailers can be very, very pricey, depending on the quality of the work. Some affordable companies with quality work are Budget Book Trailers and Eye Candy, Book Trailers and More.
Have Contests: Having contests on your website or social networking sites is an awesome way to draw people to your website. Everyone loves to win stuff and people will spread the word that you are having a contest. If you can’t afford anything to give out for a prize (like book swag) then give out an e-book. It’s easy and people love free books!
All right, we have pretty much covered the basics for promoting online. Mainly you need to remember to get yourself out there and interact with people.
A book won’t always sell a million copies right away, most of the time it takes a while to build the hype. So, keep plugging away and you will get there eventually.