A lot of being successful in publishing
is promotion and marketing, when you self-publish all of that falls
on your shoulders. So what can you do and how much does it cost? You
can do a lot, and as it turns out a lot can be done for free.
Since I am still new to all of this and
I'm on the verge of self-publishing my first book I am overwhelmed by
both promotion and marketing.... But I have a plan.
I am going to utilize the free social
media sites I am already on:
Facebook
Twitter
and Google+
But I am still going to strive for the
80/20 rule. 80 % of what I post isn't direct marketing and the other
20% of the time I will be selling myself hardcore.
Another avenue I really suppose I
should dive into is Tumblr. But I am still floundering in my
ignorance of that site.
Next up are the book sites:
Goodreads
Smashwords
Shelfari
Booktagger
And I might check into some other sites
like: Authors Den, and Internet Book Database.
I might even travel down the crazy road
of Press Releases, there are a number of sites that have free press
release distribution.
Cross promotion can be helpful too, I
have seen it work well for several self-published authors. When my
book, Waking Up In Bedlam, comes out I will be running some cross
promotions with a fellow self-published author A.L. Kessler and with
Alexandra. Cross promotion can run the gambit in terms of what you
want to do, it can be anything from hosting giveaways on eachothers
blogs, facebook pages, or even something as easy as hosting an
interview, a cover reveal. All of our cross promotions will be
revealed later.
Next up on my promotion and marketing
list will be a blog hop, I am already signed up for it and it will
run very near to the time with Waking Up In Bedlam will be released
so it will be perfect. I've never done a blog hop and I am definitely
nervous about it but I'm looking forward to getting my name out there
a bit more.
Last but not least on my list is Book
Reviews. This one makes my tummy flutter with ten thousand
butterflies. It really did seem like an easy task, simply find sites
to review your book, give them a copy in exchange for an honest
review... But the more I looked into sites that I knew did book
reviews I found most of them no longer reviewed Indie/Self-Published
authors. I found myself back at square one, luckily I've found a few
sites that review self-published authors and they review the genre of
Paranormal Romance, which is what I write. One thing I've learned
about book review sites is when you send them a request to review
your book make sure to make the email personal, they don't like to
get a blanket email that was obviously sent out to several sites all
at once. So when I send out my requests it will personal emails only
and then I will sit back and cross my fingers and hope for the best.
I'm sure after a couple of releases all
of this will like second nature to me but this is without a doubt
very stressful. I think I've gained some gray hairs from thinking and
over-thinking all of this stuff. But if it helps me to reach readers
that I might have not been able to reach than every gray hair will be
worth it. I love my story and I want it to reach as many people who
will hopefully love it just as much as I do. That is the goal, share
my story.
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