Marketing Your POD or Self-Published Book

Posted by: allanmayer on: April 22, 2009

• In: Marketing
• 1 Comment

 

I have spent the last twelve months researching ideas about book promotion.

The fruits of my labours (and advice gratefully received from other writers) can be found below.

BUT BE WARNED:

The number of ideas and links below may look overwhelming, so before you start to use them you need to formulate a structured marketing campaign. To help you do this I have created a free PDF of useful planning tools which can be downloaded from my website by clicking HERE.    

(Much of the content below has already been included in previous blog posts. New additions are marked with a  )

Another important tip before you set off is to identify your target audience or audiences  . Often in marketing this will refer to such things as age or social class. Another way of finding where your book will be best received is to make a list of the themes of your book, and work out to whom these will appeal. For instance- if you have written a children’s book starring an animal, how about approaching a zoo or wildlife sanctuary to see if it is the sort of thing they sell in their shop. Does your book have geographical settings or themes which would be of interest to people of a particular area?

Once you have planned your strategy and identified your target audience, try some of the ideas below:

1- Not using the internet…

●Contact local bookshops. They may have a policy or even a budget dedicated to supporting local authors. But remember to avoid visiting on Saturdays or at lunchtimes .

● Investigate local groups who may want you to go along as a speaker.

● Make some promotional bookmarks or cards- hand them out, leave them around, always carry a few in your wallet or purse for when someone asks so what are you up to at the moment? I made my own on my computer, with a picture of the book cover on the front, and the details of where to buy it and my website on the reverse.

● Link up with a charity- this is a win-win situation. Offer the charity a cut of your royalties for inclusion in their magazine or newsletter.

● Always have a copy of your book handy- you’d be surprised how many people will ask if they can buy a ‘signed copy.’

●Read books on marketing.

 ●Send a press release to local newspaper(s). Make this about yourself- not your book. This may sound like contrary advice, but you are more likely to get your press release published if it has a human interest angle. (One editor told me that the best press release for a new book is something like: local boy, dyslexic, written off by his school, has now published a book.)

●Contact local radio stations. Like your local paper, they are always looking for content- I know several writers who have done this, and they have never been refused.

● Approach your local library and ask them if they will stock/ help promote your work. Get your friends to request it.

● Approach local book clubs, offer them a chance to ‘Ask the Author.’ 

2- Using the Internet…

There is a wealth of information and lists of sites that you can use on a range of Websites and Blogs. Just Google ‘book marketing’ and ‘book promotion’ and you will come up with enough ideas to last a lifetime.

Visit these sites and get advice from authors who have already been down the same route. Some have newsletters which you can subscribe to.

Contribute to writers’ forums– don’t go on there to announce that you have a book to sell- this will just put people off. Go on to ask questions or contribute, and if you have a blog or website then you will get visits from other forum members.

How about making an audio book on YouTube? This is easily done- all you need is a webcam and microphone (I used a Skype set which only cost me £20.) Just follow the upload instructions on YouTube, and leave details of where your book can be bought. Again, you are guaranteed hits from anywhere on the globe, and if people like what they hear this could even lead to sales.

Have you got a blog? This is free and easy to set up. Write about how you wrote your book, your quest to publish and what has happened since. And don’t forget to Ping! Use a service like ‘Ping My Blog’ or ‘Ping 45’ every time you blog.

Put out an online press release. There are sites where you can do this such as the one set up by wordpress.  Write quality articles for ezine articles and leave links to your other sites. If people like what you have to say they will look you up and maybe even buy your book.

  E-mail all of your friends and colleagues with information about your book, and get them to email theirs (Keep it with friends and friends of friends to avoid SPAM!)

 Talk about your book on social networking sites such as FaceBook and Twitter. These sites also have groups that might be relevant to what you have written.

And don’t forget the importance of finding your target audience or audiences.  Find groups on social networking sites and elsewhere on the internet that might have an interest in the themes of your book.  This could include interests and hobbies, but it may also be the case that you have written about a geographical area. Does that area have community pages or a FaceBook group?

And what about  business networking sites such as Ecademy and Naymz? As a writer it may come as a surprise to think of yourself as a business- but you have got a product to sell now, haven’t you? So look up some of these sites, get advice from established members who are in PR, and put details about your book and where to find it in your profile.

 

3-An alphabetical list of places to market your book, to showcase it or to get ideas on book promotion.

I have tried some but not all of these links- so be discerning, especially if any of them ask you for money, and please let me know if you have any bad, or good, experiences.

 A

http://www.absolutewrite.com/novels/book_promotion.htm 

https://allanmayer.wordpress.com/2008/11/09/planning-for-success/  

https://allanmayer.wordpress.com/2008/12/07/blogging/

AllThat.tv

http://alphainventions.com/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0713659653/ref=sr_1_olp_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229895322&sr=1-7

http://www.anniejenningspr.com/pages/bookpromotion.htm

http://authorchats.gather.com/

http://www.author-promotion.com/index.html

 http://www.authorsonthenet.com/

http://www.authortree.com/About%20AuthorTree

 

B

http://www.bauuinstitute.com/Marketing/Marketing.html

http://www.behindthebuzz.com/book-promotion-through-blogs/

http://biblioscribe.com/ 

http://www.binnaclepress.com/

http://www.blogtopsites.com/tag/book+promotion

 http://www.bookarmy.com/  

 

http://www.bookmarket.com/bookpromotion.htm

 

 http://books.google.com/googlebooks/book_search_tour/

http://www.bookmarket.com/bookpromotion.

http://www.bookpromotionnewsletter.com/

http://whttp://websrvr40nj.audiovideoweb.com/avwebdsnjwebsrvr4436/bonus/BookPromotionNOTforSissies.pdf

www.book-promotion.com/press.phphttp://pumpupyourbookpromotion.ning.com/

 http://bookpromotion.wetpaint.com/?t=anon 

http://www.bookpromonetwork.com/

http://www.booksurge.com/content/Google_WordsWorth.htm?cid=Wordsworth_ebook

C

Is for Confidence coaching…  Work on having a positive mental attitude. Marketing your book will need perseverence- how about getting a confidence coach? I can recommend: lynn@lynngrocott.com

D

 http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/book-promotion/ethical-self-promotion/

www.deankoontz.com 

E

http://www.ecademy.com/ 

http://www.editred.com/Book_Promotion.php

www.ezinearticles.com 

http://ezinearticles.com/?Book-Promotion-Woes?&id=71585

F

 

www.facebook.com 

http://www.fictionfactor.com/promo.html

 http://www.fonerbooks.com/market.htm

http://foremostpress.com/authors/articles/promotion.html

www.friendsreunited.com 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frugal-Book-Promoter-What-Publisher/dp/193299310X/ref=pd_sim_b_5 

G

http://www.geoffthompson.com/

 http://gwendafox.web.officelive.com/bookshop.aspx 

H

http://www.howpublishingreallyworks.blogspot.com/

I

http://inotauthor.blogspot.com/ 

http://www.inspiredauthor.com/promotion/node/46

http://www.iuniverse.com/ExpertAdvice/MarketingYourBook.aspx

J

http://jockstewart.typepad.com/writers_notebook/book_promotion/

http://www.juliamccutchen.com

L

htthttp://www.linkedin.com/ 

p://www.lookuppage.com

M

http://www.managementconsultingnews.com/interviews/poynter_interview.php

http://www.midwestbookreview.com/bookbiz/advice/introver.htm

http://www.milesburke.com.au/blog/2008/11/27/book-promotion-on-the-web/#comment-332792

www.myspace.com

N

http://www.naymz.com/  

 

http://nomediakings.org/doityourself/doityourself_book_promotion.html

http://novelspot.net/Book_Promo

O

www.offtopic.com

http://www.oksana.com.au/book_shop.htm

P

www.ping45.com 

www.pingmyblog.com

www.pingoat.com  

www.ping-o-matic.com  

http://www.pressreleasehome.com/   

http://www.pubmatch.org/  

Q

http://www.queensofbookmarketing.com/ 

R

http://www.readerscircle.org/  

http://www.ryze.com/  

S

www.secondlife.com 

http://selfpublishing.lifetips.com/cat/59136/promotion-ideas/index.html

http://www.aboutus.org/Soflow.com 

http://www.spawn.org/marketing/bookpromotionmistakes.htm

http://www.spawn.org/editing/bookpromotionwell.htm

http://sta.rtup.biz/

http://www.stealthpublicity.com/books.htm

T

http://www.talkink.com/promotion.html

http://thewriterslife.homestead.com/

www.twitter.com  

V http://vistanow.net/          Added 27th April 09

W

www.wayn.com

http://www.weberbooks.com/2006/11/using-myspace-for-book-promotion-and.html

http://websavvywriter.com/

http://websitemakeoverworkshop.com/  

http://www.writeandpublishyourbook.com/marketing/book-promotion/7-book-promotion-methods-for-your-nonfiction-book/

http://www.writeanygenre.com/book-promotion.html

 http://www.writerfind.com/resources/bookpromotion.htm

http://www.writerswrite.com/bookpromotion/

X

http://www2.xlibris.com/authors_lounge_QA_howto_onlinebookpromotion.htm

Y

http://www.youtube.com

 

I’m sure that this list is not exhaustive, and new marketing opportunities are emerging on the internet all of the time. I will be updating this from timw to time and would be grateful for any more ideas. So go for it- put yourself out there, have fun… and maybe sell a few books. 

 

 

 

Tags: Absolute Write, amazon, biblioscribe, book, bookstores, FaceBook, Marketing, Niche market, ping45, POD, print on demand, promotion, pubmatch, readerscircle, self publishing, target audience, YouTube