You wrote the book. You had the book edited. You had the book printed. Now you have one thing left to do. SELL THE BOOK! Okay, so you’ve written your first self published book and now you have a garage full of your masterpiece and you need to get them out into the world. The hardest thing about publishing your own book is selling your book.
This is the final step in your long journey of being a self published author and it is indeed the toughest. Here are six good ways to market your book and get it out into the world.
Sell your books on amazon.com through the Amazon Advantage program.
Amazon allows publishers to sell their books directly through their site and share the profits. The percentage you take home is about the same, if not a little more than what you would receive if you had your books in the bookstores. Amazon is a good outlet for self published authors because it’s convenient to get your books to them and for every book you sell on Amazon.com you move up in rankings and you have an opportunity to have your book reviewed by your buyers.
Start up your own website.
You need to get “your name”.com up and going before you even finish your book. And I don’t mean geocities.com/”your name”. You must have a professional looking website with your name attached to it. If for some strange reason your name is an unavailable domain, add a middle initial to your name even if you don’t have a middle name.
Having your own website is very important. Geocites and sites like them don’t look very professional for an author and it will be very difficult for a potential buyer to take you seriously. Remember, being an author is 50% writing and 50% image.
Post information about your book on different forums across the web.
In order to do this effectively you must know who your reading audience is. You wouldn’t post information about your book about cars on a cat lover’s forum, would you? Find out who your potential reader is and target them. If they are interested in your book they will buy it.
Find out where the literary festivals are and attend them.
There are tons of book festival all around the country. Some large, some small. Attending book festivals is a great way to meet your readers and network with other authors. You can find tons of information about where your nearest literary festivals are right from your computer.
Once you get to a festival, network with other writers.
Although book festivals are useful venues, they are almost never free to attend. You can find out where the better literary festivals are by talking to other authors.
Throw a book release party.
Gather all of your family, friends and co-workers, rent a nice place that holds at least 150 people, and then have a great time both selling and marketing your book. The great thing about these book release parties is that you are bound to get tag along buddies that come along with your invitees. The more people that know your book exists the better.
Become a guest speaker at colleges, universities, or even grade schools about your profession and books.
This type of publicity places the author into another world of marketing, going from only a book signing author to an expert in this particular field. It also has the potential to get your name and publications on the front page of a major paper for free.
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