If you’re an unknown author or one who is not well known yet, you have to jump through a few hoops in order to promote your book so that people will take the time out to give it a look and maybe buy it. Book promotion ideas are necessary for fiction books and nonfiction books alike. You, as the writer and expert on this book are the best person to get the word out that you have a book people will like to read.
In this day and age, there is social media like Twitter and Facebook. Create a Facebook page about your book and get on Twitter so that you can invite people to the page to see what all the fuss is about. You may just get some readers who will interact with you on Facebook and you can give out titillating details about your book so that people will be inclined to read more and pick up a copy of your book. This takes a bit of work, especially as you set up the page but it is the way many authors are interacting with their audience.
Try to get a reporter from a magazine or newspaper to write about you and your book. If you are an up and coming local author, you may garner the attention of a reporter who will write an article about you. You can also get your book reviewed by the newspaper or magazine and then everyone who reads that review will potentially be enticed to purchase their own copy of the book.
As you’re the expert on your book, see if you can’t get booked to give some lectures. This is especially good if you have written a nonfiction book. You can have a whole speech about your topic and offer copies of the book for sale if they want to read more. Technically, you can travel from place to place depending on your budget and will be able to get your story out to an increasingly wide audience. There may be buzz about your appearances and people will tell others to pick up your book. The only thing you personally are out are your time and travel expenses.
See if you can’t get on your local public radio. This represents an audience that has the potential to be fairly wide. Have the announcer interview about your fiction or nonfiction book and you will get at least 5-10 minutes of airtime to share your craft with others.
If your book is on Amazon (and it should be), have relatives and friends review your book. People who are looking for books on Amazon often read the reviews. If it is positively reviewed enough times, it might entice people to buy your book to see if they like it as well. Have friends review your book on Facebook as well because, while it might have a smaller audience, people who read good reviews are more likely to buy the item.
Create your own web page for the book. Trade links with other authors and sites and put on some good advertising. Have reviews on your site and provide clips for people to read what you’ve written on the site. Make sure the site shows people how they can get a copy of your book and put in information about you, the author. If you’ve written anything else, you should put this on your web page as well.
Start a blog. You can blog with excerpts from your book or blog about characters your book features. If you have written a nonfiction book, you can write different blogs that highlight aspects of your book. Link your blog to your website or to Facebook so that readers can be super saturated by the contents of your book.
These are all things that cost no money or very little money to do and that will get the word out about your book. It is extremely easy to get local attention for both yourself and your book; getting attention nationally or internationally can only cheaply be gotten by using the Internet. Fortunately, many people are getting their information off the internet these days so you should be good if you set up a web page and use social media.
Leave A Reply!