Ten great ways to promote your book

So you have written a book and published it. Congratulations. She is now faced with the challenge of what to do next. Many authors think that marketing is a job for the publisher, so they sit back and wait for the royalties to roll in. You may have a very long wait. The book market is very busy and most of the books do not sell well. However, there are a number of things the author can do that will really help, so move from writing to marketing and take these steps:

1. Send review copies to all periodicals and magazines that review books in your genre. This is something most publishers do for you, but there’s nothing wrong with sharing lists and helping out. If you’ve published yourself, you’ll definitely need to focus on this. Don’t forget the many online book review sites.
 
2. Get friends, colleagues, clients, or anyone who likes your book to place reviews on Amazon and other online bookstores. Amazon is very influential and reviews are important, so please encourage anyone who says they enjoyed your book to write a review.
 
3. Offer yourself for an interview on radio stations. Most radio stations are looking for interesting interviews, and the author of a newly published book has a good chance of getting on the air. You need a publicity letter that says something interesting or controversial about the book and voila. If you have the budget, you can use a professional public relations firm to target TV and radio shows.
 
4. Create a web page for the book. Ideally, you should have a separate website with an address that includes the title of the book. Now you can exchange links and drive traffic to the site with comments, blogs, quotes, and excerpts. Be sure to show people how they can purchase the book. Encourage user feedback, comments, and reviews.
 
5. Offer sample chapters as free downloads. Take a couple of your best chapters and turn them into pdf files. Let people download them for free. Think of this as the equivalent of letting people browse your book in a bookstore.
 
6. Use material from the book on your blog. Start a blog and quote from the book. Pick up the sections and acknowledge the book as the source. Create a community of interest around the book’s themes.
 
7. Check out other books in this field. Become a reviewer on Amazon. Use your own name accompanied by ‘author of the book……’. Review other books and when people read your reviews, some will click on your book.
 
8. Start an email newsletter. Encourage people to subscribe to the website and then send out an occasional newsletter with new and interesting material in the field of this book. But you can’t just plug your book, you need to add value with new information and feedback.
 
9. Give copies to the right people. Use the book as your business card. Give copies to potential and existing customers. Encourage them to read it and share it.
 
10. Offer books as prizes. Local radio shows, magazines, or societies will often be interested in running contests and will give you valuable publicity if you give them a few books to give away as prizes.
 
Some authors do book signings at local bookstores, but unless you’re well known, this activity is unlikely to produce worthwhile results. Finally, he might consider using the book as a platform to launch his speaking career. You’ll need a different set of skills to be successful here, but the book can be a great starting point and each talk will help sell more books.