How do you promote your work?

[Devor]

Simple question. I've been thinking pretty seriously about self-publishing and promoting a book online for a month or two. I've a number of thoughts about how I would go about it, and I'll be happy to share them if we can get a discussion going.

What are you doing to promote your work online? Does it work for you?

I've heard people talk about blogs and allude to a presence on other forum communities. What tactics do you use to try and make these activities successful?

If we get a good discussion going, I'm going to update this initial post with a list of the ideas people put out. Maybe it can turn into a reference guide. At the very least, it'll be a copy of whatever reference list I put together for myself.

[JCFarnham]

I want to preceed my advice with this little point:

I'm not published, not even Self-, but I have studied marketing extensively at degree level.

1) You could go the obvious route and look into some traditional advertising. Your work in banners where ever it is authors are allowed to do that. (In the world of webcomics the project wonderful banner exchange is a good example of the kind of thing I'm talking about here.) You could even make a book trailer.

2) Traditional routes are often too expensive or time consuming for self-published authors. A way around this is to make good use of free advertising. This includes but isn't limited to the almost compulsory social media presence, but you may also definitely want to think about building relations with a variety of different communities. When done right there is typically no more powerful way to get noticed than word of mouth. Get people talking.

2a) In the above sense pushing a blog is a good move. Make sure you don't ONLY talk about the fact you're selling something. People get very suspicious very quickly, and are far more likely to buy something from someone they know as a person first and a businessman later.

3) If you can find a niche and exploit that. "Remember that guy who..." is a good a phrase to have on people's lips. Even if THEY don't buy your books they are spreading your name for FREE. That can't be a bad thing. In fact they'd be doing the majority of the work for you.

If I can think of anything else I'll come back and post. My knowledge is failing me. I blame it on not having lunch yet haha

[Kelise]

I'm not published nor looking at self-publishing, but a good way could be to offer a giveaway on GoodReads. First Reads: ending soon giveaway

Also - and I'm not sure on the polite way to do this - but to try and get a few blogs who review books, to review yours.

Perhaps you could print up a few bookmarks that are eye-catching and simply link to your site or where you can get a preview/buy your book, and see if a few local bookstores will keep them on the counter for you. My local bookstore asks if you want a bookmark with your book, and they shove a few in. Most of the time, they're advertising books or events.

Could it also be a good idea to have a list of what NOT to do? Then we could see people who may say they would find the bookmark option rude or pushy (hence why my bookstore asks people if they want one first.)

One way NOT to do it, in my opinion (others may not be bothered) is to try and friend people on GoodReads when you don't know them, just because you see they read the same genre.

[Phil the Drill]

1. From the standpoint of someone who has lots of small press writers on his Facebook, I would suggest promoting very little on social media. For me, seeing endless streams of people promoting their books by just posting links to them with no explanation is kind of like spamming to me.

2. If you're going to promote the book, one thing I would always do is make sure to offer samples somehow. If you upload to Kindle, there is the option to sample.

3. Post excerpts in some places maybe. So many times people promote books and don't offer anything of what they wrote.

4. Offer contests or giveaways to get your book for free. This always seems to pique interest in smaller communities. If people are interested in your book enough to enter a contest, then I think that's pretty good.

5. Places like "Book Pimp" on Facebook. It's a place that welcome promotion of whatever you're doing. Utilize tools such as that because then it isn't considered spamming.

6. Build connections with other writers. If you have good connections with other writers, they'll in turn help you promote your book. Publishing has always seemed like a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" kind of industry. I notice a lot of writers have formed "circles" of sorts.

7. Make lists on Amazon with your book that may have similar content or style as yours. A lot of people get books based on recommendations and lists. At least I do. So doing that might help get the word out more. I'm not sure how Goodreads works, but there is probably a way you can do that without seeming awkward.

8. Display your skill/personality any chance you get. If I notice a writer is really funny or witty in their interactions online, I'll be more likely to sample their books because they seem like interesting people. If someone is interesting to me, I'm more likely to buy something from them.

These are just some things I think can work and I agree with what others have said so far.

[JCFarnham]

1. From the standpoint of someone who has lots of small press writers on his Facebook, I would suggest promoting very little on social media. For me, seeing endless streams of people promoting their books by just posting links to them with no explanation is kind of like spamming to me.

This is certainly a different take on what I was trying to say, though I would always suggest using social media. You are missing out if you don't have a social presence on the internet (how ever you end up going about doing that). It is by far one of the most important communication tools out there in the marketing tool-box. And it doesn't have to be heavy handed. People often get the wrong idea and use it simply as a new platform to spam, with little consideration towards effective use of the medium. Rather than a new way to post links, and plug like crazy, its a platform one should use to cultivate a fanbase, a following, a whatever you personally call it. A sly mention of a book in what at least seems to be meaningful discussion is surprisingly effective. People will be intrigued and go search it out for themselves.

As you go on to say, seem like an interesting person and you'll sell far more books than if you were heavy handed with your strategy.

Links help, but people are FAR more aware of advertising and marketing these days. Us in the industry have to be a little more crafty with it, and that's where things like viral marketing come into play. I'm sure you've heard of it.

Summary: Use social media, but not to spam.

The best thing I think anyone could do is try and use multiple platforms to get their work out there. Some people swear off certain websites, some people trust certain ones, some people simply may not heard of the place you're "advertising".

Something about eggs and baskets...

[Phil the Drill]

I didn't want to imply not to use social media. By all means, use it. But like you said, there are ways to use it that can be effective and then there is just "Wow, all that author ever posts are links to their book on Amazon." I eventually blocked people like that. When book plugs are clogging up my feed, then that's where I draw the line.

[JCFarnham]

LATE ADDITION: I have another technique to share that you may or may not be aware happens online these days. Its called SEO, or search engine optimisation. At a glance this is writing your communications, websites, blog posts, anything really using key words in such a way that makes it easier for search engines to bring in hits. It's also about spotting trending ideas and concepts and using those to bring in the hits. It doesn't even have to be about the obvious search engines, SEO can also include maximising the effectiveness of saaaay, blog keywords and the like within the individual websites/platforms.

Having a social presence is one thing, but these days we need to think about a searchable presence. A unique name or ... well I'm sure you get the idea.

[Devor]

These are just some things I think can work and I agree with what others have said so far.

What I like is that these are ideas for promoting the book itself. I can understand why people write blogs, but then you have to promote the blog just as much as you promote the book. In my opinion, getting people to your blog is kind of a bottleneck.

I have a few thoughts, but I'm hoping to see a lot of discussion first. I want this to be a thread full of useful ideas, instead of me just rambling on with my own.

5. Places like "Book Pimp" on Facebook. It's a place that welcome promotion of whatever you're doing. Utilize tools such as that because then it isn't considered spamming.

Okay. Is this the right Book Pimp at 184 Likes? That doesn't seem like it would do much for you. Are there other places to recommend?

[JCFarnham]

What I like is that these are ideas for promoting the book itself. I can understand why people write blogs, but then you have to promote the blog just as much as you promote the book. In my opinion, getting people to your blog is kind of a bottleneck.

I'm going to agree to disagree with you on this one. The book is the product and the blog is the platform.

By combining the two you only have to promote the one thing, the blog about you as a writer. People will visit the blog and among other things find information on your books and go from there. I haven't experienced this bottleneck you speak of, but surely if you treat your blog as a product and promote it like you would anything else (I don't know toothbrushes, or beer), then you can easily piggy back your book off that (hopeful) success and on the plus side you'll appear an interesting person above all else. Which is something people people will engage with more readily that if ALL you did was plug.

But as I said, we all need to consider using multiple platforms. There is nothing that's going to cut down your work load in self-promoting your book, to do it right we need to put in the hard work - the work of a whole team of people at a publishing house in fact if you like.

[Phil the Drill]

That was just an example. However, even it if has 184 likes, that could be 184 people that might look at your book. If I find other similar things, I'll look. If you're using all sorts of avenues, big or small, you're potentially expanding your audience that much more.

Another idea could be forming your own groups on social media. Get people to join and you can can plug your book that way too.

Even doing old-fashioned promotion might work. Post fliers in places in your town with high amounts of readers: libraries, book stores, etc. Even if it's only downloadable, people may still be interested in the book. I think most of what has been suggested so far is marketing online, but there's slews of things you can do to promote in real time.

Ask local places if you can do a reading. That could get more readers as well.

An example of what JC said above about blogs is that I started following a blog of a guy I liked because of his writing advice only. Never read any of his books. I've since bought two or three of his books because his blog is so entertaining. He uses the blog as a tool certainly and it's worked.