Day job, no money, no connections... but doing it anyway :)

I hate to say it, but you may have self-published too early. As a self-publisher, you are the author, publisher and marketer. Marketing a self-published work is a full time job, especially if you don't have a large audience.

There are no shortcuts or easy answers. If you look in the self-publishing area of the site, you may find some of the information you're looking for. I won't lie, it's a lot of work.

I'm in the process right now of redesigning my site, planning blog posts in advance and have a marketing plan written out for the next six to eight months. You don't need to pay for advertising, but you do need to be active.

Post your thoughts on communities such as this one, share ideas and get involved. Connect with authors in your town and see if you all can get together for workshops. Contact your library and ask about doing a reading. Contact local Indie stores and see if they'd be willing to take some of your books on consignment.

Since Createspace won't take returns or rather, they won't offer decent wholesale prices to vendors, most stores will not purchase your books to stock in their store.

List your book on Goodreads, get an author's account on Amazon, link your author's page to your book and have friends and family 'tag' you book with categories it fits into. There is a thread on Createspace to trade tagging services, so check there as well.

Marketing is a daunting challenge, especially when one has little or no experience in it, I know, my entire experience in marketing a book is less than six months. Finding inexpensive ways to promote is best at first since it gives you a chance to play around with ideas. A lot of self-publish authors use facebook, myspace, or twitter. I never had much patience for these sites and unless your an avid user of them, I wouldn't recommend banking on any real success.

One thing that I've tried, we'll see how it works, is finding contests in which to submit one's book. Number one, this gives you an idea where your work stands in regards to other works of the same genre and if it rises above the pack it gets you some free, or inexpensive advertising.

Trying to find groups or organizations that are focused on your genre can help. Something else is to write, write and keep on writing. I published a couple of short articles on this one website I'm a member on. The next thing I know a lady from the UK is asking if she can reprint the article on her company's website. I checked it out and found that the site carried books that were of the same genre as my novel and after talking with the lady, she agreed to include a link to my website and a location where the book could be purchased. I also included a link to her on my website. Which illustrates another point, "Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." Most people aren't in to giving a helping hand unless they get something in return. If you can offer a book, article, or whatever that can help generate interest on someone else's site, your chances of getting their attention just increased by a considerable margin.

Hope that helps.

Why don't you outsource some of this work? Fiverr.com has some great professionals and they only charge 5 bucks. You can order a list of book review sites with contact info, and just pop everyone an email. You can also try bigger sites like elance and guru. If you must do it on your own, I always suggest, and you may see my comments around here, that writing articles for major websites and magazines will get you the push you need. The sales will just come.

This weekend, sign up with the Yahoo Contributor network, churn out a few articles based on your book's topic and see what happens!

Deer of the dawn said:

I have a job (which I love), a family, and zero money to invest, but I've written a book I love and I'm doing my best to promote it... to date I've sold two dozen whole copies (POD).

Actually, I am very grateful even to be able to do it at all. Ten years ago all there was was print letters to publishers who all sang the same song: "I liked your book but we're only accepting established authors, etc". Today between CreateSpace and Smashwords, my friends are reading my book and I hope that thru blog reviews and social networking a few others will too.

However, I don't have all day to be online submitting review requests and posting in book blogs. Nor do I have bucks for adverts; nor am I residing in a Western country where there are conventions (not that I'd be able to take the time and money to attend anyway!).

I'd like if others in the same boat would post what they are doing to promote their books and stay encouraged.

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You are welcome. Keep us posted!