Advice for self-publisher

AllisonK · Sep 3, 2011

I released my debut novel, Destined, last week. I know it's only been a week, and it takes time for new books to get momentum, but aside from a few random sales and those from my friends and family, it seems like things have already stalled for me.

One good thing: I got a 5 star rating recently on GoodReads from a complete stranger. (Unfortunately, anyone else who sees it will assume the person knows me and was therefore biased, but there isn't anything I can do about that. I'm still excited to see it, though.)

Aside from that, there hasn't been much going on. People are adding the book through a GoodReads giveaway, which is good, but again, won't translate to sales until the giveaway is over, if it translates at all. What I need is to get readers in my genre to know my book exists, and that's where I'm having trouble. I'll most likely do another giveaway via my blog/twitter/facebook, but I'd like to wait until I have more followers/fans, so there are more eyeballs on it.

My biggest problem is that I'm not very good at self-promotion. I'm too shy and self-conscious to go out plugging my work to strangers. I have some advertising on GoodReads, and set up author accounts at other sites like Shelfari, WeRead, AuthorsDen and published.com. I have a website, blog, Twitter and Facebook account that I keep up pretty regularly.

I know I need more reviews, and I've read that Amazon tags help as well, but those are things I can't control, and don't feel right begging friends and family to do for me. (I guess I need to suck it up and beg anyway.) I also know I need to get an author photo up everywhere. I hope to have that done this weekend.

My question then, to other authors (self-published, especially): what promotion methods have you found work best? Do blog tours and book reviewers help? And apologies if this question has already been posed a million times. I've read a few threads and got some ideas there (like the book promotion sites), but I'm still pretty stumped.

Thanks in advance!

girlyswot · Sep 3, 2011

Book reviewers are a huge help. Find every review blog/website that looks at books like yours and contact them. Check their policy on books for review (digital or print, unsolicited or on request etc) and do what they ask. In your contact email offer to do an interview/guest post as well. You'll only get a tiny percentage who respond, so you'll need to send out lots (but don't be afraid to aim high) and also be patient because they generally have long backlists. But it will be absolutely worth it for the few who pick up your book.

DanielaTorre · Sep 3, 2011

girlyswot said:
Book reviewers are a huge help. Find every review blog/website that looks at books like yours and contact them. Check their policy on books for review (digital or print, unsolicited or on request etc) and do what they ask. In your contact email offer to do an interview/guest post as well. You'll only get a tiny percentage who respond, so you'll need to send out lots (but don't be afraid to aim high) and also be patient because they generally have long backlists. But it will be absolutely worth it for the few who pick up your book.

THIS.

I know that this whole Amanda Hocking thing is played out, but go check her website out. She has a lot of insight on how she went about promoting her books.

patrick008 · Sep 12, 2011

I'm in the same boat. Released my first book back in April and did very little marketing. Sales fell off after the first couple of months. I am getting ready to release book number two, and want to hit the marketing a little harder this time.

Michael Davis · Oct 6, 2011

Boy, third time today I've replied to a similar post like this one. Here's one of those post that discussing SP and self promo. Might be helpful to you.

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=225084

Arpeggio · Oct 9, 2011

In my view if you are self-published, then in a way, a professional looking website is more important for you than for a big publisher because of the nature of being self-published.

You might be ambiguous and your books will be far fewer in number, so sitting alongside every other one on Amazon or wherever isn't going to generate the sales you feel you deserve for your hard work.
"The girl who kicked the Hornets nest" and "One day" have sites about the authors (but I think if the sites were to market the books they would look different), otherwise their marketing is big press etc which a lot of self publishers don't have.

How you advertise is entirely up to you but it needs to lead somewhere so a pro looking site is important. Be it that people get to your site via advertising through twitter, face book, twit book, craigs list, craigs face, google searchword, paid advertising on subject related websites or in print publications such as your local paper, your eqivalent of "Loot" or Friday ad or whatever. When I get round to it I'm going to make a website as my shopfront and all advertising will lead to it.

It also allows you no contraints on presentation, information and the format of how you deliver that information (clips of you talking on various subjects like Morris Rosenthal on Foner books), compared to your book sitting alongside every other one on Amazon or wherever. I'd say it's worth paying for this if you can't DIY a professional looking site (so long as you dont need to update too often, that costs)

On your own website you can direct buyers to a wholesaler where they already have an account, so if your book is available through Amazon, Waterstones and B&N you can have links to buy the book on each. This way they won't have to fuss with opening a new account with somewhere to buy your book.

Advice for self-publisher

AllisonK

Crazy Cat Lady

girlyswot

DanielaTorre

...

patrick008

Michael Davis

Arpeggio