So you’ve
written your book and all of your friends and family tell you it’s going to be
a bestseller (from their mouths to…). You are planning to self-publish, but how
the heck are you going to sell your masterpiece? (BTW, make sure that your book
is edited and is worthy of sharing)
If you are
near the beginning of the process, in other words before publication, do what
you can to network and gain a following. Social media when used correctly is a
terrific method to start creating a BUZZ about your book. The biggest rule is
INTERACT, don’t just put out self-promoting advertising, ie: I wrote a book and
you are just going to LOVE it! Post discussion starters and not just about your
book although it would be great if there was some kind of tie-in, for instance
you have a scene in your book about a couple walking through a graveyard and it
just so happens that a nearby graveyard is known to be haunted. YAY, topic for
discussion. Build relationships and let people KNOW YOU.
Alright you
skipped all of the “prep” work and your book is already published. Is it too
late for you? Of course not. Use your blog to announce your book. Gather some
BETA readers and get some honest reviews (Do NOT ever buy a review and do not
give your readers a canned review that you wrote). Start a street team; a
street team is a group of folks who, either in person and by foot, or virtual,
will help out by “talking” about your book, promote it at libraries or
bookstores and will host you on their websites in a virtual book tour. (VBTs
are a group of scheduled appearances online within a short time period; post
personal articles about subjects such as WHY you chose the topic, HOW you did
your research, excerpts, tie-ins to current events, etc.)
Find venues
that will host you for live appearances. A word of caution here, most people
are NOT going to come out just to meet you because you wrote a book, not unless
you are famous for some other reason. So what can you offer an audience? If
your book is about generations in a family what can you do to help people with
their own genealogy search? Take something from your book and use it as a
springboard to discuss or teach to your audience. An often used fallback topic
is something like “how to get started writing your memoir”. Give your
prospective audience a reason to come out of their comfy homes to come and see
you. Local libraries may be a good venue, offer to moderate a book discussion
on your book’s topic
Your main purpose is
NOT selling your books (although it is certainly alright if that happens) but
in introducing your book to the world, letting folks know about your book and
you. Print business cards, bookmarks or simple flyers (from your home printer
of library copy machine) so long as your budget allows this; key items to have
on this literature includes YOUR NAME, your book’s name, buy links and/or your
website link, and contact info (email, contact page on your website, your
Facebook author page, etc)
Writing
Exercise: Write a short author bio that could be used to
introduce you at an event.
Writing
Prompt: Finish
these sentences: (1) I was walking through the graveyard late one night when
suddenly I looked over my shoulder and saw ________. (2) It had been years
since I saw my old high school crew, I was so excited until I saw my old
nemesis sitting there doing________. (3) There was a HUGE crowd at an author
event which surprised me and then I found out they were all expecting ________.
Writing
Challenge: A book discussion packet is not a lecture about
your book’s topic but rather discussion starters about the topic of your book.
My book Bartlett’s Rule was about a rape survivor, the book discussion had statistics
from RAINN and discussion starters about attitudes, etc. For your assignment
write 15-to-20 questions or discussion starter statements about your book.
