So… I’m about a week late on this roommate post of mine but I’m pretty sure you all will forgive me. Today, I want to talk about how hard it is to be noticed as a self-published author. I’m pretty new at this thing (self-publishing) so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I didn’t do much research before embarking on this “mission” and I didn’t ask around at all. I just figured I would write my book, put it out there, get some average feedback, put out book 2 and keep going with the cycle. I had no idea that this would be as hard as it is. I didn’t do much research, but from the little information that I gathered before trying this out for myself, I learned that self-publishing is super hard. In my mind I just thought, “maybe just for you guys”. Boy was I wrong. This little career of mine is HARD!
This is how I spend my day:
.regular BS employment
. social networking (Facebook, twitter…)
. doing a little book work on the DOMErevelation
. book plugging around the web
. requesting reviews from book bloggers
If you guys can figure out what I’m doing wrong in this schedule, please let me know. SERIOUSLY!
In my opinion, I think I have a pretty decent book. Don’t get me wrong, when I first published, I thought I did a pretty darn good job. But of course, it takes new eyes to look at your work to discover that you missed a few spots. With that in mind, I WILL re-release book 1 in the DOME trilogy with corrected mistakes. Other than that, I’m still wondering what I’m doing wrong as far as marketing my book. Should I be spending wads of cash to advertise all across the web? As a self-publisher, I’m on a very low budget, as I’m sure most of you guys are, so I don’t “got it like that”. Is my low budget the reason why my book isn’t doing as well as I hoped? Should I just “Shut the Front door” about all this because this is a normal beginning? Maybe I should…I don’t know. But I will tell you this… I’m not going down without a fight. This is what I decided to do…
I started a blog called BOOK BLOGGER BUZZ that enables me to connect with book bloggers all across the web. The idea of the site is to get inside the minds of book bloggers in the same way they use to get inside the heads of authors when they conduct interviews. The tagline of my blog is “Book bloggers interview the authors, but who interviews the book bloggers?” In my mind, by getting to know as many book bloggers as possible, it will increase my chances of getting book reviews for my works in the future. In addition, it gives other authors a chance to get to know book bloggers in a way they never would be able to by just visiting their site. I think it’s a pretty good idea. I hope this can be used as a way to market myself while helping other authors as well… SIDE NOTE: The super fab Natasha Larry will be interviewed on the site so check it out when that happens. ;-)
Anywho, I would LOVE to hear what you guys think about all of this.
3 comments:
1. You can contact Preditors and Editors to get your debut novel featured in the 'new books' list for a month.
2. You can visit Amazon forums where authors are allowed to promote and talk about their books with readers.
3. You can go to Craig's List and post an ad for your book.
4. You can offer to give review copies of your ebook to folks where you'd like your book reviewed on their site.
5. You can join reader/author chat groups - but do this cautiously and shop around carefully for the right groups or you'll just waste your time.
6. One of the best ways to find out tips for self-promotion is to find a self-published author whose books are selling extremely well on Amazon and see if you can contact that author to get some personalized tips.
7. You can try putting your first book up on Amazon for a limited time for $0.99 and then go to all the blog sites that list bargain ebooks and get them to feature your book.
8. One of the most important things you are NOT doing is putting your web site or blog site URL at the bottom of every blog post you make. Or a purchase link for your book. Every time your name pops up anywhere, that is instant passive sales advertising for your book. Also you should include a book cover image in your blog posts whenever possible. If the link is there to see your book on Amazon with a clickable book cover picture you may get instant follow-through resulting in increased selling power.
I think your idea for book blogger buzz is a really good idea and I'm looking forward to see how that works out.
You're not alone, trust me. I did tons of research and its still hard to generate interest in a new book. The amount of content you have to pump out to stay in the game can get overwhelming, which is why I try to make it as fun as possible.
WOW! I'm falling in love with Penumbra! Thanks so much for all the advice. I feel like I should pay you or something.
Larry... I feel you on that.
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