Book Promoting-- Part 3 -- 5 More Useful and Inexpensive Things You Can Do to Promote Your Books

If you haven't checked out the previous articles, I encourage you to do so. I've covered important, useful promotions that every published author needs to do and I've covered promotions that simply don't work, or work marginally, at best.

So, let's say you have a website and you're doing a fair amount of things I've recommended in the earlier articles. Good for you! But I bet you haven't tried some of the strategies in this article. Let's look at some of the strategies that can actually improve your writing career.

1. Newspaper Articles. This has probably stirred up the biggest sales for me thus far. It's a matter of making yourself into an expert of sorts and then letting the media know that you're available for interviewing. I've been on TV and quote by various newspaper articles as an expert in something. You may not think you're that newsworthy, but chances are, you are. Do you write about werewolves or vampires in novels? Halloween is a terrific time for this kind of press. Do you ghost hunt in your spare time? Make armor? Do SCA fights? Do falconry? Train dogs? Program computers? Any thing that you so that can possibly have a tie in to your books is a feature article waiting to happen. You are an expert and you can use this to drum up sales for your books. Local papers love to write about local authors.

2. Write your own articles. I write articles for two reasons: 1. To get paid and 2. To keep my name out in the public venue. Write about your passion, whether it's just writing or whether it's one of those things I've mentioned in the previous tip. If you're in between books, writing an article or two can be the difference between paying a phone bill or internet bill and not. Or maybe just buying ramen noodles. Whatever. You're a writer -- you can do this. If you're stumped for thinking up something, try publishing excerpts from your novel or nonfiction book. Use the writer's market or a webgroup like Paying Writer Jobs to find jobs and freelance work. Associated Content, among others allows you to write about whatever you'd like -- and they even take fiction reprints.

3. Syndicate Your Own Work. On the web, it's remarkably simple. I haven't done this, but I know it works because I've seen the results first hand. Bruce Holland Rogers offers a subscription to his short stories where he writes and publishes a short story either every week or every month and for the cool price of $5 for a subscription period,. It's really a slick marketing opportunity because it makes a little money but at the same time promotes his work.

4. Newsletters. I've done this and it's relatively simple. Have a low output newsletter that you can send via an email group like I do. Have a link on your website to join up. Yes, it works well.

5. Convert the first few chapters of your book into an Ebook. Offer your book for free on your website as an ebook. Cory Doctrow and Baen have proven that giving away your work on the web as an ebook generates far more sales in hard copy than if you didn't. Yes, there are going to be wankers who won't buy your book, but there are plenty who will. I offer a free copy of the first two chapters of Prophecy of Swords on my website.

So, there are five easy and successful methods of promoting your books. And I haven't even touched upon social networking yet. Next up: Book Promoting -- Part 4 --The Amazon Power User.