Top Tips for Promoting Your Self-Published Book

There are, as you know, literally hundreds and thousands of books out there, so If you are a newly self-published author, without a marketing budget of hundreds, how do you get noticed? How do you get your book noticed?

Well, firstly, you start by putting together a Marketing Plan. I love making plans, and feel that they come in handy when trying to get a new product into the market. Even if you don't stick to your plan word for word, it is always good to have one as a rough guideline.

Within your marketing plan, you should include who your target audience for your book is, how they will buy your book, how much you have to spend, and of course what marketing mediums you will use to get your book out there. Some, low cost yet effective methods I have found include creating a facebook page, having an author website, book signings with local bookshops and word of mouth.

Now that you have your marketing plan, it's time to put it into action. When promoting and marketing your book it's important to try and do a couple of things each and every day. Just doing ad hoc promotion for your book is no good, so plan to do something every day, be it small such as sending out an email. Every little thing you do now helps!

When it comes to promoting your book, here are a few things I have always found useful:

• 1. Create and undertake your own author tour. This doesn't have to be physical, it can be online. Plan to visit different blogs and websites (with the owner's permission of course) to talk about and present your book.
• 2. Utilise your friends and contacts. Let them know about your book, even in passing conversation.
• 3. Create business cards with your books title on. Having business cards is always good as you never know who you are going to meet or come into contact with. A business card will stay in somebody's purse or wallet for a lot longer than a piece of paper with scribbled writing about your book on.
• 4. Use twitter. Twitter is great for creating buzz around your book, and also for getting in touch with fans, other writers and authors, which in turn is great for building up your name and reputation.
• 5. Give away some of your book. Giving away a few chapters, or even just a few pages of your book is a brilliant promotional tool. It gets readers interested and encourages them to read more, and most importantly buy your book.