If you’ve dreamed about becoming a published author, you are not alone. According to ISBN registration figures from Bowker, “self-published titles in 2013 increased to more than 458,564, up 17 percent over 2012.” What the vast majority of those new authors don’t know is that they are now the Chief Marketing Officer of their own personal publishing company. They’ve also taken on the role of Director of Sales, Operations Manager and Publicist.
Very few authors bring all of those skill sets to the table and while bestseller status may not be in the cards for every author, finding and promoting a book to those who are most likely to want that book, is possible and getting easier all the time. Social media levels the marketing playing field for the self-publishing author and helps authors find their reading public through direct to consumer marketing.
Every author may dream of writing a bestseller. But writing the book and dreaming isn’t enough.
If you write it, they will come, IF you go find them and lead them to it.
Cindy Ratzlaff
These three inexpensive, but effective, strategies will help self-published authors present their work to book buyers. As an author who has been published by a legacy publisher and as a self-published author, I’ve employed these strategies myself in both cases and can attest to their ease, cost effectiveness and efficacy.This is by no means a comprehensive list but simply a starting point to help first time authors begin the work of promoting their work to others.
Author Central
Author Central is a free feature of Amazon.com and self-published books need to be on Amazon. Amazon is one of the most trusted online booksellers and people feel comfortable purchasing from Amazon. Being there is a key element in a good distribution strategy. Author Central provides authors with a page for their photo, bio, promotional videos, blog feed, Twitter feed, and promotional tour schedule. An Author Central page is indexed in search on Amazon and will be served up to book buyers searching for an author by name. It’s also a good tool for introducing an author to new readers. This is free to set up and every author should take advantage of this marketing real estate. The author’s page on Author Central will appear at the bottom of the sales page for their book and gives readers more information about the author at point of purchase; right when they’re making the decision whether or not to buy the book.
One billion users is a very large ecosystem and most authors already have a personal profile. There are several very sophisticated marketing opportunities on Facebook, but here are two free and easy ways to begin. Upload a 403 x 403 pixel photo of the cover of the book to Facebook and write a post announcing the publication. At the end of the post include the direct link to the page where the book can be purchased; Amazon, Barnes & Noble, author website or other. Next mark the post as “Life Event,” a Facebook designation found in the upper right hand side of the status update box. The choose “Published a Book” from the Life Event Options. Facebook will create a large, 2-column posting with this update and send it out into the news feed to nearly all of the author’s connections. This one action significantly increases the visibility of the newly published book within the author’s own circle of contacts. Keeping a close eye on the comments for this post and responding with a request to help spread the word can mobilize the author’s friends and family to help with promotion. All hands on deck should be the self-published author’s watch words.
YouTube
YouTube is the second largest search engine, behind Google, and is owned by Google. Creating a Book Trailer, similar to a movie trailer, and posting it to YouTube gives the author a high value marketing piece to share on social media, in blogs and on YouTube itself. Authors can create a 30 second video that includes images, words, a link to purchase the book and even music without any special equipment or knowledge at Animoto. This wonderful free tool has easy to use templates that make creating a 30 second digital commercial for a book simple. To make longer videos, remove the Animoto logo and access a library of professional templates, authors will need a pro account, which is $240 per year, or click on the Animoto link above and get a 20% discount (full disclosure: signing up through that link gives readers a discount and I get a little something from Animoto). I’ve been an Animoto pro user for 3 years and cannot recommend it enough for authors. Here’s a sample of one of the first Animoto videos I created. It took me 10 minutes. It’s fun, easy and authors can upload the video to their Author Central page, YouTube, Facebook and their website.
There is so much more that authors must do to market and promote their self-published books, but these three free marketing strategies are a good beginning. Create an author profile at Author Central, add a Life Event on your Facebook profile, and produce a book trailer video at Animoto to upload to YouTube and share around the web.
The self-published author is both writer and publisher and is the director of the entire publishing process. This includes cover design, interior layout, marketing and promotion. Standing out from the crowd of hundreds of thousands of other self-published authors and garnering attention for an unknown author, and his or her book, is a daunting undertaking. Budget, time, connections and strategy all play into a successful book launch. Start planning for your book launch even before the book is complete. Begin engaging with readers through social networks. Join groups of writers for the support and experience they offer. And, most of all write, every day.
Ahhh, yes, a platform is key when promoting your book. Whether you already have an agent, a publisher or you’re doing it all yourself, you’re still responsible for generating interest. No doubt about it, it can get expensive. These three options are great places to start.
One other free option would be Goodreads.. You can set up an account for free, list your books, start discussions groups and even add an excerpt of your book.
Love the Animoto link too. Professionally done book trailers don’t come cheap, this is a nice alternative for those on a budget. Thanks Cindy!
Great additional resource, Deb. I love Goodreads and have an account there. For those who are publishing a physical book and an e-book or just a physical book, Goodreads has a wonderful promotion tool for authors to give copies of their books away. That’s free and free is good! I’d love to see Goodreads add the option to giveaway downloads of ebooks as well. Ebook only promotions aren’t yet part of their promotion offers though.
Hi Cindy
This is great info. I learned a couple things:) And I love your quote…I do think there is a misconception of writing a book and that’s it! I don’t know first hand (though I’d like to 1 day), but I’m certain there is a whole lot of work to be done on the all ends of the actually writing.
Thank you so much, Kerry, for taking the time to leave a comment! I always appreciate the time it takes to do that and I know how valuable people’s time is. You’re smart to be thinking ahead about what’s required to promote a book. When you’re ready to create your first book, you’ll have lots of ideas stored up for promotions.
These are very helpful tips, especially love the Author Central tip. Even though we have had a book for sale at Amazon for over a year, I haven’t taken advantage of that yet, it was a great reminder. Thanks for these great ideas! ( I just signed up for my Author Central site, so you spurned me on to take action!)
Wendi, I’m so glad the tips were helpful and I’m especially delighted that you’re taking action on creating an Author Central page for yourself. I can’t wait to see the finished product.
Actually, there is a way you can let people read and/or download an ebook for free on Goodreads. If you have yourself set up as an author there, you can add an ebook and set it to the full book or an excerpt. You also have the option of offering your readers the ability to download the book as an .epub or PDF.
One thing I will say, I wasn’t too confident in their excerpt option. Once your ebook is uploaded, you have one option where you can set what percentage of the book you want the reader to see before its cut off. For some reason, that wasn’t saving, so I created our own .epub excerpt for both our novels and it worked like a charm.
If you wanted to use that as a giveaway tool, put the ebook up for the time you want it to go free, then remove it after you’re done. Sounds like it might be a viable work around until they get an ebook only giveaway option.
That’s excellent information Deb. Thank you so much for sharing your insights about Goodreads.
Great info, Cindy! I learned a few things, too, like the tip about posting your book launch as a Life Event on FB. Creating a Book Trailer is another cool idea, especially with the Animoto app. Thanks so much for sharing your expertise!
The great thing about the Life Event option, Pamela, is that you can promote it for $7.00 so that this big event in your life appears higher in the stream of most of your friends than normal. So instead of being in the stream in “real time” order, most of your friends will see it when they log onto their Facebook account, during that 24 hours after you post. It’s one of the reasons I encourage people to use their profiles more strategically. Your friends are your first and best supporters. They, more than anyone, will cheer you on when you have done something as momentous as “Publish a Book.”
Great suggestions about marketing for self-published authors. I would not have thought of using You Tube to create a “book trailer”! Animoto is a terrific marketing tool and well worth the investment for the “pro” version. All of these sources would also work great for promoting an eBook. Have to keep this in mind…
Anyone who can share anything that would answer the question “how to” could benefit from posting to YouTube. It’s a massive search engine. It’ll be interesting to see how Facebook’s new “Graph Search” becomes a player in SEO and search, too. We’ll certainly all be more keenly aware of our keywords, won’t we?
Cindy, it’s so refreshing to get great tips that are straight and to the point. 1) Author Central 2) Live Event 2) Animoto – such simple, easy tools that even a beginner can use. I can’t WAIT to hear more from you in future posts – thanks so much :)
Thank Miriam. I think entrepreneurs are busy. I know I am. So I’m an advocate of the “short and sweet” approach to “just the facts, ma’am!”
This was an excellent article. I’m not a self-published author yet, but it inspired me in a couple of ways. For example, the “life event” feature in Facebook can be used for so many other things. I plan on using it as a marker for my graduation from my Master’s Degree in Transpersonal Psychology, and launching workshops, etc.
As I aspire to write at least an ebook, Author Central looks like the way to go in Amazon.
I believe video is a must-have on anybody’s services or books. I also use Animoto and enjoy its ease of use.
I’m definitely sharing this article with some author friends of mine!
Lisa
Thank you so much Lisa. You’re right that using the Facebook “life event” tab is a good strategy for creating both visibility and credibility for your credentials. A Master’s Degree is a big deal and deserves celebration. It also helps you stand out from others as you decide to write a book.
Cindy you got me excited to start thinking about writing my book! These tips sound both solid and simple. Can’t wait for your next post.
That’s great news Elaine. I can’t wait to see what you create.
Very true Cindy. Self-publishing requires a lot of hard work and the low-cost marketing strategies that you talked about in this post are easy and helpful. You can also join author groups in LinkedIn and Facebook.
Rutchie, I love groups and think they’re the secret weapon for super charging a marketing strategy! Thank you for bring them up.
Hi Cindy,
I’ve been perusing your site and looking at several of your blogs. They have all been very helpful in expanding my understanding of the different facets of self-publishing and marketing. This one, although short, is so on point. Thank you so much for giving of your time to write great content. I appreciate the simplicity with which you write and your breadth of knowledge is incredible. Best always!