Self-Publishing!
I have been posting recently about my adventures in self-publishing. Today, I’d like to give you an update in adventures in self-publishing (part 3)! As with many others who chose to go the self-publishing route, I have found that marketing my book has been harder than actually writing it. So, like any good student, I went into research mode and starting googling. As I mentioned in my last post, there are hundreds of thousands of websites, blogs, and opinions on what works for marketing your work. What seems to be a common thread, though, is getting reviews and “likes”. Sounds easy enough, right? After all, any of us who use Facebook are constantly “liking” posts. And who wouldn’t want to read our great novel that we worked on so diligently?
What I have discovered is that getting those things are not quite as easy as it may seem. You can certainly ask friends and family to read and review your work. You can ask them to like the Facebook page you created to promote your book, and you can ask them to “like” your book on Amazon or Smashwords or whatever other site you have listed tour book. In most cases, that will get you a few hundred likes and sales, but where do you go from there? You can use LinkedIn, Facebook (as mentioned before), Goodreads (one of my favorites), and Twitter (although I don’t, but will soon). Pinterest looks interesting, too. I will continue to investigate other options and try to get feedback from other self-published authors to see what worked for them.
What are your ideas?
If you have any ideas that you would like to share, please feel free to leave a comment!! If you want to connect with me, you can find me on social media or email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. I look forward to interacting with you!!
is there anyway to get this reviewed by some blogs and websites targeted to the age group that this is intended for?
what about podcasts like ‘books on the nightstand’
ask michael and ann if they are going to do a pod cast again on self published ebooks maybe?
the whole networking/ marketing thing is a nightmare….. press releases, trying to get it out there ….. there is an audience, IF you can figure an efficient way to reach them
Hi Vi,
I am slowly learning the mysterious ways of marketing. You are correct that it is work and getting the word out is difficult. I am networking and all that, and I am trying new and different techniques. Little by little, the word is getting out and sales, though slow, are picking up. However, commercial success was never the goal (although it would be a nice bonus). the goal was to publish a legacy for the grandchildren and that goal has been achieved!
Thanks for the concern and I will certainly continue to look for ways to market it more and more, but now I have to start with the edits for Book 2. I plan to release it in early December