8 Easy Online Ways to Market Your Book for Free
BY REGINA PAUL
Marketing your book whether you went the
POD, ebook, or traditional route can be a daunting process. Figuring out
what works and what doesn’t can take time, energy, and if you’re not
careful a lot of money. When I first self-published my science fiction
novel Getting Out Alive, I had already done quite a bit of
research into ways to market my novel that didn’t eat into my pocket
book.
Here are the top 8 ways I’ve
marketed my book and seen results:
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Create a presence on the Web.
There are many ways to do this, but having your own website
to promote your writing is the best way. There are lots of
places that have free webpages, but
Bravenet has everything you could ever want (webjournals,
tell-a-friend service, guestbook, and mailing lists to name
a few) and this includes free hosting.
-
Sign other authors’ guestbooks.
The author is not the only one who reads the entries, and
make sure you add your website address even if they don’t
give you a spot to put it. Put it beneath your name when you
sign your entry.
-
Be a regular on message boards,
answer newbie’s questions, and don’t forget to add your
signature with your website address. The important thing to
remember here is to pop in on a regular basis, otherwise it
looks like the only reason you’re there is advertise, and
participants won’t take you seriously.
-
Join writers groups online and
post, post, post! That’s not to say you should inundate any
group with advertising emails about your book, but rather to
participate in the discussions. If you have a signature line
at the end of your emails this will do your advertising for
you.
-
Speaking of signature lines,
create one and add it to all of your emails. This is one of
my favorite freebies. People do read signature lines and I
have actually ordered books because I found them via the
signature line.
-
Give away free PDF electronic
versions of your book (not too many now, just 2 or 3) in
return for reviews. This has worked very well for me, and
I’ve gotten some good reviews from doing this. Readers like
free and are usually more than willing to write a review in
return.
-
Trade electronic versions of
your book with other published authors and do a review for
each other.
-
Once you have reviews post them
on your website and anywhere else you can. There are many
places to post reviews for free, just search on Google for
book reviews. See if your reviewers will post their reviews
for you at these websites.
Regina Paul is the author of
the science fiction novel Getting Out Alive, and editor
of the free bi-monthly writer's ezine Regina’s Universe.
You can read the first chapter of her novel, sign up for her
ezine and find many other writer’s freebies on
her website.
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