How To Promote Your Self-Published Books
With careful planning you can market, promote, and get (free) publicity (publicity is always free) on a limited budget; you can take the cheap and easy way. Your book selling, book marketing, and book promotion planning should begin before the manuscript is completed. Whether you’ve just published a book or have a book that isn’t selling, now is the time to get to it; start promoting and marketing today!
Your book press release should not be written as you would a sales letter or flier, it should be written for the editor and tell about your book in a factual way, no opinion or glowing remarks. Press releases can generate thousands of dollars in sales when picked up by national trade or print media. Invest in press release submitting software and set aside time every week to send out a press release online to the press directories.
Mail a press release to at least 1000 print and broadcast contacts just prior to publishing your title and again and again after you publish; you can never send too many. Make sure you have at least one good press release, written in AP style, which you can send out for the lifetime of your book. Don’t underestimate the value of a good press release for making book sales.
Make sure your press release spells out the ‘who, what, where, when, and why.’ Send out at least 10 press releases to the print and broadcast media in your area every month.
Build a web site that provides another avenue for ordering, a virtual online press kit and link exchanges with sites that relate to your topic. Be your own publicist and send a press release along with a review copy of your book to publications in your book’s genre and to book review magazines.