I started writing The Shifter Evolutions saga and knew that before I finished the series, I would have to create buzz behind the saga and the release of each title in the series.
But how? Many authors, after getting their books published, don't realize the uphill battle that is ahead in promoting, marketing, and advertising your novel(s). This article will help educate those interested in learning more about the business side of writing.
Book sales don't happen overnight. Most authors plug away month after month trying to build a fan base and acquiring the buzz needed to generate successful sales.
Online there is a plethora of venues. Blog tours, ads on blogs, blog reviewers, twitter, facebook, kindle boards, goodreads, librarything, shelfari, establishing an author website.
While many authors spend thousands on the above, they really can be a lot more cost-effective then one might think. There are overpriced blog tours and then there are very reasonable blog tour prices. Look around! Some suggestions: Virtual Book Tour Cafe. weebly.com, thebookishsnobpromotions.blogspot.com, bewitchingbooktours.blogspot.com. All very reasonable. If you want to spend close to nothing, try offering your own blog as a host to other authors in exchange for a blog tour. Some Blog Tours are willing to negotiate this.
Ads can be expensive as well. I have a few tid-bits to share on this. One, find a few genre related sites to post one. Second, stick to those month after month, instead of opting to change sites every month. This will help your fan base find you and those loyal to the site will begin to follow you. Third, find sites that give you more for your buck. Many sites over charge, but many are very affordable as well. As a general rule -the more followers they have, the more they can charge you to advertise. Make sure they have a good following and don't waste your money. Some sites like giveawayblogdom.com offers ads at $20 per month and they have thousands of followers.Very good deal!
Reviewers can be hard to find, but they are out there! Some sources to help you: http://hampton-networks.com, and you can try googling indie blogs, indie reviewers. You can also do the search yourself and simply scroll through the blogs and send an email to them (which you find under their profile) and hope for the best. Prepare your professional press release and or press package before doing this! You can also pay people to find reviews for you as well, but that is only helpful if you have extra money. Otherwise, this can be done by yourself.
Social networks and forums are all the rage and so important! Link your blogs to feed into your facebook and twitters, so that you don't have to do each one separately. Stay active! An online presence is so important!
Find a free website: weebly, blogger, blogspot, wordpress and build your own free page. You don't have to pay for one and if you do buy one, you will have to keep up with payments each year or five-years to keep the blog in good standing. If you miss a payment or a notice from them in the email, they can cancel your blog and everything is lost.I don't recommend it. Just stick to the free sites and you will always have your website.
I will talk about offline promoting in my next article, so stay in touch and keep reading!
Find me here:
http://amiblackwelder.blogspot.com
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