The internet has revolutionized reading and publishing. Some, still caught in the old way of doing things, find themselves unable to compete in a market where there is so much new information and, perhaps more importantly, new competition. However, there are many ways that an author can use these changes to their advantage.
There are several online resources and techniques that allow authors to market their books more quickly and easily than ever. In this brief article, you’ll learn a few of the most effective techniques.
A lot of success in online selling and publishing comes from first building a name for yourself as an expert or leader in your niche or genre. This can be easily accomplished by building your own website to get your content to a wider audience. By building a reader base for your website, you will naturally increase the number of readers interested in purchasing the book you’ve written.
Once you’ve built a website with plenty of high-quality content, you’ll begin to appear in the search results of the top search engines and gain traffic. You can also manually submit your site to these search engines, but beware of promoting your site before its truly ready to be seen and enjoyed by your target audience, as this could cause readers to be averted from your material. As was mentioned above, there’s a lot of competition out there. Your goal should be to stand out in a positive way to entice potential readers to purchase your work.
Participating in others’ websites and forums is another way to draw attention to your writing. For instance, if you are a fantasy writer and you become actively involved in an online forum related to fantasy novels, many who read your posts and interact with you will be interested in reading the book you’ve written. Quality and authenticity is just as important here as it is when developing your own website. Simply spamming forums and other related websites will drive more readers away than it attracts.
Online advertising is another good way to attract potential readers. Often times, advertising can be cheaper and easier than one might think. You can get the word out about your book through ad services such as Google Adwords, or you could purchase advertising space in a more traditional way by contacting the authors of your favorite relevant websites. While ad services such as Google will get your ad to a wider audience, purchasing ad space manually will allow you to have more control over the placement and the specific audience you reach. Either option can be effective; its mostly a matter of preference and financial resources.
Once you get the word out about your book, it may be helpful to increase the books appeal. This can be accomplished by soliciting reviews from readers. If you happen to know any popular author in your genre, this is even better, but a positive review from a common reader can be very valuable as well. You may also try to get reviews written by authors of your favorite relevant website.
Hopefully, these tips will help you to begin promoting your book. Remember that the principals underlying the specific tips are more important that the tips themselves. Get creative with what you’ve learned here in order to draw as many readers as possible.
Nicole Rodgers has been blogging 3 years; she currently blogs about how companies can use their savings to help them with their budgets.
Thank you for such a great article filled with information for self-published authors such as myself! It is a very different world for both readers and writers and self-promotion is key which includes much of what you speak of in this article.