Hello everyone, as promised yesterday I have another blog post for you, this time focusing on advertising tips and picking a few of my favourites. This corresponds to the article I shared yesterday with fifty of these charming tips. These are by no means the only way to advertise your books, but they are good fun. Let’s get started.
Getting people to send in pictures of themselves with your book was close to the top of my list and was an exceptionally fun suggestion. I am aware of sites like Pinterest and Instagram where you can post pictures and a series of images like these ones are a boon to an author. If I was to receive one not only would I be pleased because someone had decided to buy my books, I would also be delighted that they like it enough to go to this effort. It’s a good bit of fun and something you should always consider if you operate one of these accounts.
Facebook Posts/Pages are nothing new to authors but the fact of the matter is they’re effective and a great way to reach out to potential fans, other authors, and anyone else you’d like to get involved in your community. Currently, I would say my Facebook Page is one of my more successful ways of reaching out to people, but it wasn’t a quick fix. It has taken time, plenty of effort to produce quality content, and even more, work writing excellent books (if I do say so myself). It takes time but if you’re willing to put in the effort it can come with great rewards.
Creating a blog with similar content was one of the first things I began, and I like to think it’s moderately popular at this point. The reason in part for its success is that the content I write is similar to the books I write. If you draw in someone to read your post who is a scifi fan, and you write about your favourite tropes for the genre and ideas for your next book, then they are likely to buy said book. It’s like a sneak-preview because a reader will know something about how and what you will write, and if it’s worth them reading.
Book signings are difficult to set up in chain book stores like Waterstones, simply because they must already be stocking your book on their shelves, which is a challenge if not an impossibility for an indie author. However, independent book stores looking to draw in customers are another matter, and because it’s likely to draw in customers they will often be happy to help you set up and make an event of it. Talk to your local book stores and see if they’ll be willing to help you.
I would be remiss if I did not mention Radio Interviews on this list somewhere. I have had a brilliant time with it and it has brought in some excellent revenue for me. More than that though it was just good fun to produce. Making contact can be tricky, especially with larger stations, but if you have a local radio, perhaps a student-run radio station, then it is always worth making contact because it is one more way to get noticed, and effective dependant on the fan base of the radio station.
These are five of fifty from the article, and I doubt the article itself is even scratching the surface of the tools available for an author trying to get noticed. Make use of your favourites like I have, or make use of all of them if you have the time. Never stop trying, though, because that is the real trick to this whole process.
