How to Generate Buzz for Your Self-Published Book – Kelly Smith | Guest Post

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When it comes to being an author, going it alone is certainly challenging. You don’t have a publisher behind you to help you with your publicity efforts, making promotion another responsibility that rests solely in your lap. The good news is that there are plenty of things you can do on your own to increase awareness about your latest masterpiece. Most of them don’t require more than a little time and effort, and all of them will come in handy when you pen your next work.

 

Start Early

Don’t wait until a month before your book release to start getting the word out there. Small-scale announcements can sometimes take a long time to land. You want to make sure that everyone knows about your upcoming book as far in advance as possible. Even six months isn’t an unrealistic timeframe. If you like, you can set up a mailing list that will alert people about the release, as well as providing them with related news. If you want to retain individuals who’ve expressed interest far ahead of the release, you can always offer a preorder option.

 

Learn to Market

If this is your first novel, you’ll need to have a starting point to develop your marketing skills. Hopefully your first book won’t be your last – which makes it all the more worth it to consider taking some marketing courses. Marketing is an invaluable skill. In fact, it’s so valuable that most people are willing to hire someone else to do their marketing work for them. Plus, if you’re in charge of your own marketing efforts, you have complete control over the way your intended audience will hear about your book.

 

Hold a Live Stream

Almost every major social media network has some kind of live streaming option for content creation. Facebook, YouTube, and Google + lead the way on this technology. It’s easy enough to do, and it’s a vital resource for connecting with people. You can hold a Q and A session where you discuss your book and provide your viewers with information. This is a great way to get the conversation about your book started and generate further interest. Think of live streaming like holding a bookstore event where anyone in the world can attend.

 

Hand Out a Few Copies

All the big guys work with influencers, so why don’t you? There’s a niche for everything on the internet. All you need to do is find people with large audiences in your niche, and provide them with a copy of your book for review. If you’re ambitious, send them a copy before your book is available to the general public. By asking them to publish a review, you will have access to their whole audience, who will learn about what you have to offer the literary world. All you need to do is sweeten the deal for the influencer – in some cases, allowing them to post an Amazon affiliate link to your purchase page may be enough.

 

Compile Your Reviews

As the reviews start pouring in, make sure you start keeping track of your favorites. Feature snippets from your most glowing reviews, particularly those written by noteworthy individuals, on your website and your purchase page. Selling a book is a little different from selling any other product. A book is a commitment since it takes a significant amount of time to read, and if you want people to read your book, you’ll need to make sure they can clearly see all the reasons why they would benefit from doing so.

 

You’ve already spent a lot of time writing your book, not to mention how much time you’ve spent preparing to release it to the world. Generating the buzz yourself does add a little more labor to your to-do list, but in the end, it’ll all be worth it.

 

Kelly Smith works at CourseFinder, an Australian online education resource. She is passionate about the writing and new marketing trends.

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