Promoting my work

[Westie]

I have completed my first book, part 1 of 4. I have released the prologue to the main book as a short story by self publishing through the kindle store on Amazon. How do I raise awareness of my book both on Amazon itself and on the internet in general. Please bear in mind that:
1 - I have no funds available to spend on advertising
2 - I don't know a whole lot of people to spread the word.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Get to know people. It's the only way. Join in with communities, help others, retweet and share theirs, offer to do reviews. I know that's all incrediby time consuming but I look at it as spending my time instead of money. But, sadly, unless you engage with people all promotion will be lost iN the sea of a million other self-publishers. I don't pay ANY attention to all the promo stuff I see unless I know the writer or I know the person recommending it, and I expect that to be reciprocated for myself. So, um, go - make links. Post here. Respond to others, especially those who need help you can offer - good karma can't be a bad thing, eh?

 

[Deep Space Nina]

Did you try facebook already? I would also join groups that deal with the genre of your work and self-publishing ones. Write to editors of online-magazines and blogs and offer a free issue, maybe anyone will report. Of course do not take it for granted, that anyone would be interested, just kindly ask. NEVER send out Carbon Copies of the same mail to various bloggers. They will think it is spam. Oh, it is in fact spam! - Rather write just to 3-10 that to 100, but make the mail more personal. Start with the name of the blogger (e.g. "Hello John ...") and tell why news about your story would fit to the content of the blog.
Another way: Offer your help in contributing anywhere. Online-Magazines always seek for volunteers and when writing other articles people love to read (like convention reports) you can also write reports about your work. This is usually accepted, as it is most likely the only "payment" you will get. Plus: If your report about the projects of others, they owe you something and will eventually help you promoting your own projects in future.
This is of course a very time-consuming way, but in my point of view the one that works best. And you can benefit always a bit more with every new project you make.

 

[Dennis E. Taylor]

Check out kboards.com . They're a forum that specializes in discussions of book promotions, especially e-books.

 

[Wo7f]

I'm also trying to promote. So far I have an Author Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/pages/D-E-Jackson/528055967337458?fref=photo a Goodreads account http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13649768.D_E_Jackson?from_search=true (a lot of people are on there looking for new books to read), and I'm also doing an iMovie, which is free for commercial use. I'm also thinking about doing a blog on Goodreads. I also highly agree joining a couple forums and getting to know people.

Bismuth, never heard of kboards, I'll be checking them out.

 

[Faisal Shamas]

Get to know people. It's the only way. Join in with communities, help others, retweet and share theirs, offer to do reviews. I know that's all incrediby time consuming but I look at it as spending my time instead of money. But, sadly, unless you engage with people all promotion will be lost iN the sea of a million other self-publishers. I don't pay ANY attention to all the promo stuff I see unless I know the writer or I know the person recommending it, and I expect that to be reciprocated for myself. So, um, go - make links. Post here. Respond to others, especially those who need help you can offer - good karma can't be a bad thing, eh?

The best thing I have read since joining this site, I must follow you posts from now on..Self publishers must form a community if they are to put up with the farce that trads are throwing at us. I have been an individualist my whole life, but I now realize the best way to break sheepish democratic notions is by forming groups of your own.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

The best thing I have read since joining this site, I must follow you posts from now on..Self publishers must form a community if they are to put up with the farce that trads are throwing at us. I have been an individualist my whole life, but I now realize the best way to break sheepish democratic notions is by forming groups of your own.

But bear in mind not every trad published person is in the position we imagine them to be, with oodles of marketing spread etc. Most small publishers have limited amount to spend on promo and the trad published, like me, often have to still pull their weight to get anywhere. I think it's important not to make it into a sp/trad divide - I support my sp mates in various ways - purchasing and reviews and betaing and tweeting and ra-raing, just as I support my trad published friends. We're all rowing against the same current, even if we're using different vehicles.

Edit - oh, and thank you.

 

[Faisal Shamas]

Struggling against nature is but natural

 

[Denise Tanaka]

I want to add - be yourself and don't worry so much about pushing your book. Unless you're depending on a runaway bestseller to pay next month's rent? Success is not going to be overnight, and that's OK. Take a deep breath. Enjoy the journey.

 

[Susan Boulton]

Join online forums such as this one. Post. Not just about your book. Become part of the community.

Also, online networking is ok, but as I have found out this weekend, being face to face with other writers and fans of the genre can pay you back in ways you can't imagine. For a number of years I have been attending UK conventions. Saving my pennies, and going on a small budget. Some years I have only attended small one day ones or gone to the larger ones just for the Saturday. Over the years I had been able to share my ups and downs, gotten advice and had my work read by other writers. This weekend, having a book just published, it paid off in spades. I not only put flyers out, I was actually asked for them and for details where my book could be bought. Fingers crossed the interest will transfer into sales over the coming months.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

The system works!

 

[Alecc0]

I have completed my first book, part 1 of 4. I have released the prologue to the main book as a short story by self publishing through the kindle store on Amazon. How do I raise awareness of my book both on Amazon itself and on the internet in general. Please bear in mind that:
1 - I have no funds available to spend on advertising
2 - I don't know a whole lot of people to spread the word.

I'm in the same boat as you Westie - recently published a novel on Amazon and am trying to get awareness of it out there. I have an Author's Page on Amazon and on Goodreads, and posted the link on my Facebook (but that can only do so much). I also posted it on my LinkedIn to let some more professional people know about it.
I've been spending a lot of time on Wattpad.com lately, that seems a great place for getting to know people and getting awareness of your work out to the community. And yeah other fantasy/your genre forums likes this one.
I'm not on Twitter and don't have a blog (but an animation portfolio site, which I've put it on), but those two things are definitely good to have.
It does seem like a long road, like they say, but nothing worth having was ever easy.

Check out kboards.com . They're a forum that specializes in discussions of book promotions, especially e-books.

And thanks for the kboards link Bizmuth! Looks great, I'll definitely be checking that out...

 

[Chris Guillory]

If you're thinking free marketing. Think of free tools that are out there. Twitter, Blog, and FB page (mentioned a few times here). Also, create a website that talks not only about your work, but you as well. There's plenty of free site builders out there (I went with Wix). Oh, and Goodreads.

But, like a few have said, get to know folks. That is key.

Good luck, and congrats on finishing the first of your piece!!

 

[Wo7f]

Hey Chris, how is Wix? I'm thinking of a website. I don't like Wordpress because they won't let you post links to sell. An acquaintance got banded from them and now his Wordpress page says he's banded, which paints a bad rep for him as an author. They also won't take it off their site. Happened a couple years ago. Hopefully it's down now.
Anyway, what does Wix allow?

 

[Chris Guillory]

Hey @Wo7f ! being that I know enough about coding that it's called HTML, and basically know squat after that, I love Wix. It's easy to use, and I don't really have a lot of complaints.

I did mention that it's free, and it is. But I chose to upgrade my account so that I can have my own domain. The one they provide is not really....marketable.

Give it a look www.chrismguillory.com. Oh hey, you'll notice there's a book on sale there!

 

[Ray McCarthy]

You can do what you like with your own hosting, domain and downloaded copy of Wordpress.
It's madness to rely on 3rd party sites like Blogger or Wordpresses's own site.

 

[mgilmour]

I personally use Joomla for the content management system for my own website. You can check out the results at http://michaelgilmour.com (this is not a promotion!).
I can build a website in about 1 hour and after that it is just tweaking it. In fact, I ran a session at a recent conference where I pulled a person out of the audience and asked them what domain name they would like to develop. I then built an 18 month cashflow in 30 minutes for their business and a fully functional website in the following 30 minutes. This is not to big note myself....but to illustrate that it's not hard. I'd be happy to share how to do this for those that are interested.

 

[chopper]

The best thing I have read since joining this site, I must follow you posts from now on..Self publishers must form a community if they are to put up with the farce that trads are throwing at us. I have been an individualist my whole life, but I now realize the best way to break sheepish democratic notions is by forming groups of your own.

what Jo said about this, definitely. don't think of it as two communities battling each other - we are all looking for the same thing, after all. why be hostile to what's out there?

 

[Wo7f]

Thanks Chris, nice site! Not sure if it's what I'm looking for though. Oh yes, I see a book here.
mgilmour, that's awesome! I'm going to get my hubby to do mine. Was just looking for an "in the mean time" site.

 

[Dennis E. Taylor]

I had a quick look at wix.com . For the most part, it looks pretty good. Unfortunately, they don't offer an email server service -- you have to pay someone else and have it redirected. So it's really a two-stop shop.