Zero Cost Marketing

Promoting your book or yourself need not be costly, in fact you can successfully promote your book for no cost other than your time, obviously this has a value however use it wisely and the returns can make it worthwhile. There are both online and offline opportunities available, you could even make some extra money. Give them a go and you could get your book in front of even more real buyers.

Website/Blog

Setting up a website or blog is essential as once you have engaged new readers they will want to find out more about you and your work. There are lots of free options available including Moonfruit, Blogger and Wordpress. Include an author bio and details of books you have written including how to buy them. Have at least one section that you update regularly, a blog is good for this, so readers have a reason to revisit your site.

Initially you may not get a lot of visitors to your site, don’t worry about this as the purpose, at this stage, is to have somewhere to send your readers. Longer term you might choose to invest some time in Search Engine Optimisation or drive traffic to your site.

Facebook

Set up a Facebook page that is separate to your personal profile and page. This page could be named after you the author, a book series, a character in your book, or the topic you write about.  Use this page to promote your book, provide updates on what you are doing related to your writing, give additional information about your characters or locations or give hints and tips related to your topic, in fact post about anything that will keep your readers engaged with your page.

You could also post on other Facebook pages. If you find a page that has fans who could become your readers, like it and comment on posts. After a while make a relevant post and include a link to your page or website.

Give a talk

There are lots of organisations that welcome speakers; consider your own community and think about all the different groups that meet regularly. It is highly likely these groups will have members who could become your readers, or perhaps purchase your book as a gift. You could talk about the subject of your book, give a reading, talk about the writing process or even select an entirely different topic and somehow relate it to your work. Consider these topics, time management for the self-employed, cooking meals for one, travelling with pets or making the most of social media. As long as you are introduced as an author and have the opportunity to mention the books you have written the subject of the talk doesn't really matter. And, as an added bonus, you may even get paid!

For further ideas on promoting your book and making those sales have a look at Sell it! The complete guide to marketing, promoting and selling your book, it is available on Amazon as a paperback and Kindle ebook.

Happy writing.