There are many ways that you can promote your book. Some of them require that you go out into the world—attend book festivals where you showoff your book to browsing visitors (mostly readers), present workshops in your topic or genre, speak to members of civic organization groups and other groups, do book signings and visit bookstores and specialty stores for consignment deals, for example.
There are many book promotion activities that you can do from home, as well. I like having options. I enjoy going out and meeting and greeting my reading audience. But I also relish my time at home promoting books with a cat on my lap. With my latest book now on Kindle, I have a lot of people to notify. I’ll be doing that through my email list (including customers, clients, colleagues, writers’ group leaders, conference organizers…), this blog, Facebook and Twitter, articles for appropriate magazines and ezines, etc.
I met people yesterday at the book festival in San Luis Obispo who are planning to write a book. When I questioned them, few of them had even considered their audience for their books. A couple of children’s book writers were not sure what age group they were writing for. Several authors of nonfiction books had no clue as to their audience. Like so many first-time authors they just expected to put their book out there in downtown and online bookstores and see who might buy it. I hope I convinced them that they need to be writing for their target audience now and planning now for how to reach that audience once the book is a book. Now is the time to be thinking about the business aspects of producing a book. Those many authors who do not follow this advice often fail. In fact, you’ve heard/read me say that over 76 percent of authors today fail in the marketplace. And lack of business sense with regard to their books is one reason.
Don’t just become an author, become a savvy author. Study the publishing industry early on in the process of writing your book so you know what to expect and how to navigate the competitive, complicated publishing industry. How?
• Read books by professionals. I recommend my The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book and Promote Your Book. Both available at http://www.matilijapress.com and amazon.com.
• Attend a writers’ conference and participate in all of the sessions related to writing, publishing and promoting your book.
• Join publishing organizations such as SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) and participate in the offerings. http://www.spawn.org
• Subscribe to newsletters related to publishing and read every one of them. SPAWNews, Book Promotion Newsletter and Publishing Basics are a few I recommend. You’ll get a lot out of the SPAWN Market Update and the IBPA Independent, as well. These are free to members of SPAWN and IBPA (Independent Book Publishers Association).
I also offer online courses on book promotion, how to write a book proposal, how to build on your author’s platform and other topics of interest to writers and authors. http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm