Every author dreams of writing a bestseller. Dreaming isn?t enough. The self-published author is both writer and publisher and is the director of the entire publishing process. This includes cover design, interior layout, marketing and promotion. Standing out from the crowd of hundreds of thousands of other self-published authors and garnering attention for an unknown author, and his or her book, is a daunting undertaking. Budget, time, connections and strategy all play into a successful book launch. Most authors, however, are short on budget so here are three free steps every author can take right away to help increase the visibility for their work.
If you write it, they will come. IF you go find them and lead them to it. ~ Cindy Ratzlaff
These three inexpensive, but effective, strategies will help self-published authors present their work to book buyers. As an author who has been published by a legacy publisher and as a self-published author, I?ve employed these strategies myself in both cases and can attest to their ease, cost effectiveness and efficacy.Author Central
Author Central is a free feature of Amazon.com and self-published books need to be on Amazon. Amazon is one of the most trusted online booksellers and people feel comfortable purchasing from Amazon. Being there is a key element in a good distribution strategy. Author Central provides authors with a page for their photo, bio, promotional videos, blog feed, Twitter feed, and promotional tour schedule. An Author Central page is indexed in search on Amazon and will be served up to book buyers searching for an author by name. It?s also a good tool for introducing an author to new readers. This is free to set up and every author should take advantage of this marketing real estate.? The author?s page on Author Central will appear at the bottom of the sales page for their book and gives readers more information about the author at point of purchase; right when they?re making the decision whether or not to buy the book.
One billion users is a very large ecosystem and most authors already have a personal profile. There are several very sophisticated marketing opportunities on Facebook, but here are two free and easy ways to begin.? Upload a 403 x 403 pixel photo of the cover of the book to Facebook and write a post announcing the publication.? At the end of the post include the direct link to the page where the book can be purchased; Amazon, Barnes & Noble, author website or other. Next mark the post as ?Life Event,? a Facebook designation found in the upper right hand side of the status update box. The choose ?Published a Book? from the Life Event Options. Facebook will create a large, 2-column posting with this update and send it out into the news feed to nearly all of the author?s connections. This one action significantly increases the visibility of the newly published book within the author?s own circle of contacts.? Keeping a close eye on the comments for this post and responding with a request to help spread the word can mobilize the author?s friends and family to help with promotion. All hands on deck should be the self-published author?s watch words.
YouTube
YouTube is the second largest search engine, behind Google, and is owned by Google. Creating a Book Trailer, similar to a movie trailer, and posting it to YouTube gives the author a high value marketing piece to share on social media, in blogs and on YouTube itself. Authors can create a 30 second video that includes images, words, a link to purchase the book and even music without any special equipment or knowledge at Animoto. This wonderful free tool has easy to use templates that make creating a 30 second digital commercial for a book simple. To make longer videos, remove the Animoto logo and access a library of professional templates, authors will need a pro account, which is $240 per year, or click on the Animoto link above and get a 20% discount (full disclosure: signing up through that link gives readers a discount and I get a little something from Animoto).? I?ve been an Animoto pro user for 3 years and cannot recommend it enough for authors. Here?s a sample of one of the first Animoto videos I created. It took me 10 minutes. It?s fun, easy and authors can upload the video to their Author Central page, YouTube, Facebook and their website.
There is so much more that authors must do to market and promote their self-published books, but these three free marketing strategies are a good beginning. Create an author profile at Author Central, add a Life Event on Facebook and produce a book trailer video at Animoto to upload to YouTube and share around the web. In fact, I invite authors to share the link to their Author Central pages or Animoto book trailers below to promote their books to other readers and to encourage new authors to use free marketing and promotional tools.
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Source: http://cindyratzlaff.com/blog/books/3-low-cost-marketing-strategies-for-self-published-authors/
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