I have a self-published book with (a POD publisher). I can’t afford their expensive marketing services and I’m not all that sure the things they’re constantly trying to sell me will work anyway. Can you help?
– T
A book’s sales potential depends entirely on: 1. the book itself; and 2. the authors’ marketing savvy and efforts. Listing a book on a particular website like Amazon won’t generate sales. The author must promote the book in order for it to be successful. This is true for self-published and traditionally published titles. Traditional publishers do little to no promotion for unknown/new authors now. They take a gamble that a book may or may not take off and they run with the ones that do, while generally abandoning the ones that don’t. Of course, the ones that do are the ones whose authors are promoting them creatively and consistently.
At BookLocker.com, we don’t try to up-sell authors on marketing products and services. Unfortunately, some of our competitors keep finding more ways to separate authors from their money, including selling them worthless marketing products and services that usually don’t generate enough resulting book sales to pay for those items. In my opinion, if one of their methods does appear to work, it’s likely because the author is heavily promoting their book in other ways as well. Book reviews by unknown bloggers, bookmarks, coffee cups, press releases, and even many affordable forms of paid print advertising are often a waste of money.
BookLocker authors receive a free copy of 90+ DAYS OF PROMOTING YOUR BOOK ONLINE: Your Book’s Daily Marketing Plan.
Anyone can buy the book, of course, but Booklocker authors get a copy for free because we WANT our authors to sell books. We break even on setup fees, and earn our profits on book sales. Why would we NOT give them a ton of FREE marketing resources and advice that really works? Because, when our authors sell books, that benefits them AND us!
Many POD publishers upsell authors to the tune of thousands of dollars on products/services that will never result in enough book sales to pay for those products/services (which is why those publishers don’t offer those services for free). We call those POD publishers author meat markets – they suck as much money as they can out of an author’s wallet before moving on to the next author.
If you want to pay someone to promote your book, it’s a better idea to hire a book publicist directly than to pay hundreds to thousands to your fee-based publisher to perform marketing activities of questionable value. For a book publicist, we recommend Dave Carew but he only offers his services for non-fiction books. See: https://www.davecarew.com/
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90+ DAYS OF PROMOTING YOUR BOOK ONLINE: Your Book's Daily Marketing Plan by Angela Hoy and Richard Hoy
Promoting your book online should be considered at least a part-time job. Highly successful authors spend more time promoting a book than they do writing it - a lot more.
We know what you're thinking. You're an author, not a marketer. Not to worry! We have more than a decade of successful online book selling experience under our belts and we're going to teach you how to promote your book effectively online...and almost all of our techniques are FREE!
Online book promotion is not only simple but, if you have a step-by-step, day-to-day marketing plan (this book!), it can also be a very artistic endeavor, which makes it fun for creative folks like you!
Yes, online book promoting can be EASY and FUN! Let us show you how, from Day 1 through Day 90...and beyond!
I agree with Sarah Bates. BookLocker’s “90+ Days Of Promoting Your Book Online” is chock-full of tried and true “FREE” methods to promote your book. Highly recommended! No, I do not get a kick-back for this praise.
– Pamela Allegretto
Bridge of Sighs and Dreams
http://booklocker.com/books/8228.html
Two women clash in World War 2 Nazi-occupied Rome.
Please send your “90 days” book to me. I need ideas to breathe new life into my book “Aging Is A Journey of Changes”. Just having a website and emailing to addresses I’ve accumulated, hasn’t worked.
Hi Marcia,
All BookLocker authors are provided a free copy of 90+ Days of Promoting Your Book Online. I will send the link to you again via your author account in the BookLocker.com system. 🙂
-Angela
Following some of the strategies in the “90 Days” book, I got over 300 hits on a recent article I wrote on my website. And it didn’t cost me a penny. If you just sit back, no one will discover your work. But if you put a few hours into blowing your horn and POINTING to your work – people will look.
Brian
Booklocker’s “90+ Days…” marketing book has everything in it a motivated author needs to get the ball rolling, and keeping it spinning. I used the copy I received with my first novel in 2012, and the revised version with the newest novel that published this year.
The information had changed to keep up with marketing trends and offered suggestions I might have overlooked the first time. I go through Booklocker’s suggestions about once a month now that I’ve initiated almost all of their marketing tactics. I did investigate hiring a publicist but the cost, well over $5,000, was too expensive. Moreover, the tactics in the firm’s proposal were almost identical to what Booklocker suggested in their “90+ Days…” book.
– Sarah Bates
The Lost Diaries of Elizabeth Cady Stanton
http://booklocker.com/books/8471.html
Women’s rights pioneer fears past and destroys damaging personal diaries.
Twenty-One Steps of Courage
http://booklocker.com/books/6097.html
An adventure novel about an Unknown Soldier Tomb Guard
I’m in the same boat as Mr. Knister. I am past 80 years old and am nearly finished with my first book, so I am trying to begin some kind of marketing program that will permit me time enough to keep writing.
Angela,
Everything you say here is true. The book should (not must) be good, but without effective marketing, it won’t find readers. As a writer almost certainly too old to get an agent, I haven’t “chosen” to self-publish, but been forced to. The trouble is, today’s self-promotional methods/technology are beyond me. I can’t master those skills at this late date, and I certainly know that you can’t make money without spending it. But how and where to spend it for promotion? I don’t want another “plan” that I’m required to implement. I want to pay someone for both the plan AND implementation. But I can’t find an honest broker. What do you advise?
Hi Barry,
Per the article:
If you want to pay someone to promote your book, it’s a better idea to hire a book publicist directly than to pay hundreds to thousands to your fee-based publisher to perform marketing activities of questionable value. For a book publicist, we recommend Dave Carew but he only offers his services for non-fiction books. See: http://www.davecarew.com/
–Angela