Self-publishing on Amazon

onlyroz

I'm not completely sure if this is the correct forum, but I'm looking for advice on self-publishing through Amazon (and similar), and in particular the best way to advertise a self-published work.

I've just submitted a book to Kindle Direct Publishing, and so it will be available to download via the Amazon website (around the world) and it will also be available in Amazon's lending library service. However, it obviously won't sell if nobody knows that it exists, and so I'm looking for (hopefully not too expensive) ways of advertising.

I've been looking into using Facebook to advertise. This could either involve actually placing a Facebook add, which would appear in the adds banner to the right of the Facebook page. Also, in Facebook you can create a regular "public" post and "promote" it - this seems to involve paying a small amount (£5-£10) which will result in the post being shunted up people's news feeds. Has anybody tried doing this? And what was the result? I don't want to annoy people by filling their newsfeeds with spam, but at the same time I want as wide a group of people to know that I've got a book out there.

And also, any other advertising ideas would be appreciated as well.

Mrs_Bones

onlyroz wrote: »

I'm not completely sure if this is the correct forum, but I'm looking for advice on self-publishing through Amazon (and similar), and in particular the best way to advertise a self-published work.

I've just submitted a book to Kindle Direct Publishing, and so it will be available to download via the Amazon website (around the world) and it will also be available in Amazon's lending library service. However, it obviously won't sell if nobody knows that it exists, and so I'm looking for (hopefully not too expensive) ways of advertising.

I've been looking into using Facebook to advertise. This could either involve actually placing a Facebook add, which would appear in the adds banner to the right of the Facebook page. Also, in Facebook you can create a regular "public" post and "promote" it - this seems to involve paying a small amount (£5-£10) which will result in the post being shunted up people's news feeds. Has anybody tried doing this? And what was the result? I don't want to annoy people by filling their newsfeeds with spam, but at the same time I want as wide a group of people to know that I've got a book out there.

And also, any other advertising ideas would be appreciated as well.

Can't help you with face book but do you have a blog? Quite a few people I know online have published e books and they then promote them on their own blogs and if you've got friends often they will also do reviews of your book on their blogs to spread the word further. I'd done that myself a couple of times for books I've enjoyed.

Writing forums are another way of spreading by word of mouth so to speak. Many of them have threads where you can list any published works you've achieved in what ever form.

Not sure what your book theme is (hint, I'd love to know please pm ) but it might be worthwhile also getting in touch with your local paper, they tend to love good news stories of things that people achieve in their area and they might well agree to run a little article on it. Again depending on the subject, would it be something you give a talk on at your local library? Even if the theme isn't could you give a talk on the process of writing and self publishing etc anything to get a plug in for your book.

Hoody

Free blogger blog?
make a youtube vid?
links in forum post footers (where allowed, don't think you are on this forum?)
twitter spam.

then try to link all of these too each other which may push your blogger blogs and youtube vids up the rankings in the search ranks if you have decent keywords etc?

onlyroz

Thanks for the info.

I don't have a blog - but wouldn't I have the same problems promoting the blog as I would promoting the novel itself? I've also never used twitter and so I'm not quite sure how it works - again, don't you have to promote your twitter feed, and make it interesting enough for people to want to read?

As for the book itself, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to link to it directly from here but it's a children's mystery story aimed at 11+ year-olds, with some supernatural elements.

Hoody

Twitter involves typeing messages in less than 140 characters so not that difficult? just have to follow people with similar interests to what you book is about and hope they follow you back so they see your info? (and obviously fill out your profile stating what you are about)

Blogger is free and if you keep a regular blog of what you are writing about, and plug when you launch book etc any followers of your blogs will see the updates especially if you have the rss bit working (plenty of vids on youtube explaining how to do this) and you can put a link to your blog in various forum footers where you are allowed or in your profile (even on this forum you can ad a profile link iirc?)

As far as promoting sometimes if you contact other bloggers they will exchange a link to your blog in return for you doing similar. Obviously if there are any media or magazines that promote books you know about send them a mail explaining the book has been launched, what it is about and a link to where you can buy it from. (typical press release type thing?) They may not print anything but it's worth a punt? And obviously don't forget spread the word around friends and family and ask them to get the word out?

Rosemary_Jane

onlyroz wrote: »

I'm not completely sure if this is the correct forum, but I'm looking for advice on self-publishing through Amazon (and similar), and in particular the best way to advertise a self-published work.

Hi, why not shell out on a kindle book? £1.88 will get you this one

"How I sold 1 million ebooks in five months" it's got 4stars in 49 reviews,

www.amazon.co.uk/Sold-Million-eBooks-Months-ebook/dp/B0056BMK6K

Or Kindle Direct "sell" a free one, you can see if there's anything useful in there.

Well done for actually publishing - like many others, I'm still just thinking about it!

R

Hoody

Article here that may have some useful info as well?

http://www.makemoneyontheinternet.com/how-to-write-a-kindle-book/

onlyroz

Thanks all. I appreciate that I'm very much a beginner at this and there is a lot to learn. To be honest I'd be happy if I could persuade a dozen people (who are not well-meaning friends or family) to read my book. I've been trying to get the damn thing finished for about 3 years now and I'm happy that I've finally got off my butt and got it out there.

I'm viewing this one as an experiment - all of the big success stories out there (e.g. "Fifty Shades of Crap" and similar) seem to have utilised the force of social media - and so I guess that's what I've got to learn how to do.

tyllwyd

My bil self-published a book a few years ago - he managed to get a column about it in the local paper, he got a few local shops/cafes to display some for sale on the counter, he took a stall at a carboot sale, and he had a website with a 'buy it now' paypal button. It went OK but I think it was hard work and he hasn't written another one!

I went into Waterstones a while back and met an author who had a pile of her books on a table and was busy doing a hard sell on any child foolish enough to wander too close! Authors have also turned up at the primary school to do a talk with a big box of books in the boot of their car, but you probably need to be more a established author to do either of those options.

It's more of an investment, but I would say that if you are serious about promoting the book you will need to have some physical copies to show people and sell.

picket_fence

Well done for actually doing it - I'm another who keeps meaning to but never does. Try googling John Locke. He was the first self-publisher to reach a million sales on Amazon. He did all his own advertising/promotion and did it all via social media and emails. He went on to forums and blogs of people who he thought might have an interest in what he was writing about. He posted about what he was publishing and why he thought they would be interested. There are several articles about him on various news websites etc. As you've pointed out, other people have replicated his sucess using the same tactics, so why not give it a go? Good luck and remember to let us know how you get on

onlyroz

Apparently John Locke has been criticised for paying people to review his book:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-shaffer/john-locke-buying-reviews_b_1831820.html

But that still doesn't mean his other tactics are not valid, so I'll check out his story.