Question on promoting and marketing my book...?

[Thor-shaman]

I've written and published a book for teen/young adults. It's already on Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and other online sites. Also it's locally in bookstores and doing well locally. I just had a recent interview on TV (locally) and have had 3 book signings. What I would like advice on is, how can I further promote my book and get it out there before the public's eyes. I already have a fan page on face book. Any idea's would be appreciated.

It's called Lafitte's Black Box

[Mandaladreamer]

Try contacting each of your local library systems to see if they would like to order some copies. They will want a copy to look at while they decide. Get the name of the correct person and ask how to submit it for consideration.
Also, find all the libraries in the area where the book takes place, or any other kinds of connections you can think of with the contents of the book.
We sold a few copies to libraries that way when I was publishing and promoting the book that a friend of mine wrote.
Also, if it's a book for kids you should promote yourself for local school visits. That can be a huge market.
Also, you might try putting a few copies up as an Amazon Marketplace seller offering autographed copies. Just be aware that they must be mailed out within 48 hours of the order being received and you must follow their shipping requirements.
Watch your punctuation while making all those contacts.

[akaMaryn]

Nothing but fairly bad news, I'm sorry to say. Self-published books do poorly on ebay, amazon, the publisher’s website, and the author’s own website.

Marketing a pay-to-publish book is damned difficult. Many of the avenues open to traditionally published authors are not available. Chain bookstores rarely host signings or carry copies (although they will order them for customers). Newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio don't want your press releases and won't do interviews. Often the library system won't accept free copies. Writing- or book-related conventions won’t let you set up a sales or autograph table, don’t want you on their author panels, and forbid you giving away promotional material.

The author's blog, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and other electronic self-promotion efforts seem to have little effect in terms of increased sales.

About the only marketing I've seen have any effect for self-published authors is active participation at forums and chats dealing with the subject of your book. Find your niche market and determine where online they hang out. Some sites may allow you to discuss your book *if someone asks about it* (but will ban you for bringing it up more than once). Some may allow a link to a point of sale in your profile, or to your blog or web-page which in turn links to a point of sale.

You'll sell a few more copies than you might have, but overall, like most self-published books, regardless of quality, total sales will probably remain below 100 copies. More often, the number hovers somewhere around 2/3 to 3/4 of your total number of friends and family members. This compares pretty unfavorably to the thousands of copies a moderately-selling book from a conventional publisher can anticipate.

I’m sorry not to be able to offer much real hope for promotion, but I figured you’d want truth rather than to spin your wheels vigorously for little or no results.



Both Yahoo Answers and MySpace have rules forbidding self-promotion, including self-published books. Depending on whether anyone reports spam, you can lose your posting privileges or account.