I seflf published my new book, “How To Love And Be Loved Forever”?
Posted Wednesday, May 12, 2010 by admin
I do not have the money my publisher needs from me to effectively market my book. For example $700 for returnability program, $2400 for marketing campaign. It is available in online bookstores such as amazon, borders, barnes and noble. What innovative ways can I use to get my book to the public?
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Posted in Books & Authors
Self-publishing is quite a money pit. First you pay for production, then they hit you up for all kinds of marketing money. Lots of paid-to-publish writers end up *losing* money on the deal. That’s one part of why it’s not usually financially feasible.
Self-published books do poorly on ebay, 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 won’t 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. 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.
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 rather hear the truth than sugar-coated lies which might cause you to waste your time or money.