Top Ten Ways to Market Your Books On the Cheap

Top 10 Ways to Market Your Books On the Cheap
By Devyn Dawson

 Here's my disclaimer - what works for one person (me), might not work for another (you). I write young adult paranormal romance books and here's a few ways I've made my books more visible.

1.  You probably have a Facebook account, if you don't...go get one.  There are thousands of groups within Facebook and I'm a member of about 20.  Join the groups and see what's working for people.  Tons of authors and bloggers have marketing ideas, just ask and see what they say.

2.  With the exception of your book release week, don't post things like - "My book is the next best thing to toilet paper"  or "Have you read my books?  Go buy one now and you'll die a happy person!"  Don't pimp yourself.  Instead, pimp other books.  Tell people about your peers books - tag your 'friend' author who wrote the book.  People notice when your helpful to other authors and bloggers, they're more apt to help you out when you have a book release.  This is a FREE option - use it!

3.  Still with Facebook - Do you have author friends?  Start friending other authors who are similar to you.  The same with Twitter.  I'm not a good Twitter person, but I know that when other bloggers and authors are tweeting for me, my sales go up.  During contests, I ask people to tweet about my books.  It's a great way to get the word out.

4.  So your book is on Amazon - if it isn't, get it there like right now!  Here's a simple way to get your book noticed.  You know the part where you pick categories to list your book?  Change it every sixty days.  Why, you may ask.  People who buy books will scroll through the same categories - your book blends in after a while - change it up and you'll see an increase in sales.  I get a boost every single time I do this.

5.  Giveaways!  The more you give, the more you get.  I host a giveaway on my fanpage several times a week.  If you published your book on Smashwords you can generate coupons.  I do 100% off coupon and do a giveaway for one of my books.  I ask obscure questions like "what's for dinner" - it brings about 50-150 comments.  Every comment makes my page more visible.

6.  At the end of each of my books, I have an excerpt from a couple of authors.  I ask for no more than 3000 words and their buy links.  Typically, they will return the favor and list my book at the back of theirs.  This is a very beneficial way of getting more exposure.  A very popular author has several of my books at the end of her's - in the list of what other people have bought, her books are always on my list.  cost - FREE!

7.  Do you do local book signings?  Call the coffee shops or small independent bookstores and see if they'll let you sign at their store.  Some small bookstores require a month notice so they can order books - I've brought my own and they scanned them into their system and paid me 60% of the sale.  Before you do the signing, do a press release to the local paper and news - tell them where the signing will be.  The last one I did, landed me on the front page of the newspaper.  FREE!

8.  One word - BOOKMARKS  - I get my from gotprint.com - for 1000 bookmarks, I pay about $40.00 - I go to the library and give them a big stack to give out.  You should donate a copy of your books to the library.  At ours, the librarians read the book before it goes up for rental.  I'm on the feature wall with local authors.

9.  I write young adult books so I don't know about regular fiction authors.  I call the local high schools and ask for the librarian.  I ask if I can come talk to the English classes - guess what, they let me come out and talk about writing books!  I buy gift cards to Starbucks or fast food and at the end I open up for questions.  I say whoever has the best question will win one of the gift cards.  As a thank you to the school for having me, I donate a copy of whatever book I'm promoting.  I offer a school discount for books and kids come and buy books from me.  Win Win!  - $10 - $50.00

10.  Join blog hops.  There are tons of bloggers and promotional blogs who run blog hops.  Typically you have to give something away.  One that I've participated in will tell me what kind of book to give out.  One time they said we could only offer a book with a moon on the cover. I will typically offer a mainstream book that's popular as a giveaway.  Why?  Because it makes more people participate in the giveaway.  The more people, the more exposure.  I've given signed copies of Richelle Mead's books or whoever I can find.  Offer to do a guest post on a blog (that's what this is) and write your own top ten list.  Note - top ten lists are the most searched keywords for blogs (or so says my smart MIT graduate friend who is a marketing master)

ONE MORE IDEA - Do a giveaway on Goodreads - you'll get exposure, plus people will add you to their TBR list!  I only ship to USA and Canada so it limits who will enter.

Thank you for having me on your blog!  I hope there are some tips that were useful for everyone.  If you have any questions, email me devyndawson@yahoo.com

You can read more on my website   or my blog  or Amazon 

I'm Devyn Dawson, the author of eight novels and by the end of 2014 that number will be eleven.