As you may have heard, your book is not likely to sell itself. Marketing and publicity is hard work. The whole secret is to determine who your target readers are and how to get in front of them (in a non threatening way, of course). So, even if your book isn’t out yet, you should start promoting now.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to post everything I’ve learned in my experience over the past few years. I’m far from an expert, but I know my efforts have made a difference.
This is a long list. Please keep in mind; you don’t have to do everything. Anything on this list will help your book, even if you only do one or two things. So, don’t be overwhelmed by everything I’ve tried. It might be a good idea to make a list and highlight what you want to do or check off things as you do them. And feel free to email me if you have questions at info@jillwilliamson.com.
So, here are some ideas to help you market and promote yourself and your book.
Make a Budget
I skipped this one and ended up spending more money that I probably should have. There are plenty of free things you can do to get the word out about your novel. Do all those, if you can. But you really can’t get around spending some money. If nothing else, your author copies will cost you. Even if you turn around and sell them, they’ll still cost you up front.
So take some time to read through my suggestions, jot down the estimated costs, and then decide what you can and can’t do. That will be your budget. Stick to it! Being a successful novelist does not include going into debt. 🙂
Stay tuned for my next post on creating an author website.
This is actually about the last passive voice post. Well it was in description. I wanted to ask can you put was, is, e.t.c in dialougue? I know you said description, and this may be a stupid question, but is it bad to put those words into dialougue?
Not at all. Sometimes your character needs to say that. Try not to think of “was” it as bad. It’s just a word. But the more you write, the more you’ll start to see how sentences can be reworded to be stronger. I don’t bother rewriting anything on my first draft. If I did, I’d never actually finish a book. Just try to get your whole book written. Once you’ve done that, then go back and try to rewrite sentences and scenes that need work. Also, once you have a full novel written, I strongly recommend joining a writer’s critique group and getting feedback from other writers. I have a post on critique groups, somewhere. I might have to repost it, though…
Oh i’ll search for that. Well you see i post mine on a chapter per chapter thing on fictionpress. Like i write and edit one chapter and then put it on. I do it for fun, so their’s no real finaly, or first draft.
Gotcha. Sounds like a lot of fun! 🙂