Self-Publishing the Hard Way

A recent statistic said that less than 98% of books submitted to a traditional publisher are accepted - and even less of that roughly 2% actually make it to publication. Self-Publishing the Hard Way is a how-to guide for aspiring authors to use when they're considering self-publishing their manuscript. As the author of three self-published novels and a children's picture book, Brian Parker uses his experience to help you achieve the goal of publishing your books for the first time in an easygoing and simple narrative.

The guide takes you through the basics of formatting your work for both a novel and for a picture book, choosing a printing service, listing the work for sale and what to do after the manuscript has been published, including promoting your book and offers some helpful record-keeping tips.

Self-Publishing the Hard Way is meant to be a holistic view of the self-publishing industry, as experienced by the author. Throughout the guide, he uses examples of mistakes that he made during the process and what he did at each step to overcome those obstacles. This book is a must-have for anyone who wants to know more about the self-publishing process from someone who has been in your shoes and learned by trial and error.

Only $.99!

Self-Publishing

Muddy Boots Press is a very small publisher. We only take on one to two new authors a year, but we still want to help out other writers, even those that we don't have any formal relationship with. Self-publishing is an absolutely viable option in today's marketplace and we highly encourage you to seek it out.

Do you want to publish your own novel? Have you checked out some of those companies who offer to “publish” your book for you and been told that the cost was thousands of dollars? Don’t worry; I made the same mistake when I completed my first manuscript.

I was elated to have finally finished GNASH and I honestly didn’t know the next step. I’d read horror stories about submitting a manuscript to thirty, forty publishers or more and never hearing back from them, so I decided to self-publish. The only problem is that I didn’t know how to do it. An internet search pointed me in the direction of several companies who would format and publish my book – awesome! I submitted my novel to one of these companies and I was accepted. I was on Cloud Nine, so excited. Then the proposed contract came back and the company that I was accepted for would publish for a small fee of $8,500….

What?!

Publishing your novel should be an exciting process, not something that will put you in debt. I’ve written nine novels to date and I want to be brutally honest with you: YOU WILL NOT GET RICH FROM WRITING A BOOK! Okay, yes there are a few rare exceptions, but most of us make enough to get a nice little bump to the income from our regular jobs but we have to keep working.

I want you to know that you can publish your novel for absolutely zero cost – both eBook and print. There are tons of resources available to help you do so, but it is time consuming getting everything right (download the free book above for some pointers). If you choose to self-publish and not to submit your work to Muddy Boots Press, please, go ahead and contact us; we can put you in touch with experienced editors and cover illustrators – at no charge. It will be between you and the editor or artist to negotiate your own terms. The editors that we recommend do an amazing job and are vastly less expensive than others out there. Our friends have edited multiple works and will work with you to ensure that your book is ready for prime time.

Why would we do this? Call it simply doing the right thing or maybe we're hoping for good karma on the back end, maybe that's it. We were in your shoes not that long ago. Our goal is to continue to advance our craft and get good books out there for readers. A good friend of mine once told me that it's stupid for authors to compete with each other. We're not car salesmen, a reader doesn't buy only one book and then read only that one book for the next five years. Readers buy new books all the time and hopefully the good word will get out about Muddy Boots Press, the independent publisher who helps out authors with zero expectations from them.

Brian Parker

Founder of Muddy Boots Press

5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Published My Novel

Reposted from: http://www.authorspublish.com/5-things-i-wish-i-knew-before-i-published-my-novel/

Written by Chantelle Atkins.

When I became an Indie Author after publishing my first novel, I learned a lot of valuable lessons. I wish someone had warned me about the obstacles I was about to encounter. Below are the five things I really wish I knew, before I became an Indie Author. They are all common obstacles that Indie Authors face. It really helps if you are prepared to face these obstacles before publishing your first novel.

1) Finding your audience takes time

I was incredibly naive about this when I published my first indie novel. I really thought it would happen by itself. Of course, all my family and friends would read my book, and so would all of my Facebook friends and Twitter followers, and then they would make all their friends read it, and so on. It was a bit of a shock when this did not happen.

In reality people will promise to read your book, but won’t get around to it. People will read your book but will neglect to review it. People will read and review your book, but then

forget to recommend it to others. This can be incredibly disheartening when you are just starting out, so it is important to realize that you cannot depend on your friends and their friends to become your audience.

Yes, of course start a Facebook author page, engage in Twitter, and write a blog. But there is so much more to it than that. Sadly I wasted a lot of time in the beginning just waiting for people to discover my book and hoping that my friends and family would pass it on and it would all just take off. I didn’t realize the amount of work that needs to go into finding your audience! If I had known, I would have started this aspect before the book was even published.

2) Dedicate as much time to promotion as you do to writing

I had absolutely no idea how to go about promoting my book when I first published it. Once my book was available on Amazon, I added it to Goodreads, and started a Facebook author page and Twitter profile, and I kind of gave up for a while.

The range of promotional sites out there is just mind-blowing, to be honest. There are so many, some free and some that you pay to be on, that I just wanted to believe I didn’t need them. The thing is, you do need them. You need to be on as many as possible, but more importantly than that you need to actively engage on the ones that work most for you. Of course it takes a while to figure out which ones work for you and which ones don’t.

This all takes time, when you would obviously much rather be writing. I often felt overwhelmed and put off by the promotional process, but now I view it as another part of the job. I make on-going lists of promo goals and I tick them off as I go along. Some are researched and crossed off as not worth it, and some I go back to again and again. I always have a notepad beside my laptop with weekly and daily promo goals on it. Daily ones can be small, quick things like tweeting and sharing my book links, or posting to my author page, and weekly ones will require more time spent, like updating my website, researching new sites to join and so on.

3) Be as professional as possible

This sounds obvious but was another thing I was really unaware of at the beginning. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be professional, it was just that I didn’t quite understand what that meant.

I am talking about all aspects of the process. Your front cover, your blurb, your synopsis, your author bio, your website, your blog, the whole package. I didn’t put enough effort into these things to start with. Surely my books would sell themselves?

But the old adage still rings very true I am afraid. People do judge a book by its cover, and authors by their biographies. I am still learning. Becoming more professional is another thing I consider an on-going process. I now consider it a duty. I am an indie author and proud to be one. I don’t want to let the side down in any way.

4) Connect with other authors

I was too shy when I was first published. I didn’t push myself forward. I would read other indie books and review them in the hope that the author would reciprocate, and funnily enough they never did. I would share other authors blogs and articles, like their pages and tweet their links. I wasn’t quite brave enough to suggest that I was worth promoting too.

This has changed as my confidence has grown. I will now read and review for other indies as long as they commit to do the same to me. The same goes for tweeting and liking pages. Wherever possible I try to connect with other authors because I believe we can really help and support each other. It can be really lonely out there on your own when you are independent.

I think you need as many author friends and connections as possible. You can help each other in endless ways, be it sharing information regarding new promo sites and advertisement ideas, reading and commenting on each others blogs. In fact it is nice just having someone to moan to when you are feeling under valued.

5) Confidence comes with practice

In other words; keep writing. Yes, dedicate the right amount of time to promoting your new release, but if you are a writer you should already be writing the next one. This is how you get better and better. This is how your skill grows and evolves.

This is how you become a better writer, and this is how you start to believe in yourself. I do find the more I write, the better I get. I have so much more confidence now. There is no better way to prove yourself as an indie than keep writing great books. Aim to please your readers. Gain their respect and their loyalty, and they will keep coming back for more.

A Rogues Gallery of Editing Mistakes

Reposted from: http://www.authorhouse.net/author-advice/a-rogues-gallery-of-editing-mistakes/?utm_campaign=

As a self-published author, a lot of the editing responsibility falls on you too. Of course, having a second set of eyes review your work is almost always the best option, but there’s a lot you can do to fine-tune your manuscript before anyone else sees it.

Today AuthorHouse presents ten of the most common editing errors—things to look out for when you’re reviewing that first draft!

Misspellings: Everyone has committed this one, and the solution is simple enough. Use your word processor’s spell-checker (as a suggestion, not necessarily as the last word) and check your dictionary when in doubt.

Incorrect pronoun case: Is your pronoun being used as a subject, object, or possessive in your sentence? Make sure you choose the pronoun—I, me, or mine, for example—to match.

Unnecessary commas: Commas are typically used to separate clauses in sentences, as well as items in lists. Don’t insert one just because the sentence is becoming a little long.

Missing commas: The opposite problem is not using commas when they’re necessary (i.e. when listing items, separating sentence clauses, or when signaling nonrestrictive or nonessential material.) For example:

My older brother, a sophomore, still hasn’t decided on a major yet.

In that sentence, the commas separate the nonessential “a sophomore” because, while providing information, it isn’t necessary to make the sentence complete or grammatically correct.

Comma splices: The third part of our “Comma Trilogy,” a comma splice is when you use commas to join independent clauses. Separate them with a period or semicolon instead, or use a conjunction (and, or, but, etc.)

Sentence fragments: All of your sentences should be grammatically correct (contain a subject, verb, and direct object if the verb is transitive) and able to stand on their own.

Faulty parallelism: When you’re trying to express matching ideas in a series, make sure the sentences are grammatically equal. For example, instead of writing:

My goals for 2015 are finding a job, weight loss, and to read more.

You should write:

My goals for 2015 are finding a job, losing weight, and reading more.

Apostrophe errors: Use apostrophes to indicate possession for nouns (Mark’s home) but NOT for personal pronouns (its, your, their, etc.) and for contractions (it is=it’s, they are=they’re).

Inconsistencies: Sometimes English allows a bit of latitude in spelling (British vs. American spellings), hyphenation, numbers (writing them out or using numerals) and capitalization. Just make sure that you’re consistent in how you do these things in your writing.

Unclear pronouns: When you use pronouns in your sentences, make sure that the nouns they’re referring to (the referents) are clear. For example, the following sentence is confusing because the referent of “that” is unclear:

Chicken and fish were both on the menu, but that is one I preferred.

Let’s make professional-looking, well-polished manuscripts one of our resolutions for 2015! Thanks for visiting Author’s Digest… stop by again soon!

4 Easy Steps To An Irresistible Book Blurb

Reposted from http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/4-easy-steps-to-an-irresistable-book-blurb/

By: Beth Bacon | December 9, 2013

The blurb. The back-of-book description. The dust-cover copy. Whatever you call your book’s summary, it’s an important element of your marketing package. How to create a great book description? It comes down to four steps.

Here is the formula:

(1) Situation. Every story has to start somewhere, with some people in some sort of circumstances. Describe them simply here.

(2) Problem. Every story (every interesting one, anyway) has some sort of hitch that either makes that situation untenable or makes change inevitable. This part of the description often starts with the word, “But…” or “However…” or “Until…”

(3) Hopeful possibility. Here’s the potential to overcome the crisis. This “cool thing” or “longshot opportunity” makes your audience want to read your story. Yes, the situation (above) seems doomed by the problem (above). Still, there’s hope because of this new twist. Parts 1, 2, and 3, if concisely written, together create the drama that propels the story.

(4) Mood, tone or spirit of the story. Finally, readers want to know what kind of emotional state they’re going to get into while they’re reading this book. Is it a dark, dystopian tragedy or humorous chick lit cotton candy? This is where you set the tone and clinch the deal, turning browsers into buyers.

The formula in action:

So, let’s look at this formula in action. I recently helped a marketing team write the blurb for a new new YA book, Spirit Warriors: The Concealing by D. E. L. Connor. Here is this book description, using that formula:

(1) Sixteen-year-old Emme Belrose has it all: four best friends, her own horse, a hidden teepee hangout, and a blossoming romance with tall and handsome Charlie. These friends also have a secret. They can move their spirits into animal bodies: an Osprey, a Mustang, a Grizzly, a Mountain Lion and a Coyote. (2) But when Charlie, who has a gift for seeing the future, has a vision of Emme drowning in the icy Yellostone River, (3) the Spirit Warriors must train their animal bodies to kill an enemy they know is coming… but know nothing about. (4) Suspenseful, romantic and awash in Native American magic, Spirit Warriors captures the enchantment of the American West and the power of friendship.

Make it short. One thing self-published authors tend to do is include too much information in their book blurbs. It’s hard to cut out subplots you’ve slaved over and characters you feel are vital to the story. But internet book buyers don’t have a lot of time. Leave all that for the book itself.

Make it dramatic. What do your readers want in a blurb, if they don’t want length? They want drama. They want tension. They want to know they’re going to dip into a world where they’re hooked and curious and completely immersed till the end. If your blurb doesn’t hook your readers, they’re going to assume your book won’t hook them either.

These days, with digital bookstore sales becoming more critical than brick-and-mortar store sales, it’s even more important to authors to create effective blurbs. If your primary merchandising vehicle is the sales page on Amazon, BN.com, Kobo, and the Apple iBookstore, those few sentences had better grab your reader. You need to compel your visitor to buy.

Many self-published authors, however, lament the task of trying to summarize their whole book into a few paragraphs. Their complaints remind me of Robert Frost’s much quoted quip when he was asked, “What’s your poem about?” His answer: “Read the poem.”

In summary, when writing a summary, make it snappy. Less is more. Don’t tell them everything, just the dramatic core of the story.

How To Write Back Blurb For Your Book

Reposted from: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2010/11/16/how-to-write-back-blurb-for-your-book/

November 16, 2010 by Joanna Penn

You pick up a book because the cover or title looks interesting. The next thing you do is read the back blurb, or if you are online, you read the first excerpt which is usually the same thing.

At basics, the back blurb is a sales pitch. It has to be almost an exaggeration of your story that entices the reader to buy, or at least download a sample to their Kindle or iPad.

How do you write good back blurb?

This is a list of what featured most often from a number of bestselling thrillers reviewed as research from my bookshelf. The principles hold true for any genre although the details change for each.

•A hint of the plot. “Secret experiment. Tiny island. Big mistake.” (Scott Sigler, Ancestor); “must fight their way past traps, labyrinths and a host of deadly enemies” (Matthew Reilly. Six Sacred Stones);

•Use of words that evoke images and resonate with readers of the genre. Examples, “ancient monastery” (Raymond Khoury, The Sign), “hidden esoteric wisdom, Masonic secrets” (Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol), “the secret behind Noah’s Ark” (Boyd Morrison, The Ark), “Druidic pagan cross” (James Rollins, The Doomsday Key); “A buried Egyptian temple. A secret kept for 6000 years. A race for life worth killing for.” (Andy McDermott, The Pyramid of Doom)

•Main characters are named and characterized. “TV news reporter Gracie Logan. Matt Sherwood, reformed car thief” (The Sign); “Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon: (Lost Symbol); “Trapped inside a paralyzed body, Rhyme’s brilliant mind is channeled through his partner, policewoman Amelia Sachs” (Jeffrey Deaver, The Twelfth Card); “Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force” (James Rollins, Doomsday Key)

•Idea of setting. Washington DC, Rotunda (Dan Brown, Lost Symbol); “from the Roman Coliseum to the icy peaks of Norway, from the ruins of medieval abbeys to the lost tombs of Celtic kings” (James Rollins, Doomsday Key)

•A question or a hint of mystery that draws the reader in to be solved or answered. “Is the sign real? Is God talking to us? Or is something more sinister going on…” (Raymond Khoury, The Sign)

•Hyperbole. “stunning controversy that’s spinning out of control” (Raymond Khoury, The Sign); “..never before seen revelations seem to be leading him to a single impossible and inconceivable truth” (Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol); “The mission is incredible. The consequences of failure are unimaginable. The ending is unthinkable.” (Matthew Reilly. Six Sacred Stones)

•Quotes about the book or previous books by the author. “Part Stephen King, part Chuck Palahniuk…a pulpy masterpiece of action, terror and suspense” (James Rollins on Scott Sigler’s Infected)

•How long. Most seem to be 100-150 words long as the blurb text itself, not including about the author if included. That is also a nicely spaced blurb, not a squashed one.

•About the author. This isn’t done often for the blockbuster novels, but James Rollins does it well with a rugged photo and a description that includes “An avid spelunker and certified scuba enthusiast, he can often be found underground or underwater.” Now that’s a thriller writer!

4 Self-Publishing Problems (And Their Solutions)

Reposted from http://www.authorspublish.com/4-self-publishing-problems-and-their-solutions/

Written by Chantelle Atkins | March 4, 2015

I’ve been self-publishing for almost two years now, and it occurred to me recently that the same four problems are constantly rearing their ugly heads. It sometimes seems like there is no escaping them. I have listed them below and I think many aspiring authors would agree that these four issues are not going to go away any time soon. So how do authors on the self-publishing route deal with them? I do not think there are any easy solutions, but I have found a few things that are starting to work for me.

1) Expense

As an independent author, the issue of what to spend on my books is something I battle with constantly. Self-publishing, or publishing through an independent company is technically free. This is very enticing in the beginning if you are not particularly well off.

However, I soon realized I had to spend money to make money, and this is an on-going concern. There is the book cover. Of course you can do this yourself or ask a friend, and it certainly does not have to cost a fortune. But you must remember that people really do judge a book by its cover, and so it might very well be the one thing you ought to spend more money on.

Editing is another potential expense. There is no doubt that if you can afford a professional editor, then you should hire one. The main thing that sets self-published books apart from the traditionally published books is bad editing. And this is a shame, but not something we can all easily solve. If you are on a tight budget, how can you justify spending more and more money on a project that might result in a handful of monthly sales if you are lucky?

Marketing is another money pit. There are free promotional sites, and of course you would be a fool to not fully utilize the power of Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest and so on. But there are also thousands upon thousands of specialized sites aimed at indie authors desperate to make their book visible. These sites are everywhere, and they want your money. How much of it should you part with? How will you know it is worth it? Paying for promotion does not guarantee sales, so what should you do when your cash supply is running out?

Solution

If you are not confident enough to tackle your cover yourself, then do get help. Professional is best, but this does not have to mean paying a fortune. Follow new artists and art students on Facebook and Twitter, ask your social media contacts if they know of any art students or artists starting new pages, who might be looking for reviews and work for their portfolio. If they are new too, then there is a possibility for a deal. After all, if they help you, you can help them. Your book will be a constant promotion for their art, and they can share your book on their page.

Try to do your research first though. Go into a book store and wait until a book calls to you, then think about what caught your eye about the front cover. Walk around the book store and allow yourself to reach out to books you notice. Do the covers have anything in common? What is it about the style, font, typography or image that pulled you in? Keep this information in mind when you approach someone about your cover.

If you can’t afford an editor then you need beta readers and willing proofreaders. Again, ask friends and social media contacts. You need a team of three or more and they need to be preferably educated to degree level. If they have a relevant degree or work experience then all the better, but a perfectionists grasp of grammar is needed. They must be avid, obsessed readers! This won’t replace the skills and expertise of a professional editor, but not doing this would be even worse. You cannot and should not rely on your own judgement as to when your book is ready for publication.

When you are considering marketing, pay for the ones that keep you on their site for life. Pay once and only once. And other than that utilize the free social media sites as much as you possibly can. Remember it can take a lot of time to build up likes and followers, but keep plugging at it and you will get there.

2) Audience

This is a major and a constant source of frustration for indie authors. Who are my audience and where are they? What do I need to do to find them? How do I lead them to my work? What if you are not sure what genre your book is? These are the questions you should be asking, but the answers are not always forthcoming.

Finding your readers, the people who ‘get’ your work is one of the biggest challenges to face indie authors. How do you convince readers to buy your book over someone else’s? How do you make yours stand out and call to them? There are no easy answers. It is quite simply something you have to spend a lot of time and energy working out.

Marketing and promoting can end up taking over, leaving you little time to actually write. But you need to do it. You have to find your audience if you want to sell your book.

Solution

There is no easy, quick fix solution, but there are endless things you could and should be doing to get your work out there. You need to become as visible as possible. Think about your social media pages. Are they eye catching? Interesting? Are they even active? You don’t need to be on all of them, but choose at least three that you intend to stick with, and keep them busy and engaging.

There are countless things you can do to drive traffic and followers to your pages. Share interesting, thought provoking articles and blogs. Share your own experiences, but remain positive! Share your work and make sure you read and comment on the work of others. Build connections and contacts and engage with people who visit your page or your profile. Write more! Not just books, but blogs, articles etc. This is a tried and tested way to spread your writing, and lure potential readers your way.

3) Reviews

Getting reviews is extremely important. Readers may be attracted by your front cover, intrigued by your title and drawn in by your synopsis but it is reviews that will seal the deal. They don’t all have to be 5 stars. They can be a mix, but obviously more higher ratings than low are preferable. If you have no reviews, people have very little to go on.

There will always be those that take a chance on a new author, and if your book is free or discounted, they may be more likely to do this. But you still need genuine reviews from readers who cared enough about your book to post them. Inevitably people will read your book, enjoy your book and then forget to review it.

As authors, we need to constantly and politely remind readers how important it is to leave a review! The more reviews you get the more chance there is of readers taking your book seriously. The more opinions they can read about your work, the more enticed they will be to see for themselves. But how do you get reviews if you haven’t found your audience yet?

Solution

Start with friends and family and social media connections. Offer the book for free if you have to. Offer it in return for honest reviews. Make it clear that you expect honesty, not favors. If you know people have bought your book, perhaps gently remind them that a review will really help you sell more books. In my experience people genuinely don’t realize how important reviews are to new authors. You may have to make the point several times, as politely as possible.

Another good idea is suggesting your book to book clubs. Perhaps you can offer it to them for free, or do them a deal in return for the whole book club reviewing it for you. Two of my books have been read and reviewed by book clubs in my local area, which definitely helped boost my numbers of reviews. I have had people tell me that they decided to finally buy one of my books because they read the reviews I post on my Facebook page. This is proof that reviews do boost sales!

You should also try to forge connections with other writers. Remember that writers are readers too. Talk about the possibility of mutual read and reviews. There is nothing wrong with doing what you can to get those early reviews in. Hopefully once you pass a certain number, the ball may keep rolling by itself. Finally there are sites where you can submit your book for review, and there are a lot of book review bloggers out there, but in my experience so far, they tend to have very, very long waiting lists!

4) Self-publishing itself

In a way, what has allowed you to get your book published, is also going to work against you. By this I mean two things. Firstly,the sheer volume of books being self-published daily. It is extremely exciting and empowering to have published your own book, and without a doubt, there is plenty of genuine talent in the indie scene. But the numbers do have an impact. So many people are doing it now; how is your book going to stand out? If people think just anyone can do it, then what will make them look twice at you? How are you going to convince people that you have true talent and are not just yet another wannabe taking the easy road?

Secondly, the on-going and perhaps deep seated opinion that self-published books are inferior to traditionally published books is going to be a problem for some time to come. It is sometimes a tough pill to swallow, but it is undoubtedly the way things are.

Solution

First you need to face all four of these problems, recognize and accept them all. There is no point denying them or hoping they will go away. Work on them constantly, in all the ways I have mentioned, and in any other way you can think of yourself. And then keep writing. Keep getting better, keep promoting yourself, keep listening to others, keep reading, keep trying, keep learning, keep your head up and keep believing.

I think it is important to accept that there are many problems the self-published author has to face. It may be that these issues are here to stay. If you are new to this journey, then recognizing these issues may help you make decisions about your book and your marketing strategies, and if you are a few years or a few books into your journey, then hopefully you will know you are not alone with your struggles!

Ten Marketing Mistakes You’re Making

Reposted from: http://www.authorhouse.net/author-advice/ten-marketing-mistakes-youre-making/?utm_campaign=

Posted on January 12, 2015 by MBurns

Authors can be an introverted bunch at times. While this won’t necessarily hurt your writing, it can be a hindrance when it comes time to market your book. Today, AuthorHouse presents ten things you might not be doing—but should!

Not updating your website: We’re not talking about adding new content (although you should certainly be doing that!) You should consider occasionally changing your site’s design, theme, and/ or color scheme so that readers know instantly that your site is active.

Not giving away free copies of your book: Don’t just give away copies to a select group of readers. Keep local libraries, hospitals, hotels—anyplace where people might find themselves waiting—in mind too. It allows you to give to your community while finding new readers.

Not contacting your local radio station: Check local radio stations, especially ones that have programs that feature authors. Even if you only get a few minutes of air time, those minutes could potentially introduce you to thousands of people in your town.

Not guest blogging: If you’re a regular reader of a blog, find out if you might be able to contribute a post (and, if you have your own blog, invite other writers to contribute to yours.) Make sure your material is useful though, not just a plug for your book.

Not attending conventions: Whatever genre you write in, there are probably associated groups and conventions for writers and fans. If costs permit, make sure you attend at least some of them. It provides you with an opportunity to meet readers outside your local area.

Not exchanging reviews: If you have other writers in your social circle, propose a review exchange (where you read each other’s book, and then write a review on Amazon, Goodreads, etc.)

Not responding to emails and comments from readers: Depending on your popularity, it might be impossible to reply to everyone; however, the occasional response shows that you actually care about readers’ comments and are engaging with them.

Not deleting a social media site or two: Yes, you read that correctly. While social media is a very valuable tool in your marketing toolbox, it’s possible to get so involved that your writing suffers. Take a look at your friends, followers, and activity on each of your sites, and see if there is a site that could be deleted (just inform readers that you’re doing so, and direct them to your other sites!)

Not giving away “freebies”: While you’ll want to protect you story and not give away too much too soon, consider releasing a few pages of your book on your blog, Facebook page, etc. ahead of publication. It can help raise interest in your new book—always a good thing.

Not contacting your local newspaper: Plenty of people still get a newspaper delivered to their doorstep each morning (or read one at the coffee shop.) Reach out to your local newspaper (or a newspaper from the area in which your book is set) and see if they’d be interested in interviewing you.

If you’re still looking for some items to add to your New Year’s resolution list, why not give some of our suggestions a try? Some small additions to your marketing plan—a few minutes a week—can pay huge dividends.

Posting About Your Book in Facebook Groups

We at MBP honestly don't know if this form of mass promotion even gets you anywhere, but hundreds of other authors promote their books in the same manner. It seems like it's just a lot of authors shouting at each other to buy their books.

However, if so many people are doing it, maybe it does work... Here's a short list of Facebook groups that allow you to post information on your book(s). Copy/Paste the link and give it a shot!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/204725947524/permalink/10152874669687525/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/179494068820033/permalink/543741212395315/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/wusocialnetwork/permalink/755764517865133/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/298148543640176/permalink/700318583423168/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BOOKS.READERS.and.AUTHORS/permalink/417401091757156/

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