Creating a Buzz When Self-Publishing Your Book - For Free!
Biff Barnes
Your book is written and on its way to the printer. What’s next?
Courtesy of Paull Young under Creative Commons
You need to get people talking about it. A recent study by the Keller Fay Group, a marketing consulting firm, titled Finally Proof That Word of Mouth Isn’t Just Nice to Have But Drives Measurable ROI, reports that word of mouth is responsible for as many as 54% of buying decisions. So let’s look at some tools to help you create a buzz about your book.
Before the book is available, get things ready for a successful launch by lining up reviewers. The controversy created by authors paying for positive reviews not withstanding, good reviews are essential. Robert Swartwood’s blog post, The Importance of Reviews, explores why good reviews not only attract readers, but have an impact on Amazon recommendations like “Also Bought.” Finding reviewers is not so difficult as you might think. Michelle Saint Germain, post at Random Writing Rants, How Do Writers Find Reviewers? offers some good ideas.
If you don’t have a publisher’s bankroll to support a book tour, you can achieve much the same thing with a blog tour. They are a good way to get online conversations about your book started. A Smashwords Interview with Alan Baxter, How to Set Up a Blog Tour provides some good ideas on how to plan your tour.
Before you begin contacting potential reviewers or tour participants you might want to take a look at Guy Kawasaki’s advice on How to Pitch Bloggers and Reviewers in his book APE: How to Publish a Book.
Getting your book mentioned or listed on sites where potential readers will see them is a good way to broaden the conversation about your book. Galley Cat, recently posted a list of 15 Places to Promote Your Book for Free which provides a number of good starting places.
You don’t need a big marketing budget, or any at all, to create a buzz about your book. It’s not even that difficult. All it takes is your time to get the conversation going.