Self Promotion

You're published! You went through a self-publishing company, rather than an agent, however, so you're going to  have to do a lot of your own promotion. Some self-publishing companies do offer marketing/promotion assistance, but from what I've observed, you better have a lot of financiaing available to go that route.

What can you do on your own? A lot!

1. Set a reasonable retail price for your book. If your book costs more than the average book of whichever genre you're writing in, don't expect a lot of sales.
2. Create an author page for yourself on Facebook. It's free and easy.
3. If you already have your own website, either redesign it solely as an author page, or add a prominent section about your book(s).
4. Carry the final proof copy of your book with you! Show it to everyone! Don't give them enough time to read the entire book though! You just want to tease them enough to get them to buy their own copy!
5. Learn to use Twitter. Twitter about your book.
6. Blog about your book. (If you're at all familiar with MSWord, Open Office, or other similar word processing programs, you'll probably find WordPress the easiest blogging software to use.)
7. Tell your family.
8. Tell your friends.
9. Tell your coworkers.
10. Tell your classmates (or your fellow alumni).
11. Announce your publication to your alumni groups (high school and college).
12. Most college will publish class notes about their alumni for free in their next alumni magazine. Make sure your publication announcement is in there. It's an accomplishment of an alum, so they should be happy to share the news.
13. Some people still use MySpace, so advertise there, too.
14. Unless your book content would be inappropriate to share on your LinkedIn profile, make it a status update. Add it to your LinkedIn Publications widget.
15. Join GoodReads and set yourself up an author profile (just make sure you meet their requirements to join). GoodReads has several options to help you promote your book.
16. If you are an Amazon author, you can also join Shelfari's author program.

If you have ideas to add, please comment and I'll add them to this list!