Marketing your book

When it comes to marketing, self-publishing authors range from not interested to highly motivated.

Many DIY authors are not trying to make a big splash but will be content to produce a book that looks good, reads well, will sell enough to help recoup design and printing costs, find a spot on Kindle and be "discoverable" on some databases. The highly motivated self-publishing author - on the other hand - will be pushing all buttons and may hope to be discovered and approached by one of the big publishing houses.

The unmotivated marketer

Many are happy to print 50 to 200 copies and make them available to friends, family and interested networks using personal visits, email, a bit of leg-work and giving them as gifts. They're happy if people offer to buy their book (and many people will be happy to pay something)  but these writers might find themselves giving away more than they expected - not that they will mind too much.  These writers need to keep an eye open for groups of people who might have a special interest in the subject matter of their book.

The reluctantly motivated marketer

Most authors realise they have to do something but need a push to get started. Here are a few ideas:

The moderately-motivated writer will be interested in a package like the one offered by CopyPress, a Nelson printer who offers New Zealand's most comprehensive self-publishing package and has now produced over 1,000 book titles by NZ authors. Copypress specialises in printing your book and sending a regular catalog of its new titles to about 200 outlets. It will also offer to display and sell it on its online bookstore which caters for New Zealand authors, as well as creating an e-book for you if you want it. The package is only available to books that meet a quality standard after assessment. The Catch: you have to print your book with Copypress to be eligible for the package. Briar's books prepares books for this printer and can arrange the package for you.

If you are a Facebook user, set up a special-purpose "Meta Business" page about your book and/or use your existing personal FaceBook page  to let your friends know. If your book about 'the secrets of the honey bee' fits into an existing FaceBook hobby group on bee-keeping, post to the group, or start a group.

Go to your local/regional/community radio/TV or local "what's happening locally" space and ask them whether your book might interest readers or listeners or viewers.

Organise a book launch.

Go to local libraries, schools, local bookstores (some of them will accept self-published books).

See if local markets will let you sell at a table. Look out for exhibitions of local talent and see if there's a spot for you there. Apply to organisers of Art Trails to be in their brochure of interesting creatives in the region; after all you now know a bit about publishing your own book.

Check out local community clubs, eg., Probus - who are always looking for interesting speakers. You are a succesfully published author and people will be interested to hear about the process.

Whenever you travel by car take a box of books with you. You never know when you might strike up a conversation and sell a book.

Find other writers and connect with them, eg., The NZ Society of Authors maintains communities for writers all through the country and swapping ideas can be helpful.

The motivated marketer

The motivated writer will do everything in 2 (above) and:

If the print version has been published locally, put it up on the Kindle bookstore as a KDP printed version and as an e-book. You will probably need some help with this.

YouTube: create a YouTube presence. ie your own video channel where you can talk about the subject of your book, popularly called a podcast.

Website: set up a website about the subject of the book and sell the book from the website. Or see if you can get your book on an existing website sympathetic to your subject. A website for only one title is probably overkill. It will work better for you if the website is about your subject (and book) rather than the book per se and better still when you have a number of titles to display.

Your Facebook page will help drive traffic to your website. (Your Facebook and Website page will need to be maintained, attract viewers, and be kept up to date.) A website is no longer out of the reach of self-publishing authors who are prepared to make use of online third-party website providers who are making hundreds of custom-built templates available for you to use and adapt to purpose: SquareSpace is one of the most popular. The provider's commerce modules can be linked to your site and allow you to sell your book online. Of course there are on-going expenses; web-hosting and shop-fronts are not free. (There is a learning curve in setting up and posting to your own website and you will probably need help getting started but on-going coding skills are no longer critical - though can be useful.)More about websiteshere.

The motivated writer will looking for speaking and writing opportunities nation-wide on all media.

The highly-motivated ("indie") author

As well as doing everything in 1 and 2 above, the highly-motivated (Indie) author will play the field hoping to be noticed. (Sounds exhausting!!) Indie (independent) has come to mean those authors who are wanting to launch themselves as authors of note both in print and online. They may:

Engage the services of a publicist, who knows better than the author what outlets might be interested in the book. There will be a fee, of course.

They may approach a large printing and international distribution company, eg., Ingram Spark. These claim to print and get self-published books into, eg., 40,000 bookstores and sell it all over the world both in digital and printed form - for an on-going fee. (Caution is advised. Books in stores do not translate into sales; your book may not do well. It's easy for earnest young writers to get sucked in by promises of sales that may not eventuate. (One author I worked with decided on one of these companies and told me several years later that her digital book sales easily outstripped sales of the printed version. She has reverted to print-on-demand only, for her printed book.) 

Book databases - NielsenBooks

NielsenBooks is one way motivated self-publishing authors ( highly motivated or not) can get their titles before booksellers, agents, libraries and publishers. Nielsen has an enormous database (over 43 million titles) and international reach. Your chances of being "discovered" there might be slim, but the service is free for the standard package, and it's another way self-publishing authors can get their book out to potential readers. Further services, eg., sales tracking, are available for a fee.