Any ideas for self-promotion for a poor person?

[MrsMcDowell]

So, my debut novel came out:

http://www.amazon.com/Cure-For-The-Condition-ebook/dp/B008A7SRL4/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1340553239&sr=8-1

But I'm not making any sales. Okay, maybe four, but come on! None from people I don't know. I'm running an ad for my fan page on Facebook, but it doesn't look like any of the 140+ people who liked the page are buying the book. My blog isn't getting noticed, and neither is my site.

Here's the list of things I've tried as far as self-promotion:

Submitted to review site (review will  be up in December)
Submitting in July to an award contest
Submitted to B&N a proposal to put the book on their shelf
Left two copies with independent bookstores (haven't hear back)
Subscribed to a blog site to look for guest blogging spots
Subscribed and been looking for radiocasts and podcasts to do interviews

Nothing has come of any of this. Am I doing something wrong?

[Kimmy]

The hardest thing is finding cheap or free things to do. Here are some ideas I found online while working on my own marketing plan:

The Ten Most Important Priorities When Launching a New Book (from website: http://www.bookmarket.com/)

As part of my Book Marketing Magic multimedia program, I outlined the ten most important priorities when launching a new book.
Here are the ten actions I considered the most important for launching your book. They form the essence of any good book marketing plan.
1. Create relationships with key targeted websites, ezines, and blogs.
2. Create a functioning website at least two to three months before your publication date. Launch it well. You can find out more about launching an incredible website via Module 3 of the Bestseller Launch Formula course.
3. Create an email newsletter or fanzine.
4. Send out review copies to targeted print media.
5. Send out media kits to major TV and radio shows.
6. Get distribution for your book.
7. Schedule a book tour. Start with a great local tour.
8. Prepare your review packets.
9. Create an Amazon bestseller campaign. You can find out more about launching an Amazon Bestseller Campaign via Module 4 of the Bestseller Launch Formula course.
10. Join and become active in some social networks.
In the Book Marketing Magic multimedia program, I go into much more detailed on how to implement these actions (including a listing of the resources to help you take those actions).

[newday11]

  Kimmy's advice looked good.    Also. do you have a special audience? I'm selling many of my books to history professors and ROTC units.




























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[MrsMcDowell]

The hardest thing is finding cheap or free things to do. Here are some ideas I found online while working on my own marketing plan:

The Ten Most Important Priorities When Launching a New Book (from website: http://www.bookmarket.com/)

As part of my Book Marketing Magic multimedia program, I outlined the ten most important priorities when launching a new book.
Here are the ten actions I considered the most important for launching your book. They form the essence of any good book marketing plan.
1. Create relationships with key targeted websites, ezines, and blogs.
2. Create a functioning website at least two to three months before your publication date. Launch it well. You can find out more about launching an incredible website via Module 3 of the Bestseller Launch Formula course.
3. Create an email newsletter or fanzine.
4. Send out review copies to targeted print media.
5. Send out media kits to major TV and radio shows.
6. Get distribution for your book.
7. Schedule a book tour. Start with a great local tour.
8. Prepare your review packets.
9. Create an Amazon bestseller campaign. You can find out more about launching an Amazon Bestseller Campaign via Module 4 of the Bestseller Launch Formula course.
10. Join and become active in some social networks.
In the Book Marketing Magic multimedia program, I go into much more detailed on how to implement these actions (including a listing of the resources to help you take those actions).

I've done pretty much all of this and still nothing. I'm really just trying to target people who enjoy Historical Romance. Just not sure what else, at this point, I can do...

[munley]

What about RWA - Romance Writers of America?

Not my genre, so I don't know much about them, but here is the link:

http://www.rwa.org/

[MrsMcDowell]

What about RWA - Romance Writers of America?

Not my genre, so I don't know much about them, but here is the link:

http://www.rwa.org/

Thanks! A $120 membership fee, but I suppose I can do that come next pay day 

[ClaudeDancourt]

There are plenty! Posting on board is a very good start. Open a twitter account and share it on forums. You'll have followers, who will eventually retweet your tweets, etc.
Create a facebook page for your book. Participate on forums like Goodreads, Amazon forums, etc. Don't just post about your stuff, comment on books you read, TV shows you like, movies, cooking recipes, gardening, whatever interest you. The point is : Make yourself visible. All those sites allow a signature where you can share links for your website or your books.

Saying that, I wish my sales increase too 

[khosszu]

Wow, those are all great tips. 

I'm not sure how you arrange these things, but at the university I got my undergrad we used to have a "writers speak" series, and they'd invite writers who gave a talk (about topic of their choice) and sold/signed books.

Also we have a bookstore close to where I live that's famous for book signings. Once you agree with them, they'll advertise it for weeks before the event. (I guess this would fall under book signing tour)

And my last suggestions: my grandma's senior housing had a reading by a historical romance author a few years ago. She came and read some pages, answered questions and signed books. Guess what? They all bought her book. Again, I'm not sure how this was arranged, but maybe worth looking into.

Good luck!!!!! And congrats on the publication of your book. It may start slow, but if you keep self-promoting, it'll pick up, I'm sure.

[tlbodine]

OK, forgive me for not remembering these off-hand from your other thread.  This has been a long week of brainfrazzled-ness. 

Is your book self-pubbed?  Print or e-book (or both)?  That'll make a bit of difference in what I'm about to say, and disregard anything that seems like it won't work for you. 

The advice has all been good.  Here's some more tips: 

-- Since the book is a historical romance, try to work on the historical angle.  Write some informational articles about the period to post on your website/blog.  It'll help make it clear that you've done your research (always a bonus) and also draw in readers who are googling.  You'll want to write this as SEO (search engine optimized) content focusing on keywords.  It's not that hard, but if you need help figuring it out, let me know and I'll try to explain in detail. 

-- Offer helpful information.  People come to your website because you're offering them some kind of service.  If your blog isn't getting any hits, maybe you need to focus on improving the SEO of the blog and focus on some keywords people are searching for.  Like, for example, offer tips to writers.  Offer relationship advice.  Offer travel advice.  Anything at all that you feel even remotely qualified to talk about that offers a service to other people and is even tangentially related to your book -- blog about that, at least some of the time, focusing on keywords.  You'll get more blog hits. 

-- Sign up for a blogging challenge.  It'll link you up with other bloggers and help you network, give you something to blog about (the more posts you have = the better your search engine ranking will be) and help you meet people who might be interested in supporting you if you support them. 

-- Approach a TON of reviewers.  Have as many people as you can possibly think of review it.  There are some good paid review programs you can do, but there's also a ton of freebies. 

-- Put your book up in a Goodreads giveaway.  That will generate some reviews. 

-- Approach people in the industry with well-read blogs to see if you can interview them.  They'll usually cross-post the link on their own blog.  Alternately, approach people with well-read blogs to see if they'll interview *you*

-- Offer a freebie.  Do a short story that's related in some way to your book.  You know all those perfectly good scenes that end up on the cutting room floor that you liked but didn't fit in the story?  You might be able to repurpose them into stand-alone short stories.  Publish those for free on Kindle/Smashwords/whatever and have a link to buy the full book at the end.  If you can, add a promotional code so they can get it for a reduced price. 

-- If you haven't already made a book trailer, go ahead and do it.  I have some links around here someplace for totally free Creative Commons license photos, art and music.  I'll see if I can dig them up for you.  Submit the book trailer everywhere you can think of.  There's whole book trailer directories out there in the world.  Submit to them.  Put it up on Goodreads on your author page.  Since your book is historical, I'd be tempted to push the "historical" angle and make the book trailer at least a little informative (and remember to load up the description with the appropriate keywords!)

There.  Just a few ideas to get you rolling.  In case you didn't notice, I do SEO-writing for a living so basically my entire life is content marketing, so that's kind of where all of my advice seems to take me >.> But hopefully something is inspiring out of all that