How To Market Your Self-Published Book - Part 1One of the drawbacks to self-publishing your book is that when you have got it into print, what do you do with it then? The larger publishing houses generally feature the books they themselves have published, and also make them available to online booksellers such as Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble etc. They also tend to have adequate stocks of their books so they can keep the fulfilment companies fully stocked. When we self-publish our own work, we naturally miss out on some of the benefits that we gain by using the larger publishing houses. Most times, though, we do not have a choice. Publishing houses are notoriously difficult to get into. Renowned authors usually get established with the better publishing houses, and once established, they have no problem getting books published in the future. But even getting the smallest of publishing houses to look at your work is notoriously difficult. You can apply and send a copy of your book along to them... hopefully you will at least get the courtesy of a reply... however, most people don't. They just get their package returned with a big NO THANKS on it and that's that. You may be the next Janet Evanovich, but they don't care. Rarely do they have the time to devote to just looking at your book. So we are stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place! The publishing houses won't touch you, the self-publishing companies have done their job, and what little marketing that was on offer appears to be a link on their web site to interested parties. That's it, then! We'll market the book ourselves: That's right! We'll do it ourselves. There are so many places available today that you can start the marketing process for your work. Many of them are free and many of them offer great, cost-effective choices. There is really no excuse with the amount of free information that is available to us in today's marketplace. What is marketing? Marketing in its basic form is a way of enlightening the world about a product or service that you wish to sell, trade or barter... getting the word out to as many people as possible. Fundamentally, it is a way of getting your message across to your target audience in a way that is designed to persuade them to buy your product or service. This is generally done by some form of advertising. As we all know, advertising takes many shapes and forms these days... from flyers pinned to trees and utility poles, to small ads placed on supermarket notice boards, shop windows, even to the kiddies seat of the supermarket cart. You can see advertising on buses, trucks, semis, taxis and lots of other vehicles in your local neighborhood. Just walk down the strip in Las Vegas and you will see small trucks with advertising boards on both sides just driving up and down 24 hours of every day. That's all they do. They have no load except for the driver. Why do they do it? It is very simple: Because It Works! How to marketing your self-published book - part 2
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