Your book has now been published and the time has arrived for you to promote yourself as an author and to sell that book. So what are the best ways of doing this?

The first thing to consider is how much money and time you have available to market and promote your book. By knowing this you can then budget and prioritize your strategies. You need to include travelling expenses and paid advertising.

Make a plan. Estimate how much time you have to spend promoting your book, the ways in which you will do so, and any help that you may need.

Here are some different ways in which you can promote your book.

First create an author website. You can do this yourself via services such as Blogger and WordPress or you can have someone make one for you. Either way, every author should have one in which to showcase their book and, more importantly, themselves. Make your book easily accessible for purchase and let your potential readers know where to buy it. So if you sell your book on Amazon, put the Amazon link up on your website. People can only buy your book if they know where to find it.

Blogging is an excellent promotional tool; you can link topics to your book and write about them. This will gain a reader’s interest and will take the emphasis away from your book, after all you don’t want to be continuously plugging your book; be more subtle about it.

Guest blogging is also a great way to get known as an author and you can always repay the favour to fellow authors. Again, they can add links to your books.

Goodreads and LibraryThing are excellent sites for authors to join as you can give away books and offer promotional deals. This will help to increase your audience.

Never underestimate the power of the press release. A reporter or a blogger can share your story and tell readers where they can find additional information. It should give them a taste of your book and what you as an author are all about. After you have written your press release, simply submit it to free press release distribution sites.

Although perhaps considered old fashioned, book marks and paper flyers are an excellent promotional tool. They can help to promote your work. Include book titles, author photograph, and links to where they can be bought. You can also add a QR code to link to your author website.

Introduce and get yourself known at the local library and independent bookstores. They are usually happy to help promote the work of local authors and may help to put your book on a promotional display or allow you to do a Q & A session or reading event. If you don’t ask you will never know. They may also distribute your bookmarks.

So get planning and get yourself known as an author, and hopefully this will generate interest in your book and help you to increase sales.