This is a list of 5 ways to promote your book for free
by
Books flying through the air
Photo credit: UC Berkeley News berkeley.edu
1. Google Books
Google Books allows publishers and authors to submit their books for inclusion in Google’s search results. Whether you’re a large publisher with a thousand-title backlist or a small press that puts out a few titles a year, participating in Google Books can:
increase your books’ visibility at no cost
drive sales by reaching Google’s worldwide user base
refer qualified traffic to your website
deliver a new revenue stream via contextual ads placed next to pages from your book
Clicking on your book from a search results page takes users to a limited preview of your title – just enough to give them a taste of the book, as if they were browsing in a bookstore or library.
Links to bookstores and online retailers make it easy for users to go from browsing to buying. If you sell your books directly from your own website, your site receives “top billing,” appearing first in the list of "Buy this book" links.
Story credit: Books Google books.google.com
Baby working at computer
Photo credit: www.haikaladli.co.cc
2. Internet Authors Network
Free online book promotion
All the other Web sites we've looked at which offer book promotion services or book promotion information either tell you the same thing: get reviews, do book signings, etc., etc., or else they want to sell you something, either their own book on how to promote your book or their specialized book promotion services.
Book promotion is a serious endeavor. If you have the means to pay someone else to promote your book for you, then give it serious consideration. If, however, you're like many other authors and have already spent your advance on bills or are self-publishing, paying for book promotion services isn't going to be a top priority for you.
The Internet Authors Network provides you with some free online services. We don't promise you much except that we'll tell people about the Web page where you promote your book or books online. You still have to do the actual selling. And you don't have to have your own Web page to use our services. You can list any page created by an online bookstore like Barnes and Noble or any page that your publisher creates for your book.
Our free services don't rely upon your participation in the network. Except for the Webrings, we do not require you to include any code on your Web pages. Webrings being what they are, you have to include code on your page to join them. Most likely you'll have to have your own Web page to be in a Webring. But to be listed in our Internet Book List or just to promote your book through the Banner Button network, you don't have to add special code to your pages if you don't want to.
We already see to it that the banner buttons and the book list are seen by thousands of people every week. Naturally, if you include the code on your pages even more people will see these great promotional services. But we knew when we started this project we'd have to bring some clout to the table. So we already have a lot of promotional power to offer you. It's up to you whether you want to help your fellow authors by carring the code on your pages.
Our navigational links are in the left-hand column of each page. You can browse our site very easily. We'll add more services as time permits. Good luck in promoting your book online!
Story credit: Internet Authors Network en.wikipedia.org
Book lady, somewhere in the far east
Photo credit: Flickr www.flickr.com
3. Promote Your Book For Free
A few samples of great ideas from Carol
Using jokes to spread the word
I was looking for a new and easy way to expand my advertising, and then FunGuppy came my way...
FunGuppy is a jokes and funny pictures site. You sign up for free and enter your ad. Then you wait for the funny emails, and send them on to your friends, who send them on to their friends, and so on... and when those people come to the FunGuppy site to look for more funny stuff, they see your ad, on the left near the top of the page. This is super excellent viral advertising!
You can refer people to the site directly, and you can also post the funny picture of the day on your blog or website to increase exposure.
This is definitely a painless way to get the word out. FunGuppy is free to join. I'm adding it to my toolkit now.
p.s. FunGuppy has added a link submission service, post your link daily here.
List your book at HumanMade.com
HumanMade is a small site offering a listing service for any individual's products. Click on the link above to find out more. At the very least it's another backlink.
Get a backlink to your book's website here
It always helps to have other sites linking to yours, this makes your site seem more important to Google and the other search engines.
So, tell us about your book, and make sure you put a link in your comment or as part of your ID. This is something you can do whenever and wherever you comment on someone else's blog, or even on a forum. Put your link in your signature. It all helps.
I'll harvest the links from the comments and put them into this post as well.
Click on Carol's blog below for more ideas
Story credit: Promoteyourbookforfree promoteyourbookforfree.com
If you've written a story or a novel, click
Literary Agents email addresses to see a list of literary agents' e-mail addresses
Little monkey with huge banana
Photo credit: Guideposts www.widgetbox.com
4. Widgetbox
We give you tools to create an HTML/JavaScript-based widget from scratch or from your existing widget-sized Web Page, Flash file or RSS feed. You can also import your Google Gadget. We’re here to give you the best tools for making and distributing widgets so you can focus on being creative.
Fast and easy distribution on the web and in the wild.
We make it dead simple for a user to get your widget. Each time your widget is installed on a site, we place a Get Widget button beneath it. Users click the Get Widget button to pick a site to install your widget to or use it to grab the HTML embed code.
The largest widget gallery on the web.
We give you a free listing in the Widgetbox gallery, the world’s largest widget gallery and a destination for millions of users looking for widgets!
The leading widget gallery provider to social networks, start pages and blog platforms.
Our Custom Gallery product lets social networks, start pages and blog platforms create widget galleries for their users. Widgetbox and our Custom Gallery partners can create the targeted connections your widget needs to succeed.
Story credit: Widgetbox www.widgetbox.com/home
Press kit, or sometimes called a media kit
Photo credit: Lulu www.lulu.com
5. Media Kits
Media kits or press kits are an easy, free tool no author should be without.
Traditionally, media kits were packets of prepared information that authors would send to radio and TV stations, magazines and newspapers prior to interviews. These were printed materials, including a glossy author photo, and could be quite costly to produce. Today's media kits can be created virtually free of charge, and updated immediately. They can be used in many different ways to promote an author and his or her books.
Downloadable media kits can be offered directly from a website, where anyone who is interested can copy and paste the materials he or she chooses. It also makes sense to offer media kits as downloads in a variety of digital formats such as PDF, Word files and plain text documents. High-resolution images and logos can be including right in the kit with most file formats, or authors can include a link to them as separate downloads, keeping the original file size conveniently small. It's even possible to include links to videos. The only limit is creativity.
A media kit should include the basics:
A low resolution image of the book's cover for online use, and a high resolution (300 dpi) for use in print.
A professional author photo, also in both high and low resolutions. Make sure this is a professional image. A stack of dirty dishes or an unsightly yard is not a good backdrop. A few different shots can be included, from the typical head shot, to photos of book signings or more casual photos that might reflect the book's content. For instance, if the book is about long-distance bike riding, an author could include a photo of herself riding a bike.
A kick-butt synopsis of the book, complete with reviews, if available.
An author biography.
A link to the author's site.
Previous media coverage and any positives remarks interviewers and hosts have made in the past.
There's no need to stop there, though. Media kits can also include a table of contents; suggestions for interview topics and questions; a list of facts or statistics concerning the book's subject; quizzes that could be used for print media and online; articles written by the author; press releases and any other materials the public might be interested in seeing.
A Google search of media kits will yield other ideas for items authors can include, as well as suggestions on ways media kits can be used garner media interest.
Make sure the top of each page includes the standard information: Name of book, author name, contact information.
Not every author is going to be courted by the media, but that doesn't mean those with niche markets or books that seem to be getting lost in the crowd, can't benefit.
If authors make their media kits available online for anyone to use, there are many sites, newsletters and people creating presentations who would happily use your materials.
For samples of media kits visit:
www.cathymaxwell.com (you'll see a press kit link to the left)
www.karenrosebooks.com
and
www.withstandingthelie.com
You can even find a media kit for the well-known National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) HERE. See how merely having a media kit available online has just brought some publicity to those people?
Cathi Stevenson has been in the printing and publishing business since 1981. After eight years with a major newspaper, she became a successful freelance writer. Cathi now designs book covers from her home in Nova Scotia, which she shares with her husband, two teenage children, two large, incorrigible dogs and several rabbits. Visit Cathi's website at . www.bookcoverexpress.com
Story credit: Writers Weekly www.writersweekly.com
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