Utilize online storefronts to promote your book

One way to promote your book is to sell it on as many different websites as possible. While most people interested in purchasing a book will go to Amazon.com, you need not limit yourself to that one website or “online storefront.” After all, sometimes buyers aren’t looking for a book at all but something related to your book’s topic. So as they troll the web seeking the perfect fly rod, why not let them stumble upon your guidebook to fishing rivers and streams?

There are any number of online storefronts on which to promote and sell your book. Here are just a few:
• Self-publishing house websites – Your printer/publishing house (such as CreateSpace or Lulu.com) probably have a website for promoting your book. Don’t settle just for posting the book to it, though. Consider participating in any forums and or promotional opportunities.
• Readers’ websites – Places like Goodreads are excellent spots to promote your book. Those websites are where diehard readers definitely go to get ideas for their next book purchase. Not posting your book there would be like a sofa manufacturer not bothering to see its product in furniture stores.
• Topic-related sites – In addition to sending press releases to blogs and websites about topics covering your book, see if you can get added to their reading lists. Or consider advertising on it.
• eBay – Buy some copies of your book at cost, put them on sale at eBay for lower than what the book retails online but high enough to cover your expenses and to earn a little profit.

Of course, all of this requires some time and research. It probably won’t result in high enough sales to earn you much additional money. But your goal here is to get your name and book title out there so that the next volume you publish can reap higher rewards. Indeed, the more books you have published, the better these strategies will pay off.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.