Your Unread Story is Like a Gold Nugget Buried in a Mountain

You’ve spent a year writing your book, spent money on an editor to proofread it and a designer to create a book cover, then spent a week or two taking it through the self-publishing process. And now, after all of that hard work, your book – your labor of love – is available for purchase with its own page on Amazon.com and can be purchased at your local mom and pop bookstore.

All you have to do now is sit back and wait for fame and fortune to roll in.

Unfortunately, you may be waiting a very long time.

It’s the rare book that somehow goes viral and captures the public’s attention and admiration all on its own. Indeed, your book is buried in the mountain of more than 900 other books that are published daily (in just the United States alone) not to mention all that have been published before and will come in the years ahead. No matter how good yours is, the odds of it even being noticed are nil at best.

The reality is that indie authors and those who self-publish need to promote their own books.

For most authors, the idea of promoting their book is anathema. “Promoting,” to many writers, means using guilt and fear to convince people to buy a product. Even for those authors who don’t hold such a view, they probably never studied marketing and have no idea of how to begin such an effort.

But unless you’re satisfied with your book languishing in anonymity, you need to market it. You’ll need to send press releases to media outlets. You’ll need a website and probably a blog to inform people about your book. You’ll need to do some book signings, some book readings, maybe some radio interviews. You may need to make some business cards and even advertise.

You’ll need to dynamite a tunnel through the mountain of published books so that readers can see your gold nugget. Your marketing effort is that tunnel to your book.

Now go on, set the blasting cap and detonator.

•How do you feel about marketing your book? Why do you hold this view? What are your concerns about spending time promoting your book?

•Marketing a book often involves setting up a platform – such as a website, blog, social media sites (including Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest) – to let others know about your title. Write a list of the various ways you might reach potential readers of your book.

•You’ll also want to promote your book by getting in front of people, such as at a book reading or a book signing. Are you comfortable speaking in front of others? If not, what can you do to limit your anxiety ahead of such an event?

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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.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks: