# *Free* PROMOTION Tips for Authors on a *Budget* (Ahem, Church-Mouse "Poor")



## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

It's a fact.

Many of us *cannot afford even basic advertising* -- promoted Facebook posts ($7 a pop), various sites' book blasts and listings ($10-$25 a pop), much less the high end stuff like BookBub, ENT, KND, NetGalley, PR Newswire, PR Firms, etc....

All this stuff that feeds and powers (behind-the-scenes) the engine to *kick-launch* our books into regular and established visibility and *maintain* it there. (Ultimately, it's the same engine that major publishers use to launch their mega-sellers, and that many -- but *not all*, of course -- successful indies use to put themselves in a position to regularly move thousands of units.)

So...

The discussion in Joe_Nobody's "secret" thread, where I posted about the *need for money* (resources) as *the real secret behind cumulative success* (given all other factors in place such as a well written, well produced book) got me further thinking...

Supposing that we have a) *an excellent book to sell*, and b) *we have no funds*, only our own efforts, skills and dedication... then, what can we poor church-mice do?

*Let's post below our methods, tips and tricks that can be used by anyone without spending a cent.
*
I'll start by listing some givens and things we already know, so we don't re-hash the same-old same-old.

*Methods We All Know Already (or Should Know)
*
1) Write a high quality book that people want to read.

2) Have it professionally edited, designed, and with an attractive cover (as much as possible for a church-mouse).

3) Use Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, LibraryThing, Shelfari, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, MySpace, Tumbler, Instagram, etc., to promote your book to your social circles. And this assumes you stay within limits of good behavior, don't spam, and use tactful techniques to chronically cultivate your social networks. Use free HootSuite to set up automated tweets and posts.

4) Set up and cultivate a Mailing List for book announcements only (via MailChimp or such), and post links and/or widgets with the subscription form in as many places as possible and prominently on your website, blog, social media pages, and in the interior front and back matter of your actual book.

5) Include links to your other books or to a common landing page with links inside each ebook front or back matter (or both).

6) Give away your book for free to build readership and gain fans. Use the "Going Free" technique to either enroll the book in KDP Select and use the 5 free days to promote, or make one of your books Perma-Free by price matching it (making it free on other sites via Smashwords, and have Amazon match it).

7) Write a series, and put the first book Perma-Free as a loss leader to "hook" them and gain buying fans for books 2, 3, and onwards.... The more books in the series, the more likely you gain a long tail of "addicted" buyers.

8.) Write more books (with quality and professional presentation a given). Keep publishing them, and widening the net of your exposure, and have them sell each other.

9) Use the various Going Free and Discounted promotion sites that accept free submissions and fill out their forms, and hope to be picked up and featured.

10) Cultivate reviews. Use LibraryThing Member Giveaways to give away 100 ebooks (at a time) to gain reviews. (Use Goodreads Giveaways to give away 1-3 hard copies of your hardcover or paperback book, if you can afford it, but this is not free.) Find various forums and specialized groups on Goodreads where you can offer your book to reviewers. Email bloggers directly and manually, one at a time, until you lose the will to live as you comb the internet for them like precious crumbs.

11) Find and cultivate Super-Fans who love your work with a passion and will basically rave about your books for free to other people, which will in turn generate word-of-mouth and a geometric progression for exposure.

12) Cultivate yourself and/or your book series as a Brand.

13) Band together with other church-mice. Join group blogs, blog hops, and set up book tours. Plug each other!

*Okay, now your turn! What other free tips, tricks, or methods did I miss? What new, original, unique things have you used?*

Please post them below and let's help each other!


Church-Mice Unite!


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## dianasg (Jan 8, 2010)

I'm sorry I don't have much to add, but I wanted to say that this is a great thread with lots of great info in the first post already! So thanks!


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## NathanHaleJefferson (Apr 3, 2013)

Yup, all great advice!  Thanks for the post.


Now I'm busy trying to figure out all the different social media deals, UGH...


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

I would add...

Get your ebook in as many ebook stores and sites are you can. Kobo, Apple, Sony, Diesel, Bookiejar, Joe's Crab and EBook shop, and anywhere else that will take you. People may only buy from Amazon, but the more chances they have to see you the better. Remember everyone of those stores want to advertise themselves so you can ride on their budget by getting in them. 

If you are doing the "first book perma free thing (HIGHLY recommend you do permafree with your first book, even if you have no other free books) put a note in line with the text of the story that says something like "GIVE THIS BOOK TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW." IME, most readers skip over everything that comes before the first word of your story, so your best place to advertise is right after the very last word so their eyes automatically start reading it.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

Here's a tip for romance authors. publicbookshelf.com allows you to upload part or a whole book that readers can read free. The trick it to upload a sample with a  link to your website where they can either read more, or learn more about the book and where to buy.


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## Victoria J (Jul 5, 2011)

Get involved and be active with a popular forum with interests related to the kinds of things you write about. Be helpful, knowledgeable, friendly and just have fun. eventually people will get to know you and what you write and will check out your books and if they like them, will spread the word. This is the slow way but it gets your work out there.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Victoria J said:


> Get involved and be active with a popular forum with interests related to the kinds of things you write about. Be helpful, knowledgeable, friendly and just have fun. eventually people will get to know you and what you write and will check out your books and if they like them, will spread the word. This is the slow way but it gets your work out there.


This is true... YEARS ago I was posting on an iPhone forum (and have not been back in over well over a year), and last week some one emailed me saying they just saw my books mentioned in my signature on that forum and grabbed a copy to read.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Try a Library Thing giveaway.
Can be a double-edge sword - of two reviews this weekend I got one awesome four-star and one "turned out to be a space opera - not my thing" (the sort of comment that makes you wonder why people joined the giveaway in the first place)
Still, it's a way to get creds over there.


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## JeanneM (Mar 21, 2011)

I'm a church mouse...can I play?

I'll repeat the tip from the other thread, of adding an auto signature line to your outgoing personal email. 

Another tip I'd like to offer is to remember that we all have come into life with different energy patterns. Don't expect yourself to be able to do everything at once.  I take everything very slowly because if I don't, I become overwhelmed.  

I plan to start getting familiar with a lot of the social sites like Pintrest, Twitter et al.  But, I'm not going to overload myself with it.  I'm setting aside one hour each day to do something...anything to do with reaching my promotion goal. I may spend that hour posting and interacting with people on sites I'm already familiar with, or I might spend it learning the ropes on Wattpad and MailChimp.  As long as you do a little something each day, you will get there. Once you are familiar and comfortable with the ones you want to be a part of, then you can spend that daily hour posting, saying hello etc.

I don't promote as my promotion budget is zero at the moment, so remember you aren't alone.  There are a lot of us who are in a bad position and it adds a new level of difficulty for us.  But there are lots of paths to get to the same place.  Just choose yours and be proud of yourself for every little accomplishment.

I think a Church Mouse group would be wonderful.  Maybe there will be other ways we can help each other.  We can barter services and help etc.  

Great thread Vera! I liked your list.


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## Guest (Apr 29, 2013)

Write a lot.  Put a lot of books out.  Don't let promotion take away from your writing time, at least until you have a sizable amount of product to promote (ie ten or fifteen titles).

Use perma-free for the first in a series (personally, I wouldn't drop the price until I had at least three solid installments, each with a beginning, middle, and end), but don't shortchange your other books--avoid .99c and charge enough to earn in the higher royalty rate brackets.

I've still got a lot to learn, though, so I'm interested to hear what others have to say.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Thanks, everyone! Keep it coming! 

Let's see if we can come up with previously unknown/little known tips!


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## teashopgirl (Dec 8, 2011)

You can post on author friendly FB pages, like /https://www.facebook.com/WhatToRea...r start a page like it for your own genre. :)


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

Great thread Vera, luckily I do all of the above. 

I used to 'play' on Kboards all the time, now I spend most of the day writing the next book. I would therefore recommend that people plan out their days properly ie write for 6 hours, promo for 1-2 hours etc.


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## Janet Michelson (Jun 20, 2012)

Great thread, Vera. Lots of bookmarking on this one! Here's my little crumb:

Go where your peeps are and do a book reading/book signing. This can be a library, independent bookstore, community event (lots of those coming up in the summer), schools, book club meetings, or coffee shops. With baby boomers reaching retirement, there are a lot of Assisted Living facilities and those folks appreciate entertainment. Perhaps several authors of various genres could do a joint reading/signing so that there's something for everyone (sci-fi, romance, historical fiction, etc.).

ETA: you'll need print versions to do this. The general consensus is that it's worth the trouble to publish a Createspace version of your book. There is a thread on this topic: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,149705.0.html


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## Duane Gundrum (Apr 5, 2011)

I wish I could understand how exactly to cultivate super fans that help sell your books. One of my recently published books is selling really well in Great Britain, and I don't know why. It sells very few in the states here, but it's doing regular (good) sales over there. I'm assuming a superfan hyped it, but there's no way to know who he or she is, or even what to do if I did find out who the person(s) is/are.


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## Li Chaka (Apr 19, 2013)

JeanneM said:


> I'm a church mouse...can I play?
> 
> I'll repeat the tip from the other thread, of adding an auto signature line to your outgoing personal email.
> 
> ...


Great response! I tried self-publishing a few years ago and that is exactly what happened to me...I got totally over whelmed! It got to the point I dreaded doing anything that had to do with my book. I also was dealing with kidney problems and had to start dialysis. Obviously that added onto the stress I was already experiencing and I let all my book plans go. I hated all the marketing!
2 years later I'm kicking myself. I had rabid fans of my book already, If I had stuck too it I probably would have been doing pretty good by now. But I can't with the woulda, coulda, shouldas. I already had a facebook, twitter and goodreads with about 1000 people between the three of them. Well since starting back up I raised that number to just under 3,000 between the three of them. I also have a COMPELTE Book right now and the second one is almost done. And this version of the book is EXCELLENT, flows great! If I had rabid fans before, then I think now it's going to really rock. This time around I am focused more on WRITING not on marketing! I think I will do a 2 weeks writing frenzy, 2 weeks marketing frenzy. Of course if I find marketing venues here an there (that are free)I will jump on them. Why wait?


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## PrinceOfNaples (Apr 29, 2013)

Vera Nazarian said:


> It's a fact.
> 
> Many of us *cannot afford even basic advertising* -- promoted Facebook posts ($7 a pop), various sites' book blasts and listings ($10-$25 a pop), much less the high end stuff like BookBub, ENT, KND, NetGalley, PR Newswire, PR Firms, etc....
> Getting press attention as a feature rather than a book review is free, but it might only apply to authors of non-fiction. You just turn your subject into a news story and find a way to create a buzz around it. Set a Google alert for anything you can think of that is connected to the subject of your book and then when something comes up write an email and a short press release and use the news tie-in in the title or strapline.
> ...


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## JeanneM (Mar 21, 2011)

Just popping in to make sure none of us miss this opportunity for free proofreading:

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,149954.0.html


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## 48209 (Jul 4, 2011)

One thing I wish/think people would all do: Make your screen name your/one of your pen names. People see your name over and over again. As a reader I've had to go search for someone I wanted to buy a book from before. I've even given up.

I'd planned to buy an entire series someone had talked about but couldn't remember their name and couldn't refind screen name's post.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Excellent tips, everyone!  

I just remembered another one... Don't be shy about asking Big Name Authors you love for book jacket quotes. Email them politely and professionally, and offer to send a copy of your book for them to consider endorsing. Never be pushy, always be humble, and the worst thing that can happen is that they say no.

A quote from a popular and respected authority in your field can do wonders for your book's professional image. And not only will it move more copies, but you never know if you might get a special review or plug out of it....


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## drewavera (Apr 24, 2013)

I have no idea honestly. I'm pretty active on fb and twitter but that's about it. This is the only forum I go on simply as a way to gain more knowledge. It seems as though there are a lot of differing views on the perma free first book soap box. I'm considering it but I'm not completely sold on it just yet. I think I will release a novella as a perma free book and keep my first novel in kdp. Some of the websites ya'll have mentioned I have not heard of, like watpad, library thing, etc. Are those actually good sights that wre worth the time to devote to? Figuring out all of the social media stuff is very time consuming and I'm easily...squirrel!


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## James Bruno (Mar 15, 2011)

Vera Nazarian said:


> Excellent tips, everyone!
> 
> I just remembered another one... Don't be shy about asking Big Name Authors you love for book jacket quotes. Email them politely and professionally, and offer to send a copy of your book for them to consider endorsing. Never be pushy, always be humble, and the worst thing that can happen is that they say no.
> 
> A quote from a popular and respected authority in your field can do wonders for your book's professional image. And not only will it move more copies, but you never know if you might get a special review or plug out of it....


I've had good look using this approach, landing at least one NYT bestselling author's review for each book published this far. For my upcoming book, I've gotten one big city newspaper and one big city respected book review paper to agree to review my book. But this latter strategy was like panning for gold. Out of a couple dozen queries, I got three (positive) responses. Otherwise, crickets.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

James Bruno said:


> I've had good look using this approach, landing at least one NYT bestselling author's review for each book published this far. For my upcoming book, I've gotten one big city newspaper and one big city respected book review paper to agree to review my book. But this latter strategy was like panning for gold. Out of a couple dozen queries, I got three (positive) responses. Otherwise, crickets.


Yup, panning for gold is a good way to sum up the entirety of Church-Mouse Promo methods. We have to make up for resources (ahem, money) we don't have with our own painstaking effort, labor and infinite patience. It's the slow road, and yes, there will be crickets along the way most of the time for us...

But, like Sam and Frodo, we carry on!


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## R.V. Doon (Apr 1, 2013)

Vera,

Thanks for the thread. Bookmarked! My tip for people stepping into Google +. There is no edit key or spell check, well, at least I haven't found them.


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## RuthNestvold (Jan 4, 2012)

julidrevezzo said:


> I don't know how much help this is since I just started a week or so ago, but I've posted some of my first chapter on Wattpad. My experience with it is still in the experimental stage, but it's a free site that might be of some use. If you use it and want to "friend me" , here's my profile url:
> http://www.wattpad.com/user/JuliDRevezzo


I've been thinking about trying Wattpad too. Let us know how it goes!


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

julidrevezzo said:


> I don't know how much help this is since I just started a week or so ago, but I've posted some of my first chapter on Wattpad. My experience with it is still in the experimental stage, but it's a free site that might be of some use. If you use it and want to "friend me" , here's my profile url:
> http://www.wattpad.com/user/JuliDRevezzo


Not been to this site yet, what is it? How would use it to market?


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