New Authors: How I'd Market and Distribute My Books Today

You created your new ebook, cover art included. The next thing you have to do is get people to read it. As a new author, this is never easy. I remember self-publishing "Entangled" back in 2003. In my garage sat a pallet of 10,000 books. They weren't going to sell themselves. So I hit the road and made my way to every book store and street vendor who would buy or even consign my books. Some things don't change. It's still challenging for a new author to make a splash. But there are some processes you can do online that make it a lot easier than it was when I started publishing.

If I'd had the same technology of today at my fingertips back then, here's what I would have done.

1.        Entangled would have been free for anyone to read on as many sites that would have me. Right now, my books can be read for free on Scribd. There are some specifics here that I do. I only allow reader to view the full books from a browser. Downloads to ereaders must be bought from exclusively from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.com.

2.       I'd have created ebooks for the Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Ipad and sold them for a much lower price than my print edition. The difference between the cost to create an ebook and the cost to print isn't more vast. It will always cost you less to create an ebook . That's important, because you can set prices that seem like giveaways but really can make you a profit. Moreover, from a marketing standpoint, the lower price point will earn something that more precious that a short-term monetary gain, more downloads by your next loyal fan who will one day be willing to pay a "premium value" to read your future work .

Back in 2003, I didn't have all these resources. I didn't have ebooks or such user friendly author platforms. So it used to cost me much more money to reach fewer people. Today, authors willing to consistently work an online marketing process will create value for themselves and the stories they're trying to sell.