Kathryn Dean asked Elizabeth Bailey:

I have a book on Amazon now, I find it is hard to get publicity for when you are on a tight budget. I have posted about on my social media pages. I have even done word of mouth around my area. The publisher I used, of course wanted more money, to run what they call an ad campaign on the web, including a radio intrview. But yet they want more $$ that we do not have. What would do in my shoes?

Elizabeth Bailey I find the most reliable source of marketing is to build a team of subscribers to a newsletter of readers who enjoy your work. You can easily set up a newsletter on Mailerlite or other platforms. It costs little or nothing until you have a certain number of subscribers.
To get the subscribers, I join in cross promotions with other authors, or giveaways in my genre. Each time I add a few hundred new subscribers to my list and I contact them with news and chat every week or every fortnight.
I would expect a publisher to shoulder the costs of publicity, although I would happily write blogs and share what they put out.
You could also try Amazon ads, although I'm afraid it has become rather costly now as the pay-per-click system demands higher and higher click amounts to get noticed.
As to social media, I have not found it very workable as a marketing tool, although Facebook Ads are said to be very successful, but the costs mount up fast.
I hope some of this may be useful to you. Best, Elizabeth

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