Self promotion tools for authors

[Sushant]

Hi fellow authors,

I have started this discussion group for authors to discuss about tools and services they have used that have helped them with self promotion of their book. Social media tools , e-commerce sites, giveaways etc.

[Paul]

This looks like a great topic to discuss. There are many promo sites on-line, saying for a few dollars, to a lot of dollars, they will promote your book. There never seems to be any guarantees, just testimonials. How is an author to know if these sites are legitimate and if so, how effective are they?

[Janie]

My plan is to post on facebook, pinterest, and reddit a lot, buy an add on Facebook when my book comes out, and try to get bloggers to review my book.

So far that last part seems futile. Everyone with an ample following is booked for ages or asking for a fee. (I don't have a lot of money to spend.)

I have also thought of trying to ask fellow members of facebook groups to review my book on Amazon (in exchange for reviewing theirs.)

But I still feel like I'm just clueless about getting the word out there. Any suggestions?

[Paul]

I've heard that if you exchange reviews with another author, Amazon may toss both of them. Be careful. They only want "Verified Purchases."

[Outpublish]

Hi authors, Outpublish is a team of tech people and writers who are looking to build tools for authors to help them with self promotion. You can visit our website and signup for exclusive access to our tools when we launch. One of our tools is already being used by authors - It is a free 3D cover generator using which you can turn your normal book covers into amazing 3D designs
check it out here: https://outpublish.com/book-cover-gen.... You can also suggest what sort of self promotion tools you want us to build and we will get on it right away based on the demand!

[Yathav]

Outpublish wrote: "Hi authors, Outpublish is a team of tech people and writers who are looking to build tools for authors to help them with self promotion. You can visit our website and signup for exclusive access to..."

Wow. Nice. I just used the 3D cover tool. Pretty snazzy 3D designs. Good for promoting on social media and on posters. Are you guys focused only on social media ?

[Soorya]

It's pretty cool that 3D book cover finds my book with the ISBN. Btw, when you guys launching bookposter?

[K.L.]

I like the 3D book cover creator. Is there a way to do it for a book that isn't released yet (no ISBN)?

For promotion, I've heard that having a mailing list is advantageous. People are more likely to open your newsletter and purchase through links. With social media, your audience may not even see your posts (I find that frustrating). To encourage people to sign up for my newsletter on my website, I wrote a novelette that is a follow-up to my last trilogy (but doesn't give away anything for those who haven't read it yet). Then I offered it for free to those who sign up. You can set all this up through Mailchimp. It took some time to get familiar with Mailchimp, but now when people sign up, it automatically sends them a newsletter (that I created), and sends them the free download.

[Grea]

Greetings Goodreads Authors!

I am hosting 2 group giveaways on Prolific Works (formerly Instafreebie) and StoryOrigin: one Horror and one Historical Fiction. It’s a good, FREE way to expose your work to a new audience. Some authors use these group giveways just for exposure. Some use it to build up their email/newsletter lists. Others still use them to gather reviews.

These promotions will run for the entire month of May (during which participating authors will offer a free download to readers). You can either give away an entire work, a short story related to your book(s)/series, or a preview/sample that includes a chapter or more of your work. If you are in Kindle Unlimited, you are permitted to offer up to 10% for free and still be in compliance with your obligations (so I’ve heard).

Both PW and SO offer free accounts – the main difference being that StoryOrigin will allow you to collect email addresses at the free level and Prolific Works will not. Simply create a free account, upload your “books” and click the applicable link below to join the giveaway. You can join on one site. You can join on both. Each has their own audience/authors.

I’ve found the easiest way to get an .epub, .mobi and .pdf all at the same time is to create a “sample” book on Draft2Digital and simply not publish it. D2D will automatically convert anything you upload into all 3 formats. Once in the preview, all you have to do is download each.

Each author who participates is responsible for promoting the giveaway in whatever way works for them – the theory being that the more authors who participate and promote, the more exposure all of the authors who participate receive.

Information on each of my giveaways is below:

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Horror Giveaway

This is a Horror giveaway.

The only requirement to join this group is that your book is Horrific in nature.

All horror sub-genres are welcome as are works of all lengths: full length novels, novellas, short stories, previews/samples, etc.

There is a maximum of 3 books per author, please.

In addition, please share this promotion as much as you can during its run time and via whatever platform works for you: newsletter, social media, Ouija board…seance, whatever.

You can require names and emails from readers or you can not. It’s completely up to you.

That being said, welcome aboard!


Prolific Works – Horror: https://www.prolificworks.com/groupgi...

Story Origin - Horror: https://storyoriginapp.com/bundles/48...

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Historical Fiction

This is a Historical Fiction giveaway.

The only requirement to join this group is that your book is Historical Fiction in nature. For the purposes of this promotion, let’s go with books set in a time period that is at least 50 years in the past (pre-1969).

All historical fiction sub-genres are welcomed including those with time travel type elements (as long as at least 60% of the story takes place in a historic time period(s)).

Works of all lengths are welcomed: full length novels, novellas, short stories, previews/samples, etc.

There is a maximum of 2 books per author, please.

In addition, share this promotion as much as you can during its run time and via whatever platform works for you: newsletter, social media, carrier pigeon…sky writing, whatever.

You can require names and emails from readers or you can not. It’s completely up to you.

That being said, welcome aboard!

Prolific Works – Historical Fiction: https://www.prolificworks.com/groupgi...

Story Origin - Historical Fiction: https://storyoriginapp.com/bundles/2b...

[Elise]

I found a really great source to help self promote. There are no fees involved and there is a tip option if readers want to contribute. I created a profile and uploaded three chapters of my soon to be published memoir, with only a picture for a book cover, and posted the link on FB. That was yesterday, today I am listed in the top download list, check it out, https://books.noisetrade.com/ I gleaned this and many other helpful tips from Writer's Digest magazine.

[Steve]

I'm self publishing. I don't want to use KDP, but I WOULD like to advertise on Amazon. Is this possible? Thanks.
Steve