How To Promote Your Book On A Budget

You have finally finished your first book and are anxious to see a return on all of your hard work. But how are you going to get people to buy your book? After pulling many late-nighters to get your thoughts into digital form, you’re hoping to be rewarded with a flood of sales and good reviews. Unfortunately, even well-written books don’t sell themselves unless you’re already a best-selling author. Suppose you don’t have a ton of money to work with a book publicist, and you want to get the word out as inexpensively as possible. In this post, you’ll learn how to promote your book online on a budget.

Start a Free Blog

If you are on a budget, starting a blog is one of the best ways to promote your writing, because a blog usually gets good search engine rankings, it draws significant traffic, and it’s free! Set-up a free blog using WordPress or Google Blogger, and you can be publishing within ten minutes. Use your blog to write keyword-rich tips that relate to the topic of your book. At the end of each post, leave a link to your book. Do this consistently, and you’ll develop a loyal group of followers eager to get your next tip – and buy your book. The comments your readers leave will give you ideas for future books or blog posts, so read them carefully and respond.

Send Out a Press Release Online

Write a keyword-rich press release and submit it to free press release sites like PRLog. They’ll distribute your press release to major search engines like Google and Bing. This a great way to build your online presence, but if you have the money, using a paid press release distribution service like PRWeb will get you much better results. Paid press release distribution sites usually cost $100-$300 per press release, but for the extra money they’ll send your press release to local and national media including major news sites such as CNN. Using their detailed analytics, you’ll be able to track who reads your press release and what sites posted it. Either way, whether you distribute the press release through free PR sites or paid services, sending out press releases online is a great way to promote your book and build your online presence.

Promote Your Writing By Participating in Relevant Forums

Look for forums that focus on your book topic and participate in the discussions. Set aside an hour each day to answer questions and offer helpful tips. Don’t try to directly sell your book. It’ll only annoy people and get you kicked off the forum. Simply leave a link to your book in your signature file. Be sure to follow the rules of the forum you’re posting to.

Promote Your Book by Giving Away Copies

After becoming comfortable with forum and blog promotion, offer to give away a copy of your book to the first ten people in exchange for posting a review. Books that have favorable reviews on sites like Amazon sell more quickly, especially when you’re a new author. Another strategy is to offer a free book chapter to your blog readers. This will let them see the quality of your writing, and create the desire to read more of your work.

Other Ways to Promote Your Book Online On A Budget

Write articles on your book topic, and submit them to online article databases. Include a link to your book in the resource box at the end of article. Be a guest writer for other blogs and websites in exchange for a link. Make a short video with tips and publish it to YouTube with a link to your book. Start accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networking sites. Be sure to include detailed information about your book on your profiles. Answer questions, make friends and develop followers. Be helpful but not overly promotional. This will help establish you as an expert.

Promote Your Book: The Bottom Line?

Promoting your book doesn’t have to be expensive. There are a multitude of online resources to help. All you have to do is take advantage of them. It can be or time-consuming though, which is why a publicist makes sense for most authors. What are you waiting for? Start promoting your book online today without spending a fortune.