With self-publishing becoming such a big phenomenon, everyone can – and often does – write a book and put it up for consumption. This might be a good thing for many authors, whose books would not otherwise see the light of the day, but it also means there are no quality criteria for publishing any longer. Anyone can put up books on Amazon and soon enough, poor quality books crowd the marketplace. How exactly do you stand out amidst this plethora of books released every year, some bad, some good, mostly average?
1. Quality writing
There is no shortcut for quality work. No matter how much you promote a bad book, it will soon be rejected. So first of all, concentrate on producing quality work. Starting from the beginning with choosing the right story to write, including good amount of research, good grammar, excellent editing and proofreading, etc. will help your novel shape up into a good book that can actually stand up to competition in the marketplace. If your book is good in quality, then one can actually proceed to the next step and tell people how good it is. There is genuine material to promote by different means if the product is good enough.
2. Make friends online
Promoting books online has become the de rigueur for authors, especially self-published ones. But for this to actually work, you need to rely on word by mouth a lot. Getting a Facebook or Twitter account will help you immensely, but only if you actually hang out online and interact with people. The downside to this is it eats up a lot of time, which you might feel could be spent more productively elsewhere. But the fact remains that interaction with others on the internet is important. So be nice to readers, do favors for other authors and talk about your writing experiences, discuss your work. Get a blog and share your research with your fans. Slowly and steadily, you will build up a reputation.
3. Make friends offline
Some authors simply run headlong into writing and have no idea how to promote their books. However, making friends among the literary community can really help once you have a book out. This includes other authors, book clubs, book critics, bookstore owners, and other people who work with books in different capacities. There are a lot of places where you can network and have people spread the word about your books. Go to book launches of other authors where you would be noticed. Attend book festivals, where you are likely to meet a lot of different people who can help you not just to promote books, but who can help you learn more about every aspect of being a successful author. You need to make the effort.
4. Author site
When a reader first hears of you, the initial thing they will do is to check you out online. When they do this, they shouldn’t have to rely on Wikipedia entries or other people’s articles or reviews about your books. Get yourself an author site that tells people about your works and who you are. Share your contact details, your social media links, your published books, your works in progress, and all possible other details that you might want your readers to know about you. Your site is your gateway to the world. Make sure it is easy to navigate and contains all the information your readers might be interested in. You can also have a blog section where you can write about things related to your work. In addition, you might also have a forum section for having discussions on your works.
5. Make use of marketing tools
There are a number of online tools provided by various sites that help authors better in marketing themselves. Amazon has some really good tools like Amazon Bio and Author Central. Goodreads also has tools which you can use to signify your presence online. LibraryThing and Skype are other sites that have tools that you might be interested in as an author. Skype’s Skype an Author Network is especially useful for authors who are looking to interact with school children in their classrooms. Do a bit of research and find out which tools are most useful for you and use them to promote your work.
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Kavitha is a freelance content writer and French translator, and has been working in this field since 2008. She has degrees in computer applications and international business and has a background in business and international trade. She enjoys learning languages and is currently learning Japanese. Her interests vary from books and writing to travelling and history.