If you take the time to browse online for debut writers, self-published writers, and writers’ blogs, you might get the impression that half of the blogs on the internet belong to writers, regardless of whether they write fiction or nonfiction. If you took the time to really absorb that fact, you will realize that, regardless of whether you are self-publishing your book or have landed a lucrative contract with a publishing house, you need to push your book through thousands of books to ensure that your intended audience will hear (or, since we were talking about the internet, read) about your book.

Today, a big publishing house standing behind you and your book does not ensure great sales or popularity for your book – you might get credibility, but that does not mean that you will get a lot of readers. You need to attract them on your own. In other words, you will be the one that needs to generate publicity for your novels, and below, we have gathered some tips to help.

1. Education

Writers need to know a lot of different things. If you have not felt the need to research anything for your novel, then you might need to re-think this whole writing thing, because research lies at the heart of every great novel. The same applies to generating publicity. You can write a list of ten things or more that you need to do, but you also need to gather as much knowledge as you can in the fields of marketing, advertising, and public relations as well. Do not scoff and think you don’t need it – identifying an audience is one of the basic marketing concepts, and you will need it as a starting point in generating publicity for your novel. So, get the newest books on marketing, promotion, and public relations that you can find, and start learning. You need to know the ticks and tricks of the business before you even start. Otherwise, it would be very easy for you to get lost. And if that happens…

2. Beware of promises

Let’s say you tried to promote your book, but it did not work out. Your social media profiles did not generate followers, and your newsletter emailing list is very low. You start looking for help. That’s okay. There is no need to panic or feel bad about it. If you don’t think you can handle it, getting help is the best thing you can do. However, you need to keep your eyes open, your ears perked, and keep the gears in your brain running – because that help will not be cheap, but you can also be easily led in the wrong direction. Or, to be more precise, scammed. If someone is offering you a really sweet deal of many followers, many sales, many everything – no matter the price – it’s too good to be true. So, when you are getting help, get it properly. Do your research – check the firm’s background, see if you can contact previous clients, and judge whether they are being honest with you or praising the firm for commission. Look for credibility, and remember, if the deal promises to increase sales within a week, it’s probably not true.

3. Platform

Now let’s see where you can actually begin on your own. First of all, you need to be easily found – across all social media. For writers, the best social media websites are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and, most of all, Goodreads. But, you don’t stop there. You need your own website. Whether you will run a blog on it or not, that’s your choice. Some writers start with a blog – where they post blogs that answer questions and help people, and then, when they have enough followers, they move on to promoting their own book. This method works, more or less, however, you cannot write blog posts that help people with their cooking, and then wish to promote your fantasy book on it. Mostly because not many of the people who would read your cooking blog would be interested in a fantasy book. But, if you are writing a blog on how to write fantasy books, and then begin drawing attention to your fantasy novel, it’s a completely different story. Just make sure you can be found across all social media, and that you have your own website and platform to speak of. Then, you can move on to using that platform.

4. Reviews and snippets

You wish to draw attention to your novel? Post snippets, post illustrations of your characters, avatars, scenes, whatever you can think of. Not one hundred times a day, no. Once or twice per week would be enough. Don’t get too loose and let your readers know every step of your writing process. Don’t start to reveal why XX chose to act that way, or why YY does not like XX at all. Let characters XX and YY keep their air of mystery.

What you can do is ask for honest reviews from reviewers among your target audience. Reviewers who offer honest reviews often don’t ask for compensation to write the review. Look for them, find them, and ask for an honest review. In return, you are offering a free book – and who doesn’t like free books? Even if the review is a negative review, it is still a review, it is still online attention towards your book. If the reviewer has a thousand followers, then one thousand people will know that the reviewer picked up your book, and that’s enough for you and your novel to be noticed. And in today’s world of thousands of books, being noticed is everything.

Georgina Roy wants to live in a world filled with magic. As an art student, she’s moonlighting as a writer and is content to fill notebooks and sketchbooks with magical creatures and amazing new worlds. When she is not at school, or scribbling away in a notebook, you can usually find her curled up, reading a good urban fantasy novel, or writing on her laptop, trying to create her own.