How To Promote and Market Your Book by Madi Preda

How To Promote and Market Your Book by Madi Preda

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m going to start with a quote “You can write the most wonderful book in the world. But if people don’t know about your book they won’t know to buy it.”~Madi Preda

Madi has written a must-read book. This handbook is crammed full of useful ideas, step-by-step instructions and case studies full of helpful information.

Writing a book is a HUGE dream for most people and achieving that dream is like climbing a mountain. Now it’s easier to write a book and with self-publishing, hitting the button and seeing your book takes minutes. Yet this is only the beginning. Publishing a book, Madi says, is like “Opening a Small Business”, and a writer needs to look at marketing themselves as the product rather than just focusing on the book. Readers follow authors not their books. Just think about some of the great writers and let that statement sink in.

There is a great piece written for this book by book reviewer Lynn Worton which I really appreciated. Madi and Lynn encourage authors to make book reviewers and book bloggers feel special because they are an important part of book sales. This just backs up my recent book review challenge series where I promoted the need for more book reviews.

Even if you haven’t self-published, publishers no longer take your book and do everything else for you while you sit back and write the next, authors are expected to market their own books and there are a whole world of ideas and ways to do this inside this gem of a book. I don’t hesitate to give it 5*’s and it should be a part of any writer’s promotional plans.

Find a copy of this book on Smashwords or Barnes and Nobel

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Madi will be our guest author on the blog tomorrow, do come back and find out more about her work.

Self-Publishing

Millions of people want to write books. I was one of those people, as a child I’d wanted to write books, then it all got lost along the way in education, growing up, families and life. Then I reached a turning point and the chance to write that book returned. For a few short weeks I lived and breathed that book. It flowed from my fingers, the chores and housework were left undone, the characters unfolded and I lived in their world.

When I could edit no more, I got a friend to criticise and edit once more. We checked out copyright, wrote a blurb, had fun creating the cover and agreed the Title. I’m sure it’s not perfect, but it was good enough for me.

My dream was to publish my book and I envisaged that time. We did some research and agreed to try out Amazon’s free self-publishing service. I had no funds to print a book, so to go for a Kindle version was our route. It’s not too hard to achieve but it’s good to have a friend with techno knowhow!

So then in less than 48 hours it was up on-screen and available to buy. My book, my baby, my dream. It’s a great achievement. But then you want more, you want people to buy it. It’s a huge world out there with billions of books for sale. It won’t happen overnight and it needs time and dedication. Get a Facebook page, a blog, a twitter account. Join the Goodreads website. Get social, get noticed. Don’t keep plugging your own book everyday, that gets boring. Start looking for other authors, make comments and post recommendations, create links to yourself.

It also depends where you are on the planet. I’ve published on Amazon UK, but my book can be bought across the fast spreading Amazon network. However all the reviews on Amazon UK don’t show up on Amazon.Com. So it’s hard to get potential sales without reviews. Plus on Amazon, tags about your books content are vital, aswell as likes and people saying a review was helpful.

I’ve been able to write some book reviews for a local magazine which will also mention my book. This will hopefully get local people interested. I’ve made a small sample of cards that I can give out with my book and blog/twitter details. All homemade, but that’s down to my zero budget, and I do drive round with a poster in my car, much to the embarrassment of my kids, but I feel if the car is parked in a car park, it may get views. It’s all about lateral thinking to make a sale. Now I’ve got the bug to write some more, but I’ve also got the bug to sell some more. I give myself a target, like, get 2 more people to follow my blog next week. Or push for one more book sale. I’m realistic in that I need a paying day job too! Fame and prosperity happen to a lucky few. Me I’m going to keep enjoying what I do, I’ve created a job I love doing, so that in itself is worth millions of pounds.