'Cheap and Easy Ways to Sell Yourself' by J.M. Snyder
The first thing I would suggest—GET A WEBSITE! Even if it's a free site, made with a template, its imperative that you have a place to ‘hang your shingle,’ as it were, on the World Wide Web. If you don’t know squat about making websites, ask around. Many high school or college-aged kids can make a simple yet effective website for much less than you’d pay a professional.
In addition to a website to sell your work, or as part of such a site, I highly recommend creating a blog and updating it regularly. More on this later :)
That said, here are a few cheap and easy things you can do to help spread the word about your website and your writing:
NO BRAINERS
- Email signatures: If your book and/or website URL is not linked at the end of your email, you’re missing an opportunity to plug your writing every time you send an email message, whether to a friend, a company online, a newsgroup, or a Yahoo! group.
- Newsletters: If someone other than your mother has bought your book, create a newsletter (either through a listserv, your web host server, or a free group such as those through Yahoo!). Add a prominent link to your website so that readers can join your group.
- Contests: People love freebies, that’s a fact of life, up there with taxes and death. So run contests on your site or through your newsletter: give away free copies of your books, or gift certificates (doesn’t have to be much, and preferably for a chain bookstore or coffee shop, somewhere that fits in with the theme of books). If you have advanced marketing items that depict your cover art, such as note cards, journals, etc., consider giving these away as well. If people think they have a chance to win it, they’re going to enter. If you’re giving away free copies of your book, set the contest deadline to coincide with the release date of your book. Otherwise, everyone who entered the contest will wait around to see if they won and not buy a copy!
- Handouts: Make business cards, bookmarks, flyers, or postcards of your website and/or your books, and carry them with you everywhere you go. You never know when you may be talking to someone who is interested. You’ll be surprised how many people want to write, or know someone who writes, and they’ll willingly take your business card or a postcard with your URL on it. Some have suggested adding bookmarks in with your bills, or leaving them in places where readers will find them—bookstores and cafes naturally, but also theaters, restaurants, small downtown businesses that offer bulletin boards, anywhere local newspapers are distributed If you write a specific genre, pick places of interest to your readers—fantasy or sci-fi, try a local comic shop; erotica, try adult bookstores or night clubs. Talk with small business owners in your area. Many times they’re willing to give counter space to postcards from a local author.
- Your link: Don’t limit displaying your link online alone. I print it on address labels that I use for both bills and correspondence, and my last order of personal checks included a line above my signature for only $2.50. You never know who might see that link there and write it down to look it up later. Some websites offer personalized bumper stickers—why not put your URL on the back bumper of your car? Cheap advertising, no?
YOUR BOOK(S)
- Reviews: There are numerous websites out there willing to review your book. Sure, your publisher will send out copies to the ‘big names’ in book reviews for your genre, but if you find a blog or site that does reviews, or even someone willing to write a review for you, send them a copy of your book. It’s free for them, true, but their commentary may be worth the cost, and you may gain a new reader if the reviewer likes your style.
- Comments: Speaking of comments, visit websites that are similar in content or genre to your book, including communities, search engines, and blogs. If there are places to comment, particularly on blogs, do so and add your link—it doesn’t have to be a blatant check out my book! but rather an intelligent comment about their most recent post, leaving your URL behind. I notice a lot of my incoming links are from comments I’ve left on other sites.
- Blogs: Create a blog (even if it's on a free site) and update it regularly. Try to keep your entries focused on your writing—what you’re working on now, what you’re publishing next, etc. Join blogging exchanges, such as Blog Explosion, BlogMad, etc., to increase traffic to your blogs. Traffic to my website increased 100-fold when I did this, and I have more readers of my fiction visiting my blog now that I use it to talk about works in progress and upcoming publications. A cautionary note about blogging on the World Wide Web—anyone, and I do mean anyone, can read your blog. That means your mother, who will question you about explicit excerpts you may post; your editor, who will wonder why you never took your complaints about editing directly to her; and future editors, who may read that you hate the title of their upcoming anthology (which you submitted to) and be tempted not to include your story on that fact alone. So keep your blog free from anything defamatory or negative or explicit that you don’t want to have to apologize for later on. Chalk it up to a lesson learned.
- Freebies: On your blog, feel free to post snippets of prose, either complete stories or scenes from works in progress, to keep your readers coming back. The same is true on your writing website—add excerpts from your books, or offer free stories to your readers. People like free stuff, as I’ve said, and if you’re not a household name yet, its hard to gather new readers online without giving them a taste of what you write.
- Communities: Join writing websites such as Writers Café, Authors Den, Literotica, Writing.com, or community websites such as MySpace, Bebo, and Friendster. Link to other writers. Add your link as well, and use your book cover as your avatar. If you write erotica, look into adult communities such as XPeeps, QPeeps, Lusty Library, or Sticky Pen to help promote your work.
- Website: Join link exchanges, web rings, and search engines of interest to readers and/or your genre (there are plenty of link sites out there—look for them!). Anywhere it says Add Your Link, if you think your site will fit, then do so. Be sure to create accurate an ROR file or meta tags for your site to help search engines catalog and display it properly.
- Amazon.com: If your books are listed through Amazon.com, create a profile page through Amazon Connect. This includes a free blog whose entries will be linked to the pages where they sell your book. It's a great way to get in touch with readers who may not have found you elsewhere online.
YOUR WRITING
Even if you’re more prone to novels, consider writing short stories. They’re a great, quick way to get your name out there. You get more exposure to readers this way, and any bio should include a link back to your site.
· Offer free short stories on your site or via your newsletter to your readers.
· Sell short stories to online writing/genre publications or small press zines—even if there's no pay involved. Anywhere it says Submissions, consider submitting a story or article.
· Writing contests are great exposure, even if you don’t win. In 2004 I entered a flash fiction contest in February and didn’t win. In December of that same year, one of the judges of the contest contacted me and asked if she could publish my contest entries in her online site, updated weekly, for $10 each. Since then I’ve sold eleven stories to the site, each one for pay, and then published a collection of the stories last June. I wouldn’t have written any of the stories if not for that first contest.
· Look for submission calls for anthologies or collections in your genre. They’re a great way to gather new readers to your work, if you are included in the finished book.
· If you have a book for sale through Amazon.com, consider submitting a short story to their Amazon Shorts program. Your short story sells for 49¢ on their site, and is linked to your other books for sale. It's great promotion for you.
OFFLINE
- Bookstores: Contact independent bookstores via direct mail or locally, particularly ones that might interested in your genre (there are plenty of gay/lesbian bookstores out there, as well as adult bookstores, teachers-only shops/bookstores, and fantasy/sci-fi bookstores). If you have a printed book, send them a sell sheet and press release, as well as information on where to order your book to stock. If you have an e-book, see if they’ll put your postcards on the counter, or display a flyer on your book.
- Events: Attend local writers' conferences, book fairs, literacy festivals, workshops, classes, writing expos... anything where two or more writers may converge, you want to be there. If you find out about it early enough and can purchase a table, great! Distribute flyers, postcards, and bookmarks, or sell copies of your books either in print or on CD. If you don’t get a table, go anyway, and take flyers, postcards, pens, bookmarks... anything with your URL on it. Network. Rub elbows with other writers. Share what you know and learn from others.
About J. M. Synder
An author of gay erotic/romantic fiction, J.M. Snyder began self-publishing in 2002 but has since moved onto the growing field of electronic publication, working with Amber Quill, Aspen Mountain, and Torquere Presses. Snyder's short fiction has appeared online at Ruthie's Club, Tit-Elation, and Amazon Shorts, as well as in anthologies by Aspen Mountain, Cleis Press, and Alyson Books.
http://jmsnyder.net
