Monday, May 23, 2011

10 Ways to Market Your Self-Published Writing

Guest post by: Randall Davidson
http://www.proofreadingservices.us/


In recent years, more and more writers have decided to self-publish their work, rather than deal with the time-consuming and uncertain process of getting it published by a mainstream publishing house. Self-publishing is a wonderful way to turn your manuscript into a professional product, but it will not bring you any recognition, income or impact unless you are willing to do the marketing necessary to get readers to buy you work. These 10 tips will help you get your writing in front of bookstore managers, newspaper writers and, most important, readers.
  1. Arrange a book signing. Call up a chain bookstore like Barnes and Noble or Borders, or a local independent store, to arrange a book signing. These stores love hosting promotional events and you might play up the local author angle in the publicity materials. Be sure to have enough books on hand to sell to interested parties.
  2. Arrange a "meet the author" event on a blog. Choose a blog with which you have an established relationship or a blog that is related to your book. You can submit biographical information, writing excerpts and purchasing information in static form or arrange to do a live chat on the site.
  3. Sell an ebook version. These versions typically go for half the cost of a bound book and are really inexpensive to put together. You can advertise and sell these books for free on a variety of platforms.
  4. Add a signature to your email that promotes your writing. In your personal emails, create a signature that promotes your book and its release date. You can also create business cards that include information about your latest published works.
  5. Use tools like BookBuzzr. This and other free online tools bill themselves as "anti-obscurity" tools for authors. These platforms can provide a way for people to preview your book and other features that can be used to promote your writing to potential readers.
  6. Submit your writing. Submit excerpts of your writing to literary journals, magazines and newspapers. Readers who are exposed to your work in this manner may be interested in discovering more of your work.
  7. Get your work reviewed. Submit your work to a newspaper (local or national), magazine or book review blog to have it reviewed. Try to create some buzz by having it reviewed on television or radio.
  8. Create a website. Make a site that revolves around your writing and use it to highlight projects that you publish. This is a great opportunity to provide readers with more information about yourself, excerpts of your work and information about where people can buy copies of work.
  9. Get interviewed. Contact television channels, bloggers, newspapers and radio stations to offer yourself for an interview about your book.
  10. Speak at events. Offer to speak at conferences, school functions or other events focused on writing or the theme you have developed for your writing project. Have books available for purchase at these events.
Randall Davidson is a co-founder of ProofreadingServices.Us, a high quality professional proofreading service based in San Francisco, California. Randall is committed to helping writers of all types achieve success and ensure that their work is accurate and clear. He does this through the articles he writes for popular websites and through the affordable business, academic and manuscript proofreading services that his company provides.

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