How to Market Your Self-Published Book (Without Spending a Fortune)

1. Make sure your book is available through Amazon and through Barnes & Noble online. Many of the POD companies provide access to both as part of their package. Check it out before you select a publisher. Some publishers will do marketing for you for a small fee. If you must get it onto Amazon by yourself, rest easy. There are instructions on their home page (www.amazon.com). To get into Barnes & Noble, follow the instructions at their Author Submissions  page (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/help/cds2.asp?PID=8148)

2. Get people to write reviews for you for your Amazon space.

3. Ask writers at e-ZineArticles and GoArticles to write reviews of your book.

4. Buy as many copies of your book as you can afford (you can usually get them at cost, and some publishing companies include a number of free books as part of their package), and send them off as review copies to influential people.

To save money, be sure to email or write the person first, asking permission to send them a review copy. You don't want to indiscriminately send your book to people who are not interested. And make sure you email, mail, and send the review copy to an individual with a name. Don't send anything out as "Dear Ms." or "Editorial Department." Find their website and find their name and title. Spell it right.

5. Get review copies to your local newspaper - and / or their online version. Branch out to national review literature by getting a copy to Publishers' Weekly, and any number of book review periodicals that have clout.

6. Call your local PBS or independent radio station and offer to be interviewed on an appropriate show. Do the same with local television shows, morning shows, and even local news if they have interview segments. Yes, this is harder than actually writing the book. But it has to be done.

7. Join local networking groups, and expand your circle of acquaintances. For many writers, this is the hard part because it requires us to get out from behind our computer screens and go mingle. Social skills are difficult for many of us. Do it anyway. Don't drink.

8. Create your own blog or website. You can get a blog for free at Wordpress, Blogger, MySpace, Twitter, Hub Pages, Squidoo, and many other places. This is an absolute must. On the blog, you can discuss any aspect of your book, but make sure readers always have something to click on if they want to buy. It could be a link to your publisher's sales page.

9. Join online forums in which your signature automatically links to your blog or website.

10. Join niche groups that specifically target the area your book targets. If you've written a non-fiction book, that will be easy. If you're written poetry or fiction, you may need to be more creative, but you can find a niche group. For instance, Barbara N. has written a fiction book in which the protagonist is the drunk driver who kills someone. Barbara can join all sorts of groups related to alcoholism, drunk driving, groups on grieving and loss, as well as groups of people who have published POD, a general writers' group, a book club.

11. Always carry a business card with you that has the title of our book, a catch phrase, and a web address. You can make your own business cards on your computer. Avery Labels, for example, sells business card stock that comes with computer instructions. It's not hard!

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