Where to promote my book?

davidnpauly · 03-07-2011, 12:02 PM

Hi,

My name is David Pauly. We are trying to promote my first book, Icarus Rising, on different websites. Have anyone try redroom.com (premium membership $250/year) or authorbuzz.com ($1000)? Are they worth the fees that they charge?

Also, my wife is creating a non-kindle ebook version (the publisher will only support kindle version and he gives us the right to sell non-Kindle ebooks). We plan to give away some ebooks to readers for reviews, where should we put them? Which ebook sites should we contact in order to sell the ebooks and which versions, besides ePub, should we create?

Thank you very much,
David Pauly
Author of Icarus Rising

Worldwalker · 03-07-2011, 12:08 PM

The real question you have to ask yourself is this:

How did you find out about the books you like to read?

Also, with regard to paid promotional websites, you need to consider who their real customers are. That is, who do they want to collect money from? If their customers are the people (librarians, etc.) who are hearing about books from them, then why are they charging you? And if their customers are authors, why would they care about people who aren't their customers? It's possible that these websites that want to charge you hundreds or thousands of dollars to promote your books are legitimate ... but that wouldn't be my first assumption.

As far as giving away books to readers, email 'em. Or put them on Smashwords and email 'em coupons.

Take a look at the Author Self-Promotion section here for some examples of people promoting their own books.

TJager · 03-07-2011, 12:18 PM

Everywhere, you have to promote everywhere. Search for forums. Facebook, Twitter, blogs. Everywhere. And good luck!

mr ploppy · 03-08-2011, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidnpauly

Hi,

My name is David Pauly. We are trying to promote my first book, Icarus Rising, on different websites. Have anyone try redroom.com (premium membership $250/year) or authorbuzz.com ($1000)? Are they worth the fees that they charge?

Never heard of them. One says it is a site for writers, so unless your book is aimed at writers it would be a waste of money advertising there. The other looks like something aimed at libraries and book sellers. Can't see that generating many sales either, and it would be cheaper to send out promo copies to distributors anyway.

You would be better off joining forums where people are likely to be interested in your book, but don't just jump in and say BUY MY BOOK, join in with whatever they are typing about.

spaze · 03-09-2011, 03:09 AM

David, in case you didn't notice, you just promoted your book. You did such a good job that I went and searched for it in Google but I found a book with same name but with different author:

http://www.king-cart.com/cgi-bin/car...ct_match=exact

Promote your book first by creating a website for it that has the cover image, synopsis and a button to your Paypal account that does the payment. Add some info about yourself as a writer and such.

Then register to as many forums related to books and reading and include a link to your signature, like I have links in my signature.

Next tiem you mention your book by name, make sure you include URL to the place where i can find it

I would create ebooks to sell in EPUB, MOBI as well as PDF versions.

CHunter_Author · 03-11-2011, 10:18 PM

Forums, Blogs, talking to people, and Press Releases are the way to go. Seems like a heavy investment to pay such a fee to promote your book through a site. If the results are worth it, then maybe...no way I would do it though.

Dr. Drib · 03-12-2011, 09:15 AM

Moderator Notice:

This is not a thread on self-promotion. We have a Forum for that. One post has already been deleted for straying into self-promotion.

This is a discussion about venues of publication.

Don
(Moderator)

Nada y Nadie · 03-12-2011, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidnpauly

Have anyone try redroom.com (premium membership $250/year) or authorbuzz.com ($1000)? Are they worth the fees that they charge?

There are many sites that will you allow you to network and promote your book for free, so why pay these high membership fees? I personally haven't heard of any particular benefit from redroom or authorbuzz.

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidnpauly

Also, my wife is creating a non-kindle ebook version (the publisher will only support kindle version and he gives us the right to sell non-Kindle ebooks). We plan to give away some ebooks to readers for reviews, where should we put them? Which ebook sites should we contact in order to sell the ebooks and which versions, besides ePub, should we create?

Most ebook readers will only support certain formats, so the more formats you have, the more potential sales you have. You might want to look into Smashwords, because they'll convert your book into all the formats for you.

As far as giving away ebooks to readers for reviews, you might try the Member Giveaway at LibraryThing.com.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Worldwalker · 03-13-2011, 05:00 AM

Reading back over this thread, something odd just struck me:

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidnpauly

...the publisher will only support kindle version and he gives us the right to sell non-Kindle ebooks...

Specifically, I'm rather curious now who this publisher is. You speak of him as "he", which implies a singular individual, or a small group that can be seen as an individual, rather than Amazon. But who outside of Amazon would be trying to limit a book to Amazon customers instead of selling it to the widest range of buyers possible? That is, who but Amazon would be deliberately leaving money on the table in order to support Amazon? That's a valid business strategy for Amazon, but not for someone who's trying to sell as many copies as possible. Since "he" isn't Amazon, who is this Amazon-only publisher? Also, you said he "gives you" the right to sell non-Kindle ebooks. That would be, under normal circumstances, him not buying the right to sell non-Kindle ebooks from you -- you're the guy with all the rights, and the transfer goes from you to him, depending on which rights you want to sell him or which ones he wants to buy, not the other way around.

There's something about this situation that is making me itch.

MartinC · 03-14-2011, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

There's something about this situation that is making me itch.

I agree. It isn't that difficult to produce a Kindle edition of a book, and you can "publish" it yourself on Amazon for free.

Plus, of course, a publisher is supposed to do the promotion for you - and pay for it too. If they don't, what's the point of 'em?

spiritualtramp · 03-14-2011, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MartinC

I agree. It isn't that difficult to produce a Kindle edition of a book, and you can "publish" it yourself on Amazon for free.

Plus, of course, a publisher is supposed to do the promotion for you - and pay for it too. If they don't, what's the point of 'em?

Yeah that set off some alarm bells for me too. As a publisher we buy very explicit rights. Anything you haven't sold, you retain. A publisher doesn't "give you the right" to do anything. Unless you've given up your rights blanketly?

On topic, it helps to have an author site and create those sorts of sites on Amazon, FB, and other social media venues. Get on some podcasts too, that doesn't hurt. You might also think about using a podcast to promote your book.

davidnpauly · 03-14-2011, 12:30 PM

My book is published by Black Rose Writing. It's a hybrid of Printing on Demand and Traditional ones. I did ask the owner if he would publish the book as Epub and other formats. His answer was that he would only publish a Kindle version on Amazon and we had the free reign to create & publish other ebook versions.

Thanks to your suggestions and help, we now have it on Barnesandnoble & Smashwords. If your know any other ebookstores that are willing to accept self-published work, let me know.

David N. Pauly

davidnpauly · 03-14-2011, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MartinC

Plus, of course, a publisher is supposed to do the promotion for you - and pay for it too. If they don't, what's the point of 'em?

LOL, these hybrid POD publishers won't spend a penny to promote the books. So far I have spent a few thousand dollars to promote it (without using one of these expensive websites) and the results are still questionable.

spiritualtramp · 03-14-2011, 12:40 PM

Looking at Black Rose's site it would seem that they do do some promo, but you're right. Even the bigger publishers don't do much for their writers unless you're "hot".

jbcohen · 03-14-2011, 01:25 PM

All great suggestions. While Amazon is the single larget electronic book reader format available it by no means covers everyone. I would recommend publishing a few different formats in order to get the widest possible customer base. Are you going to use DRM? If so you will need to publish a sony, nook and epub formats. If you are not going to use any form of DRM then a simple epub format will do the job. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management is the means by which author can protect themselves from unauthorized re-distribution of their work, but is often abused by restricting where people can read your book and when they can do so. Troubble with DRM is it is easily removed.

03-07-2011, 12:02 PM	#1
davidnpauly Author of Icarus Rising Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Albuquerque Device: sony prs-600, PB360	Where to promote my book? Hi, My name is David Pauly. We are trying to promote my first book, Icarus Rising, on different websites. Have anyone try redroom.com (premium membership $250/year) or authorbuzz.com ($1000)? Are they worth the fees that they charge? Also, my wife is creating a non-kindle ebook version (the publisher will only support kindle version and he gives us the right to sell non-Kindle ebooks). We plan to give away some ebooks to readers for reviews, where should we put them? Which ebook sites should we contact in order to sell the ebooks and which versions, besides ePub, should we create? Thank you very much, David Pauly Author of Icarus Rising

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03-07-2011, 12:08 PM	#2
Worldwalker Curmudgeon Posts: 3,085 Karma: 722357 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: PRS-505	The real question you have to ask yourself is this: How did you find out about the books you like to read? Also, with regard to paid promotional websites, you need to consider who their real customers are. That is, who do they want to collect money from? If their customers are the people (librarians, etc.) who are hearing about books from them, then why are they charging you? And if their customers are authors, why would they care about people who aren't their customers? It's possible that these websites that want to charge you hundreds or thousands of dollars to promote your books are legitimate ... but that wouldn't be my first assumption. As far as giving away books to readers, email 'em. Or put them on Smashwords and email 'em coupons. Take a look at the Author Self-Promotion section here for some examples of people promoting their own books.

03-07-2011, 12:18 PM	#3
TJager Enthusiast Posts: 37 Karma: 510020 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: TX Device: Kindle	Everywhere, you have to promote everywhere. Search for forums. Facebook, Twitter, blogs. Everywhere. And good luck!

03-09-2011, 03:09 AM	#5
spaze Addict Posts: 265 Karma: 512072 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Helsinki, Finland Device: Writing my first short story: Guardian Angel	David, in case you didn't notice, you just promoted your book. You did such a good job that I went and searched for it in Google but I found a book with same name but with different author: http://www.king-cart.com/cgi-bin/car...ct_match=exact Promote your book first by creating a website for it that has the cover image, synopsis and a button to your Paypal account that does the payment. Add some info about yourself as a writer and such. Then register to as many forums related to books and reading and include a link to your signature, like I have links in my signature. Next tiem you mention your book by name, make sure you include URL to the place where i can find it I would create ebooks to sell in EPUB, MOBI as well as PDF versions.

03-11-2011, 10:18 PM	#6
CHunter_Author Zealot Posts: 118 Karma: 503896 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Bronx, NY Device: iPhone	Forums, Blogs, talking to people, and Press Releases are the way to go. Seems like a heavy investment to pay such a fee to promote your book through a site. If the results are worth it, then maybe...no way I would do it though.

03-12-2011, 09:15 AM	#7
Dr. Drib Grand Sorcerer Posts: 44,748 Karma: 55645321 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Peru Device: Kindle: Oasis 3, Voyage WiFi; Kobo: Libra 2, Aura One	Moderator Notice: This is not a thread on self-promotion. We have a Forum for that. One post has already been deleted for straying into self-promotion. This is a discussion about venues of publication. Don (Moderator)

03-14-2011, 12:30 PM	#12
davidnpauly Author of Icarus Rising Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Albuquerque Device: sony prs-600, PB360	My book is published by Black Rose Writing. It's a hybrid of Printing on Demand and Traditional ones. I did ask the owner if he would publish the book as Epub and other formats. His answer was that he would only publish a Kindle version on Amazon and we had the free reign to create & publish other ebook versions. Thanks to your suggestions and help, we now have it on Barnesandnoble & Smashwords. If your know any other ebookstores that are willing to accept self-published work, let me know. David N. Pauly

03-14-2011, 12:40 PM	#14
spiritualtramp Member Posts: 12 Karma: 20000 Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: NC Device: Kindle	Looking at Black Rose's site it would seem that they do do some promo, but you're right. Even the bigger publishers don't do much for their writers unless you're "hot".

03-14-2011, 01:25 PM	#15
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,025 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Piper College Device: Samsung A21	All great suggestions. While Amazon is the single larget electronic book reader format available it by no means covers everyone. I would recommend publishing a few different formats in order to get the widest possible customer base. Are you going to use DRM? If so you will need to publish a sony, nook and epub formats. If you are not going to use any form of DRM then a simple epub format will do the job. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management is the means by which author can protect themselves from unauthorized re-distribution of their work, but is often abused by restricting where people can read your book and when they can do so. Troubble with DRM is it is easily removed.