How to promote your book after publication


The first thing I did to promote my book once a release date was set out in the future was to hire a good web designing team to put a top-notch and graphically appealing website together for the book, which included key content such as: 1) book trailer, 2) free content (first two chapters of the book), 3) reviews, and 4) a blog. 

As a relatively new author in the fiction genre, I knew that a catchy and fully loaded website was absolutely necessary to show off what I believe to be a very high quality product… Sweetest Taboo! Not much happened after the website went ‘live’ because the promotion of the website through Search Engine Optimization was a necessary next step, then a press release about the book’s impending launch date (October 1, 2012), then of course a social media outreach plan was developed and implemented for Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, Pininterest, and Google+. Once those key elements were in place, and once a handful of bloggers began to read and subsequently review ARCs of my book, posting and sharing reviews, the website began to take off with site traffic. It’s still nowhere near the site traffic levels I’d like the site to be, but with time, I am confident things will begin to happen.

I enjoy blogging about topics related to Sweetest Taboo. However, I’m not 100% sold on the idea that because I post weekly musings on my blog I will sell more books. I really wish it did because I think many authors spend a great deal of valuable time blogging, and maybe that time is taking away from professional writing endeavors such as writing new titles that their readers will enjoy. As an avid writer, I enjoy writing weekly blog posts that I believe will either be enjoyable reads for my readers, will attract new followers, and/or will be beneficial to readers and aspiring authors in some way, shape or form (i.e. writing tips, promotional tips, etc.) and these weekly posts do not necessarily take away from my creative writing process. With that said, it’s important to note that my promotional plan was tailored to my personal and professional needs, which was dictated by my ability to have time to write only one blog post a week. There are many authors out there that either write posts every other day, with some writing daily. If that is driving their sales, then it is definitely worth the work. But if it is not or the verdict is still out on impact on sales, then perhaps that is time not well spent.

Since I want the most exposure for my debut novel as possible, I decided to sign up for a virtual blog tour as a way to officially launch Sweetest Taboo. To keep the momentum going, I also decided to run a virtual blog tour of ‘heavier hitting’ blogs during the month of November. I decided to try out two main providers: Goddess Fish Promotions (October 2012) Pump Up Your Book (November 2012).

The virtual blog tours will be very effective and likely to be the key book-marketing tool at my disposal. Virtual blog tours are, by far, the best way for an independent author to achieve maximum exposure to a newly released book. As an independent author, I don’t have the fund accounts and marketing expertise that publishing houses make available to their authors, so I do believe that achieving maximum exposure to potential readers through a series of virtual blog tours will be crucial to the success of my debut novel.

Guest post by Eva Márquez. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, daughter of European immigrants, Eva Márquez has spent most of her life outside of her home country. At the age of five, Eva accompanied her parents to the United States, where the family settled permanently. After graduating from university, she went on to complete graduate studies in International Relations in Spain. Eva received her Master of International Studies degree from the University of Sydney and went on to work in the global health field in Sub Saharan Africa and South East Asia. Eva currently resides in Southern Africa.

Links:
www.SweetestTabooBook.com (website AND blog)
www.facebook.com/Sweetest.Taboo.YA.Book (FB Book page)
@EvaAuthor (Twitter)
www.goodreads.com/eva_marquez (GoodReads)
http://youtu.be/flff2TcA4AQ (Official Book Trailer on YouTube)




Eva will award a Kindle touch to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour, and a swag pack of goodies to one commenter at each stop. She'll award a $25 Amazon GC to one randomly drawn host.

So I encourage you to follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://www.goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/08/virtual-book-tour-sweetest-taboo-by-eva.html

6 Comments

  1. Goddess Fish Promotions25 October 2012 at 11:59

    Thank you for hosting today.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rita Wray25 October 2012 at 17:16

    Wow, a lot of work goes into promoting a book. Good luck Eva, I hope it's a huge success.

    Kit3247(at)aol(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous25 October 2012 at 18:00

    This is a great post that I am sure upcoming authors would love to read! Thanks for sharing.

    chrysrawr@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. MomJane25 October 2012 at 19:43

    I wish you much luck with your books, all of them. This tour has been interesting. I would never have heard of you or your book if I hadn't seen your tour.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unknown25 October 2012 at 20:02

    I love your thought on book promotion. I would agree that daily blogging would be too much unless it is something that you really enjoy doing and not considered a daily task you must do. I think I would rather hear from authors more from time to time when they have something special to share then constantly

    fencingromein at hotmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
  6. bn10026 October 2012 at 01:11

    Very informative post.

    bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com

    ReplyDelete

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