It can be easy to focus on the next release, and I certainly believe you need to keep up the writing momentum if you are intending to build a career out of writing, but what happens when the excitement of release day is over? Do you let your book and your name slip into oblivion? Well, obviously not. But you don't want to be spamming people with your link forever do you? And who has time to market all their books continually, especially those with a large backlist?
There are a few things you can do that won't take up a ton of time:
1. Contact a new blog to host/interview you at least once a week. Nominate a day to do so, if you have to. Hundreds of other authors and blogs will host you. All you need to do is find one new person a week. How long will that take you? A five minute email? A quick Google search? And if you're already friends with authors online, why not put out a little request and offer to host authors in return? One place you can find authors willing to host you is WLC who have a special forum for authors offering hosting spots. P.S. I also host all authors! Check out my tab at the top.
2. Create picture teasers for your books. People love pictures! Choose something simple and eye catching. A cool quote from a character is an awesome way of drawing attention. Put it on your social networks and your blog if you have one. If you don't have Photoshop, Gimp can be downloaded for free and used to put text across an image. Be careful choosing your images--you should not be using ones from Google search. If you don't want to pay for images, you can find free images on SXC or Morgue file. Some users on SXC ask to be credited, some do not. Be sure to check first. I favour SXC because their images are carefully monitored so tend to be high quality. And if you can, consider returning the favour. I have several castle photos up there for anyone to use with a link to my Facebook page.
3. Run a monthly giveaway. This could be as simple as giving away an ecopy of one of your titles or perhaps an ebook of the readers choice up to a certain value. This draws in new readers who may not have discovered your books yet.
4. Consider an anniversary blog tour. If your book has been out for a while, why not celebrate it's birthday using a tour company? There are many companies out there who will offer a simple blitz tour for around $20. It's a great way of getting your book across the internet and refreshing interest.
The two companies I have had great experiences with are My Family's Heart Book Reviews* and Goddess Fish. Both cater to all genres though Goddess Fish are slightly pricier due to their many years' experience in the field.
*Note I do provide banners for My Family's Heart Book reviews, but I have had huge successes with their blog tours.
That's it for this week! More on blog tours next week.
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