Digital publishing has made the publishing process much easier for an author to publish on their own. If you’re an author, you can now focus your attention on your writing without worrying about what you’ll do with your work afterward. However, for people to find and read your story, you will have to do some promoting to let them know about it. Promotion is really what traditional publishing companies do. They’re successful because they have processes in place that they have fine-tuned for many years.
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And that’s the secret to promoting well, having a process for it. To do it yourself, it should be a part of everything else you do. Here are some ideas of ways to integrate some promotion during the writing and publishing process:
- Write – As you do research or get ideas for your story, explore concepts you come across by talking to people about it, either via online forums or by attending related events. Why not make the whole process a journey and start a blog about it.
- Talk about it – Before your story is finished, give a sneak peak with a summary of what it’s about and post it to your site or online profiles. Or find blogs and user forums that might be interested in your idea.
- Publish – Once you have your story ready, send review copies to zines or blogs that would be interested in your kind of story and would post a review about it. Make sure it’s easy to point people to buy it; the Indie Aisle marketplace can help with that.
- Interact – Setup events either in-person or online on forums or via a live chat to interact with people who want to talk about your story; hold contests; find niche websites that might be interested in your genre and would want to interview you.
- Repeat
While there are many ways you can promote, you ultimately figure out what works and doesn’t along the way. As you continue to do it, you improve and figure out your own process. And by using tools on the web, you’re on the same playing field as publishing companies. Here are some ways to get started online:
- Start using social media networks
- Keep links of relevant websites you can submit to
- Regularly check and participate on blogs and discussion forums
- Keep track of contacts you make that can help you later on
- Experiment with techniques and keep notes of outcomes
You enjoy writing because it’s a creative process, so use the same formula for promoting: be creative and have fun with it!