A lot of authors feel that once they have finished writing a novel, they have put in the hard work and now they deserve to sit back and reap the rewards.

Yes?

Well, no actually.

After a book is written and edited and formatted, and checked, and triple checked, once the cover is designed and agreed on, the back cover piece is written, and added, and the dedication is finished. That is when the hard work really begins.

Marketing your book is vital.

Even if you have a huge budget and a big hitting publisher behind you, you have to get involved. You must work the circuit, visit the bookstores, sign and smile. You must do interviews and sit for hours in draft filled halls answering potential readers’ questions. No matter how big an author you are, the rules are the same. Promote your work, promote yourself, and get some sales.

If you are an unknown author this is even more important. Amazon has on average 7500 new books uploaded to Kindle every day (fact curtesy of justpublishingadvice.com), and yours will get lost in that sea of words. If you have a publisher that is helping with promotion, they can only do so much. Readers do not know that you exist, and you must show them that you are not only an author but a good one, as they have no basis for comparison. You must get your book under their noses, get reviews, get your voice, face and book cover out into the public consciousness. No interview is too small, no blog too unknown. If three people listen to the podcast, it is three people that did not know about you before, and who may talk about you or your book to others.

Write a little press release and send it to every local paper, radio or Facebook page. Use every contact that you have, do not be embarrassed to blow your own trumpet.

Then send the press release to any place even slightly related to the book, places mentioned, places that might want to promote your work.

Is it a book for kids? Try schools, pre-schools, mother and baby groups. Is it about a horse? Look for stables that could recommend it on their websites. Does it mention magic or the supernatural? Look for local magic shops, historical sites that are listed as haunted, they often have onsite shops, ghostbusting groups that would be interested in the book or might mention it on their website. The most important thing is to promote the angles, all of them. These can come in many forms, did you work on the book while you moved house or had a baby? Add that into the press release to show what a hard worker you are and to emphasis the struggle you had to get the book into print. Do you have a personal interest in a character, are they like you? Were you bullied like them? Did you have an annoying little sister? Did you write the book to help others in a bad situation or to highlight something? Think about every facet of your novel. Who might read it and why? Then aim your marketing in that direction. Some authors have been known to do crazy stunts to help promote their books, one well known author used actors to read their books in public places and laugh out loud as people passed by. It got people talking, so it worked. Another had a book that was only available for a few weeks and then it self-destructed (deleted itself from the device). Stunts can work, but so can original launch party ideas. A spooky book could have a launch event at a haunted house with a medium on hand and ghost walks in between readings. A book about fairies could be launched in the woods with people dressed as fairies and dolls dressed up and hidden in the branches to delight the young attendees, you can have fun stuff to do, and crafts based around the books theme. Anything to get people talking, buying and sharing your work.

So, if you have a book out there, take another look at it, could you be doing more? And if you are a reader, maybe look for an unknown author to pick up and read today, you could discover a diamond in the rough.