I ran across this article, 11 Things Not to Do Before Your Book Launch by M.J. Rose, last month. I’m not promoting her book because I haven’t read it, but these 11 tips are pretty good. Go read them, then come back here. I’ll wait.
One of the tips that I feel strongly about and regularly expound from a soapbox is this one:
10. Don’t put the “buy the book” links on an inside page of your website where no one can see them or hide them in a corner — it should never take more than 2 seconds for someone to figure out how to buy your book. It is not crass to make it clear how to buy the book that no one has ever heard of before and that you are trying to sell.
I spend a lot of time tracking down fiction by LDS authors for this site and trying to find links to author websites or blogs. When I do finally find a site, often there is NO—as in zip, zilch, nada— information about their book(s) on it!
That just makes my brain stutter.
I know I mention this a lot, but seriously, from the number of authors who are doing this wrong, I need to mention it AGAIN.
Don’t make it so hard to find out about your books!
Put cover images in the sidebar.
Add links to Amazon or Deseret Book or some place where the books can be purchased.
Make a post or a page with a large cover image, backliner text and other information to intrigue your reader, and put a link to it prominently in the sidebar or menu tab!
Seriously, with the ease of ebooks and self-publishing now, it’s a crowded field, and even more important that you do the minimal requirements to let people know that your book exists.
Great article! Thanks! I’m going to be adding my book cover, links to buy it, and the first chapter to my website. I already have it on my blog, but have discovered from my stats that my website has a better readership.
I love the tips to not become so enamored of your own talent and to not think that the day you launch your book everyone will be lining up to buy it. Reminds me of every young LDS girl’s fantasy that the day she turns 16 all the cutest boys will be lined up at her door to take her on a date.
Trying to gain visibility is really hard when there are so many books out there. I’ve decided to wait until my book has some more reviews before I really try to promote it so that potential readers can see what others have said about it (hopefully good things so that doesn’t backfire on me 🙂 ).
I find it harder to promote my books than to write them and I don’t like feeling like the infamous used car salesman trying to push my books, but if I don’t do something they will just fade away into anonymity. Fine line, I guess.