Ideas on Marketing your Book on a Budget
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Ideas on Marketing your Book on a Budget
Before you start marketing your book to the public it should be
available for them to acquire. Make sure that if a customer follows
your marketing efforts and goes to buy your book it is actually
available for them to purchase at that time.
Below are some ideas on how to market your book without spending a
fortune.
Business Cards
Have some business cards made up with your books information on them.
Your book's business card should have at least your book's title,
author and information on how to purchase it. If your book has an ISBN
number include that as well.
There are cheap and cheaper ways to do this depending on the method of
getting the cards made. Some options include:
Buying business card stock and printing the cards from your own
computer's printer.
Making a 10 up layout master with crop marks and taking them to a copy
shop like Kinko's and have them make copies onto card stock and trim
for you.
Taking your business card design to a printer and have them make the
cards for you.
A good place to get business cards professionally printed cheaply is
VistaPrint.com.
Here is an example of one method that I have used in the past:
I created a business card size image of the book cover for the front
of a business card. I then created another image with the information
about the book for the back of the business card. I saved a copy of
the two images onto my computer and went to VistaPrint's website. I
choose their "Upload your own business card" option. This allowed me
to upload the two images I had created and have the business card look
exactly how I wanted it to. I ended up getting 500 two sided business
cards with my own design for about 50 dollars. Click here to see an
image of the business card I ended up with.
You can get them cheaper from VistaPrint if you go with a smaller
amount or only print on one side of the card, etc. If you don't want
to spend that much you can get cards for free (must pay a small
shipping and handling charge) if you choose one of their predesigned
templates. You enter in your information and that information is
placed within their template. It is set up for a standard company
layout but you can enter in any text into any area they designate.
Instead of entering in "Company name" for example you could enter in
your book title there.
Where to hand them out:
Once you have your business cards you need to get them into the hands
of potential customers. Here are some ideas on what to do with them:
If you have a book signing event set up bring them with you and hand
them out to those that seem interested in your book. They can also be
used as bookmarks so hand them out as such.
Do you live in an apartment complex? If you do you likely have a mail
center where you go to pick up your mail and there is usually a
bulletin board there. See if you can place some of your cards there.
Is there a community center in your area? See about having your
business cards displayed there for people to pick up.
If you attend a church do they have a community center or bulletin
board where you may be able to place your business cards?
Keep a few of them at your desk at work.
Ask friends and family that live in other areas to do some of the
above for you as well.
You can buy magnetic card stock at an office supply store. If your
card is one sided you can turn your business cards into magnets and
either hand them out to people to use or place your card in places
that have a metal surface.
Website
You should have some sort of webpage to promote your book. While
registering your own domain for your book is the most effective you
can get a free web page using some of the free hosting services out
there. To find places that offer Free hosting do a search for "Free
Web Hosting" at Google.com. Often these hosting services will display
their own banner on your site and often contain pop up ads. You can
also sign up for a Book Listing on Self-Pub.net. When you do this you
will receive a web page URL for your book page. You can also check
with your Internet Service provider to see if you are given some web
space to use with your internet access account.
Use your book's webpage when marketing your book. Include the URL in
flyers, business cards, links etc. Find other authors who may also
have a website for their book and see if you can do a link exchange
with them.
Message Board Forum Signature
If you participate in online message board forums you can usually
create a signature that is displayed in every post you make. Place
information about your book in your signature. If you have a website
and/or an ISBN number for your book be sure to put that in the
signature as well.
T-Shirts, Hats. Mugs and other Merchandise
Have some merchandise made up with your book cover artwork and
information. Wear one of the shirts when you go out in public or make
any appearances to promote your book. Give some of the t-shirts out to
friends and family for them to wear. Give them a coffee mug to bring
to work where others may see it and ask about the book. Have a bumper
sticker or a car magnet made to place on your car. A good place to
have some of these items made is CafePress. You can open up a free
shop and upload the graphics you want on the merchandise. You can then
either buy the end result for yourself or make the store available for
others to purchase from. There is no minimum order to place, if you
desire you can design and order a single t-shirt from them and only
pay the cost of the single t-shirt. If you wish to order additional
merchandise at a later time you simply go back to your store and place
another order. For an example of some of the merchandise available
view the store for one of the books I self published here. Besides T-
Shirts, hats and mugs you can also have posters, stickers, postcards,
greeting cards and more made.
More Ideas
For other marketing ideas here are some books you may want to read:
Publicize Your Book!: An Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book the
Attention it Deserves
Jump Start Your Book Sales: A Money-Making Guide for Authors,
Independent Publishers and Small Presses