There are thousands of authors and poets who have spent years writing their book, or putting their poetry collection together, and then a great deal of money self-publishing it, but not a single minute of their time, or a single penny thereafter promoting it. And then they disappointed and wonder why no one buys their book! Despite what many self-publishers think, you can't just publish a book and expect it to miraculously sell! Therefore, a few months before your book is due for release, you should start preparing your marketing and promotional strategy, and build an online platform for your book.

Domain names

When buying your domain name, if available, try to have just your name as the domain name, (for example: www.YOURNAME.com), rather than www.AuthorYOURNAME.com. This is because your name will be much easier to remember as a website than 'author' and then your name. If you have your name as an author's website, then also buy the domains of your book's title and have it pointing to your author's website. Again, this makes searching for your book a lot easier. Domains cost very little (and are sometimes free with website hosting packages) so they are worth having, even if just to secure your name and book title!

Websites

Every author should have his or her own website! And it is very important that you set up your website a couple of months prior to publishing your book. If you are one of these authors who don't want to spend any money on your book, there are lots of free website hosting service and platforms where you can set up a website completely free of charge. However, be cautious because businesses are not charities and therefore need to make a profit, pay overheads, staff etc. so many free website hosting services do this by displaying adverts on your website - some of which might not be appropriate to your book, or not represent you as an author very well. Also, many of these free website hosting services are quite limited in what they offer you (because it's free), and your website will usually be a sub-domain of the server's, for example: www.YOURNAME.freehosting.com. This can make finding your website difficult, as well as making it hard to remember and recommend. Plus ... it also doesn't look very professional! On top of this, some companies who offer you free hosting for a year, then lock you into their platform and, when the time comes for you to renew, charge you an above average fee because you will have no where else to go.

Other reasons for not choosing free website hosting are: 

• Limited or no website building tools.
• Limited or no WordPress (WordPress requires a little more resources than most free website services can offer).
• Websites load at very low speeds (because many free website hosting providers put hundreds of websites sharing the same server).
• Low credibility among your users.
• Very limited design choices.
• No help or customer support service.
• No contact forms or email forwarding facilities.

Plus, if free website hosting services doesn't make any money, they'll fold (like any business), taking your website with them! Paid for website hosting services start from just a few pounds/dollars a month, and many also include free domain registration, so it really isn't worth all the hassle that could come with trying to save a few pounds/dollars a month on a free website. Plus, paying this small amount also gives you access to 24/7 support, a dedicated website for your domain, and an overall better service. Plus paid-for services are ad-free! Try to use a well-established website hosting company too, as they are less likely to fold taking your website with them!

A lot of authors say: “I already have a free Facebook page, so why do I need a website too?” … Because you do! They are completely different, plus the more platforms you use to promote your book, the more exposure it gets.

Once you have your website (either an author's website, or your book's website), you will need to either build it yourself using the website tools provided by the website hosting service, or have someone do it for you. Doing it yourself is a better option, as you can update it, amend it and add to it any time without any extra cost (for example book release date, press coverage, media links, reviews etc.,). If you need someone to build a website for you, depending of course upon the amount of content, the cost of setting up a two or three page website starts from around £200.00 (GBP)/$250.00 (USD), plus any hourly fees updating it thereafter.

Everyone loving literature loves to know about the writers and poets they read, so it is important to make people interested in you, your life, and your book/s, so there are a number of important things you should add to your website to develop interest including:

• Your book's front cover, ISBN and ordering instructions.
• A few poems or extracts from your book for people to read.
• Your writers' biography or About You page.
• Images of you, book launch, book readings etc.
• Quotes about your book.
• Links to all your social media accounts.
• Links to any press or media coverage.
• Links to book reviews.
• Your contact details.
• Link to Amazon Associates programme.

You must remember to add a favicon (an icon associated with a particular website, typically displayed in the address bar of a browser accessing the site, or next to the site name in a user's list of bookmarks), tag words and site description wording for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO targets unpaid traffic rather than direct traffic or paid traffic, and is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines.

Also, set up an Amazon Associates program, and link it to your books. Amazon Associates helps content creators, publishers and bloggers monetise their traffic, and for each sale you get via the Amazon Associates link on your website, you'll get a extra small payment.

Amazon Author's Page

Every author should have an Amazon Author Page too! The best way to find your author page on Amazon is to act like a reader; search for one of your books on Amazon, and click on your name or pen name on the book page. This will take you to your author page as readers see it. If you want to edit what appears on your page, log in using your Amazon account - Amazon Author Pages are linked to your Amazon KDP Publishing account. If you self-publish via KDP you will automatically have an Amazon Author Page. If you don't have an Amazon Author Page, but have published with another publisher or self-publishing platform, you can also add these books to your Amazon Author Page, and Amazon will ask your publisher for confirmation you are the author of the title you are registering. You can update your Amazon Author Page at any time, add new titles to your page, a writers' biography, videos and images, and share the most up-to-date information about yourself and your books with the millions of people who buy books at Amazon. People follow authors too, so when you release another book, they are automatically notified. 

SOCIAL MEDIA

You'd be surprised at how many self-publishers don't use use any form of social media to promote their book! Or refuse to. THE POET has lost count of the number of times a poet has said they don't use social media to promote their books. Whether you like social media or not, you must use it, as it is the only way you can very quickly reach a huge number of people around the world. Books are written about using social media, and degrees taken in it, so this is only a very brief overview for the novice poet or writer who wants to use social media for the first time, or to develop their online presence more:

Facebook

Facebook is a major player in the world of social networking and has over 2.8 billion monthly active users. Businesses looking to market their products and services using Facebook, have the 'Facebook Page' facility at their disposal. Facebook Pages are specifically designed for businesses, and provide a free, public home on Facebook for your brand or book, that allows you to publish content, and let you see comments and feedback from fans and customers.

Your book's Facebook page is linked to your personal Facebook page, so if you don't have a personal Facebook page, you have to form one before you set up your book's page, otherwise Facebook will see your personal page as a 'product' and take it down, which you really don't want to happen, especially if you have taken the time to build the page and its audience. You can, however, keep everything on your personal Facebook page completely private, even your profile and cover images, but Facebook won't set up a product's page without a personal page, so open a personal Facebook page first and then, from that, create your book's Facebook Page. 

There are two options when naming your book's Facebook page: 1). The title of the book or 2). YOUR NAME plus add 'author' or 'books' or 'poet' after it, for example YOURNAMEAuthor, or YOURNAMEbooks. This makes it easier for people to identify you as an author, poet or writer when searching for you or your book's page on Facebook, especially if you have a common name. Once you have set up your book's Facebook page, make sure you add a handle, for example @YOURNAME, so your Facebook's website page reads: www.Facebook.com/YOURNAME, otherwise you will just have a page number, for example: www.Facebook.com/12345678910, which cannot be searched and no one will remember.

Once you have set up your page, add your book cover as your profile picture (set it out with a space around the cover enabling the full cover to be seen). You'll need a cover picture too – maybe a book signing image, or an image of you seated with a pile of your books. Or you could add praise for the book, or a quote from it. But remember; you'll need it as an image file. Zamzar and Online Convert are good file converter websites that will convert word documents and pdfs to image files. You might have to crop images so they fit into the allocated spaces on your book's Facebook page. Once your page is set up, you will then have to invite all your Facebook friends to LIKE or FOLLOW the page by clicking on the 'invite Friends' button. They will then receive notifications of your posts, and immediately see what you have posted. You can add extracts from your book to your Facebook page, as well as praise, quotes from your book, book events, book signings, videos of you reciting from the book, and links to any media coverage you might have, for example magazine interviews, book reviews and author profile features. It is important to update your page with new posts regularly too, and try to encourage your friend's to share your posts onto their walls.

Instagram

Instagram is a free photo and video sharing app, so all your postings will have to be as an image or video. People can upload photos or videos to Instagram, and share them with their followers, or with a select group of friends. They can also view, comment and like posts shared by their friends on Instagram. Instagram is now owned by Facebook so you can sync between the two, and whenever you post to one, it automatically posts to the other. Once you have set up your Instagram account, as with a Facebook page, you must then invite all your 'friends' to Follow the page. You can add extracts from your book, praise, quotes, (in image/video formats only) book event images, event posters, videos of you reading from the book, book signings posters, media coverage etc. Posting on Instagram should also including adding hashtags to the bottom of the wording of your post, which means your post will then be seen by the hundreds, if not thousands of people following these pages too. As with Facebook, you must update your page regularly, so that people continue to see new posts, and you must encourage your friends to share your posts onto their profiles.

X (formerly known as Twitter)

Twitter is an online news and social networking platform, where people communicate by posting short messages called tweets. Tweet size is limited, so you have to consider carefully what you post. Again, like Instagram and Facebook, you need to encourage people to follow you, and in doing so they will instantly receive the tweets you post. When people follow you, etiquette calls for you to follow them back. People send tweets for all sorts of reasons from sharing their thoughts and experiences, to promoting their books, website, company or products. You can Tweet extracts from your book, links to media appearances, news about book events etc. Twitter is about building a following of people who are interested in you and your work, and is a good way to build personal connections with your readers. X can now be synced with Instagram and Facebook too, and you can instantly share your tweets onto these platforms. However, as with all social media, to keep traffic flowing, you must post regularly!

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network on the internet. It's like one big virtual business networking event! All authors and self-publishers should be on LinkedIn, as it is a great platform to connect with other authors, writers, poets, industry professionals and publishers - but not necessarily readers. At LinkedIn, you network with people by adding them as 'connections,' similar to how you'd make a friend request on Facebook. You can converse via private message (or available contact information), and you can have all of your professional experience and achievements laid out in a neatly organized profile to show off to other users. In general, if you know how to use Facebook or other similar social network platforms, you should be fine using LinkedIn. Features on LinkedIn can include: your personal profile showing your name, your photo, your location and your occupation. You can also add the books you have published (LinkedIn will automatically find them from your ISBN and link to Amazon), There's a My Network section, where you'll find a list of all the professionals you're currently connected with on LinkedIn, and you can follow certain interests on LinkedIn as well. You can also post News updates which everyone you are connected to will see. Also, like other social networks, LinkedIn will let you know when you've been endorsed by someone, invited to join something, or welcomed to check out a post you might be interested in.

YouTube

YouTube is an online video sharing and social media platform. Owned by Google, it is the second most visited website, after Google Search. Videos on YouTube cover every conceivable topic, theme and subject, and a large number of authors and publishers now use YouTube for their book trailers and to promote their books. A book trailer is like a movie trailer but for books; it uses a variety of multimedia to compel the viewer to read the book. Book trainers can be as simple as you reading an extract of your book, to the use of images, sounds, video, animation, music and words, but it has to be captivating, engaging and, most importantly persuasive! There are lots of videos on YouTube about how to make a book trailer, and lots of examples of book trainers for you to follow. There's also software that you can download help making your own book trailer easier, or you can pay for a video creator to make one for you. Because your book is a one-off release, you don't have to post regularly on YouTube as you do with the other social media platforms, but you do need to use your other social media platforms to direct people to look at your book trailer on YouTube. Plus, YouTube will keep tabs on how many views you have had.

Blog

A blog is an online journal where an individual, group, or corporation presents a record of thoughts, beliefs or activities, and for authors, blogs can be used to advertise their book releases, discuss their books, and a platform for two-way communication with consumers. In a nutshell, blogs offer ordinary individuals the ultimate soapbox, and an opportunity to create their own digital identity or personal brand. Some blogs operate mainly as news filters, collecting various online sources and adding short comments and Internet links, while other blogs concentrate on presenting original material. In addition, many blogs provide a forum to allow visitors to leave comments and interact with the writer or publisher. So, for example, you can use your blog to discuss extracts from your book; motivations and inspirations behind your words. You can also add images, audio, and videos. When people follow your blog they will get notification when you post something new. The key is to get people (your readership) to follow your blog, and to make the content interesting enough for other people to want to read. Of course, as with all the above, getting people to follow your blog and regularly updating it is essential for maintaining its presence and importance. Some blog websites are completely free to use, others need a paid server to host your blog. But again, if using a free blog website, like free website hosting services, they need to generate an income from somewhere, so you'll likely have advertisements and joined domains, for example: www.YOURNAME.Blogger.com

Goodreads

An important forum for self-publishers is Goodreads. It enables you to have an author's profile with details about your book/s. You can also link your blog to your Goodreads page. Goodreads also allows you create events such as book launches or readings, book tours and author appearances, as well as engaging with readers and discuss your book.

NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES, RADIO AND TELEVISION

As well as social media, another very good way of marketing and promoting your book is via the so-called 'traditional' media: newspapers, magazines, radio and television. This can be in the form of an interview with you, or a feature about your book, or a book review. When approaching 'traditional' media, don't just blanket send out information about your book to everyone and anyone hoping someone might pick it up, because most likely they won't and it will be a complete waste of your time! Therefore, whether it is a radio station or glossy magazine, it is important that you find a connection or angle to approach the media as a way of getting your foot in the door of the editor. For example: you are an author local to the region, or your book focuses on locations within the region e.g. a book of poetry about Yorkshire. And local radio stations are always looking for local content to fill their shows. 

Also look at the subjects contained within the book, or general themes surrounding the book, and try to find a connection with the appropriate media to them; for example, if your poetry is about mental health, approach magazines and media specific to this theme. Spend a little time identifying newspapers, magazines, radio and television specific to you, your book and its contents, and explore the various angles you can approach them. Once you have identified media and the editors, you will need to send them a professional looking Press Release and email introduction.

Press releases & letter of introduction

Your press release should look as professional as possible, and include:

• The book's cover (as a high-res image).
• The blurb (back cover wording and/or description),
• Information about yourself and / or your writer's biography.
• A good quality portrait picture of yourself (as a high-res image).
• A few quotes from people having read your book, or praise for the book
• The book's ISBN, price, and ordering instructions.
• Your contact, website and social media details.

It might also be a good idea to include a few extracts from your book with your press release too. Along with your Press Release, you will also need a letter or email of introduction which you should adapt to the different media outlets and publications appropriate to the angle or connection to you and/or the book. Always list your attached files, for example:

Attached:

1. Press Release

2. Manuscript

3. Front Cover image (300 dpi)

4. Author image (300 dpi)

5. Extracts from the title

And always make sure you actually attached the files listed!

Make sure too, that your press release and email is proofread, and doesn't contain any typos or spelling mistakes – you are a writer approaching people who write for a living, so make sure it is perfect! You may be fluent in English, but if English isn't your native language there are bound to be mistakes and grammatical errors, so find a native English speaking happy to take a quick look.

Book reviews

Getting your book reviewed by a literary publication or platform can be quite challenging, as they get sent hundreds of books every month to review and yet are only able to review a tiny fraction. A good review however can boost sales significantly, (although a bad review could do the complete opposite!). But if you want your book reviewed, then it is still always best (unless stated otherwise on their website) to send a hard copy to the reviewer rather than just a e-book. Sending reviewers a hard copy increases the chances of your book being read - no one throws a book away (well … almost no one), but everyone swiftly deletes unwanted emails, so make sure you keep aside a number of copies just for this purpose!. A good book review, whether local or international, will more than cover the £2 or £3 pounds (dollars) cost price of your book. Send your press release alongside your book and a covering letter too, addressed to the editor, and amended and edited according to the publication you are sending it to.

Platform reviews

Book reviews are a great way to get people to look for your title in bookshops or on Amazon, but then people have to buy it! So make sure friends, family, and any literary connections buying your book leaves a good review at Amazon and/or the other platforms. A book with 5-star reviews are much more likely to be bought than one with just 1-star reviews.

Community networking

Contact community centres, charities, organisations and local libraries and offer to give a talk about your book or its contents. You can also talk about your world as a novelist, writer or poet, your motivations behind your book, and even your journey as a self-publisher. These organisations almost always have guest speakers on all sorts of subjects – even your local village library would probably have a guest speaker every so often. There are hundreds of these organisations in almost every town, city, county and region, everywhere in the world; the more you can talk about your book to, the more exposure your book will have. Plus always take a few copies with you to sell!

Book clubs and book readings

You can also offer to give readings and talks to your local book clubs or literary groups, and contact your local bookshops asking about literary events in the area – they generally have the heads-up with what's happening and where. You can also stage your own event; inviting friends, family, the local community etc. Although high-street bookshops mainly focus on best-selling authors as guest speakers (because they are the ones most likely to generate an income for the book shop), local and independent bookshops are often keen to have authors give talks and readings too, so make a list of all the bookshops in your area and contact them. However, you'll need to incentivize them with a percentage of sales from your book!