Since Bat Boy was published a couple of months back, I've been wracking my brains on how to promote the damn thing. I seem to be stuck in a marketing limbo. Bat Boy was published by an independent publishing house which doesn't have a budget for promoting their titles, so the responsibility lies squarely on my own shoulders. Unfortunately my own marketing budget consists of a plastic container full of 5p pieces.
Browse the web and there are tons of websites that are happy to review and promote indie ebooks, but Bat Boy is paperback only - sending out review copies is bloody expensive, so I have to be really selective. But the big boys (regional newspapers and national mags) almost exclusively review the 'big name' paperbacks, sent in by the major publishers. Short of stalking Richard and Judy, I'm a bit stumped on how to get decent coverage. I've tried all the same, but have experienced Torres levels of success so far.
I've contacted and done interviews with local papers, but need more coverage to start selling copies. Even my charity appeal, donating 25% of my royalties to the RNIB, doesn't seem to be helping. So, has anyone out there had a paperback published and managed to successfully promote it, on a tiny budget?
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I've noticed that quite a few authors and publishers run draws/competitions with a signed copy of their books as prizes (I often link to the competitions on my blog) Can't say how effective this is in increasing sales, but at least it's not terribly expensive - just the cost of the book plus postage.
ReplyDeleteForgive me if you've tried these but what about contacting your local library or schools to see if they would let you give a talk, and sell some books afterwards? Does the RNIB have a charity catalogue that they would consider promoting the book in, or some other way they could help you promote it?
ReplyDeleteHmm, a competition is a great idea - then it's just a case of spreading the word about the comp. I guess the best way to do that would be on blogs, forums etc?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely considered contacting our local library, my only barrier is paranoia - I can see myself turning up to do a reading, and my entire audience being a bored pensioner and the cleaner. I need to give the RNIB another shot. They promoted it internally when I contacted them before, but it'd be great to be featured in their newsletter or something.