Totally Free Ways To Promote Your Self-Published Work:

 

First published 12th Sept2022

 So, you’ve written your book and uploaded the eBook to Amazon KDP. You’ve sat back and waited, and nobody’s bought a single copy yet. Okay, what went wrong, and what can you do to fix it?

If you decide to continue as a self-published author, here are a few tips to help get you started without spending a single penny.

Develop an Online Presence:

Do you have a website? When starting out, I wouldn't go throwing money at a flashy multi-page site with a dotcom domain name. All you need is a landing page to begin with, telling people a little bit about yourself and your work. You can use a free Wordpress site for this, as long as you have a page where people can find you. You can also create a blog, if you have the time and the inclination. With luck and good content, you may well build up a following; some of whom may decide to buy your book.

Offer Multiple Formats:

Firstly, if you have only uploaded an eBook version of your book, go into your KPD account and make a paperback version available. It doesn't cost you anything to format a paperback or a hardback, and for a lot of people, being able to get a hard copy of a book appears more professional than just having an eBook on there (even if they end up buying the eBook version when they finally click the ‘buy’ button), and of course, if you have a hard copy of your book, you can show it to potential customers without having to keep playing around with a phone or laptop. Also, there are still people out there who prefer to read an actual book.



When Putting Out Your Hard-copy Versions:

At Brindle, we usually use 5x8 inch for paperbacks and 6x9 inch for hardback versions of the same book. Have a look at the various options on Amazon to decide which template you want to use. Just copy and paste the text of your original manuscript into one of those but remember to check what pages your chapters start on and then check again once you've saved the document as a PDF. After it's been saved as a PDF, there shouldn't be any movement of text even when you've uploaded to Amazon (but check the entire document on Amazon's previewer, just to be on the safe side).



Formatting Your Book Covers:

For book covers, I use a program called Scribus (it's a free desktop publishing program), if you type into Google (or whichever search engine you use) 'Scribus Free Download', you should find it without too much trouble. It can take a little getting used to, but it produces pretty good results, especially for a free program.



Of course, you don’t have to design your own book covers. Even without spending any money. If you’re trying to put out your book without spending any money at all on it, using Amazon KDP’s own cover creation tools can produce results, but you’ll still have to provide the artwork if you want a standout cover.

ISBN Numbers:

As a small Publishing House, Brindle Books buy ISBN numbers in bulk so that they can be assigned to new releases as we put them out. If you buy individual ISBN numbers, however, the cost can really mount up. If you are going to self-publish without going to all the trouble of setting up your own publishing company, I'd even be tempted to let Amazon assign the ISBN number.



Free Press Releases:

Do a bit of publicity for the book, starting with some press releases. We've used paid press releases and so far, have found that they haven't been cost effective - the sales of the book we pushed haven't increased enough to cover the fees for the paid press release. There are some free press release companies out there though.

We mainly use PRLog.org to put out free press releases, (although, I do believe that you need to have a business email address to set up an account with them). Don't stop at PR Log though. There are many free press release sites out there.

Here’s a link to our own page on PRLog.org:

Brindle Books Ltd - Latest News - BrindleBooksLtd | PRLog


If you type the words ‘Free Press Release Sites’ into your search engine of choice, you will find countless articles listing them.

It’s also worth sending out a press release (with the offer of a free review copy) directly to a few local news outlets, such as your local Newspapers, Radio and TV Stations. Try to find out the name of someone at the publication who deals with things like book releases (usually a quick polite phone call will get you this information).

Free Book Promotion Sites:

Next, get your book listed on some book promotion sites. Again, use the free sites rather than paid ones, as with a lot of these sites, paying them is just like throwing money down the drain. Try Selfpublist, awesome gang, and Best Book Monkey, all of which are free.

Links for free book promotion sites:

Selfpublist: Selfpublist

Awesome Gang:Awesome Gang – Where Awesome Book Readers Meet Awesome Writers

Best Book Monkey: Best Book Monkey - Book Deals & Promos: Email • Website • Social Media (sur.ly)

Many people recommend signing up to Goodreads as a Goodreads author (it's free), and interacting there with readers, so that people review your book. You might also find it worth gifting a few copies to friends and colleagues and letting them know how important Amazon reviews are to a writer, in the hope that they will put one on there.

Goodreads: Goodreads | Meet your next favorite book

Choose The Right Keywords on Amazon:

There are countless articles for writers on the subject of choosing the right Keywords and Categories for your books, and countless tools out there to help you in this endeavour. Some of these tools are free and some or not.

Until you have seen an increase in sales from your keyword research, I would recommend starting off using only free resources. Some great advice on keywords, and indeed, most aspects of self-publishing can be obtained from kindlepreneur. They do offer paid resources, but also some which are free and very useful. For instance, their Kindle Sales Rank Calculator can be accessed for free, and can give you a very useful insight into roughly how many copies certain books on Amazon are selling, based on their sales rank.

Telling People Where to Find Your Book:

Don’t forget to put direct links to the book’s Amazon sales page in any correspondence and share it to social media. If you use a platform that doesn’t allow clickable links, a picture of the QR code for the book’s sales page can at least make it easier to find for potential customers.

QR Codes Straight to Your Book’s Sales Page:

Remember that it’s human nature to be lazy. When you’re telling people about how great your book is, do you tell them the name of it and hope that they’ll remember it and go looking on Amazon when they get a minute? They won’t! Most people will have forgotten the conversation by the time they get home.

It would cost you practically nothing to have the books details ready on a pre-printed piece of paper (you can do that at home if you have even the most rudimentary computer and printer).

What would be even better, in terms of getting engagement, would be a slip of paper containing the book title, author name and the QR Code that will take a potential buyer straight to the book’s Amazon Sales page. The idea here is to remove as many steps as possible in between your potential buyer being told about your book and being able to buy your book.

Here are a couple of example QR Codes:








Keep Writing:

Lastly, the best advert for your book is your next book, so, hopefully you're working on your next project already. Don't just sit there worrying about whether your nest book will be as good as your last; just get on with it. Always remember: “Don’t get it right – get it written!”

In Summary:

Although none of these methods will automatically ensure that your book becomes a best-seller, they will all help your book reach a wider audience and, therefore, increase the potential for sales.

There is, of course, no substitute for producing the best quality work that you can and providing a product that your potential audience will value.