People often say that the hardest part about having self-published a book is the actual writing process. I beg to differ. The hardest part of having self-published a book is having to continue marketing it.
Many authors make the mistake of thinking that all they have to do is put the book out there and they are done. This isn’t so. If you want to actually make some money with your self-published book you’re going to have to start thinking like a marketer.
Here are just a few of the ways you can market your product when you’ve self-published a book.
Live video.
When Periscope was all the rage, I made sure to use to sell my book. One of the things I would do was explain different chapters of the book via live stream.
Because of the very nature of Periscope and it’s connection to Twitter, my book started being exposed to an entirely new audience.
Now I do the same thing but with Facebook Live. I do something called Make Money Your Honey Monday where I answer reader questions and go over some of the stuff in my book.
Partner up with other people.
When I self-published a book back in 2014, one of the things I did to market it was to partner up with other people in my niche. I literally sent out over 100 emails to influencers asking them if they’d be willing to share it on social media.
Another way I was able to market my self-published book was by partnering up with other influencers in my niche and teaching joint teleclasses. This helped me not only create some buzz as I was in the process of self-publishing a book, but it exposed my work in real time. Because people had gotten a taste of my teaching in a teleclass, they were more likely to actually purchase my book.
Give away free copies every once in a while.
I’ve often times said how books are better than business cards. I’ve gotten freelance writing clients simply because I’ve slipped the editor a copy of my book. I’ve gotten coaching clients because I met someone who could use my book and I gave it to them for free.
I’ve also run promotions on Amazon where I give my book away for free once a year, usually around the anniversary of it’s publication. If I’m looking to increase my readership I’ll do a giveaway of copies of my book.
The reality is these books don’t cost me a whole lot to print thanks to printing on-demand services like CreateSpace, so I always make sure to have copies on me in case I feel the need to give one away. If I end up getting a new client because of it then I’ve made my investment back many times over.
Final Thoughts
Writing a book is one of the best things you can do to establish yourself as an expert in your niche, and you no longer have to wait for the backing of a publisher to get your work out there and make some money. However, the work doesn’t stop once you’ve self-published a book, it only just begins.
