Assuming there are no real followers, how are you supposed to promote your eBook?
So he’s finally finished uploading his book to KDP, D2D, etc., and now he wants the world to know about his literary masterpiece. Unfortunately, for most brand new writers, their following of loyal readers is a chicken egg. Zero. Any. 0. How are you going to tell the world all the funny jokes that have occurred to you in the last month? There are ways, however, it will take a little longer than sending a message to your email list or thousands of Twitter followers.
Suppose for a moment that you want to continue doing this for more than one detour. What you will have to do is go to Mailchimp or any other mail service and set up a mailing list. Details in the next chapter.
Let’s also assume that you go with KDP Select on Amazon, so you have 5 days in which you can price your book at 99 for free. For a beginner, this is the best time to promote your book and get it in as many hands as you do. may. Note that you can do this every 90 days, so you can increase your book 4 times a year to get more reviews and people on your mailing list.
Find a relevant subreddit:
If you’ve ever been online in the last decade of your life, I’ll put in whatever money you’ve heard from Reddit before. If you haven’t, it’s where all the funny Facebook images start before they’re brought back as original content in your newsfeed, and where all of Buzzfeed gets its “inspiration.”
What you will need to do is search there for subreddits, which are basically individual communities with user-generated content. You have to let the world know your fantastic knock-knock jokes, so some relevant subreddits you could post on might be:
- Parenting, for all struggling single mothers who need to calm their children in some way
- Jokes, because it’s a joke book. Definitely.
- Desktop publishing, because you did it!
- And the countless e-book promotion pages
What you don’t want to do is spam their subreddit with your masterpiece. Explain in your presentation why it is something they would want or need. If you are using the free 5-day KDP Select promotion, be sure to include it in the title of our shipment. People love free stuff.
There are numerous Twitter identifiers that only promote free e-books. What I suggest you do is compile a list of as many as you can, and when your 5-day free giveaway starts, spam them. It would include a list of Twitter identifiers that you try, but are constantly in and out of activity, so look for free e-books. It may seem like a bad tactic, but you should retweet them to improve visibility. You might lose a few followers in the process, but those people were just trying to take you down anyway. Forget them.
This is where things can get pretty juicy pretty quickly. The first thing you’ll want to do is find and join e-book groups. Many of these people are hoarders and just want books, but they will also help you with your ranking so that people who really want to read your book can find them more easily. Like Twitter, these groups go in and out of activity, so you will have to do some searches yourself. When you are in these groups, the first, third and fifth day of your free promotion post in all groups where your eBook is free. Also find relevant Facebook pages and post them on your walls. Don’t spam in any way, make sure the pages are relevant to your book.
Also, on the first day of the free giveaway, post on your personal Facebook page promoting the book. Friends and family are more likely to read it and give positive reviews. Just don’t ask for reviews, it’s supposedly in bad taste to ask for positive reviews from family. Let them do it themselves.
So it’s the second day of your promotion and you’re getting literally dozens of Facebook messages from friends and family saying how great it is that you wrote a book. What happens next is that you publicly thank them for helping you. That is all. Mark your name in the thank you message and wait.
Why? Because people like recognition, and they will post your message on their walls too. That means there are more eyes on your book, with more people seeking recognition for helping a friend. Makes sense?
The next day, you will have literally dozens of messages, repeating the process. They will probably also leave you positive reviews which are always a bonus.
Message board
So you’re really into knock-knock jokes, so you’re in dozens of message books with people telling knock jokes. If you’re an active hobbyist, with a history of good publishing, no one should be looking at you promoting your free books. What you don’t want to do is join random message boards and your first post will be on how you got this great book, they should check it out. No no no no no. That’s a good way to get kicked out entirely, and depending on the community, you may be persecuted and given negative reviews of your book.
Think out of the box
Find other ways to promote your book. Rent a blimp and advertise that way. Hand out flyers or create business cards for your book. Do something risky and see if it works. Doing so will only work once before people copy it, but then you can write about your experiences with guerilla / viral marketing.