Giveaways, Author Talks and other Book Marketing Tips.

For self-published authors, it can be difficult to know how and where to market their books. Social media sites are the obvious choice, but there are other things an author can do to sell their books.

I am currently* running a book giveaway for my latest story - Xenure Station Trilogy and this is the poster to help promote both the competition and my books. The competition runs until 30 January 2022. This is one way to help promote a book and I added the cool LEGO spaceship to highlight the fact my story is a science fiction space drama.

A giveaway is a relatively inexpensive way to market your books. The costs involved are the prizes, postage, and any ads you use to promote it. The only thing to make sure of is that the Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) are correct. I used a lawyer to write mine up and I'm glad I did because now I can adjust them use again for any other giveaways I might run. Also, the T&Cs cover me against any complaints, not that I am anticipating any.

As this is the first competition I have run, I'm yet to know how it will go. I do hope my readers get into the spirit of this giveaway, which is one of fun and free books.

The other thing I am about to do to market my books is an author talk. I had three of these booked last year but due to #COVID and lockdowns, they were all canceled. I am in discussion with my local library and will be doing an event early next. This is exciting for me as it will give me a chance to meet my readers and receive feedback about my books.

I have attended author talks at various libraries and found them interesting. It's always nice to meet fellow authors and learn more about them and their writing process. I'll post more about my upcoming author talks when things are finalised.

Another form of author talk is book signings and store appearances. This is something I would be interested in doing soon too because it's another way to meet readers. Book signings mean you have to print books and have them available at your appearance. This can be expensive and it is hard to estimate how many books you can sell. This is the only downside to book signings, but many authors enjoy them and say they are a successful way to market your books.

Another method of marketing books is what I am doing now - blogging. Showing readers how and why you write keeps them interested in your stories and in turn, buying your books. Blogging gives me pleasure as I like to offer my experiences up for emerging writers in the hope it will help them. I've made many mistakes in my writing journey and sharing these might stop other writers from making the same mistakes. Wasting time making mistakes is something all writers want to avoid, so learning how to avoid them gives writers more time to write and market their books. Time to write is an important commodity for every writer.

There is another method to market your books but this is more about selling them. What I'm talking about is a stall at your local market. How often have you seen second-hand booksellers at markets? Well, this is a chance to sell your brand new books to people who are looking for bargains. It is an idea to reduce the price of your book with this method, people who browse markets are bargain hunters.

I and some of my author friends are thinking of selling our books at markets next year. This is something we hope might become a regular event, possibly once a month.

There you have it, some different ways to market your books other than with social media. Combine these ideas with promoting on social media and it will all help with selling books.

Happy reading

Maria P Frino

*Please note this competition has now ended.