This is a guest post by Kurt Walker. Kurt is a digital marketer and a college paper help writer at Easyessay.org. Besides that, Kurt is a guest blogger at AustralianWritings, UK.bestessays.com, and Superior Paper writing service. Kurt specializes in email and social media marketing. He is the father of three kids and a passionate New York Knicks fan.

Books | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's books

9 Ways To Market Your Book With No Money

While publishing has never been easier, selling one has never been harder, especially for independent authors who have to rely on their own skills and professional networks. A report claims that 2.2 million new titles are published worldwide each year, so you definitely have a lot of competitors to deal with.

The situation gets even more difficult for authors who want to promote their works on a shoestring budget. It’s a very tricky situation, but don’t fall into despair. Remember that the year is 2019 and you can count on so many channels of promotion that won’t cost a thing.

So, what are the most practical ways authors can market a book with no money whatsoever?

1. Promote the Book Locally

The first thing you should think about is finding a way to promote the book locally. After all, who would you expect to buy your novel if not the people from the neighborhood? The idea is simple – you have to visit local bookstores, libraries, schools, art groups, and literary events to spread the word about the book. With a little bit of luck and some negotiation skills, you should be able to convince most of the local players to grab a few samples and start selling it.

2. Send a Digital Version to Book Bloggers

People love reading online comments because it helps them make purchasing decisions. For example, students read My Perfect Words or Grade Miners review to learn about content creation agencies. The same logic applies to literature.

Every genre has a few key opinion leaders who share their reviews online and inspire audiences to read or avoid certain books. You should reach out to those book bloggers and send them a digital version of your latest work. Online book critics usually have a solid base of loyal followers, so you can hope for some nice visibility in case they decide to review your novel.

3. Create a Personal Website

You don’t have to be a marketing guru to know that online promotion is the easiest way to share the news about your work. This is why we recommend you to launch a website using free content management platforms such as WordPress.

Such programs automate most of the work and enable even beginner-level users to design great websites quickly and effortlessly. Of course, you should start the process as soon as possible because it takes a few weeks or even months for a site to become visible in engine searches.

4. Use Email Newsletters to Inform Subscribers

Once you’re done with website creation, you should immediately add a contact form to allow visitors to subscribe to your email newsletter. Almost everyone uses email these days as the means of personal and professional communication, so make sure to use that to keep your audience up to date with your new works.

If that sounds a daunting task, Nicholas recently published a 3-part series with everything you need on creating newsletters: Top 7 Email Marketing Strategies For Self-Published Authors, Proven Email List-Building Techniques, and How to Create the Perfect Email Opt-in Form.

5. Do Some Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is a valuable marketing tactic for authors who cannot attract followers otherwise. How does it work? You can divide the process into several steps:

  • Identify relevant and popular blogs in your genre
  • Come up with a good topic and create an outline
  • Reach out to the blog owner and propose writing a guest post
  • Write a post and add a link to your website somewhere in the text

6. Answer Literature Questions on Quora

The next tip is to join the Quora community and begin answering literature-related questions on this platform. It is your chance to prove professional knowledge and writing proficiency at the same time.

Besides that, “you can reuse the guest blogging tactic and share links to your website somewhere along the way” – says Brad Linkoln, the web editor from HR software. If Quora users like your texts, they will may also visit your site and check out your literature works.

7. Make Use of Social Media

Social networks are one of the most efficient tactics to promote a book on a shoestring budget. All it takes is to create a social media profile and start publishing quality work-related content. The best thing about social media is advertising as only a few dollars enable you to target highly specific audience groups and address has proved book lovers only.

8. Ask Friends to Spread the Word

Your family, friends, and colleagues probably have their own social media accounts, so you could ask them to spread the word about your book. It’s a free and very valuable promotion tool, so don’t hesitate to exploit it.

9. Take Part in Online Forums and Communities

The Internet is flooded with all sorts of forums and communities where participants discuss various topics. Needless to say, there are lots of literature groups to check out and you should consider joining a few that promise to be the closest to your genre and style of writing.

The idea is to contribute to these communities with high-quality posts and comments. After a while, you will build personal credibility and other users will be eager to read some of your books.

Conclusion

Writing a book is an extremely challenging task, but most authors find it super-easy compared to marketing their work. After all, most novelists spend a small fortune just to promote their books successfully.

A decent budget can certainly help you to reach more target readers and sell more books, but who says you cannot achieve the same results without one?