Thursday, January 3, 2013

Book Review of 77 Ways to Find New Readers for Your Self-Published Book! by Laura Wu

During the Christmas Break I made a decision to not read anything for my "real job." Instead I read fiction for fun and books for my self-publishing business. As of late I have been researching marketing and sales. It would seem that the hardest part of the self-publishing world really is the marketing and sales end of it. If we don't do it though, no one will ever buy, or read, our self-published books.

One of the Kindle books I read on this subject was Laura Wu's 77 Ways to Find New Readers for Your Self-Published Book!

Ms. Wu makes her living solely as a writer. If she doesn't sell her books, she does not pay her bills, keep a rough over her head, or eat on a regular basis. I would consider that motivation to sell your books, which requires marketing and salesmanship.

Just as the title of her book suggests, Ms. Wu's book does provide the reader with 77 ways to promote and market your book. Divided into 14 chapters with an introduction, Ms. Wu provides some great ideas. Some I had heard of before but many were new or ideas in popular but confusing topics such as the use of social media.

Some of the ideas were so simple and obvious it was easy to never have thought of them. Some examples include:
  • leaving flyers in your local coffee shop
  • contacting your alumni magazine
  • visit the bed and breakfasts in your area and ask if they will sell the book on consignment
The all important Amazon is addressed as well and Ms. Wu includes ideas on optimizing Amazon for your book. Social media, tribes, YouTube and building an author platform are all addressed.

Well worth the price of $3.99 for the Kindle version.




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