I spent a lot of time writing and then even more time compiling emails for editors in the hope that someone besides myself would read what I was writing. Finally it all paid off, well. As a new author, unless you already know someone who is a famous author, you are not getting your dream book deal from the start.
You’ll get an advance and market it yourself as a kind of book offer if you want to be eligible for the grand advance one day and the agent markets it for your package. Seriously, you have to build your name as an author and you have to get enough people to read and like your book so that they want to read the next one and create enough interest in your editor to make you a better deal in the next one. or have better interested editors.
For the new author, in the hope that the first book will be a great success, go online and get to work.
- Search the internet for a list of all the major newspapers and then keep looking on their main home page until you find “contact us” and then keep researching until you get a book review, book publisher, section writer books, etc. and make a list of all these email addresses. You will need them for your official press release. Never depend on a publisher who doesn’t give you an advance to do enough press for you, especially if you don’t have an agent you’re talking to on a daily basis.
- Create a website where you promote the book, the author, at least one character from the book, blogs, and social media. I use webs.com and I love them. It has a good tracking so you can see if you are getting traffic.
- Use Facebook to tell everyone you know that you are a published author now and how to find your website.
- Use Facebook to LIKE your publisher’s Facebook and each and every published writer, author, etc. communities that you can find on Facebook. Steps 3 and 4 together will grow your friends list and you should have your website blog set up to feed your Facebook page by using a web blog site. Webs will offer it to you while you build your site.
- Join EzineArticles and write, write, write! Great place to network and you can add your website location to the bottom of every post you submit, no matter what it is.
- Prepare the press release, announce the immediate launch of your website and the future date of your book, and send it to all the free press release sites you can find and to all the email addresses you collected in step one.
Wait to see what happens next! More tips in future articles and be sure to visit my website for helpful links on the login page.