5 Things to do Before Your Book Publishes!

Welcome to the Fourth part of my series on Self publishing.If you missed the first blog post in this series you can find it HERE,
The Second is HERE, The Third is HERE.

So we discussed a few things to look out for when self publishing. And five things you need to do for yourself as an author before publishing. Now I’m going to tell you Five Things your book needs before you publish it.

1)A Newsletter – A newsletter list is your best friend. The people on it WANT to hear what you are saying and doing. Unlike paid ads where you never know what you are going to get, these people went through the trouble of signing up. There’s a reason and those contacts are invaluable! When you set up a newsletter give people something free. A short story or article or something to help them get to know you and your writing style and to get them hooked. Then send one out every month to two months. Any longer and people might forget they signed up.

2)A Media Kit – Media kits for you and your books are also a must have. They make life so much easier when it’s time to send things out for promo. In your media kit, if it’s about you have your bio, headshot and accomplishments as well as a possible writing sample as be sure to include all your social media links for people to contact you at. If it’s for a book have the cover, ISBN, length and genre of book, links, expert (both long and short), blurb, your bio and headshot. Also include teaser graphics for them to put up. Put it all in a word doc and pdf. You never know which people will want.

3)ARCs – Get them out there! You need people to review your book. In the first week of release you need 15-20 reviews. It will help push your book up through the ranks. Ask bloggers, friends, street team members, reviewers to read and review your book. You will need to have it in different formats for people who read on kindle or nook. Instafreebie is a great website to use for this because people have to add their information to get a free copy. This is great for avoiding pirating and to get contact information to add to your newsletter.

4)Street Team – You need one. A street team is a dedicated group of followers that love your work and want to help spread the word about it. Start gathering street team members early so you can have people help you with promoting your book. Provide them with ARCs and teasers and links and ask them to post them on Facebook groups and pages.

5)Ads and Marketing – You need to market. Why? Because if you don’t no one will. There are lots of free promo sites out there that will blast out your book if it’s free or .99 for the first week. Find them. Use them. If you are going to spend money on ads and marketing, do your research and make sure that you are using people and places that will actually help you grow your fan base and sell books. Do NOT spend 2 weeks straight blasting on your Facebook page that you are SELLING A BOOK! Or on Twitter. People will Not appreciate it. Yes, find Facebook groups to promo in. Yes, you can even buy Facebook ads. But be knowledgeable about who you are using. Some blog tour companies are amazing and will work hard for you, others will take your money. Be sure to get referrals and use them.

Marketing your book should start 3-6 months before release. Cover releases, excerpts, extra tidbits and information, deleted scenes and teasers. All of them can be used to help get the word out there about your book. But it must be done in advance. If you wait till it’s released, your’e already doomed.

So what do you think? What are some things that you have done before release that I didn’t mention?

Rebekah R. Ganiere – Book with a Bite

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