How to Promote Your Book For Less

Learn how to save money promoting your book with these six easy steps.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A computer
• Internet connection
• Paypal account or credit card

1. 
    
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   TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YAHOO GROUPS: Yahoo offers hundreds of groups that target readers. Most groups have no membership costs. Many allow author promotion on specific days, as well as other opportunities to reach a wider readership. Remember to follow all group promotion guidelines.

2. MODIFY EMAIL SIGNATURES: This simple and effective tool offers the ability to reach a larger audience, including those who do not subscribe to publishing or genre magazines (i.e. businesses).

3. EXCHANGE BANNERS: Many high-traffic sites for authors, bloggers and reviewers offer this service free.

4. 
    
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   GO DUTCH: Advertising costs quickly add up. To save money, split the costs of print advertisements. For best results, advertise with authors whose books share a common theme (i.e. release date, publisher, line or genre).

5. NEGOTIATE RATES WITH PROMOTIONAL COMPANIES: Many promotion companies charge to post author news (i.e. contests, new releases, etc.) to reader groups. As stated in Step 1, authors can do this for free. To save money, determine what services are needed – such as newsletter or contest management – and request a specialized quote from the promotion company.

6. 
    
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   BUY IN BULK: Shave several dollars off the cost of postcards, bookmarks and pens by buying in bulk quantity. Some affordable companies that offer promotional items are iPrint and Vistaprint.

Tips & Warnings

• If you opt for a promotional company, make sure to comparison shop with at least THREE other companies to ensure that prices are reasonable.
• SMART ADVERTISING OPTION # 2: Some magazines offer ads for free or at discounted rates to article contributors.