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Ten Self-promotion Actions to Market Your Book
For me, marketing is the nightmarish counterpart to the dream of writing. Ugh! Promoting my books is the hell to the heaven of authoring them. I’d much rather keep “plugging away” at finishing a chapter than “plugging” myself on social media. But despite dreading self-promotion, I’ve learned a few marketing tricks over the years to make the task less onerous.
Authoring a book is no easy task, nor is getting / having it published. According to various sources, roughly three percent of people who begin drafting a novel ever finish it. And only twenty percent of those completed novels are ever published.
So if you have a published book, congratulations! Pat yourself on the back and take a bow! You are one of an elite minority!
But can you rest on your laurels and stop there?
Nope. Marketing your book is just as important as writing and publishing it. Whether you’re self-published or you work with an indie publisher, small publisher, or a major house, your next challenge is your book launch, and book launches require your 3Ts–talent, time, and treasure.
Because my bread-and-butter job has been technical writing in MarCom–Marketing Communications–for over twenty years, I’ve done almost all my own marketing for the past 26 of my 27 published books. Am I a multi-billionaire? HAH-LOL! BUT let me share ten relatively easy actions that authors CAN take to self-promote their books.
Take Ten Self-promotion Actions!
- Create an author website (https://karenhulenebartell.com/)
- Create an Author Central page on Amazon (com: Karen Hulene Bartell: books, biography, latest update)
- Create a Goodreads Author page (https://rb.gy/qyvrev)
- Accumulate blurbs for your book from trusted friends and acquaintances.
- Add your book’s title and link to your automatic email signature.
- Trade guest posts on your blog with other authors https://karenhulenebartell.com/f/january-newsletter
- Accumulate Amazon book reviews https://rb.gy/haasnb
- Gather Goodreads book reviews https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/204849593-kissing-kin
- Write self-promotion articles for LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:share:7152697619885051907/
- Create a launch team by asking trusted friends and acquaintances to read / review your free book on Amazon and Goodreads. (That’s right. I said FREE. Quid pro quo. A favor for a favor.)
Complete each of these actions in the six to eight weeks prior to your book’s release–one task at a time. Each action is doable, and if you complete all ten, I promise you’ll raise your book’s visibility.
Happy self-marketing!
Maeve Jackson is starting over after a broken engagement—and mustering out of the Army. No job and no prospects, she spins out on black ice and totals her car.
When struggling vintner Luke Kaylor stops to help, they discover they’re distantly related. On a shoestring budget to convert his vineyard into a winery, he makes her a deal: prune grapevines in exchange for room and board.
But forgotten diaries and a haunted cabin kickstart a five-generational mystery with ancestors that have bones to pick. As carnal urges propel them into each other’s arms, they wonder: Is their attraction physical…or metaphysical?
Enjoy an Excerpt
Our shoulders rubbed each time we moved. The downy hairs on the back of my neck tickling from the electricity passing between us, I shivered as the currents barreled down my spine.
“Cold?” Eyes wide, he caught my gaze.
I opened my mouth to speak but, forgetting what I meant to say, lost myself in his inviting brown eyes and could only nod.
He reached his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close, sharing his body warmth.
With the faint scents of leather and saddle soap wafting from his jacket, his nearness was intoxicating, and I was tempted to lean into a kiss. Yet huddled together on the bone-chilling ledge, I gazed instead at the rugged wilderness surrounding us, content to savor the sweet ache of longing. If more is meant to be, it’ll happen.
Then thoughts of Cody froze me like a blue norther. Why did he come to mind?
****
So close, Luke felt the rise and fall of her chest each time she breathed. Her hair tickled his ear, raising goosebumps–and possibilities. If she turns toward me or gives any sign…But her sigh signaled something else. He side-glanced to read her mood, but she stared at the scenery, apparently oblivious of his rising libido.
“Want…” His voice cracked. Clearing his throat, he tried again. “Want some water?”
“Sure.” She turned her head quickly, her hair brushing his cheek with a citrus scent.
About the Author: 
Author of the Trans-Pecos and Sacred Emblem series, Karen is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, wife, and all-around pilgrim of life, who writes multicultural, offbeat love stories. Born to rolling-stone parents who moved often, Bartell found her earliest playmates as fictional friends in books. Paperbacks became her portable pals. Ghost stories kept her up at night—reading feverishly. The paranormal was her passion. Novels offered an imaginative escape. An only child, she began writing her first novel at the age of nine, learning the joy of creating her own happy endings. Professor emeritus of the University of Texas at Austin, Karen resides in the Texas Piney Woods with her husband Peter and her “mews”—three rescued cats and a rescued *Cat*ahoula Leopard dog.
Buy the book at Amazon.
Resilience isn’t inherited. It’s a hard-fought skill forged by our ability to pick up the broken pieces of our past and remake them into something new.
Delicia Niami is an acclaimed memoirist and LGBTQ+ advocate, whose raw and edgy storytelling has touched the hearts of readers worldwide. Residing in Santa Cruz and an alumna of UCSC, Delicia draws inspiration from her own journey of resilience and empowerment. Through her memoirs, she fearlessly addresses topics such as sexual abuse, trauma recovery, and the importance of self-compassion. Delicia’s work not only sheds light on difficult experiences but also empowers others to find their voices and embrace their own resilience. Her passion for advocacy shines through in her writing, making her a powerful voice for change and healing in today’s world.
Kincaid Ranch’s lead cowboy, Ted Stirling, isn’t looking for romance or entanglements. He settled in Herd, Montana over a decade ago after a devastating loss. He’s seeking comfort and friendship. Nothing more. If he was going to try for love again, he would pick someone sweet and sunny, exactly like kindergarten teacher, Stephanie Patricks. But she’s too young for him.
Rachelle Paige Campbell writes contemporary romance novels filled with heart and hope. She believes love and laughter can change lives, and every story needs a happily ever after.
In a fictitious, mysterious, and futuristic Earth, the Western and Eastern continents are poised to become entangled in an ancient holy rivalry and epic battle.
Luki Belle works in the media industry. Listening avidly to stories from diverse cultural fiction books read to her by her extended family, storytelling was a fixture from early childhood. Pouring over magnificent and enchanting illustrated books in her family’s library, Luki was drawn to the mythology of South Asian Indians, Greeks, and Romans. These diverse mythologies were her strongest inspiration when, many years later, she started penning the first outline for her debut novel, Shakti of the Illuminated Lotus.
It’s been one hundred and sixty years since the Confederacy won its independence at the Battle of Altamaha Crossing. Slaves of African descent still perform most of the work in the South. This seems normal to Ryan Walters and his friends who attend high school in Huntsville, Alabama. Like teens everywhere, they enjoy sharing videos, playing sports, and hanging out with friends. Jaybird’s drive-in is their favorite gathering place. There, they befriend Mish, a slave girl who works as a car hop. When the drive-in’s owner sells Mish to a dirty old man, Ryan and his friends awaken to the injustice around them. Despite the danger, they decide to help Mish escape. Will they succeed?
Bill is a retired business executive who now lives in a small southern town with his wife, Bettina. She’s a retired high school German teacher. Bill coaches soccer at a small college. Often, Bettina, who has a commercial driver’s license, pilots the soccer team bus to away games. 
A detective has a smooth-talking heartbreaker for a client, but there’s a problem.
P.H. Turner (Pat) writes contemporary mysteries spiked with long-held grudges, secrets, and murder. With roots in a Texas farm homesteaded in the 1850s, she calls Austin home. When she’s not writing, she’s cooking for family, or taking care of a pair of hairy mutts, or in her garden coaxing roses to bloom in the Texas heat. 
