Sitting down and writing a novel is a huge achievement and one you should be proud of. The same goes for a non-fiction book – producing work like that takes a lot of time and effort, and it’s something that not many people pull off in their lifetime. However, once your book is written, you have the added pressure of needing to sell it. A lot of writers make the mistake of thinking that dumping their book online is all they need to do to sell their novel, however if you want any sort of commercial success, you’ll need to promote your work. Fortunately, self-promotion is simple when you follow the 7 tips below.

1. Have a ‘.com’ Domain

If you want to be seen as a professional writer and author then you’ll need a fully-fledged website. People rarely want to spend their money on amateur work as there’s a risk it will be too low quality – to make sure you don’t lose readers, invest in your own website.

2. Start A Giveaway

When you want to sell your book, it may seem antithetic to give it away, but in all honesty that’s the easiest way to garner reviews and appear in the ‘also bought’ scroll when people look at other books, so it’s a small price to pay for a lot of potential readers.

3. Promote Yourself on a Blog or Social Media

This is one of the easiest steps to take, and one a lot of authors already have in place. However, not many authors are using their social media profiles and blogs as efficiently as they could. For example, using the following tools can help maximise your following and turn your audience into readers:

• Portent Title Maker – the headline of your post is the first thing people will see, and it’s how they’ll decide whether or not to check out your page. Make sure it’s snappy and catchy by using this tool

• Topic Generator – if you’re not sure what to write about to promote your book, simply enter the key words here are you’ll be provided with a whole list of topics and ideas for posts

• Easy Word Count – it’s well-established that blog posts over 1000 words are the best for SEO and engagement, and it’s easy to make sure you’re hitting this target with this tool

4. Engage on Social Media

Simply being present isn’t enough, you need to seriously work at maintaining relationships, which is easier to manage with Buffer.

5. Focus on SEO

While it may not come naturally to a creative writer, when you’re marketing you need to tick certain boxes. If that’s difficult, you can find help with SEO at Yoast.

6. Have Multiple Books Ready At Once

Having a short prequel is a great way of getting readers hooked, and it also means you suffer fewer losses if you decide to have a freebie launch. Plus, you look more like an experienced author.

7. Choose a Niche

You’ll rise higher in the charts of a niche category than a general one, which is a great way to make your work more appealing.

Launching a book is a scary time, as it’s like you’re putting a part of yourself out into the world, however following the steps above is a great way to make sure people find your novel.

Gloria Kopp

Gloria Kopp is a writer and an elearning consultant from Manville city.

She graduated from University of Wyoming and started a career of a business writer and an educator, now she works as a tutor at Paperfellows company.

Besides, she is a regular contributor to such websites as Engadget, Academized, Huffingtonpost etc.

Contact Gloria on Twitter