Advice on promoting self published book

[Nutellawithporridge]

I've written a children's book (for kids approx. aged 9) and have self published it on Amazon as a digital download (so not a printed copy).

Now I've realised I need to promote it! (I work for a design agency so you'd think I'd realise that!!). I think I just thought people would magically stumble across it and love it but there's loads of competition and I'm just a very, very small player.

Any advertising suggestions that don't cost a fortune would be much appreciated! I don't have a Facebook account so can't do anything like that (although I'm a big Pinterest fan so wondered if I can promote that way?). I've done a bit of a general Google search online for promoting a book but I found them a bit uninspiring (although I might be looking at the wrong websites). I haven't asked friends or family to review it either as that's against Amazon's terms and conditions.

At the moment I don't even know if people would like it as no one is even viewing it let alone reviewing it! (Apart from 1 review from someone).

Any suggestions gratefully appreciated!

Twitter is good and lets you get it out to critics. approach blogs who publish stuff for the age range and ask them if they would be interested in doing a review. Also check your pricing ... If it's too high people won't buy it even if it's good.

Thanks very much, that's a good idea about the blogs so I'll definitely look into that. Twitter requires followers doesn't it? Not joined so I guess it would take time to build up?

My pricing is pretty low and I've had a few days when it's been free in the hope of encouraging downloads and then reviews but I guess if people don't know about it they won't download it regardless of price deals.

Can you put a link on here?

Sounds a good idea as well simplepimple but I think it might be against the mumsnet rules.

I work in PR. Call your local newspaper and tell them your story (no pun intended!). Actually what is your back story? How did you come to write the book? What inspired you? Does the book have any local references (e.g. local landmark, park, etc)?

Who are you expecting to buy the book - mums? Engage with them on forums like this.

My friend runs a specialist publishing/ PR company for self-publishing authors. Depending on how much you have to spend on promoting it, it might be worth getting in touch (she's an ex journalist so knows her stuff): wrateseditingservices.co.uk/

Good luck with the book!

You can't get Amazon reviews from people you share a household with or from close friends, but you can offer a free copy to people you have a more distant friendship with in return for an impartial review (although they need to acknowledge in their review that they were given a free copy).

I've done that for someone I knew slightly at university, for example (we reconnected on MN, as it happens).

Thanks all for replying - sorry for not replying earlier myself (I've been on holiday).

Yes it's a tricky one really. I loved the writing aspect of it and I suppose I was very naive to think I could simply pop it up on amazon and it would be an overnight best seller. I've tried the giving it away free idea but that only resulted in 1 review (although it was positive). I don't feel I can overly harass people to review my book when I don't know them very well and I am very careful to make sure family don't leave reviews - I'm not sure how I would function if they closed my account and I no longer had prime!

The next step would potentially be to pay for advertising as well. Amazon for example do sponsored links which you pay per click for. It's whether I would recoup my money I guess, if not with this book then maybe the next (I was planning a series of them).

The local newspaper idea is a good one and it's something I would need to consider however I did like the idea of anonymity and I don't use my real name on the book. I suppose I'll have to think about that one (don't really like attention on myself).

I work 3 days per week and it's also been summer hols so felt its been busy recently but when it's back to school I'll hopefully have a bit more time to think about a bit of a promotional plan for it.

Digital books don't tend to work as well for children and teens. You might do better with print copies but obviously there's a cost with that.

Hi, I wrote a book too and know what you are going through, I guess you have children or relatives/friends who have some, why not print out a few pages and distribute them to children at schools or even the teacher to grab their interest...put a link for the parents to follow...xmas is looming. If you haven't got a Facebook account get a friend to make you a page and market the book from there even create a 'paint a character'
competition, good luck