Indie Author Advice: Interview with Sabrina Ricci from Digital Pubbing

Hi Sabrina, thanks for taking time out to talk to me. As you know, I am using your article 7 Strategies and 110 Tools to Help Indie Authors FindReaders and Reviewers as a guide to help promote my new novel The Flood. I'd like to focus on the seven categories individually starting with Free Promotions/Giveaways. What would you suggest to be the best approach when offering books for free? 

Thanks for having me, and for doing this challenge! I'm really honored and I hope it helps you find new success with The Flood.

Personally, I've seen the most success with LibraryThing giveaways. Though the site is not always the easiest to navigate, it's great to be able to give away 100 copies of an ebook. Most of the people who win one of your ebooks likely enjoy reading books in your genre, so there's a decent chance they'll leave a review.

But it's only a start.

One author I've worked with, Pedro Barrento, said he thinks authors who have sold a lot of books "in most cases [...] can be traced down togetting a lot of books into the hands of readers through free downloadsand then having the good luck of being mentioned by influential people wholiked what they read and who have clout and have their opinions voiced inwidely circulated media.".

There are also a number of success stories for people who use NoiseTrade. One example is Ed Cyzewski, who shares on Jane Friedman how he was able to collect reader emails through NoiseTrade and build a list to promote his future books.

Tell me a bit about crowdscourcing, and the pros and cons of doing it in your opinion.

Crowdsourcing is great because you can get feedback on your works in progress, and potentially build up a fan base. On every site I've used for crowdsourcing, I've found the community to be supportive and interactive.

The site you choose to use should depend on your goals. Bookrix and Widbook are about connecting with people who are serious about writing and willing to give notes (who are also looking for feedback). Book Club Reading List is more about getting exposure.

My favorite site listed in the article is Wattpad, which is probably also the biggest. One of the cons of using Wattpad though is that to take advantage of all their promotions, you have to upload your full manuscript.

If your strategy is to make a book permafree, say it's the first book in a series, and you plan on making your book free everywhere, that may not be a big deal. On the other hand, if you have a big enough following, you may evenattract the attention of a traditional publisher.

In an ideal world every indie author would have a huge amount of cash to splash on advertising - it would make life a lot easier! From your experience, what advice would you give to an author working on a tight budget? Where can you get the most bang for your buck?

Ha, well as an indie author who is very strapped for cash, I say go for as many freebies as you can. Addicted to eBooks, Book Deal Hunter, and Snickslist all work. There are also a few paid sites that can really help you out. BookBub is the biggest, but Bknights on Fiverr has helped out a lot of people.

However, even if you get a BookBub deal (they are pretty picky), whichregularly leads to thousands of downloads, you need to have a plan in place if you want the book to be successful for more than a few days. That's why it's good to multiple books that you link to in your promoted book, so that readers who like your work know what they can read next. Also give them an option to sign up for your mailing list, so you can easily let them know about your upcoming releases.

Offering your book for free throws up a dilemma for authors like myself who have signed up for the Amazon KDP programme. Do you think it is a good idea to throw all of your eggs into one basket or is there a greater benefit using these 'free' listings sites?

I agree with Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, on this one, and am a fan of distributing in as many places as possible. I think it gives you a wider potential reach, and it gives you more marketing options. You can have your books enrolled in KDP though without being exclusive, and actually you probably should, since Amazon is the biggest ebook retailer.

On the other hand, I do have one book enrolled in KDP Select at the moment. That's because I'm also a big believer in experimenting. And it'skind of fun seeing how many millions Amazon is putting into the fund eachmonth. (Keep in mind though that retailers such as Amazon can and do change their terms and algorithms often, and if you put all your books into one retailer's basket, you may lose money some months if an algorithm changes so that the site no longer promotes your book or the amount of money per page read is lowered.)

Tell me about your experience, or experience of others, who have used sites where they request payment for a listing. I am always concerned that you end up spending a fortune for very little in return. Is there any truth in that?

In my experience, I haven't had much luck paying for a site to list my book. That may be because the sites I've used were very new and didn't yet have a big following (as I've said, I like experimenting). I can't really speak for others though.

How would you advise an author to approach a blogger when requesting interviews/Q&As on their site? And what is your advice to someone who has never done a blog tour before and have no idea where to start?

Great question! I'm biased on this one since I often blog book reviews. A few things:

• If a blogger has a set of guidelines for how to submit a book request, follow them. 
• Please take the time to figure out the blogger's name. My name is all over my blog, yet it's amazing how many requests I get that start with "Hey there" or just "Review my book." 
• Use your real name. I say this because I had one author who submitted a really bad book for me to review (meaning I couldn't get past the first page because there were so many typos and none of it made sense). Then an hour later the same person sent me another really bad book to review (same genre, nearly identical storyline, same writing style, lots of typos) but using a different email address and name. I emailed the person back asking if they were the author of both books. They replied yes, and so I asked, "why?" and then never got a response. I've heard that happen to at least one other book blogger. Side note: I guess if you use a pen name and really want to keep your name a secret, you can go by the pen name. I've reviewed books before though where the author contacted me under their real name and asked me to use their pen name in the post, and I did. 
• For your own sake, make sure the blogger is interested in the genre you write. Otherwise, it's just a waste of time for everyone and could lead to a negative review. 
• Give the blogger plenty of time, either to read your book or to be a part of your blog tour. Most bloggers review books for free, just for the love of reading. Sometimes life gets in the way, and it takes longer to read a book than expected. That said, if you haven't heard back from a blogger after a few weeks or months, you can always send them a polite note asking if they've had a chance to read your book yet. (I usually feel pretty guilty at that point, and make reading the book a much higher priority). 
• For blog tours, you also want to give bloggers at least a month's lead time. They may have other posts scheduled already and won't be able to fit you in. It also takes a while to set up posts, so they need time to prepare.

For authors who have never done a blog tour before, make sure that you are well prepared. Have a media kit ready with a high-resolution image of your cover, your book description and author bio, a profile picture if you'd like or an image for the blog tour, and any quotes or editorial reviews you may have (if applicable). You may also want a few guest posts ready to go, such as a Q&A or a post as one of your characters.

Have everything ready at least a month in advance, and contact bloggers to schedule your tour at least a month ahead too. Keep a spreadsheet of which blogs are posting what and on which dates, and on those days make sure to be a good guest. By that I mean comment on the blog, respond to questions, thank the host, and tweet or share as much as possible on social media.

Doing all that may seem daunting, in which case I recommend using a service such as Bewitching Book Tours. These services also need advance notice, sometimes as much as three months. (I'll be using Bewitching Book Tours for one of my novels later this year!)

A good review is like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. How can you make sure you are getting the maximum amount of exposure for your book and how many reviews should you be aiming for during the first three months of publication?

The magic number I've heard is 8, and you want an average of 4 stars. I think this is because it's what BookBub requires.

In the beginning, aside from asking family and friends, you can seek out beta readers, offer them a free copy of the finished book, and ask for a review. You can also contact Amazon reviewers. Make sure they read books in your genre and address them by name when you politely ask them to read your book.

The showcase/sell section - which sites do you believe are the most effective and why?

Personally, I think it's Amazon Author Central and Scribd. Amazon makes a lot of sense, since it's the biggest retailer and has the biggest audience. I like Scribd because I can share snippets of my book for free and potentially attract more readers.

I've had some success with About.me and Slideshare as well, but more for my non-fiction work. I've gotten a lot of views on both, though they didn't really lead to sales.

You wrote the 7 Strategies blog post back in 2014 so I'm sure you have come across some new techniques and sites to use over the last couple of years. Can you share some of the better ones you would advise indie authors to take a closer look at.

Bknights on Fiverr is one I learned about after publishing the blog post. KDSpy is another great tool. It lets you research other books in your genre on Kindle.

I've also recently signed up for the online course, Your First 10,000Readers. It's a bit expensive (around $600), and since I am cash-strapped I scrutinized it a lot before deciding to buy it. The tipping point for me was the fact that Joanna Penn recommended the teacher, Nick Stephenson. So far, I haven't been disappointed. He's shared some valuable insights about building relationships and setting up email funnels. Some of it is a bit techie, but I like it.

Aside from that, audiobooks and podcasting have really grown in the last couple years. Indie authors should create audiobook versions of their books if they can. I'm nearly done making a free PDF guide on how to make audiobooks, and I'll be sending it out to anyone who joins my newsletter.

There's a number of podcasts out there that are specifically for indie authors (Authors Marketing Suite, Aerogramme Writers' Studio, The Creative Penn). If you follow their guidelines, you may be able to get an interview on one.

I've also found podcasting to be a great platform builder. My husband and I have a podcast called I Know Dino about dinosaurs, and we've managed to build a wonderful and engaged audience who even buy some of our dinosaur books!

Tell me a bit more about Digital Pubbing and what other articles on your site would you recommend indie authors check out?

I started Digital Pubbing in 2010 when I was a grad student at NYU, getting my M.S. in Publishing. It started as an experiment and as a way to share what I was learning about the industry, both at school and working for book publishing houses. Over the years it's evolved to be more about indie authors. Twice a week I publish posts about ebook creation tips, marketing advice and tools, book reviews, author interviews, and when I can, more in-depth articles about success stories or the industry.

If you have the time, I'd recommend checking out By the Numbers: 189+ Tips and Tricks on How to Write, Edit, Market, and Sell Your Books and my Indie Author section.

And if you're interested in learning how to create your own ebooks, check out my online course How to Create Beautiful Ebooks or my How to Ebook series.

Thanks for joining me Sabrina. You've given me a wonderful insight into the world of self-publishing, and also worried me slightly with all the work I have to do!

Thanks so much for having me. This was a lot of fun!

Sabrina Ricci is a writer, wanderluster, ebook developer, UCSB and NYU alum, co-dinosaur enthusiast @iknowdino, blogger at Digital Pubbing. Make sure you check out her blog!

Indie Author Advice: #‎TenTweetsOnContactingBookBloggers‬ by @Joannechocolat

I recently joined this wonderful Facebook group called Book Connectors which has opened my eyes up to a great new world of authors and bloggers. One post drew my attention to a hashtag started by author Joanne Harris (of Chocolat fame) called #‎TenTweetsOnContactingBookBloggers.

It was a brilliant series of tweets highlighting the mistakes some of us make when trying to promote our books, and reminded me of one of my posts Indie authors beware! Do not feed the reviewers! 

Here are the ten tweets in their entirety...

1. With so many people writing reviews, it's sometimes easy to take book bloggers for granted. Don't. #TenTweetsOnContactingBookBloggers

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) March 16, 2016

2. Book blogging is a community, and most bloggers blog for the fun of it. #TenTweetsOnContactingBookBloggers

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) March 16, 2016

3. It helps to be part of the community before you approach someone with a request for reviews. #TenTweetsOnContactingBookBloggers

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) March 16, 2016

4. Show respect for a blogger's work - if you like the way someone writes, read their blog regularly. #TenTweetsOnContactingBookBloggers

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) March 16, 2016

5. Not all bloggers are the same. Don't behave as if they are. #TenTweetsOnContactingBookBloggers

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) March 16, 2016

6. Remember: bloggers don't owe you a review, even if you send them a book. #TenTweetsOnContactingBookBloggers

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) March 16, 2016

7. Some bloggers don't like authors to contact them, or to comment on their blogs. Be aware of this. #TenTweetsOnContactingBookBloggers

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) March 16, 2016

8. Bloggers aren't paid for what they do. They mostly have day jobs, and their time is limited. #TenTweetsOnContactingBookBloggers

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) March 16, 2016

8 (b): So don't hassle them if they don't get to your book straight away. They're not your employees. #TenTweetsOnContactingBookBloggers

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) March 16, 2016

9. There are lots of new sites asking authors to pay for reviews. Avoid them - they're mostly crooks. #TenTweetsOnContactingBookBloggers

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) March 16, 2016

10. Some bloggers may not like your book. If you think that's bad, try being reviewed by Private Eye. #TenTweetsOnContactingBookBloggers

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) March 16, 2016

Indie Author Challenge! Part 1: Free Promotions/Giveaway

Let's cut to the chase - people like free shit. The problem is there are quite a few of us indie authors willing to give away our shit, and a lot of what is given away is probably, well, shit.

But reports have shown that "over one-third of the respondents report that they were enticed to try a new author because of a free book giveaway." So it's definitely worth a shot.

Besides, I have had a bit of success offering my debut novel The Drought for free to readers on Goodreads in exchange for reviews to get the word out, but the one thing I have learned is that you need to persevere. Most readers will accept your free shit but it doesn't mean they'll read it and spread the good word. Your going to need patience - and lots of it.

Sabrina Ricci at Digital Pubbing suggests the following sites to check out for free promotions and giveaways:

• BookLikes
• Goodreads Giveaway
• LibraryThing Member Giveaway
• Noise Trade
• Rafflecopter
• Story Cartel

BookLikes is a site where you can create your own book blog, Goodreads is basically the Facebook for book lovers and LibraryThing allows you to catalog all of your books online. All have really big communities and all allow you to post and promote giveaways to their members.

I was already a member of all three sites so this one was a no brainer. BookLikes allows you to post copies of paperback and digital eBook downloads, so I went with one paperback and 25 eBooks giveaways for The Drought. After 4 days 9 people have requested the paperback and 4 people have requested the eBook.

Goodreads allows you to giveaway paperback copies only (up to 10), but the uptake is much higher. Last time I ran a giveaway on Goodreads 996 people entered. I am giving away three copies of The Drought and three copies of The Flood. Both open for entries of March 11 and run for a month.

And as for LibraryThing - well that site just bloody confuses me! I think I've listed a giveaway for up to 100 eBook copies of The Drought but I'll be darned if I can find the damn listing on the site! Hmmm, guess I'll just have to wait that one out.

Noise Trade started as a platform for musicians and artists to promote their music but has since expanded to allow authors to offer certain chapters or the whole book for free. But seeing as I'm signed up with the Amazon KDP programme, this is a conflict of interest so I won't be using Noise Trade.

The same goes for Story Cartel, which allows you to offer your book for free for a limited period of time in exchange for reviews. Rafflecopter allows you to create and embed giveaway competitions on your own blog. I decided not to do this as I wanted to put my focus into promoting the giveaways on BookLikes, Goodreads and LibraryThing across social media and by interacting with members directly. For this I'll be using this great list of hashtags to promote across Twitter and Facebook.

On Goodreads I have had a decent amount of success contact members directly asking if they would like to receive a free copy in exchange for review. If you're doing this be careful not to spam members as Goodreads frowns upon this, and make sure you do your homework and pick readers who have read similar books to yours. I found this out the hard way!

There are also various forums on Goodreads where you can post asking for readers to review your book. All in all, I have managed to get about 90 odd ratings and 50 reviews on Goodreads doing this over the last couple of years.

And last but by no means least, I am going to offer The Drought and then eventually The Flood for free for five days on Amazon as part of the KDP programme. Digital Book Today offer some good advice on how to maximise your KDP Select days so I'll be taking some of these tips on board.

And that my friends is it! I will report back in one month with the results and feedback to how the results have been. Watch this space!

The Indie Author Challenge is my attempt over three months to follow the "7 Strategies and 110 Tools to Help Indie Authors Find Readers and Reviewers" as published on the Digital Pubbing blog in an attempt to build up a larger fan base of readers.

Advice for Indie Authors: How do I get those darn readers?!

First off, let me start by saying I don't know the answer to this question. Hold on, wait a minute! Don't just leave - let me finish first!

I'm like most, if not all, indie authors: we're all in the same boat; stuck in the middle of a bloody big ocean caught in a bit of a storm. We think we know which way to navigate, but in truth whatever way we go it will be an adventure into the unknown.

The first thing we need on this adventure is a good boat, and I think I've got one. The Drought was my first novel published back in September 2011. That was nearly five years ago and since that time it has had more positive reaction than negative. Across the internet on Amazon, Goodreads and book review blogs, it's amassed in excess of 100 reviews and ratings, averaging 4 out of 5 stars.

But despite this relatively modest success, I still find myself lost at sea in choppy waters. A couple of times I've found myself the odd bit of dry land, but more often than not those islands tend to be inhabited by only a few readers at a time. They've been most welcoming and very nice, but they've been far and few between. I'm still looking for my China.

It's the 64 million dollar question for most indie authors. How can I get more people to read my book? We've seen other self-published authors get it right, so why can't we? What is their secret? What are the tricks of the trade they were able to use so effectively to make that jump?

As I am about to embark on the journey of publishing my second novel (The Flood - due for publication end of March 2016), I have frantically been trying to do my homework, and just as I found out five years ago, it's hard bloody work!

This time round I wanted to create some sort of structure; a guideline if you will, that I could follow and measure. So my first port of call was to turn to the internet, that good old faithful friend that's always there when us indie authors get a little bit lonely (not like that, you filthy git!).

I started out by typing advice for indie authors into Google. There were a lot of results (it is Google after all, what was I thinking?) ranging from an article in Publishing Weekly titled Advice for New Indie Authors from Self-Publishing Veterans to a nice piece on The Huffington Post from author and blogger AK Turner offering her Top 5 Marketing Tips for Indie Authors, and lots and lots of other sites who tell you how to market your book and how to get the best use out of social media.

All very good advice, and certainly all worth a good read. But if you are like me (day job, wife, baby, a terrible football team that ruins your weekend every week) it is sometimes incredibly difficult to work out where to start. Plus I am already five years down the line. I have done a lot of this already, including making sure you have a great book cover and spending time on the design process, to creating a social media profile and the pitfalls of getting readers to review your book.

So I tried a different tact - I typed in indie author tools and at top of the search results was a cracking article on Digital Pubbing called 7 Strategies and 110 Tools to Help Indie Authors Find Readers and Reviewers. 

Bingo! This was just what I was looking for - a comprehensive guide all in one place for the lazy indie author like myself. It lists advice on promotions and giveaways to crowdsourcing and advertising to interviews and reviews, and so much more! From the outset it looks and feels like an awesome place to start for any indie author.

So I have set myself a challenge. Over the next three months I am going to blog about my experience of using the advice set out in this article. I might not necessarily get around to using every single tool listed as it's a pretty long list, but I will do my utmost to follow Digital Pubbing's words right down to the wire.

Along the way I will also be using this brilliant list Ultimate List of Author-Specific Hashtags as published by Book Marketing Services, and sharing any little tips I might have picked up myself.

I'd love to hear from any/all indie authors and fans of indie publisher along the way. You can keep up to date with how I am getting on by clicking on the label/tag The Indie Author Challenge or by following me on Twitter and Facebook.

It's sink or swim time. Hopefully by this time in three months, I'll be on dry land with thousands of book lovers :)

Lad Lit, Dick Lit, Bro Lit, Fratire, Chick Lit for men or simply Literature for Lads?

Being an indie author has its challenges, certainly when it comes to marketing your book. I'm certainly finding that out all over again as I prepare to publish my second novel Sex, Love & Dating Disasters: The Flood. In a way, the second time around feels even more challenging.

When I published my first novel The Drought it was a step into the unknown. I didn't really know what to expect so I was learning as I went along and I kind of stumbled on to the genre lad lit when one of my early reviews used the term, followed by explaining it as chick lit for men. That will do for me I thought, and I kind of just ran with the label as part of my marketing and promotion.

However, as time went on I came to realise that the term lad lit - or perhaps just the genre in general - didn't seem that well known. I'd bunched authors like Nick Hornby, Tony Parsons, Nick Spalding, Mike Gayle and Danny Wallace all into this category as I felt they were guys writing about relationships from a man's point of view.

I'd attempted to answer the question What is Lad Lit? in a previous blog post, and I think it was fairly accurate, but lately I wonder if the term really does the genre justice.

In doing some research prior to my second novel being published, I started to find different variations of the genre: Dick Lit, Bro Lit, Fratire - none of which seem to be known as mainstream genres like its female cousin chick lit.

In fact, type 'Lad Lit' into Google and you get a Wikipedia entry for Fratire appearing at the top of the search. Wikipedia describes the genre as:

"Fratire generally features male protagonists, usually in their twenties and thirties. It is characterized by masculine themes and could be considered the male equivalent of chick lit. The genre was popularized by Tucker Max's I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell and Maddox's webpage titled The Best Page in the Universe and his book The Alphabet of Manliness. According to one of the authors, "fratire as a genre represents the non-mainstream literary reaction to the feminization of masculinity," although not all the books address this so directly."

 I don't particularly strongly agree or disagree with that description, but it hardly screams read me! I guess the main problem is that the term lad lit does not conjure up the same excitement in readers as a psychological thriller. You know what you're getting with that genre.

It seems a shame because I don't think the genre is an unpopular one when you break it down. Take the popularity of TV shows like The Inbetweeners or movies like Superbad or American Pie. All hugely popular and successful with audiences both male and female, and I've had the comedy in my first book The Drought compared to The Inbetweeners. 

And that is another area of frustration when it comes to marketing the book. It feels like other genres such as Fantasy or Crime have ready made audiences for indie authors to tap into, yet I don't have a clue where to find my audience at times because it's not that obvious, yet when people have read and/or reviewed the The Drought, by and large it's received a positive reaction.

That is not to say it's impossible to do. Just look at Nick Spalding for example and his Love From... series which have been hugely popular and earned Nick a six-figure publishing deal. I guess it goes to show that with a bit of hard work and dedication (plus a sprinkle of luck I'm sure) you can find a audience to read your work.

But in what is now an incredibly cluttered market with the amount of self-published books being produced, a lot of those outlets for indie authors are becoming increasingly like closed doors. Online forums block authors from promoting their work to readers, Goodreads frown upon authors reaching out to other members if you are promoting your work, and bloggers sometimes sneer at self-published authors if we request reviews. I once posted a positive review for The Book With No Name by Anonymous on an online boom forum and I received a rather snotty email from one of the sites gatekeepers accusing me of being the author. I wish!

But I digress. Going back to my point of how the lad lit genre can become more popular, I guess a big part of that will come from the readers who enjoy the type of stories in these novels and help beat the drum to make it more mainstream.

So if you have read a lad lit novel lately and laughed until you cried, please send a Tweet, post a blog, update your Facebook status, write a review or simply tell a friend, because quite frankly, you'd be making my life a whole lot easier!

Amazon buys Goodreads: What does it mean for Indie Authors?

There seems to be mixed views on the news that Amazon have purchased Goodreads - the social book reading and sharing website. I can see the pros and cons of the argument, especially as an indie author. I have found Goodreads such an important tool to reach out and contact and engage with readers.

Over the last 6-12 months, The Drought has been picking up more reviews than ever before, and that is largely down to sites like Smashwords and Goodreads connecting me as an author with readers. But not just any readers, by spending a bit of desk time simply researching various members and groups on the site, I have been able to contact readers who I feel would enjoy my book based on their reading lists.

Goodreads is the largest site for readers and book recommendations in the world, with over 16m members. Most readers are happy to be contacted, especially when I use a Smshwords code to offer them a free download of The Drought in exchange for a fair and balanced review.

But on Amazon it is much more difficult to find and contact relevant reviewers to read my book. In the two years The Drought has been available on Amazon, it has only received a total of 27 reviews. In less than half that time on Goodreads, The Drought has nearly 70 reviews and has been download 500 times.

So what happens when Goodreads gets Amazonafied? Does it become increasingly more difficult for indie authors to connect with readers? Is this just another nail in the coffin for self-publishing success stories? Maybe not, but it does throw up the concern that Amazon will further increase their vice-like grip on the book selling and reading community.

Amazon put a stop on authors using their forums as a self-promoting tool, and any author who has attempted to give their books a little plug on some of the more popular independent forums will often have the door slammed shut in their face for even daring to mention their own book! I once posted a very positive review on a forum for The Book With No Name which happens to have an 'Anonymous' author and I received a rather snotty-nosed message from one of the forum's administrators accusing me of having something to do with the book.

Connecting with readers and getting reviews is just about as important to an indie author as it is to Luis Suarez having the salt and pepper within reach when he is snacking on Branislav Ivanovic's arm. Okay, it's a lot more important than that! But I could't resist a little dig...

These reviews not only help make other readers aware of my book, but it also gives me a sense that all the hard work is worth it. It's one thing having your friends and family tell you they like your book, but it is totally different when someone in Germany or the Philippines post a 5-star review saying how much they laughed when reading it. And it's fantastic when they compare your work to well-known established authors.

It's these reviews and relationships with these readers that keep indie authors going in the hope that they'll become that next big self-publishing success story. For every reader who gives you a positive review, it's two fingers up to the literary agent who said no. If Amazon take this function away from us, then it's Amazon who will be holding the two fingers up at indie authors.

Advice for Indie Authors: Indie authors beware! Do not feed the reviewers!

This indie author and publishing malarkey isn't always plain sailing, as I've learnt the hard way in the last 24 hours! There are more highs and lows than a 90s TV game show hosted by Bruce Forsyth! Good game? Not quite.

It was just yesterday I pranced on to Blogger with a skip and jump in my step, waxing lyrical about all the fantastic new reviews The Drought had received. Fast forward one day and my mood has dropped quicker than Luis Suarez in the penalty box!

You see, like many indie authors, it's up to me to be my publicist and marketer, with just one small problem - I don't have a Scooby Doo what I'm doing! And unfortunately this week I had a 'brainwave' and boy did I run with it!

My great plan was pretty simple: people on book reading social platform Goodreads like reading. Top reviewers on Goodreads love reading. So why not contact all 100 (yes, 100!) of those reviewers to offer them a free copy of The Drought to review? They'll be falling over themselves to read it, right? Nice to see you, to see you, nice!

Well, not quite. I hadn't quite thought through the whole 'spamming' issue. You see, and I'm sure other indie authors can relate, when you have a 'great' idea you don't really sit back and think if the consequences, you just go for it! Previously I had searched for readers who had read books by authors I would consider my book to be similar to (Mike Gayle, etc.) but on this occasion I just thought: "This reviewer loves supernatural thrillers - that must mean she'd love to read a comedy about a guy on a sex drought!"

I know, I know! But I just saw the positives, and never gave a thought to the potential gut-wrenching negatives!

The first reply came through last night from a female reviewer in the US who kindly pointed me towards her reviewing policy. I won't go into all the details, but the gist of it was do your homework before asking for a review and don't just spam! Reviewers are busy people too, but I will freely admit my nativity at thinking I must be the first indie author to have hatched this great plan to contact reviewers on Goodreads! My feeble attempt at a reply probably - and rightfully so - fell on deaf ears.

Next up I did a wee Google search to see if anyone out there in blog land had reviewed my book, and what do you know - I found one!

Now if my stint doing stand-up comedy has taught me anything, it's that you take the rough with the smooth. I've stood in packed rooms with people laughing at me (not literally, but at my jokes of course!). I've had audiences tell me I was the funniest comedian of the night (granted that was a private family gig in front of my parents and I was the only comedian, but that's not the point...!).

But the gigs that stick in the mind are the ones when you stink out the place and die on stage. I guess it's just human nature; praise is easy to take but criticisms stick in the back of your throat like a cracker on a hot summers day, because you take it as a personal attack.

So back to the review I found...

Two out of 10 lousy stars! Two! And the worst part about it was that it was only based on one chapter! One! (Don't worry, I'm not counting backwards towards anything...). But there is nothing I can do now. It's out there, floating around in cyber space for all to see. I then did the one thing I always tell others not to and I left a comment on the review. Nothing malicious, just that I didn't feel a whole review based on one chapter wasn't very fair, but hey-ho...

They say things come in threes, and right on queue this morning, I got a reply on Goodreads from another reviewer I had contacted. This message was perfectly nice, saying that she would be happy to review The Drought, but...

She did warn me that it was considered gauche to be promoting my own book to readers, and that spamming (that bloody word again!) will rub some people up the wrong way. In fact, she went as far as saying that there was an "evil underbelly" of people on Goodreads who like nothing more than bad-mouthing new authors. She even called them 'dangerous'! Gulp - what have I let myself in for?!

Now every time I get a message on Goodreads or an email notifying me of a purchase on Smashwords, I take a deep breath and pray! If anything, this has taught me a valuable lesson - Do not feed the reviewers!

Only kidding! What I have learned is that I've never confessed to being the best writer in the world. I'm not stupid enough to think that my book will set the literary world on fire or be heralded as the new Dickens!

But...

I would like to think that I'm not bad at comedic writing. I have to take heart from the majority of reviews who genuinely seemed to have enjoyed The Drought. But most importantly, I do need to know my audience! It sounds utterly ridiculous to say that, but sometimes you get caught up like a rabbit in the headlights.

So my final plea to reviewers everywhere - I'm sorry I spammed you! Please take pity on me and if you see my little bunny ears in front of you as you are driving around in your busy book-reading lives, try to politely swerve rather mowing me down and leaving me for road kill! I promise never to spam again.

To steal a line from Rocky Balboa - if I can change, you can change, we all can change!

Advice for Indie Authors: Nick Spalding - what a jolly good fellow!

Nick Spalding: Great bloke!

Being an indie author is not always easy. In fact, it is bloody hard! You spend hours and hours of your life typing away at the laptop, spending money getting your book published, and then even more hours in front of the screen trying to get people to read it!

It is a quite a lonely experience (queue the violins please...), and half the time you have no idea whether you are doing things the right way or not! In the past I emailed authors such as Mike Gayle and Danny Wallace, asking for a wee bit of advice. They invite you to contact them on their websites, but I've never had a reply. I understand they're busy people, so never really thought much about it.

But the other day I decided to drop Nick Spalding - indie author of the Amazon kindle best-seller Love... From Both Sides - a quick note to ask for some friendly advice from an indie author who has achieved incredible success.

I wasn't really expecting a reply, especially seeing as Nick has just signed a three-book deal with publishing house Hodder and Stoughton. He would clearly be far too busy to reply to me now...

But what do you know, a mere few hours later, Nick was kind enough to reply to me with some words of wisdom, and helpful hints and tips!

Hi Steve,

Here's Spalding's quick advice guide (ignore all, some or none of it as desired):

Write the best book you can and make sure you've clearly targeted your audience. The bigger the potential readership the bigger the potential sales.

Create a bold simple professional looking cover and blurb. Make sure they echo other books in your genre (just don't actually rip anyone off).

Price low to start with. 99p is a good way to go initially.

Spend only a small amount of time talking to other authors and a lot more time talking to readers.

Get drunk as often as possible. This won't help with sales, but by golly you'll have a good time and that's the main thing.

For more advice check out Kindleboards.com, mobileread.com, Absolute Writer Water Cooler forum.

Good luck with it :)

Nick

What a bloody good bloke. Make sure you check out his books at his website Spalding's Racket.

Advice for Indie Authors: Hints and tips for indie authors!

It is exactly one year ago that The Drought was published in paperback!

I'm certainly no expert by any stretch of the imagination when it comes to writing and publishing a novel. I am still learning with each step I take, but here are some tips that helped me along the way and things that I have learned as an indie author that you might find useful.

Think before you write
Have an idea before you start hammering away at the laptop! Sit down and write down on a piece of paper what your story looks like - the start, the middle, and the end. Who are the characters and how do they all link together? Where does the story happen? It doesn't matter if this changes or takes a different shape when you actually start writing, but it will give you some sort of direction.

Be committed
Unless you are lucky enough to write for a living then you are going to have to give up a lot of your free time to write a novel. For three months solid I wrote every day after work and as much as I could at weekends. It was not easy at the start (and my girlfriend must have thought have dumping me several times!) but slowly you create a routine. Constantly working on your novel not only improves your writing skills, but it will help you develop characters and create new stories.

Don't burn yourself out
Okay, this will sound slightly contradictory after my last point, but allow yourself a break from time to time. Take an evening off, or allow yourself a weekend when you don't switch the laptop on. As long as you are ready to get back into the saddle after a day or two then this will help recharge the batteries, especially if you are working a full-time job and trying to write a novel at the same time.

Always carry a notepad
Every time you think of an idea, write it down. I find the best ideas always come to me when I'm not sitting in front of the laptop. Every idea I think of, I write everything down. After I completed my first draft I still had 10,000 words worth of ideas that I hadn't even used. Referring back to your notes is a great help when you hit a wall or have writers block. In The Drought there is a whole chapter about how much the main character hates going clothes shopping with girls. The majority of this chapter was written on the notepad on my iPhone while my girlfriend was dragging me around Top Shop in Oxford Street!

Music
Try to pick a soundtrack to your book. Like a film, choose songs that represent the tone of your book and create a playlist and listen to it. Let your imagination wander. Some of my best ideas came when I was listening to my iPod on the way home, or when I was out jogging. Music can also jog your memory of real-life events that have happened in your past and can help you come up with ideas for your novel.

Write what you know
I can only advise from a personal experience, and writing about something you have not researched or have little knowledge of is clearly going to be bloody difficult! Even if you manage to write a complete manuscript, chances are your reader won't believe in the story because it won't seem real. It is no surprise that John Grisham practiced criminal law for a decade - his writing clearly demonstrates an author who knows his way around a courtroom. Writing skills aside, that is a major reason why he has been so successful. If you are blessed with a fantastic imagination like J.K. Rowling or J.R.R. Tolkien, then all the power to you!

Don't be too critical
If you have decided to write a novel, you are starting out on a process which can easily take over a year before you will be fully satisfied with your work. Mike Gayle, best-selling author of My Legendary Girlfriend, offers some great advice on his website. He says the first draft doesn't have to be perfect, and that the proudest moment of his career was completing that first draft. Your first draft will always be the one that needs the most work, but as Mike Gayle says, by finishing that first draft you have done something that most people only ever talk about. I finished my first draft in September 2009, and I was still making changes right up until it got published as an eBook in August 2011!

Give your novel to friends... and their friends, and their friends...
Choose people who you trust will give you an honest opinion. Take their comments on board and then go back and start the second draft of the novel. Ask your friends to give it to their friends, and to their friends, and so on and so forth. The more feedback you can get the better. You will be surprised how similar the feedback is, and this can be invaluable in terms of telling you what works and what doesn't.

Get your book proof-read and copy-edited
I checked, re-read, and re-wrote my manuscript dozens of times, and I still could believe how many mistakes I had missed when I had my manuscript proofed. It can be a costly exercise but it is well worth it in the long run. You can find proof-reading and copy-editing services in the Writers & Artists Yearbook with NUJ rates starting at £24 per 2,000 words.

Do your research on self-publishing
So you have sent your manuscript out and tried to secure a literary agent without much luck. If you are like me, you have decided to go down the indie author route. Do your research because the hard work has only just begun. All of the responsibilities a literary agent would take on board are now your responsibilities! This means getting costs to self-publish, choosing and designing a front cover, speaking to book shops to try and get them to stock your novel, sending out press releases and dealing with the local media. The list is endless. The more work you put in, the greater chance your book will stand of gaining exposure, and hopefully increasing sales.

Get by with a little help from your friends
You are going to need all the help you can get to help you along the way. I was lucky enough that I happened to work on the sales team for a magazine serving the print industry, and that the online editor agreed to let me write a blog. That opened doors for me. It helped me make contact with Lynn Ashman, the MD at Pen Press. I was also lucky enough through friends to be put in contact with national newspaper journalists, a television producer, and television presenters. Each one has helped me in some way or another, whether it is by agreeing to read my novel and supply me with reviews, to helping me create a promo video. Think about where you work, the people you work with, your friends and family. Don't ever be afraid to ask for help - the worst someone can say is no.

Keep it local to begin with
Naturally every author wants to see their book reviewed in national newspapers and magazines, and stocked on the shelves of all the major bookstores. But as a self-published author you need to take baby steps. Start by sending your press releases out to local media, and approach local bookstores to see if they are willing to stock your book. Local newspapers love to hear about the achievements of local people, and if you are lucky, gaining enough positive local press reviews might, just might, one day see your novel end up reviewed in the Sunday Times.

Posters, flyers, business cards
Invest in marketing material to help promote the book. If you have asked a local library or bookstore to stock your book, it would be great to have a poster hanging on the wall, or flyers sitting at the counter. Carry business cards and anyone who seems interested in your novel, hand them a business card with your details and details of where they can find your book online. I used a company called Authors Essentials, who specialise in marketing and promotional services for authors.

Create a website or a blog
If you have gone to all the trouble of self-publishing your work, marketing your novel, and sending out press releases to promote your book, then it is crucial to have an area where you point people back to. Think about how you buy things as a consumer. In this day and age, most people will refer to the internet now for more information before they buy. Your website should include details about the book (such as a sample chapter), contact information for the media, and most importantly, where people can buy your book.

Social media
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, to name just a few of the social networking tools you have at your disposal completely free of charge. Set-up a Facebook fan page, Tweet details about your novel, and blog as often as you can to raise your profile online. The more you can get people talking about your novel, the better. Check out my previous blog post The social media opportunity for more information. Another fantastic tool is Hootsuite.com, which allows you to schedule and manage all of your social media posts.

Immerse yourself into the book reading community
Go beyond the social media giants like Facebook and find those niche book communities online. I have found lots of great sites that bring book lovers together, and allow indie authors to promote themselves. Goodreads is a fantastic social media site that allows book readers to share and discuss their favourite books. And make sure you are talking to readers in book forums like Kindle Boards or the Book Club Forum, as nothing beats speaking to readers directly.

Invest into an eBook version of your novel
Ebooks have revolutionised publishing across the world. Amazon now sell more eBooks than physical books for its top 1,000 titles, and there are 115 eBooks sold for every paperback. The figures don't lie, so creating an eBook version of your novel makes sense.

Ask readers to write reviews
People will buy from sites such as Amazon based on positive reviews. So if you have had friends read your book and tell you they like it, then ask them to post a review up on Amazon. It won't cost them anything, but it could be priceless for you. And then when you start to engage with readers on social media or in the forums, ask them to write reviews if they are kind enough to give your book a chance!

Enjoy it!
If you don't enjoy the whole process, then maybe writing and self-publishing a novel is not for you. You have to have a real passion for writing, and you more than anyone must believe in yourself. Writing and self-publishing a novel should fill you with a huge sense of achievement. That is what makes all the hard work worthwhile.

Advice for Indie Authors: You do judge a book by its cover part 2!

Last year I published a blog called You do judge a book by its cover! where I discussed the importance of a good front cover for your novel. One year on I decided to dig out all the nearly covers that didn't quite make the grade for my debut comedy book The Drought. 

I thought it might be nice to share these, all wonderfully designed by Jacqueline Abromeit at Pen Press, and feel free to leave your feedback as to which one was your favourite...

1. This was all a bit too James Bond for me and I was never too sure about the plaster!	2. I liked the desert idea so asked to have a guy running towards the woman...
3. Jacqueline wanted to try and brighten the cover up so she came up with this...	4. But we decided to tone it down a bit and tried the cover with a different woman
5. I'm not too sure what we were thinking with this one! Running out of ideas maybe!	6. So we went back to the original design and included all our favourite bits

Looking back over all the covers again, I still think I got it right. I remember how excited I was when I saw the design for the first cover, but I think that was because seeing the front cover for your own book starts to bring everything to life a bit more.

But I spoke to friends and on there advice agreed that the design didn't quite capture the tone of the story - it looked a bit like a thriller (minus the heart-shaped plaster of course!). The idea of having a man run towards the image or 'mirage' of a woman in the desert worked, and also looked quite comical.

We also added in some praise The Drought had been given by TV presenters Ortis Deley and Angellica Bell, and the 'Mike Gayle' quote on the front worked really well as it immediately told the reader that my book was in the lad lit or chick lit category.

Now over to you - what is your favourite cover?

Advice for Indie Authors: Local book signings - sell yourself!

One of the hardest things to come to terms with as an indie author is that it is up to you to sell yourself. If you had the luxury of a publishing deal, you would have a team doing that for you! But you don't, so it is time to get busy!

There isn't any real rocket science when it comes to getting a book signing at a local bookstore. A good press release will help, but it's really just about making contact and asking if you can do one. I was actually surprised at how easy it was to arrange a book signing. At the start of September I went into my local Waterstones in Sutton and simply asked the manager if I could do one - that was it! I had seen other authors doing book signings before so I thought why not - the worst they can say is no.

But as I said, they were quite open to the idea. I simply explained to the manager that I was a local author and wondered if they held any events or book signings for local authors. At the end of the day they are a business and they have to think of ways of getting people through the doors and then buying copies of the books of the shelfs. Having an author in their store signing books is a bonus.

Initially they arranged for me host an event called An Evening With Steven Scaffardi. The idea would be to have people pay (yep, I said pay!) £2 per ticket to come and spend an hour and a half with me as I talked about my stand-up comedy and The Drought for an event at the end of November.

Two tickets got sold! I couldn't believe it either - that is two more tickets than I expected, and it wasn't even my mum who bought them. It was a total stranger!

But two strangers staring at me for 90 minutes for the paltry sum of £4 wasn't seen as a good business model, so it was decided we would switch the to a daytime event where I would simply stand in the shop and sign copies of my novel for anyone who wanted to buy a copy. (Pen Press are helpful at this stage, as they will make sure the bookstore where you have arranged book signings are fully stocked with copies of your novel.)

In the meantime, I simply went on to Waterstones website and looked at where the nearest stores were to me, and then fired off an email to those stores asking for further book signing opportunities, and I am pleased to say I got one at the store in Croydon on December 2.

As for yesterdays book signing, I think it went well. I managed to sell 10 copies (including one copy to the lady who had bought the two tickets to come and spend an evening with me!). The most challenging thing is making yourself speak to people in the store, and to keep doing it for 3-4 hours. Most people won't be interested, but they will be polite enough as long as you don't hound them too much and you just have to remember that these people are in a bookstore for a reason, and it is not to buy a kettle! Sooner or later you will find someone who is interested in the genre of your novel, and the opportunity to buy a signed copy of a book is a good selling point. And then we are back to word of mouth - if they like it then they'll tell there friends about it.

It is certainly something I highly recommend any indie authors doing, especially around the Xmas period. You don't have anything to lose and everything to gain. Not only will you sell copies of your book to people who did not know who you were previously, but I now have copies of my novel stocked in both the Sutton (and soon the Croydon) branch of Waterstones. For me, that is a huge achievment and a big step in the right direction.

Advice for Indie Authors: Sharing my book with the world... literally!

In a previous post I mentioned that I would be sending copies of my book out into the big, bad, wide world to fend for themselves. Well sort of.

Bookcrossing.com is a community of book fans - old school printed books and none of this eBook malarky! The idea is simple, yet brilliant. You take one of your books and you find it a new home, whether this is by passing it on to a friend to read or leaving it on a park bench for someone to find. The only catch is that you register it on Bookcrossing.com and generate an individual code to identify that book by. When someone is given the book or finds a copy that you have sent out into the "wild", they can then go onto Bookcrossing.com and insert that code to submit their own comments about the book. That person is then encouraged to pass the book on again once they have read it to continue the cycle.

For me this was a brilliant way of getting my novel in front of people who would have never heard of me or my book.

Originally I planned to send out 25 copies, but I didn't quite make that number (I managed a measly four copies!), but it is certainly something I am going to stick with. I left two copies of the book on the London tube (they have never been registered and no feedback has been posted yet), but I was contacted via Bookcrossing.com by two readers - one in the Netherlands and one in Australia - requesting copies of my novel.

Within a couple of weeks of sending the books out they had been registered to say they had been received, and in the last couple of days both of the readers posted comments and feedback after reading a copy of The Drought. Both copies have now been passed on and hopefully the cycle will continue.

In 2012 I want to send out a few more copies to see what happens, because I believe that word of mouth really is powerful tool, especially for an indie author. For every person who reads my book and enjoys it, maybe they tell three of their friends, and they tell three of their friends, and so on and so forth.

I am under no illusions that this is going to ensure I shift hundreds of copies of my novel, but it is just another piece of the puzzle that is self-marketing. Happy Christmas all and if you are looking for a late Christmas present (for a man or a woman!) then why not check out The Drought.

Advice for Indie Authors: How do I get those reviews?!

A couple of weeks before my novel was published I got busy identifying certain publications that I could send my book to for reviews. The nature of my novel - a story about a guy trying to get his leg-over - would appeal to lads. So I opted for lad mags like Shortlist, FHM, Nuts, Zoo, and Loaded.

But I have also had good feedback from women who have read the book, as they were intrigued (and a lot of the times appalled!) at what goes through a mans head. It was often getting called chick-lit for men so I sent the book out to a few of the womens magazines like Glamour.

I also decided that some press coverage would be nice, but perhaps the readers of The Times or The Guardian were not ready for my book- not yet anyway. I went with my own advice to stick with the local papers. After all, I had been given some pretty good coverage in the local press so far. I sent copies to papers such as The Evening Standard and the London edition of the Metro.

That was two months ago and guess how many reviews I got? That's right - a big fat zero!

It is tough. A lot of these publications are inundated with similar requests, and unfortunately there is still a stigma attached when it comes to self-published novels. Maybe because publications get so many self-published novels that they have to draw a line, maybe a lot of the really badly written self-published novels harm the chances of those well-written novels, or perhaps there is an element of snobbery. I would guess one of the main reasons is that it is a much safer option for a publication to review a novel by an established author or to accept work from a big publishing house.

The guys at Glamour magazine did actually reply, but they had already gone to press and therefore missed my publication date so the opportunity had gone. I learned a valuable lesson though, and that is to make sure you send copies of your novel out at least 4-6 weeks prior to publication date.

So now I was back to square one. I had yet to get my book reviewed anywhere other than Amazon - and then I had an idea! When you look at reviews on Amazon you will often see certain reviewers have a ranking such as Top 100 Reviewer. These are the people who have not only reviewed the most products on Amazon, but they have also been ranked the most helpful by other customers. In other words, people trust these reviewers.

If you have a bit of time on your hands, then it is well worth searching through the list of Amazon's Top Customer Reviewers and looking at the type of items they most commonly review. Most of the reviewers will have contact details, so I contacted a dozen reviewers and asked if they would be interested in reviewing The Drought if I sent them a copy.

Two replied and said they would be happy to review it, but offered no promises in terms of giving it a postive review. They would read it and give it a fair and honest review. I was more than happy with this arrangement - after all, this is what a review is all about. You have to be confident in your work.

I sent the copies off and I am pleased to say that this week I had my first review from one of the Top Customer Reviewers. It was given a five-star thumbs up and as an added bonus, in turns out that this particular reviewer has her own book review website and uploaded her review at BestBooksToRead.co.uk.

I could not have hoped for a better review, but it also made me realise that there are dozens of independent online book review websites - all with an audience of keen book readers. This is now starting to get interesting again!

Advice for Indie Authors: An online audience is a great starting point

If there is a huge excitement on the day your book actually gets published, you will unfortunately experience an anti-climax in the aftermath once the dust has settled. Please don't misunderstand what I am saying - I am not trying to put a downer on things! But seeing your book on Amazon is one thing, now getting people to buy it is something completely different.

Once you have exhausted your friends and family, if you are serious about getting your book noticed, you are going to have to start branching out. Previously I have talked about how I had got the ball rolling with a series of interviews with local newspapers. But now I need to find an audience of potential buyers for my book and that is not easy. I did not realise how time consuming this part of my book publishing adventure would be. I knew I would have to put time and effort in, but I wasn't quite prepared for just how much time and effort!

It has literally taken over my life! If you are thinking about self-publishing but you are a bit work-shy, then I would give up now! Seriously, give up and find a different hobby, perhaps something like bingo, or even bowls - that is quite slow-paced. Because a day has not passed in the last couple of weeks without me doing something to try and promote my book.

The first thing I did was trawl the internet (no, not for that you filthy beggar!). I have continued to build on the in-roads I had been making with social media. Try to find out what the relevant hashtags are that will attract readers to your book. I have been using a series of hashtags including:

• #books
• #ebooks
• #fiction
• #paperback
• #kindle
• #indieauthor
• #selfpublishing
• #readthis

The thing is, I am only scratching the surface with this list, and for every Tweet I post, there are a thousand others like this. I whole-heartedly recommend you use Hootsuite, as this is really is a fantastic tool to schedule your social media posts, and saves you having to put time to one side every time you want to post something on Twitter or Facebook.

But the one hashtag I have had the most success with has been #competition. About two weeks prior to The Drought being published I set up a competition using social media, offering a free signed copy of my novel and a £25 Amazon voucher. As well as using the #competition hashtag, I also posted my Tweets with tags such as #win and #giveaway. All people had to do was follow me on Twitter and Like my Facebook page. In less than a week I had over 400 followers on Twitter and over 300 Likes on Facebook. It is amazing what people will do for free stuff! I now have strangers Re-Tweeting my posts and leaving comments on Facebook. I now have an audience.

I continued to build upon this audience using online forums. I posted information about the competition and picked up followers there, but now I was picking up genuine book lovers and avid readers. But you have to be careful with with forums and not go too overboard with the self-promotion. You have to remember that the people on these forums are like little communities. They come to these online meeting points to discuss their favourite books with like-minded people, and you will slowly irritate them and lose their interest if you simply post topics about how great your book is. You need to fully immerse yourself within these online communities; get involved with their discussions and engage in debate with these people. Forums are a slow-burner but they are well worth the effort and the benefit will be worth it in the long-run. I have already managed to sell a couple of eBooks and get some reviews on Amazon from people in these communities.

And last. but by no means least - blogging. Content is king with it comes to people finding you on the net. I have already established a healthy amount of content on my own website, but a good blog will encourage people to engage with you. It also puts your book in the shop window, and by using Amazon Associates, you can also advertise your book on your blogs to boost sales.

A special mention for book sharing website BookCrossing.com. I am planning to send copies of my book out into the 'wild' for people to find. For example, I left one book on a London Tube for someone to find. Each book you leave is assigned a special ID number generated by BookCrossing.com. When someone finds that book, they can log-on to BookCrossing.com and post information about where they found the book, and a review, before passing the book on for someone else to find.

I plan on sending about 25 copies out into the wild between now and the end of the year, so make sure you check out the blog to find out where they turn up (see you're interested already!).

This blog was originally posted on printweek.com