31 Self-Publishing Tips to Promote Your Book During Small Press Month

March is Small Press Month, a month to promote the amazing work of independent publishers and self-published authors. Take advantage of this celebration to promote your own self-published book all month long with 31 effective marketing and promotion steps. High quality self publishing is easy. Marketing your book afterwards is the key.

Throughout the month, take a moment each day to implement one important step in your efforts to market and promote your self-published book. Here is a tip each day to keep you active in your book marketing efforts all month long:

Mar 1 – Get stocked. If you do not have enough hard copies on hand, contact your publisher today to order a supply. You’ll need them so you can pursue the 30 other marketing and promotion tips throughout the month. By the way, Outskirts Press is offering 3 times the number of FREE author copies when you begin publishing in March.

Mar 2 – Get connected. Contact other independent published authors in your area. With the advent of social networking sites, this is easier than ever. For example, Outskirts Press already has a growing community of active and passionate fans/followers on Facebook and Twitter, with whom you can connect at any time. Once you’ve connected, combine your resources to fully pursue all these marketing opportunities throughout the month. There’s a lot to do, and four hands are better than two!

Mar 3 – Get publicity. Contact your local newspapers and inform them of Small Press Month. Give them as many details as possible, then offer to write an article about Small Press month and send them a press release about your book. This will help you build your platform as a local writer and self-publishing author.

Mar 4 – Offer a discount. Contact your local bookstores and suggest they offer discounts on Small Press books. Bring in your own book and offer it to them at a discount to get them started. You can even offer to leave them with a free copy along with your sales sheet, press release and any promotional materials you have for your book. Ask if you can host an event at their establishment for local independent authors. Also, share this post with them as a way of indicating your commitment to making that event successful.

Mar 5 – Get published. If you haven’t published yet (or you’re ready to publish again!), Small Press Month is the perfect time to begin publishing your book. Outskirts Press has the high-quality, full-service publishing package that is right for you!

Mar 6 – Get the word out. Send a press release to the local media (newspapers, radio, television) mentioning Small Press Month and your independently published book. If you secured some events, mention them in the release. Your press release should explain what Small Press Month is, why it’s important, what local organizations are doing to celebrate, and who these organizations can contact for additional information. Supplement the press release with your sales sheet and/or any reviews you have received for your book.

Mar 7 – Appeal to bookworms. Contact your local libraries and suggest they feature Small Press titles, including yours. Offer to leave them with a free copy, along with your sales sheet. If you’re an Outskirts Press author, your sales sheet can be generated automatically from within your Author Center. You can even update it at any time through your Author Toolkit.

Mar 8 – Get seen. If you haven’t yet sent out review copies for your book, do it today. The free Book Review Starter Kit from Outskirts Press includes tips on sending books to reviewers as well as a list of book reviewers with contact information to get you started.  If you don’t have the time to do it yourself, Outskirts Press can do the work for you with the Book Review Submission Service.

Mar 9 – Educate educators. Contact local schools in your area and tell them about Small Press Month. Mention that you are a local published author and offer to speak to their students and staff about how to accomplish their dreams of being published. This is particularly effective if you have a children’s book you can then sell after the assembly.

Mar 10 – Contact local universities and colleges. Similar to March 9: Promote yourself and your book by sharing your knowledge of how to write a book and get published. You can even sell copies of your book after your presentation.

Mar 11 – Follow-up with bookstores and local media outlets you contacted last week to see if you can offer any additional assistance or information. Reiterate the importance of Small Press Month, your planned events in the community, and your Small Press book.

Mar 12 – Share your experiences. Schedule a seminar or tele-seminar on “How to Write and Publish a Book” and offer a Small Press Month discount on the registration fee. Send local news outlets a press release about your event.

Mar 13 – Contact other sales channels outside of the traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores that may be likely to sell your book. This may include websites related to your book’s topic, gift stores, hardware stores, grocery stores, boutiques, etc. Look at your book and ask yourself where your readers may be shopping, then make contact with those retailers.

Mar 14 – Link with other artists. Contact local art studios, design boutiques or other small independent businesses in your area. Work with them to forge co-op advertising initiatives and other promotional partnerships. If applicable, offer to conduct some events in their venues. Show them how sharing your promotions helps everyone gain greater visibility.

Mar 15 – Join forces. Connect with other independently published authors and arrange co-op advertisement in the local media, using any dollars secured from local businesses you spoke with on March 14. In addition to simply promoting your book, promote your upcoming events, so people will show up. The other authors can join in the events, which may lead the bookstores to be more interested in scheduling future event, even on such short notice.

Mar 16 – Get talking. Contact local radio producers in your area and pitch them on Small Press Month. Not sure where to start? Outskirts Press offers a Top 10 Radio Interview & Media Training option to get you started.

Mar 17 – Think green. St. Patrick’s Day green, that is. Take the day to focus on electronic editions of your book. If you’re only selling hard copies, consider getting a Kindle, NOOK or Apple iPad edition of your book.

Mar 18 – Think big. Local is a great starting point, but don’t forget to contact the major newspapers about Small Press Month, too. They’re more likely to cover something if they are contacted by authors, and you will want to be among the piles of information they have received:

• THE NEW YORK TIMES: 229 W 43rd Street, New York NY 10036-3959 (212) 556-1234
• USA TODAY: 1000 Wilson Blvd, Arlington VA 22209-3901 (703) 276-3400 and 535 Madison Avenue, 20th Fl, New York NY 10022-4212 (212) 715-5410
• WALL STREET JOURNAL: 200 Liberty Street, New York NY 10281-1003 (212) 416-2000
• WASHINGTON POST: 1150 15th Street NW, Washington DC 20071-0002 (202) 334-6000

Mar 19 – Commune. Contact your local community center and inform them of Small Press Month; post information on their community bulletin board if one is available. Gather the local authors with whom you’ve teamed up and schedule an impromptu event, celebrating Small Press books.

Mar 20 – Reassess your publishing options. If you published elsewhere, this may be the month to switch to Outskirts Press. Assess your current publisher and ask yourself if you’re happy with what you’re getting.  Even if you’re not ready to switch, Outskirts Press offers a variety of marketing products and services for authors, regardless of where they published.  Browse those marketing products today at: www.outskirtspress.com/marketing.

Mar 21 – Think about the other 11 months. Small Press Month is just one month out of 12. Prepare for other book events throughout the year, like London Book Fair, BookExpo America, Beijing Book Fair and Frankfurt Book Fair. Or make it easy on yourself with the Global Book Tour marketing package from Outskirts Press, which includes all four book fairs with a 25% discount.

Mar 22 – Go social. Create a social networking account on Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn. Outskirts Press makes it easy with a social media platform set-up service that gets you started toward promoting and marketing your book through social media.

Mar 23 – Promote through learning. Contact the Learning Annex or similar adult education program in your area and offer to teach a class on the subject of your book, or about self-publishing. As a published author, you are an expert on these topics. Your book may even become required reading for each student! Cha-ching!

Mar 24 – Name drop. Start writing online reviews through Amazon. Write reviews for every book you have ever read. Mention that you are the author of a book at the bottom of each posted review and include the book title and a link. If people like the writing style of your review, they may investigate your book, especially if you write reviews for books within the same genre as your book.

Mar 25 – Contact the public libraries in each state and mention your involvement with Small Press Month. Send them information about your book. Here’s a link that will get you started: http://www.publiclibraries.com/.

Mar 26 – Set your poetry in motion. If you’re a poet, start preparing for National Poetry Month in April.

Mar 27 – Affiliate yourself with others. Help other writers you know get published and earn a 10% commission for the referral after their book is published. Register for the Outskirts Press affiliate program today and start spreading the word to all of the writers in your life.

Mar 28 – Blog about yourself. Start a blog and keep it active and up-to-date with blog posts about you, your book and other things that interest you. Register your blog with blog directories to gain more readership and participation.

Mar 29 – Touch Base. Submit your published book to the Google Base listings. It’s free. http://base.google.com.

Mar 30 – Think big (print). Publish a large print edition of your book to expand your market. With the world’s demographics growing older, large print editions are becoming more and more popular. Featuring 14 or 16-point fonts, these editions appeal to the aging community because they are easier to read. You’ve already written the book, now re-publish a new easy-to-read edition to increase your revenue and double the effectiveness of your marketing initiatives. It’s easy to get published here.

Mar 31 – Take a breath. It’s been a busy, productive month. Take a couple hours to yourself today to recharge and gear up for all the events, promotion and marketing opportunities that will come your way in 2013!  An Outskirts Press Personal Marketing Assistant can help you organize all of those opportunities and create a detailed marketing plan just for you.