So, you penned your masterpiece, rewrote it a dozen times as you fought, argued, and screamed with your editor, and readied your now grand marvel for eBook and print. Then perhaps you thought about a well-earned rest—mentally prepared yourself to kick back and coast, but alas, a deep and frightening realization grips your mind and settles into your soul, a frozen chunk of lead in your gut that makes you want to hurl.

Despite your achievements, you’ve come to realize that your task has only just begun. With all that you’ve already accomplished, other than your friends, family, and that one buddy from your favorite Social Media site, no one knows who you are, or anything about your novel. In other painful words, no one will buy it.

Here’s a frightening fact. If you weren’t thinking about your next steps even before your release date, then you put yourself behind one mean curve ball.

Virtual Tours

All is not lost, however. Even with a limited budget, there is much you can do to spread the word about yourself and your novel. A fast and easy way is with a virtual tour—that is when information about your book, cover, and associated artwork, and about you is spread around the web to blogs and websites, who in turn share it with hundreds, if not thousands of followers. These sites not only spread the word but can also be a source of sales and perhaps more importantly at first, reviews.

Reviews can make or break you. So, while your tour is going on, you must be diligent and thorough in scouring the web for reviewers. They can often be found at blogs, Facebook groups and many other places, but don’t overlook book clubs and what has become a staple for both Indy and Traditional publishers—Goodreads—a sort of hub for readers, reviewers, and of course the dreaded and yet, very necessary reviews.

Social Media

While deftly handling the review situation, you’ll be sure to realize there is much more you can do to spread the word, so-to-speak. Make yourself known on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram; they all allow you to be seen, as you seek out those you hope will ‘follow’ you and purchase your book. Simply creating accounts won’t do, however, they won’t do at all.

There are other, usually free sites, such as Hometown Reads, where you can share information about yourself and your writings, but you must take an active part, write an article, share some wisdom.

Social media and these other sites will serve you well if you treat them as communities, rather than just ‘websites.’

Get to know your neighbors—the other authors—they may be able to help you, as you in turn may be able to help them.

Though I cannot speak for how well they work, there are also sites that will, for a fee, advertise your book to their followers, be they five or five million. This can be on Twitter, Facebook, or any other social media site. Some are cheap, others expensive, and most of them promise the same thing, not sales so much as simply getting the word out about you and your writing. Because that is the bottom line, the secret to sales—when it comes to books, people are just as interested in the authors as they are in the books, sometimes even more so. If you have the funds, you can also advertise directly on Facebook or on Amazon through a few different programs, but again, there are no guarantees on sales.

Do one, some, or all these things I’ve mentioned, and do them often, because in the end, your success is dependent upon you.