A Self-Publishing Rookie Does Book Promo, Part 1: An Overview

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Nutcracker Sweetest is my first time doing book promo, ever. I’m starting out with very little, other than a decent-sized Facebook list, a netbook, and a raging Internet obsession. My task: to get my book from virtual nothing to a little bit of ‘sumpin sumpin.

The biggest hump in self-publishing is PR. Think about it: established publishing houses have a PR department that handles a decent amount of marketing for a particular new book. While much of a book PR still lies in the hands of the author (many have to cough up cash for swag, ARCs, promo cards, ads, etc), an established house has a website with high Google ranking, a mailing list, social media coverage, and gravitas. Self-pubbed authors can have some of this, but most don’t. I know my happy behind doesn’t have much of a fanbase, so I’m coming up from the bottom.

I pubbed Nutcracker Sweetest with very little fanfare on Christmas Day, at around 6 AM. Since I’ve published, I’ve sold about 5 copies a day. Not great, but a lot better than many. I want sales as high as possible, so I’m going to kick PR into high gear and document what happens. I’m sure I’ll make some missteps, but hey, that’s part of the process, right?

Watch this space.