Okay, you finished writing your book and it's getting published. What now? Well, your work as an author isn't complete yet. Now, you have to market and advertise your book so you can get people to read it. I know it would be easier to run around and shoved the book in people's faces, but that may end badly if you accidentally knock someone out. Then suddenly, there's a court date for assaulting someone. I guess you could try holding up your book during the process, but I imagine the judge wouldn't appreciate it and it may be hard if you're handcuffed. Let's not go that route.
So, what do we need to do? Well, you could go to events and try selling your books. Even if you don't sell any books if you can get your name out there or network, then you gain a group that could come back to your book.
So, what do you need to network and get your name out there? You may want to consider making business cards with your author information such as an author page if you have one. If not, it's not hard to make one. If you're not technical, then you may find someone to help you build your website. If you don't want to go down that road, then you can always use Facebook and make a free business page there. Just a warning, not everyone uses Facebook... (enter gasp here) I know this is hard to believe, but I have found a bunch of people that don't care for social media. So I ended up making an author page as well so I can capture the two groups, those that use social media and those that don't.
Next, maybe consider making flyers or swag to capture your audience and have your name on it. I've made my own pens with my website on them. You can have a professional do it, but if you're creative then it may be a cheaper option. I've also made bookmarks with my author page and book information on the back. Usually, the bookmarks and pens are free as a way to market my books. Whenever they use it, they'll see my advertisement on it.
If you get to attend an event, then consider having a banner. Either to hang on the canopy or one to attach to your table. Some people have them hanging off a rack behind them or a poster holder. You can either use your book image or anything that deals with your book. My books deal with Dragons and Lycans so I would add dragons or wolves images to the banner.
Another thing you can add to your table is little props to draw people in. As I said before my books deal with dragons and Lycans so I have little wolf figures or dragon figures all over the table. Also, another thing you can add is little sweets, like candy or chocolate to draw people in.
Marketing takes a lot of work and can cost a lot of money, but the end result could be awesome. Sometimes when people go to events, they don't want to buy a book now or they might not know what the person they know that loves to read would like. So giving them a business card or a flyer with all your books information on it may help you get a sale later down the road. Also, the money you spent on marketing could be used for tax deduction seeing it's being used for your side job.
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