Book Promotion Tip: Try Indirect Promotion

Yes, I’m still out in the wilds of Idaho. But I have two more days worth of book promotion tips from fellow indie authors, so read on….

Today Alain Gomez, author of the Jimmy Cochran Series Collection offers his advice on indirect promotion:

I tend to be highly experimental when I’m figuring things out. People will give me advice and I’ll believe them. But the advice doesn’t really solidify in my brain as “good” or “bad” until I’ve tried it for myself. That said, I’ve tried just about everything a independently published author can do to promote their work on a modest budget. I have done Facebook ads, Google ads, Goodreads ads, I have made fanpages on Facebook and posted my links there, I have made a blog, I have paid to have my stories featured on various high-traffic blogs, I have submitted my stories to be reviewed by dozens of bloggers… the list actually goes on. Not too long ago, I came to realize that there is a difference between direct and indirect promotion.

Direct promotion is a flat-out “Try my book!” type ad. This rarely (if ever) works. What I’ve found to be far more effective is indirect promotion. Think two or three steps beyond the initial direct promotion tactic. For example, you can go on the Amazon Kindle fanpage and plug your book. In about one hour, your post will cycle off of the newsfeed and most people will have ignored your post. What’s far more effective is to go on the Amazon Kindle fanpage and interact with people. Make comments yourself or reply to others who have questions. Chances are good that someone will click on “you” out of curiosity. If they see you’re an author, they may “like” your page or even go so far as to click on the book links you have listed.

Point being, direct promotion is not effective on a smaller scale. An indie author usually does not have the millions of dollars it would take to really push a product on to someone. You have to make contact and then let the reader come to you.