Being an author is expensive—more expensive than you would expect, especially if you’re going indie. The costs of hiring an editor, a proofreader, a cover designer, et cetera cannot be overlooked.
Then it becomes clear that, in order to sell books, you will almost certainly need to invest in some sort of advertising.
But what if this is the first book, and you’re starting from a zero-dollar budget? What if you’re all tapped out for now? What if you’re trying to stretch your dollars this month and have turned off ads? Or what if you’re between launches, but don’t want your book sales to dwindle in the meantime?
Below are two websites you should consider joining to help you grow your readership, sell your books, and maintain an audience—and did I mention they’re free?
BookSprout
After the cover, the book description, and whatever free sample might be available to read if your book is in Kindle Unlimited, what is the first thing a reader looks at to determine whether they want to buy your book?
That would be the reviews, of course. And the more, the merrier. Reviews are social proof, meaning they signal to new people that others have already tried and approved of your book, and that makes new people more open to the idea of giving the unknown a chance.
BookSprout is a website that allows you to post an advance reader copy (ARC) of your book for readers to pick up for free in the hopes that they would leave a review. Sites like BookSprout specifically attract readers who like to leave reviews (a population you may not have necessarily found on your own), so you can be reasonably sure that putting your book up will net you at least a generous fraction of Goodreads, BookBub, Amazon, and/or other reviews from people who claim an ARC. This does help acquire the aforementioned social proof, but it could also lead to finding readers who love your stories so much, they just might tell their friends about it on other platforms—or even work their way through your backlist and leave reviews as they go.
One hidden gem of the site that I like to use is the Amazon keyword tool. It pales in comparison to something like Publisher Rocket, but essentially, it helps you learn what search terms people are using. All you do is type in your genre, and this tool spits out keywords you might not have thought about adding yourself. For example, typing in romance leads to surprising results like romance dogs and romance super bundles. You might never have thought to add “dogs” or “bundle” in the keywords of your veterinarian romance collection, but now you know to do exactly that!
You can sign up for BookSprout and see its pricing chart here.
Story Origin
As of April 25, 2021, Story Origin has grown out of its beta testing phase. All of the premium features have been placed behind a $100 per annum paywall. But there are still some features users can access for free, and they are not to be missed.
For one, Story Origin’s free plan users can still create—though not apply to—giveaway, sale, review, and Kindle Unlimited group promos. Put simply, in group promos, authors agree to share (via newsletter and social media) a link to their audience (read: new-to-you people) that takes readers to a webpage listing one or more links to books from every participating author. The reader can then explore this webpage for books they may find interesting and decide whether to purchase or download. You can watch this tutorial to learn more about group promos, and you can watch this tutorial to learn how to create your own group promo.
But the more valuable tool may be the ability to distribute your story (or a few sample chapters of a story) for free. Story Origin free plan users can create “Direct Download” pages, which host MOBI, EPUB, and PDF files of your book and allow anyone to download the files. You can use these special links to send books to the winners of the giveaways you host, give your newsletter subscribers a free book somewhere in your email sequence, or provide bonus content to readers on a password-protected page of your website. The extra nice thing about it is that if your readers have a problem with downloading, they can reach out to Story Origin (and not you!) for help. Here’s the tutorial for creating a Direct Download page.
The final free feature Story Origin offers is the email campaign planner and goal tracker. Quite frankly, these are a hundred and one apps and could help you do this equally well, but if you don’t already have a system in place to help you manage it, this is yet another (free!) option to look at.
You can sign up for Story Origin and see its pricing chart here.
Bonus: Facebook
I am not referring to those Facebook groups full of other authors (and almost no readers) where authors announce their new release to crickets. I’m also not talking about posting in other authors’ fan groups, though that will surely be a topic of a future blog post.
Instead, I’m talking about utilizing Facebook as a way to connect and interact with other authors on purpose. Seek out newsletter swap groups specific to your genre and offer to exchange a mention of another author’s book in your newsletter for a mention of your book in theirs. Search for mastermind groups where authors across the success spectrum share triumphs and defeats. Then share yours, too. You will be surprised by how many marketing tips and tricks you can pick up—and at how many genuine connections you might make along the way. You could wind up replying to a comment left by your future friend or business partner. Trust me when I say that finding people to bounce ideas off of is one of the most important things you can do to boost your confidence and find your groove as an author.
Double Bonus: Our Mighty Network
Speaking of finding your people… Would you like all the connectivity and community of social media without being bombarded by ads and content the mighty algorithms think you should see, but that you don’t actually care about? We have a special place like that just for you. All about writing, all the time. Ask for help, join in on conversations already in progress, celebrate your wins, and seek advice while recovering from your losses.
Enter the (free!) Writer’s Atelier network.
Bonus: TikTok
Once upon a time, #bookstagram was the way to get the word out about your book. Well, now Instagram has been dethroned as the platform for books. It’s TikTok now, and its popularity is skyrocketing. Even less well-known creators can find incredible reach with their videos. I, for example, have only a handful of followers, but both of the only TikToks I’ve posted so far have been viewed between 500 and 1,000 times at the time of this blog post’s publication! That’s crazy given the fact that you can post to hundreds of followers on Instagram or Facebook and only have your post seen by a dozen of them.
You have no doubt heard of book sales taking off once a #booktok video goes viral in the community. There are tons of them now for almost every genre, but particularly for fantasy and romance. And as amazing as those stories sound, I am sure that new-to-you apps are still daunting to download. Nevertheless, if you can swallow the security concerns, I encourage you to take the leap. Start by following your favorite hip, happening authors in your genre and watching their most-viewed videos to see what they’re doing. Ponder how they might have accomplished that cool editing trick. Note how they make use of the limited time.
Then, brainstorm ideas relevant to yourself and your own books and just hit record.
Your first few videos will be messy. You won’t know what you’re doing. But there are tutorials out there, and the more you try, the better you’ll get. Tap all the buttons to see what they do. Post even your messiest videos—you can always delete them later. Just like in writing, you need to make some not-so-great content while learning the ropes before you can create something great.
If you’re looking for inspiration on what to post, here are four types of TikToks you can post today.
