[instantmix]

Hi

Am Sarah. Hola to all here. Its good to be here.

I've been writing for a few years now and finally have got a collection of short stories published. However its a small time local publisher and hence most of my marketing is through word of mouth. Any ideas on what I should do next?
It would help lot... Thanks...

Cheers
Sarah

[kmtolan]

Sarah,

Absolutely!

1. Get yourself an author's website - preferably one whose domain name is your pen name - you can check out places like Godaddy.com for both.

2. Make yourself known on the social networks. Don't spam, but do get cuddly with forums.

3. Are your short stories something that would be of interest to any conventions (fantasy, mystery, romance)? You could try going there and being a panelist. Networking is also a big bonus there.

4. Any respected contests you can enter your work with?

5. Try being a guest on a blog dealing with your subject matter.

For anyone these days, especially small press authors, it's all about promoting yourself. I tossed a "how to" out on my MySpace blog for promoting in MySpace without being a pest - called "MySpace Marketing 101" and it might help you.

Kerry

[shashekar]

THE INTERNET

Seriously. In your situation I would focus upon online promotion over offline promotion, as the internet allows you to reach a far broader audience with less effort. Some more ideas:

Put your ebooks up online for people to read. HTML, PDF, TXT, whatever! Just get them up there. Look at releasing some stories under the Creative Commons. If people like your works, they will come back for more.

Get your own website and make yourself known on sites like Facebook. This part is self-explanatory. Start a blog, comment on writer and fan blogs. Raise your profile!

Get a booth at a convention and give out copies of your book. Free is always good.

Go look at Amazon as they have options (AFAIK) for both paper and electronic publishing.

[KatG]

Welcome Sarah! Check the Sticky thread at the top of the Writing Forum menu that is called Self-Promotion: Marketing New Novels. There will be a lot of good stuff in there that other authors have been trying out.

[instantmix]

Thanks a lot guys....
The tips and the sticky helped...

I also found an application that lets me post a part of my book as an actual book online. Found it at www.freado.com...