Marketing Ideas for Authors - Promote all the Places!

I have an author friend who encourages us by posting the phrase 'Write all the Words". In today's world of Indie publishing (and sometimes traditional publishing also), an author is also a marketer. It is a constant battle to balance both tasks. I love writing and could spend all my time there. Marketing - meh. It is a necessary evil.

The best promotion always is to write the next book. Bookbub, ENT, Midlist and other sites help with promotions as well as Facebook ads. I could go on and on with the list of possibilities. But I thought that I would write a few different posts about ideas for marketing a book outside the regular channels that are low-cost/free and low-maintenance.

I am a strong believer in character profiles, at least for the main characters in my books. I not only want to know what they look like physically, but what their likes/dislikes are, what hobbies they enjoy, and so on. From this, I can pull ideas to tie in for marketing.

This is the season for craft and holiday fairs where I am. But there are fairs, swap meets, bake sales, and farmers markets  that occur all year round. Do you have a witch in your book? Find someone who is selling herbs and work out an arrangement to have copies of your books on his table.

Have a book where the MC is a mechanic or race car driver? Find a swap meet where you can share a table. Does you MC love baking? Bake sales are great and through in some recipe cards with the MC's favorite recipe. Did you write a fantasy? How about a Ren fair or reenactment? Look at your local newspaper or the bulletin board in your supermarket for other options and ideas. There are lots of local places and activities that you can take advantage of and it gets you away from the computer for a while.

There are also online possibilities. Etsy is a platform that I use. It works for me because the MC in my book works at a knitting shop called SheepKnitsForEwe. I reused the name from a side business that I had which has migrated to an Etsy shop called - da da dum - SheepKnit4Ewe. I use the tie in and sell the book as an item in my Etsy shop. SheepKnits4Ewe

Of course, there are the bigger events: book fairs, Cons, book signings, and conferences, but there are a lot written about them (google it). Meanwhile, try one of these other ideas - you might sell some books and have fun at the same time.