Marketing Your Own Books

WHEN I first had an idea for a book and began planning for the day it was published, I had this false belief that all I had to do was produce a marketable manuscript and the world would quickly find its way to my front door (and pocket book, for that matter). It took 33 years for that first book idea to find its way into print.  Then came the eye-opener. Publishers, for good reasons I now understand, have a limited budget for promoting books. Established, best-selling authors and their new books get the bulk of that money. A small amount might be put toward a new book with “possibilities.”
SO, for the past two years I have been promoting my own books. They are available for purchase as electronic downloads or as paperbacks through simplieindie.com. Some are bought that way. But for the most part, I am doing my best to market my books to small, locally operated business (not necessarily bookstores). All my books come autographed with an offer to personalize them in an appropriate setting. I sell them to my friends, and their friends, and their friends’ friends. I sell them to businesses (the Christmas themed book, that is…Tivoli’s Christmas). I make myself available to schools for a presentation on writing fiction and non-fiction.
MY second and third books (The Mystery of the Grinning Buddha and The Mystery of the Ugly Bottle) are the first two in a series of mysteries geared for 8 to 12 year-old readers. The third book (The Mystery of the Haunted Lighthouse) in that series (The Millerville Mysteries) is written and scheduled for release in June of 2011.
IT was no co-incidence that I chose a seasonal book and a series. Each year Tivoli’s Christmas becomes more popular (locally) and the mystery series helps build a following as each year I approach those who have purchased one of the earlier books with the latest in the series. I have a second series, the first book of which is written, that I hope to make available for publication within the next few years.
I also have several stand-alone books on which I am working.