Cheap or Free Ways to Promote Young Companies?

[M-M]

My wife and I have started AllTheseBooks.com, a site dedicated to promoting new authors. It is starting to gain momentum, but I'm still looking for more exposure.
Here is what we are already doing: MySpace, MySpace groups, reader/book forums, Yahoo answers, reviews submitted to several websites, directories, blog comments, mutual promotions.

I want to do a press release and wondered what others can recommend - it has to be free though, at least for now. I know this limits us, but there's no other way.

We have 5 interviews with authors scheduled. What would be good places (other than our site and our MySpace) to submit them?

And to those who have released books: What places did you use to promote your book?

Any help is much appreciated.

 

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[kimberland]

Re: Press Releases / Other Promotion

Whew... tough market.
I tried something in the field
(it failed, not for lack of interest
but because I set the system up incorrectly).
You're coming at it a bit differently,
what with a forum and everything.

Note:
Usually fellow tech shy authors use Yahoo Loops
so if you can mimic that process,
you'll get over the I-can't-figure-this-out hump.

If you want to get up and running quickly,
consider having genre sections
(romance, mystery, sci fi).
These groups are very well organized
and are easily contacted
(for example, all Romance chapters are listed on the RWA website,
simply email them a press release offering free promo for their authors
and let them distribute).

Start with the authors first
because all authors are readers also
and let them contact their own readers.

I'd probably concentrate on one genre.
Build that readership
and then when that is rolling,
move onto the next.

I assume you want advertising, right?
Then seed the process with some book cover ads
(they add color too).
See the advertising on the side of
http://www.romancingtheblog.com/blog/ ?
Baby blogs charge about $5 a month for their book cover ads.
Doesn't seem like much but they have no traffic.
(You also don't have any traffic)

I'd also tweak the title to
Discover new-to-you authors and their books!
The big fish are authors with a lot of books out.
They have SEO pull and the readers to go with them.

If you're interested in having genre fiction (like romance)
and because you're a fastlane member,
I'll advertise (pending on your rates).
PM me if you're interested.

 

[kimberland]

Re: Press Releases / Other Promotion

Oh, and consider having live chat nights
with different authors.
That drives the author to promote that specific night
on his/her website.

Many review sites have publisher nights.
So for example on
April 1st, it is Champagne Books night at Coffee Time Romance.
You'll see a link to that event on my writing site sidebar.
http://businessromance.com/

Again, that is simple enough to arrange.
Simply email the publisher
(start with the smaller press hungry ePubs)
and offer a promo day.

 

[M-M]

Re: Press Releases / Other Promotion

Wow, Kimber, thank you so much! That's a lot to process, and I'll go through it step by step.

We want to concentrate on up-and-coming authors, but having some established ones on there can only beneficial. We already have 3 established writers (not huge, but known) in Michael Laimo, Simon Wood, and Jeff Mariotte.

I'm not so much concerned with getting members. What I need to fulfill my purpose is traffic and unique visitors. But a chat is a fantastic idea. Just need to figure out how.

As far as tech-savvy, each author receives a template that they simply have to fill out and copy+paste to the site.

I'm currently figuring out the advertising. I'll contact you when I have it figured out. Thank you for the offer.

++Speed

 

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[PEERless]

Re: Press Releases / Other Promotion

Yes, yes! These are great concepts for use in many different fields. We may get more input with a change to the thread's name... "Cheap or Free Ways to Promote Young Companies?"

I, personally, love third-person blogging, i.e. "I found this amazing thing! Go look!" Of course you actually MADE that amazing thing, but whatev.

Also, don't shun your local market and network. Even if you want your idea to be global, promote within your circle of friends. My poor personal contact list is constantly besieged by the next amazing thing I'm working on. One never knows who will forward what.

 

[M-M]

Peerless, not a bad idea.

We have business cards we hand out and display at book stores. In-person networking is an important part of our strategy.
I have actually used what you suggested - something along the lines of "found something great to read at allthesebooks.com", with no direct relation apparent.

I'm currently working on implementing some of Kimber's fantastic suggestions. I believe this concept has potential, and with patience and tweaking can grow in size and popularity.

 

[PEERless]

Good title change. Now we might see some great ideas. I like the live chat idea too. Glad someone else is finding a use for third-person posts. LOI.

 

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[PEERless]

I started a new thread for an article I found on the topic. Enjoy.

 

[kimberland]

Re: Press Releases / Other Promotion

Chats are easy.
You arrange with the author to be in so and so section of the forum
between x o'clock and y o'clock
and then announce it.
Ask the author to announce it on her site also.

My little venture started with unknowns also
(oh, to be idealistic again).
The problem with that
was that unknowns didn't know how to market the site
(as they didn't know how to market themselves)
and they didn't have a fan base to leverage off of.

Say you ask Nora Roberts to chat with your readers
(and many, many big authors are happy to help out reader sites).
You send out press releases to all the romance loops, blogs, sites
(thousands of them - the romance world is very organized)
that Nora Roberts is coming to chat.
Those press releases will get forwarded without much pushing.
You put her name on your site,
you get google traffic.
She puts a link to your chat on her site,
your server goes down.

While that chat is happening,
you have at least another two chats advertised,
one with your unknown,
the other with a bigger author in the same genre as Nora.
The reader will come back for the bigger author
but she'll also be thinking "who is this author I haven't heard of?"

Could you get Nora?
Maybe.
I know she hangs out on blogs all the time.
Could you get the next level down
(still NYT's bestseller)?
That would be a for sure.

 

[kimberland]

BTW... not trying to force you to go with romance.
Just used that example
because that is the world I know
plus
that was the genre I started with on my venture.

 

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[kimberland]

Oh, and when you get a big name author,
you close the thread after the chat
and post it in a best of section.

Makes it easier to get other names
if they see right away that you got so-and-so.

 

[slim_jim]

A great how to.

thanks,

speed ++