So your manuscript is at the publisher being transformed into your book.  There’s nothing for you to do right? Wrong!

There’s plenty.  I was very surprised to find out I needed to write the promotional copy for my book.  The promotional copy is the stuff that appears on the back cover.  I was surprised because I thought the editors or marketers at the publishers would do it.  I reasoned they had more experience than me at penning “razzle-dazzle, you gotta have this” words that would make people drive through fire to buy my book.  Thank goodness I had 10 days to submit something.  After stepping away for a couple of days, I wrote the copy.  I realized an author knows the need the book is meeting, as well as its target audience so an author can write or, at the least, contribute to the promotional copy.  Here are some other things I found out that need to be done BEFORE your book is published:

1) Get a professionally taken photograph of yourself. You don’t want a selfie because the photo will be following you for a long time on the either the front or back cover of your book. Make your readers’ first impression of you a good one.

2) Use social media. Set up a Facebook fanpage for your book. Open a LinkedIn account and join author groups.  Open a Twitter account. Use as much social media (Instagram. Google+, Pinterest, etc) as you can.  Not only is it free advertising but you’ll also connect with new people. There are free tools available that allow you to post on multiple accounts at once so you don’t have to log into each site one by one.  Many of these tools are available as an option through the social media account or you can use apps like Hootsuite, Social Oomph and Everypost via the web or smartphone.  I used social media to help me select my photo for the book cover. My FB followers were excited to part of my book publishing process and eager to get a copy of my book, The PLAN A Way To Success.

3) Book speaking engagements that relate to the topic of your book. The people attending will now see you as an expert on the topic and will want your book when it becomes available. Your first engagements will be with small groups, but that’s okay.  From small things come great things. My first speaking engagement was to the women’s group at my church.

4) Join book clubs. These people clearly want to read books. You can find book clubs at your local library or through my favorite website, Meetup.com.  Being part of a book club is a ticket to talking about your book to a group and book sales.

5) Set up a blog. You can use Blogger or WordPress; both are free and easy to use.  You can use your blog to post other pieces you’ve written whether related to your book topic or not to build an audience for your writing.  Later, you can use it to publicize your book. I put a chapter from my book, The PLAN A Way To Success, before it was published on my blog My Journey to Me to stir up a desire to buy the book. My blog is on WordPress.  I like WordPress because it helped me build an audience. I was able to search for other WordPress blogs that contained articles similar to my posts and follow them. Many of the bloggers followed me in return. Also WordPress recommended my blog to others based upon similar content.  Today, I have readers in other countries.

6) Send emails to your family, friends and other people in your email address book letting them know about your upcoming book.  Create a group so you don’t miss anybody as you send out updates and the announcement of your book release party.

If you think of other things you can do that don’t cost you a lot of money, do them!  The bottom line is you wrote a book!  Be proud of your accomplishment and let the world know!