Young author: How to best promote and sell your self-published book?

Question

I have self-published my book at this website: www.lulu.com/content/3685698

I have order five copies of it and I am going to autograph them. My first books! I will give them to certain people and when I become famous and well-known they will be lucky they have signed copies by me! Of course. if it happens the way I want to...

Answer 1

Give the books to certain people, including a stranger. Ask them what they think (this is advice some people give; they say you'll get a more honest answer.) If the answer is positive, leave the books in book shops and more, aswell as lulu selling them. That's what I'd do, just some advice.

Answer 2

Self-published books do poorly on ebay, the publisher’s website, and the author’s own website.

Marketing a pay-to-publish book is damned difficult. Many of the avenues open to traditionally published authors are not available. Chain bookstores won't host signings or carry copies (although they will order them for customers). Newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio don't want your press releases and won't do interviews. The library system won't accept free copies. Writing- or book-related conventions won’t let you set up a sales or autograph table, don’t want you on their author panels, and forbid you giving away promotional material.

About the only marketing I've seen have any effect for self-published authors is active participation at forums and chats dealing with the subject of your book. Find your niche market and determine where online they hang out. Some sites may allow you to discuss your book *if someone asks about it* (but will ban you for bringing it up more than once). Some may allow a link to a point of sale in your profile, or to your blog or web-page which in turn links to a point of sale.

You'll sell a few more copies than you might have, but overall, like most self-published books, regardless of quality, total sales will probably remain below 100 copies. More often, the number hovers somewhere around 2/3 to 3/4 of your total number of friends and family members. (Depending on who you believe, the average is between 45 and 60, including copies bought by the author.) This compares pretty unfavorably to 5,000 copies a moderately-selling book from a conventional publisher can anticipate.

I’m sorry not to be able to offer much real hope for promotion, but I figured you’d rather hear the truth than sugar-coated lies which might cause you to waste your time or money.