So you’ve had a book published? Congratulations. Now, what are you doing to promote yourself and your book. ‘But that’s the publisher’s job!’ many first time authors say. Correct.

A good publisher will work hard to promote new releases. But the more promotion, the more chances of good book sales, and whilst a publicist may be promoting dozens of books by dozens of authors at any one time, you can focus your efforts on promoting just your own book(s). Also, whilst a publisher might promote your new book for a month or so, you can go and on promoting it for as long as it is in print.

So, here are eight ways you can promote your book at no or low cost to yourself.

1. An Author Website

Every author should have a website promoting her books. You can see mine at http://www.sallymurphy.net/. You can include details of each book you’ve had published, including a blurb, the year of publication, publisher’s name and ISBN.

Your website should also include a bio of yourself, contact details (you can use a form or use a link rather than pasting your email address on the page) and links to places which sell your books online. It’s also a great idea to include some classroom activities for teachers, and/or some activities for young readers.

You can pay someone to build you a website (I used Jason Rhodes and loved what he did), or you can build your own. You can also choose to pay for hosting or use free hosting. If the latter, try to choose one which places minimal advertising on your site.

You should also consider purchasing a domain name. For a writer the best domain is yourname.com or yourname.com.au. This allows people to find you easily and not have to remember a convoluted URL. I couldn’t get .com because there are too many Sally Murphy’s in the world, so I settled for .net and it works well. If using a free host which provides you with a subdomain, try to use one that puts your name at the front of the URL – ie www.sallymurphy.writernetwork.com rather than writernetwork/authors/sallymurphy

2. A Blog
A blog is like an online diary or journal. You can post pretty much anything you like in your blog, and as well as text you can include links, photos, videos and more. Being greedy, I have two blogs– http://pemberthybear.blogspot.com/ and http://sallymurphy.blogspot.com/. It isn’t necessary to have more than one, but each of mine is very different from the other.

There a many sites which host blogs for free. I chose blogspot because it’s easy to use and is also owned by Google, which seems to help with getting good search engine results. My blog was showing on page one of search results within 24 hours, and with no promotion, though I’ve since done a little promotion of my own.

Your blog can be about writing, your books, or something quite different. Whatever you write about, you can include details of your books and links to your website.

3. An Email Signature
An email signature is the text and links that you set up to be automatically added to the end of every email you send. Mine includes my name, a cover image from my latest book and links to my websites and blogs.

Setting up a sig line (signature) is easy. Use the help section of your email program for step by step explanation of how it’s done.

Once you have a signature, you are promoting your book(s) every time you send an email.

4. A Business Card
If you do nothing else on this list, get yourself a business card and a business card holder. It enables you to pass on your contact details to anyone who asks (and the more you network, the more you’ll be asked) and again promotes your books.

Keep it simple – your name, what you do (mine says Children’s Author), your contact details, including email. My graphic is always the cover image of one of my books. That way, if I give out my business card to someone outside the industry I have a chance to introduce them to my books.

You can get free or low cost business cards from Vista Print, but I recommend that you play with the design templates and add your own graphic so that it is unique.

5. Bookmarks
Book lovers love bookmarks. Many publishers (including the publisher of my two picture books) will have these made up as part of their promotional efforts. Mine have the book’s title and publication details as well as images from the book. If your publisher doesn’t provide them you can print some up on your own computer or get them made at your local print shop.

As well as giving them out at school visits and speaking engagements, you can leave them in libraries, community centres and so on. I also carry a few in my handbag and if someone asks for details of my books, I give them one. They can then take the bookmark to a book store when they request my book. It also serves a reminder to them – they’re less likely to forget my book if they’re carrying my bookmark in their bag.

6. Articles
Writing an article for a website, ezine or print publication can be a good way to connect with a wide audience and may even make you some dollars. You can write about writing, about the business of writing (for example, an article about 8 ways to self-promote) or about any topic that you know something about.

If you’ve written a fiction book about horses, why not write an article for a horse magazine? This gives you the opportunity to reach people other than other writers or booklovers. Your horse magazine reader may not buy a lot of books, but is much more likely to buy a book involving horses.

Most websites and ezines and many print publications give you the opportunity to include a profile and usually links to your websites.

7. Speaking Gigs
School visits, writing workshops and festival appearances are all excellent ways to promote your books, make some sales of stock and are usually well paid. If you are asked to speak at such an event, you should expect payment and should seek ASA Rates.

Whilst all these are good, you should also consider speaking to groups whose focus is not solely books or writing. Spread your fan base by speaking to any group who’ll listen. In recent weeks I’ve spoken to a craft group and a Rotary club. There were no other writers in the room on either occasion, but there were plenty of grandparents, aunties and uncles, any of whom are potential buyers for my books.

Tailor your speech to your audience and, wherever possible, have a display of your books in the room.

8. Press Releases

Your publisher will probably write and distribute press releases (along with review copies) to relevant publications before and immediately after the book’s release. However, they are less likely to target your local media. Local papers, newsletters and radio stations are always looking for local angles and are usually happy to run one or more pieces about your book, your book launch, your speaking engagement and more.

If submitting to a local paper, write your press release as an article (in third person), because very often they will simply reprint whatever you’ve submitted. Include quotes from yourself and attach good quality digital photos if emailing.

If a radio station is interested, they will likely want to interview you on air. If you are close to the station they may invite you in, but otherwise they might interview you over the phone. Although you need to think about speaking clearly, don’t be too nervous – it really is just like having a chat with a friend, and the interviewer will use questions to guide you.

Using some or all of these eight promotional tools can really help to get the word out about your book – and to keep the buzz going. These aren’t the only things you can do to promote your book – but they are eight that have worked for me. I hope they work for you, too.