Where To Start Promoting Your New Book Release

Please welcome guest blogger Marisa Chenery

Before my first book was released I really didn't know exactly how to go about promoting it. Being as how I hadn't made a name for myself as a published author, I knew I would have to do something to get my name out there and recognized. I also didn't want to spend a lot of money to do it either. Now that I have twenty-four contracts under my belt, I have certain set things I do to promote my next release.

Listed below is what I use as promotional tools that seem to work for me. And hopefully they'll take some of the guesswork away for those of you who have their first book contracts and are as clueless as I was about promoting a new book release.

Set up a website. I think this is one of the very first things you should do as a newly published author. On your website you can list your upcoming releases, books from your backlist, etc. And keep it up-to-date. You won't encourage readers to stop by every so often if there are never any changes.

Set up a blog. I'm not much of a blogger, but I do think having a blog can be a useful tool. I mostly use mine for posting new contracts, new covers, release dates and any contests, etc that I have going on.

Join some social networks. I have both a Facebook and a MySpace page. I also have fan's page through Facebook as well. I don't use MySpace as much as I use Facebook. And it has nothing to do with me being addicted to FB's applications. Okay, maybe a little J. But I do find that there are more authors, and readers, networking on Facebook than on MySpace. I also use Twitter. That comes in a close second to Facebook usage for me.

A couple other things I have done is join Coffee Time Romance's forum and have my own room set up there. I'm also a featured member at The Romance Studio. They both are great romance review sites. Having my own room on CTR's forum didn't cost me anything, and I get some good traffic there. Being a featured member at TRS isn't free, but for the small amount they charge, it's worth it. They will set up an author page for you on their website and you can announce any new releases, news, etc and they will post it on their site as well. I also pay to have the cover of my new releases to be put on their website a month after it was released.

Interviews and guest blogging. I tend not to go overboard with these. As a new author, it's a great way to get your name out there. As for getting you more sales, I'm not all that sure it does much. But like I said, it's a great way to get your name and your books out there when you're first starting out.

Write the next book. I think this is the best way to make sales, especially if it happens to be the next book in a series you have. Each time one of my werewolf romances in my Wulf's Den series has been released, either at Liquid Silver Books or at Fictionwise, I have seen a big jump in sales in my backlist. Plus having books released really has your name and books reaching readers.

Newsletter. This is something new that I've just set up for myself and really haven't tried yet. The simplest way I found to set it up was to open my own Yahoo group, just to send out a monthly newsletter. Since I haven't sent out my first newsletter yet I can't say how well this one will work, but I've had a few people ask for one so they could keep track of my new releases.

Word of mouth. This is another great way to promote your book. I've been surprised by how many people I know or associate with, on or off the internet, have bought my books because they know me and became interested in them when I told them about my books.

As I said before these things are what seem to work for me. What I like about them is that they don't take away much of my writing time. I would much rather be writing my next book than using up what time I do have doing promotion.

Marisa Chenery always loved to read, but once her kids started coming the number of books she read a week increased. The books varied from science fiction to historical fiction. After reading a historical romance novel she found myself hooked. She couldn't get enough of them. Her love of historical romances soon evolved into wanting to write one of her own. She now mostly writes Paranormal Romance.

Marisa Chenery lives in Ontario, Canada with her husband and four children. Between looking after her kids and going to the gym a couple times a week she writes about passionate women and the compelling men who love them.


Goddess Revealed-Bast's Perfume

Trapped in the immortal realm by a vengeful demon, Bast is finally freed when a human opens the ancient jar that binds her. But he is no ordinary human; he is her mate, a fact Bast tends to conceal—for her time in the mortal world is limited.

When a cat inexplicably appears the moment he opens the perfumed jar, Slade is bemused—then stunned when the cat morphs into a stunning goddess. Their attraction is immediate, their passion unstoppable. With each blazing sexual encounter, Slade’s in danger of losing his heart. But he could lose far more, for the demon is near, drawn ever closer by the lure of Bast’s perfume…