I've recently self-published my first book of short stories. I've gotten and very good responsive, a great place to sell them in my home town, and I am already out all of books from my first print. However, to date I know of no way to sell my books anywhere else. I am wondering if there is any sort of site or company that promotes self published material. Anyone?
There are a ton of display sites out there which promise (for a fee, of course) to pimp your book to everybody who happens to wander around the site. Unfortunately, 97.4% of those who wander around the site are other self-pubbed authors trying to flog their own books. The next author I hear from who's been happy with a display site will be the first. Trying to sell self-pubbed fiction is always going to be an uphill struggle. I think your best bet is to do all the simple (and free) things: attach a link to your signature when you post on message boards: make a similar footer for your emails: start a blog and write witty and entertaining entries and flog your book on the sidebar. Good luck.
Amazon is the only "retail" outlet that I know of where you can promote your book. B&N and Borders do not accept POD or self-published books. Besides, the problem with those resources is that your book vanishes in the glitz of thousands of other books, getting little or no real marketing. Your other option is to set up your own website and offer it for sale, using PayPal or similar payment arrangement. If you do this, you need to place links on as many other websites as you can...links by reciprocal agreement. The more links you have on your site, the higher your site will reach in Google and similar search engines. If you do choose to sell through your own website, I would suggest you provide several free samples of what people can expect in the book.
