A cheap and easy way to build an audience for your books

So, you’ve self-published a book. You probably bought a cover and paid an editor. Now, you’ve published it and wait for the sales to start rolling in. Sadly, for most of us, they won’t. We need to build an audience of readers willing to take a chance on us and loyal to us once they see that we’re the real deal.

One of the first things that the so-called experts tell you to do is to build a mailing list and send out monthly newsletters. The question that they don’t answer is, “Who am I sending it to?” You can add sign-up links to your social media and website if you have one, but emailing your Aunt Millie every month isn’t going to sell your books. When you’re unknown readers don’t sign on to you. You can offer ARC copies to beta readers but how do you attract those?

As a new writer, at the height of frustration, I found an answer buried in the archives of an online writer’s forum. It was a site that offered, among other things, email list builder giveaways. The site is called BookSweeps.

How it works

You agree to provide two downloads of your book and pay to participate in the contest along with other authors. Readers get a chance to win free copies of all of the listed books plus one grand prize, usually an e-reader device, in exchange for signing up for the author’s…