Ephemeral Athenaeum discussion

If you have any clever tips or tactics that have proven useful to spreading the word and raising interest in your work, share them here!
A particular hashtag event? Website? Instagram posting pattern? Do tell. The freer, the better.

While not technically free, since it will cost you a copy of your book, one method is to contact cafés, coffee shops and anywhere else that have book lending corners and see if they'd be happy to include your book in their collection. The more local to you, the better - and independent places are even better, because their chain of command (and subsequently how far they may have to reach for permission) doesn't extend as far.

Although I haven't yet hooked up with this idea, I understand cross promotion is an excellent way to get yourself out there. Connect with another author, also trying to promote, and promote each other's work on own social/email resources.

Just uploaded my first book to amazon last month so I'm struggling with this too. I've reached out to bloggers who review books. A few have said yes but i'm like 12th in their queue so I'm guessing I have to wait 3 or 4 months before I receive a review.

This is totally normal. Given that it's an easy option, a lot of people go for it. Just make sure you send your book out to bloggers and reviewers who specialise in your genre, otherwise you end up with a generic review written quite possibly by someone who doesn't appreciate any original twists you've put on your genre. Personally, I tried to go this route and either no one was interested, or the one person who appeared to be took the book and fled with it and I never heard from them again. It took a long time before I bothered trying again, and when I did, I sent it to a general reviewer on Instagram, and while it did get me lots of views, it resulted in no sales and a generic review because she and her following had really broad tastes.

Also, congratulations on your first book!! :D