If you’re like most memoirists, you struggle to find the time to promote your book. You have to make the time for book promotion, though, if you want anyone to discover and read your story.

This is especially important if you’re self-published, because you don’t get even the minimal promotional support that a traditionally published author receives. When you’re self-published, it’s up to you and you alone to get the word out – but you’ve known that all along.

Still, how do you find the time? Here are a few suggestions.

1. Get a smartphone. This one is my favorite – it has helped me get much more done in unexpected places. Use it to post to social networking sites or respond to e-mail while you’re waiting in line or away from a computer.  Diane Currie, author of the memoir Before My Eyes, uses hers for Internet access in a workplace that doesn’t allow employees to go online for personal reasons.
2. Get outside help for easier tasks. Not everybody can afford to hire a publicist, but many can pay a college student or a smart teenager to build a media list or set up social media accounts. Mary Hanlon Stone, who wrote a young adult novel, hired several teenagers to talk about her book on social networking sites and at school.
3. Re-allocate your writing time. Now that you’re done writing the book, you have a lot of free time on your hands, right? Use it for book promotion.
4. Do some of the work while the book is in production. Develop your press materials before your book is available for purchase, adding them to your website so you can provide a URL to journalists, bloggers, and others. The more you get done while the book is in production, the less you’ll have to do once it’s available for purchase.
5. Establish daily promotion goals. Henry Brown tries to accomplish at least one marketing objective before going to bed while Mark De Binder sets a time-based goal every day – whether it’s 10, 20, or 45 minutes – to keep him on track.
6. Work while everyone else is eating lunch. One author I know makes book promotion-related telephone calls during her lunch break and while running errands. Others use this time to answer promotion-related e-mail or to do book marketing research.
7. Get up early. Chris Stephenson takes care of his promotion tasks before going to work so they’re moving his book forward while he’s doing other things later in the day.

Try even one of these ideas and see if it helps you find the time you need to spread the word about your memoir.

What’s your best tip for making time to promote your book? Learn more about book promotion at www.BuildBookBuzz.com