Being an author isn't enough. You also have to be a publicist.

For those of you looking to get published and who think all you need to do is write a great book, you'd be wrong. Not to discourage you or anything, because in my opinion there's nothing better than being an author. It's my ideal job. But it's also a ton of hard work - and that's without considering the writing.
One of the biggest jobs you'll have to take on as well, is the publicity one. If you think a publisher's going to do all of that for you while you sit back and watch your book rankings rise, think again. Sure, a good publisher will push your book because it's in their interest to make you be as successful as possible, but you have to help. For me, doing publicity for my books takes up just as much time as writing, if not more. It also costs a fair bit, so you'll need to set aside a budget and figure out the best ways in which to spend it so your book receives the attention it deserves. Over the years, I've had a lot of terrible experiences with promo opportunities I paid for without getting any results. That sucks, but with time, I've narrowed it down to a few key places I consider reliable.
They are: BookBub (super expensive but worth it), Bargainbooksy and Many Books, which are both great for promo stacking, and Booksweeps, which is great for growing your mailing list.
Now, back to all the extra work I was talking about before. A lot of authors choose to hire assistants (often virtually) to help out with this and while tempting, I really don't want the extra expense because I'd rather put that money toward advertising.
So here's a list of everything I can think of that happens after I've spent about five hours of my day writing and/or editing.

• Update my website for each new book and event - I built my website myself and saved a few grand on hiring someone to do this. Was this something I knew how to do beforehand? Not at all. But I figured it out and so can you!
• Update newsletter for the next mailing
• Find appropriate images for weekly FB posts and schedule those posts
• Post an image to instagram at least once a day with hashtags
• Write a blog post at least three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
• Create memes, quote cards and banners for new releases and/or promo events
• Set up giveaways on Promosimple
• Order promotional bookmarks - I do this through Printrunner
• Mail promo material to my amabassadors
• Make sure my ambassadors receive an ARC of any upcoming releases
• Set up promos on various websites (BookBub, Bargainbooksy, Many Books)
• Create FB adds
• Write blog posts and answer interview questions for tours
• Review other authors books as a way to boost traffic on my blog
• Correspondence - respond to emails, FB comments and other online messages.

Now, since I'm also self-published as of November 2017, there are a few additional things I have to add, like:

• Set up Goodreads giveaways - this is no longer a free service, but it is pretty effective in terms of spreading awareness for a book
• Procure a book cover
• Publish book on Amazon KDP and Createspace (these are currently in the process of merging) and via Draft2Digital (B&N, Kobo, iTunes etc)
• Set up a blog tour - I use Indiesage
• Contact bloggers to request reviews and to make them aware of the tour - a very time consuming process but one I consider necessary
• Run a giveaway on Librarything in exchange for reviews.

And that's about it, I think. There are probably other little things I'm forgetting at the moment, but all in all, this is a pretty accurate list. Granted, I don't have to do all of it every day, but each item does take a fair amount of time. 

Again, this is not meant to discourage, but it is something to keep in mind and, I think, good to know in advance. And if you're passionate about writing, you won't mind putting in the extra effort to get your book noticed. You'll want to do everything you can in order to make it happen!