On Wednesday I began this post on what works and what doesn't in self-promotion and marketing for authors. You can find part one here. The next five strategies are those that I have found most effective. Again, these are just my own personal experiences and not an exhaustive list.
5. Sequel Notification List or Newsletter
I saw my good friend and awesome writer A.G. Henley use this and picked it up immediately. She had a sequel notification sign-up on her blog and mentioned it in the back material of her book, The Scourge (seriously, if you haven't read it, you need to). I have found this to be exceedingly helpful. I used Feedburner to create the widget on my website. It took a little bit of reading and tinkering, but for a girl who isn't particularly tech savvy, I was able to pull it off.
The Result- I have a sequel notification list about fifty readers long so far. This is an invaluable tool and once it is set up, it runs itself. DO IT.
4. Kismet Review Blog Tour
This one is hard to recommend because I haven't actually participated in it yet. I am signed up for a Kismet Review Blog Tour in March. Kismet is a top notch review site that puts on blog tours, review tours and the like. A.G. Henley introduced this one to me, as well. She said she really enjoyed it and got over twenty great reviews (remember, review numbers count) and had a lot to tweet about. The price isn't for the faint of heart, however, so if I don't see a lot of increase in sales this will definitely be a bust.
The Result - Hard to say, but this one is a gamble because of the high price. I'll have to follow up to let you know if I think it was worth it or not.
3. Blogging
This goes without saying, but blogging is huge. It draws people to your content, your website and your books. I maintain two blogs (scary, I know). The first blog is a review site dedicated to Indie Publishing. We get a ton of hits every day (upwards of 1500) from writers just like you and I who want reviews. How many of those readers go on to buy my book? Again, it is hard to say, but it is definitely nice to be able to do an announcement post and know that at least one thousand people are likely to stumble on it that day.
My blog gets far less traffic and it is much newer. The nice thing about having my own blog is I can post whatever I want. I can do giveaways, host guest and ramble. The drawback is writing content. It is not easy to find time.
The Result - Every writer needs a blog. Not an option. DO IT.
2. Social Media
I was already on Facebook before I became an author, so I decided it would be easy to create an author Facebook page. I like having a separate profile for my writing so I am not inundating my friends and family who aren't interested in hearing about my book twenty-four/seven. It may be a bit more work to maintain both, but not much. I check in on Facebook a few times a day to post, respond to a few comments and get out of there. It can be a time-suck, so I keep one eye on the clock. So far I have 340 fans. It's nice to have numbers like that when you are releasing something new.
Twitter is newer for me, and not as user-friendly in my opinion. I am using it, though. I know many people prefer it as their new method of online interaction and I need to be where they are. It doesn't come as easily, but a post once a day is fine and easy to fit into my schedule.
The Result - Having 340 Facebook fans and 70 Twitter followers is better than having none. I am sure the more I'm on there, the more people I will reach.
1. Writing New Content
Nothing drives people to your work better than liking something else you wrote. I am sure you've heard the more you can publish the better. I'd like to think that the more WELL-WRITTEN work you can publish the better. Sure, you can churn out content like a madman, but all these suggestions cannot make a bad book into a good one. Marketing a bad book will only make it fail faster. So, write good content and write it fast. (Ha! That's like saying, just don't eat cake to someone who wants to lose weight.)
The Result - My new novelette is selling well and The Breeders continues to sell well (5500 on the Amazon rankings today). I hope to have a new book published in May and hopefully the sequel to The Breeders in August or September. The bottom line is, if you want to make it as an indie author you have to write a lot. No excuses. Then you will see results.
So, there you have it. Ten marketing strategies and their pros and cons as I see them. I'm always reading, tweaking and revising and I'd love to hear from some of you as to what works and what doesn't in the comments below. So, in regard to marketing, what works for you?
Book Marketing Part Three
Book Marketing Part Four
5. Sequel Notification List or Newsletter
I saw my good friend and awesome writer A.G. Henley use this and picked it up immediately. She had a sequel notification sign-up on her blog and mentioned it in the back material of her book, The Scourge (seriously, if you haven't read it, you need to). I have found this to be exceedingly helpful. I used Feedburner to create the widget on my website. It took a little bit of reading and tinkering, but for a girl who isn't particularly tech savvy, I was able to pull it off.
The Result- I have a sequel notification list about fifty readers long so far. This is an invaluable tool and once it is set up, it runs itself. DO IT.
4. Kismet Review Blog Tour
This one is hard to recommend because I haven't actually participated in it yet. I am signed up for a Kismet Review Blog Tour in March. Kismet is a top notch review site that puts on blog tours, review tours and the like. A.G. Henley introduced this one to me, as well. She said she really enjoyed it and got over twenty great reviews (remember, review numbers count) and had a lot to tweet about. The price isn't for the faint of heart, however, so if I don't see a lot of increase in sales this will definitely be a bust.
The Result - Hard to say, but this one is a gamble because of the high price. I'll have to follow up to let you know if I think it was worth it or not.
3. Blogging
This goes without saying, but blogging is huge. It draws people to your content, your website and your books. I maintain two blogs (scary, I know). The first blog is a review site dedicated to Indie Publishing. We get a ton of hits every day (upwards of 1500) from writers just like you and I who want reviews. How many of those readers go on to buy my book? Again, it is hard to say, but it is definitely nice to be able to do an announcement post and know that at least one thousand people are likely to stumble on it that day.
My blog gets far less traffic and it is much newer. The nice thing about having my own blog is I can post whatever I want. I can do giveaways, host guest and ramble. The drawback is writing content. It is not easy to find time.
The Result - Every writer needs a blog. Not an option. DO IT.
2. Social Media
I was already on Facebook before I became an author, so I decided it would be easy to create an author Facebook page. I like having a separate profile for my writing so I am not inundating my friends and family who aren't interested in hearing about my book twenty-four/seven. It may be a bit more work to maintain both, but not much. I check in on Facebook a few times a day to post, respond to a few comments and get out of there. It can be a time-suck, so I keep one eye on the clock. So far I have 340 fans. It's nice to have numbers like that when you are releasing something new.
Twitter is newer for me, and not as user-friendly in my opinion. I am using it, though. I know many people prefer it as their new method of online interaction and I need to be where they are. It doesn't come as easily, but a post once a day is fine and easy to fit into my schedule.
The Result - Having 340 Facebook fans and 70 Twitter followers is better than having none. I am sure the more I'm on there, the more people I will reach.
1. Writing New Content
Nothing drives people to your work better than liking something else you wrote. I am sure you've heard the more you can publish the better. I'd like to think that the more WELL-WRITTEN work you can publish the better. Sure, you can churn out content like a madman, but all these suggestions cannot make a bad book into a good one. Marketing a bad book will only make it fail faster. So, write good content and write it fast. (Ha! That's like saying, just don't eat cake to someone who wants to lose weight.)
The Result - My new novelette is selling well and The Breeders continues to sell well (5500 on the Amazon rankings today). I hope to have a new book published in May and hopefully the sequel to The Breeders in August or September. The bottom line is, if you want to make it as an indie author you have to write a lot. No excuses. Then you will see results.
So, there you have it. Ten marketing strategies and their pros and cons as I see them. I'm always reading, tweaking and revising and I'd love to hear from some of you as to what works and what doesn't in the comments below. So, in regard to marketing, what works for you?
Book Marketing Part Three
Book Marketing Part Four
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