As I promised in my post from last week, I’m doing a post on book marketing. As an indie author, I don’t have a large marketing budget (or any marketing budget), a staff to do the work, or some high-powered PR firm working on my behalf. What do I have, then, that I can use to market The Gemstone Chronicles and try to make readers aware of the series? This is where the book marketing confusion sets in! Book marketing is a lot more than posting links and pictures of your books (like this):
In this post and subsequent posts, I will try to relate the things I have tried and things I want to try. I’ve never been on any of the bestseller lists, so I may not have all of the answers (OK, I may not have any of the answers), but here goes!
First, don’t let the idea of marketing scare you! There are many different forms of marketing, so it’s not like you have to get out there and knock on people’s doors or make cold calls. The internet is a great resource for finding readers or finding advice on how to find readers. There are sites that you can pay to promote your books and there are sites that offer free publicity. There are blog tours, your own blog, your friends blogs, Facebook groups, Twitter, and a ton of other options.
With all of the choices out there, it can be overwhelming. To try to make some sense of it all, I’ll try to break down the categories into manageable chunks! This will be the first of a few posts about book marketing options. There are books written about book marketing, so I certainly can’t cover them all in a few posts, but I will try to give an overview.
Facebook:
Let’s start with Facebook. The first thing I recommend is that you create a page for your book. I also recommend that you keep it separate from your personal page. Use your book page to promote your book. Find other authors in the same or similar genre and develop relationships with them. Visit their pages, leave likes and comments, and share and like there posts about their books. Don’t do it gratuitously, do it sincerely.
They will help you in return, but no one likes a fraud. Don’t send out post after post screaming for people to buy your book. Just like telemarketing, it is annoying and will turn off potential readers and friends! Here is the link to my page on Facebook. It probably isn’t the best example to use, but it will give you a general idea of what I am trying to demonstrate!
Another great thing about Facebook are the great groups out there! There are groups that allow shameless self promotion and there are others that allow limited promotion and still others that don’t allow promotion at all. Many of these groups are closed groups, meaning that you will have to request to join the groups, but they are definitely worth it (IMHO)! The groups that shows as closed groups require permission to join. Some of my favorites (with links) are:
Book Review Depot (closed group)
Clean Indie Reads (closed group)
Authors, Reviewer, & Book Lovers (closed group)
Indie Author Book Promotion Page
I’m sure there are tons of others (and I’m a member of some of them), so you have to find the groups you feel comfortable in and become active in the groups. You can learn a lot and meet some really great people, so give it a try!
Goodreads:
Goodreads is a great resource for both authors and readers. The site is basically a giant book club with millions of members. For authors, there are lots of different options to promote books. Similar to Facebook, you can join groups of members with similar interests, find groups that allow book promotion, offer books to readers for review, post reviews, and many other activities. Goodreads even has a walk-through for authors to give them ideas about how to use Goodreads for book marketing and promotion. As with Facebook, join groups, participate, and grow your network of readers and writers. You can meet great people at Goodreads, find great books to read, and maybe learn a thing or two! You can find me on Goodreads here and I welcome new friends!
Twitter:
Twitter is the place to do microblogging. On Twitter, you can tweet about anything as long as it is 140 characters or less. You learn to become very creative to fit what you want to say into 140 characters. Hashtags are a must in Twitter, so learn to use them well. For authors, hashtags are great to get retweets of your tweets, but like everything else, don’t just hammer out posts that scream “BUY MY BOOK!” That will turn off potential followers (who are potential readers). Instead, get to know other authors and readers, tweet about them and their books and reviews, and occasionally post tweets about your own work. I’ve found that the more you help others, the more help you receive, but again, I urge you to be genuine about it. Book marketing is hard enough, but being insincere can make it a lot harder! I can be found here if you want to connect with me on Twitter! Some of my favorite hashtags are #BYNR (Book Your Next Read), #CR4U (Clean Reads for You), #amwriting, #IAN1 (Independent Author Network) and #thegemstonechronicles.
iAuthor:
iAuthor is fairly new to me. On iAuthor, you create on own advertisement for your book(s). It’s free, which as an Indie author without an advertising budget, is great. The site gives you an option to add your books to existing themes, or you can create your own theme. Themes can be just about anything. For example, I have two adverts on iAuthor for Book One: The Carnelian and Book Two: The Amethyst. They are in multiple themes including Indie Books Looking for Reviewers, Books from a Series, Children’s books that will also engage adults, and Books by members of the Independent Author Network.
As an author, you get a dashboard that shows you where views of your adverts activity occurred and will help you tailor campaigns where you are getting the most activity. I like that you can follow authors, like covers, read samples, like and follow themes, and many other things. Give iAuthor a try!
I’ll stop here for this post. In the next post of this series, I’ll discuss blogs, the Independent Author Network, Kindle, KDP, Kindle Unlimited, Kindle Select, and a few other things, so stay tuned! Hopefully, by the time I’m done, we will all learn some new things about book marketing.
If you are an author, what book marketing techniques do you use that work for you and what hasn’t worked? If you are a reader, how do you find books to read? What is your opinion of Indie authors and their books? Leave me a comment and let me know!! I always look forward to comments and shares!
Bill – I completely agree with you that book marketing is a lot more than posting links and pictures of your books–a whole lot more. I do everything you talk about in this article except iAuthor which I’ll have to check out. On this page of my website I share all the strategies I use. I hope they are helpful to you. Feel free to share.
http://florenceosmund.com/promoting_and_marketing_your_book
Hi Florence! I hope you do try iAuthor. I like it and it is an interesting site. I think Amazon is going toward themes, too, so it may help with Amazon marketing, too. I will definitely check out you site and will share it! Have a great weekend and happy writing!
I just read an article about going deep instead of wide from a marketing perspective: http://blog.asmartbear.com/one-channel.html
I am going to read that article. One of the things about marketing, in general, is that there are so many options that you can get paralyzed trying to decide what approach to take. Going deep makes a lot of sense!
Thank you! The whole self-publishing world has been fascinating, frustrating and gratifying. I don’t know how people do it without technical abilities or help. My husband is really good with the technical stuff so I get my own website and a lot of perks with his help. One of these days I’m going to create a tip sheet on all of the little quirks and requirements!
I just published my first ebook on Kindle and Smashwords and just created a paperback edition through Create Space.
Cynthia Down
Author, Everyday Wisdom books
Books full of advice for life, rich with God’s wisdom
p.s. I haven’t sold a book yet LOL – ya gotta do it for the love. Jeff Goins is one of many great resources for moral support.
p.p.s. Bill, I too am in Supply Chain in my “real job”… and probably will be indefinitely 😉
Hi Cynthia! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I, like you, have an in-house tech rep to help me when I can’t figure things out, but I have managed to learn enough that I don’t have to trouble her too much! 🙂 Congratulations on the publication of your book! You are miles ahead of the game at this point.
As for sales, I honestly don’t track mine closely. I wrote my stories for my grandchildren and they can go out to Amazon or other sites and show their friends the books their grandfather wrote. Any commercial success is simply gravy. That having been said, since they are out there, I thought I might as well try to see how commercially successful I could make them on a shoestring budget. Hence, the blog posts and what I have learned and continue learning.
don’t give up, but keep trying different things until you find what works for you. In the end, you know more about your book than anyone else, so use that knowledge and don’t be afraid to talk about your book when the opportunity arises. One of my favorite conversation starters is when someone that I haven’t see in a while asks me how things are going. I can truthfully say that “since the book(s) came out, I have been so busy” and that leads to a conversation about the books.
I’m glad I’m not the only one crazy enough to be in Supply Chain!
Have a safe and Happy Holiday season and Merry Christmas!
Hi everyone, I’m so glad to meet you. This is my first comment so please bear with me. I’m actually working to get my second book published using Create Space. I must admit that the promoting drives me crazy. My first book, Journey to a Fresh Start, Releasing the Junk…Revealing the Jewels was first published as an audio book in 2009, this was all self done so I recorded designed and made copies. 2012 I did it as an e-book. Sold just a few copies but then I did a big free give away promotion for 2 days in 2013 and managed to hit #2 on Amazon. I went to a printed version early 2014 Between the 3 mediums I’ve managed to sell roughly 300 copies. I guess that’s okay. I’m currently working to get the second book out by January 15th. This one I’m going to do hard copy first and then later as an e-book. This one is titled “Walk the Talk..Live a Joyous Life with the subtitle of “Lessons from my Ah Ha Moments. I’ve learned a lot from the first endeavor and would be happy to share my experiences.
Oh the website listed isn’t dedicated specifically to my book. I do a lot to help victims of domestic violence reclaim their lives so I’ve created an online course and offer my services as a coach. Has anyone else done a free giveaway of their book and managed to hit in the top 10? The interesting thing about that is that you’re able to put a sticker on your book design stating you are an Amazon Best Selling Author of course for your printed version you won’t be able to use the word Amazon. But it’s still a big deal. Anyway I wanted to introduce myself and look forward to learning and growing with you.
Hi Janice and nice to meet you, too! Congratulations on both of your books. I do know many writers who have done free giveaways for books and seen them rise to the top of their genre for free books. It is a great way to get exposure and downloads. What isn’t so clear is whether it leads to substantial sales once the price goes up. Some have had excellent post-free promotion sales, and others not so much. The free downloads can certainly result in reviews, which we all hope to receive.
Keep writing and working toward your success. Remember, success is how YOU define it, not someone else!
Hi Bill,
I very rarely reply to these mails as I am snowed under with lots of other stuff, but you are right about the avenues for marketing your book being many. I set up a Facebook page a year last August and although I do not have a personal page, I decided from the out-set for people to get an insight into who I am by posting as interesting as possible stories about my journey’s and also a bit about my homelife every now and then. I have been in sales and marketing nearly all my adult life (so far) and understand that you have to play with all sorts of ideas to get your message out there. The key to it all is to never give up. I have sent books to magazines, newspapers, radio stations, and television production companies. I have knocked the doors to dozens of agents and publishing houses and got nowhere fast. This is not the cheapest way of doing things I guess, but I allocated a budget to take into consideration the cost of books I would give away. Most people by now would have given up (as people often tell me.) However, this is not the whole truth. You see on one particular day my story caught the attention of a major Australian screen producer, and at this present moment in time I am in early negotiations with him with regards to turning my book into a feature film. With this behind me, things should now hopefully all fall into place. So all the days I spent putting flyers on cars, putting posters around my little seaside town for the thousands of tourists to see, from making a little video for YouTube, doing radio interviews, delivering books to shops, getting the book into Kindle form and lots of other stuff may finally be about to be paid off. Book marketing can be hard work but try and make it fun as well. Check out my Facebook page. Thanks Lance
Hi Lance! First, let me say congratulations! I hope the feature film turns into reality for you! Your comments reinforce something I have always believed – persistence is the most important attribute for anyone to have. It is often easier just to give up, but you show that through persistence, good things can happen. Yes, it takes time and effort, but it’s worth it!
If you will leave me your FB page link, I will gladly check it out!
Best wishes!