There are millions of
books on Amazon and all their authors are sure they’re the best
thing ever produced. They’re all chasing sales and reviews. How on
Earth does yours get found?
I’ve been published
just over a year now, and I have three books out, two traditionally
published, one self published. For the purposes of this blog I’ll
focus on the self published book with the big caveat that none of
this is a whole lot different for any indie book (or, indeed, I’m
told, for any author.)
This then is how to
promote – what I did right, what I did wrong, what I’ve learned
for the future.
So, let’s blow my own
trumpet. What did I get right?
- Promotion sites. These are a catch-22 in some ways. You need reviews to get accepted – but you can’t get reviews until you get readers (see later, in what I didn’t do so well.) Once you get the reviews, however, assuming you do, this is where Kindle Unlimited comes into its own. You can discount to 99p for a week and retain your 70% margin. If you can combine that with a good promotional campaign, you can get a lot of sales.
The king of promo sites
is Bookbub. It’s expensive – because it works. I’ve had two
campaigns in the UK and each has paid for itself and resulted in
additional reviews. But don’t discount some of the others – I
like Book Barbarian a lot, and always get good results, and there are
many others. Google and ask around – see what works well for your
genre and how much it costs for your genre.
If you do this sort of
promo, work out your break-even and make sure it’s realistic in
terms of sales.
- Word of mouth. This, I am good at, apparently. Building some SM presence, and some support. A couple of tips come to mind:
Don’t spread yourself
too thinly. There’s a temptation to be on every SM site and every
forum, and you’ll end up exhausted. Pick a couple and do them well.
My main platforms are Facebook, Twitter and two specialist science
fiction and fantasy sites (as well as a few Facebook groups).
Be yourself. There will
always be people who don’t like you, of course. But, mostly, if you
engage, you’ll find some that do. But a fake persona stands out a
mile after a time.
Promote others. Good
will is important. Call out for others, share their events and news.
Nothing is more boring than a timeline with one subject, and only one
book, on it.
- Blogging. I started my blog (www.jozebwrites.blogspot.co.uk) in 2014, having blogged previously on a specialist forum. I reckon in the first year I had about 20 hits per week. Sometimes less. Now I’ve passed 20,000 hits.
Blog regularly. Blog
only if you like it, and it’s not a chore. Try to stay around some
sort of theme. Try to keep some sort of voice – mine is relaxed and
chatty. Try not to use it for promo – no one wants a bore.
So, great, I did okay
with those. What didn’t I do so well at:
- Using my website. I have one and have done for a long time, and the nice domain name of Jozebedee.com. But I used it mostly as a placeholder and not as a live site.
Not anymore. I now
update much more regularly and intend to keep doing so. I’ve
started a mailing list in the newsletter section (see in a moment),
that’s slowly building. I plan to release exclusive content onto it
and hope to build it more.
Why, since I already
have a good Facebook platform? Well, Facebook pages are very
ineffective at delivering content with a very low spread unless
you’re prepared to pay for them (Facebook ads are another place I
want to explore.) Plus, you don’t own them. That content could be
taken down at any point. My website is mine….
- Reviews. This is where I wasn’t cheeky enough, or aggressive enough at the start. Reviews are important. The number of reviews is very important. Ask people, nicely, if they’d consider doing one. Offer free copies in exchange for reviews. Politely ask bloggers etc it they’d consider one. You want to be hitting 50 or so for both the Amazons – I’m crawling up there at the moment.
- Mailing list. I’ve been slow on this one (but, really, no one can cover all this, write, have a job – as most writers have to – and any sort of life. Do the best you can, bit by bit.)
Basically, if you’re
an author, you want one of these. I use a mailchimp extension to
Wordpress and it’s reasonably straightforward. What it means is
that if people sign up I can launch one email (which takes about 10
minutes) and send it out to everyone.
Don’t spam. Only
release one if you have something relevant. For me that’ll be free
content, launches and events. Anything else goes in my blog.
And, really, that last
point is the most salient – know what goes where. Each platform is
different, each brings something else – and if they don’t,
they’re not worth the additional effort.
Good luck with it!
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