We were part of a panel on marketing recently. The other 5 “renown” participants talked about such technical things that it lost the audience, I think. They talked about SEO’s and amazon logistics and things you could spend months on. Although these things can be important and useful, they take time both to learn about and implement and right now we are going to talk about some of the things that you can do that a easy and don’t take a lot skill! We had gathered together some great ideas for marketing which were targeting more to what authors could actually do without getting a PhD.. When I began, I was aware that the others were not expecting much form indieBRAG. At the end, I was swamped by audience members and after we returned home each of the other panelists got in touch to see if we wanted to work with them! There are 2 sides to marketing- technical and physical. We am trying to find a way for amazon to recognize indieBRAG and the medallion so more readers will have a chance to find our wonderful books!
We will be sharing with you some basic ideas for marketing. Ways to sell books. It only takes a few sales to move your book up the ranks on sights like Amazon. This one of the benefits to submitting to indieBRAG -we buy the books we send to readers!
Here’s what we have learned:
Readers are tempted first by an award on a book cover- it stops them and encourages them to take a look. Having the award mentioned on the top of the blurb is also important. It catches the readers attention and drives it home that it is an award-winning book. B.R.A.G.Medallion Honoree
These are things that are easy, take little time and money and are worthwhile!
Reviews are important BUT readers are becoming smarter in regard to reviews. A dozen 5* reviews from people who have no other reviews listed screams “Family and Friends!” No book (or very few) gets all 5* reviews. Lets face it, if a reader sees 20 5* reviews on a book, buys it and doesn’t enjoy it, they will feel duped and that is NOT the kind of word of mouth you need! So seek out “legitimate” reviews.
More important than great reviews is getting your book into the hands (or ereaders!) of readers. If you have done all the really hard work and are confident you tell and good story and your book is technically perfect – or as perfect as can be- have enough confidence in your work to put it into the hands of readers. Enter contests, use marketing sights such a Bargain Booksy (there are lots of them!) and find your audience (so important) and go after them. There are Facebook pages, clubs, reviewers all in your genre – talk to them. There is no purpose or value in putting your book into the hands of readers who aren’t interested in it inthe first place. A dedicated Sci Fi reader probably won’t’ really be interested in your Romance.
Self-publishing: Very, very few readers ever check to see who publishes a book. Many SP authors are still cautious and create their own publishing name. Of course, using your name is a giveaway. The point is as a SP author, you are not competing with other SP authors- you are competing with everyone, so make sure your book is a quality book before you put it out there! The one time a reader may check the publisher is if they have chosen a book that is a big disappointment- bad editing and poor storytelling. That is why we tell readers that a book with the B.R.A.G.Medallion tells them that that book is worth their time and money. They may not love the story, you can’t please everyone, but they know the book was well done and liked and recommended by other readers.
2 things are facts:
- Award winning books (the B.R.A.G.Medallion!) brings attention to your book
- Getting to know your fans and readers sells books.
We will talk about getting to know your fans in our next visit-
Leave a Reply