Many of our you are seasoned warriors in the promoting your book arena. However, many authors are just beginning the long journey and we hope to help you on that road. Through our blog and our Facebook Group page, we can guide you to the most effective and rewarding opportunities.
So, to all of you that are “Old Pros”, please continue to share and help guide us. To all of you who are less experienced, I hope we can provide you with some good advice.
Bloggers are your friend!
A very busy blogger and great supporter of the indieBRAG authors, shared some thoughts on working together to get the most out of “free” promotions.
“ ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’ is a common phrase – equally there’s no such thing as free marketing. You must repay the generosity of bloggers who invite you onto their blogs via guest posts or various on-line projects by being obliged to respond and spread the word when given this opportunity for free promotion. Your bill is not financial but making the effort to give noticeable appreciation where and as much as you can.”
Blogger
Be Generous-
Having a community of authors to help pass the word is comforting and extremely helpful. Since we all have a variety of fans and family members that support our work, it makes sense that when we share blog posts and promotions of each other, it spreads the reach quite far. Like all things showing consideration for others usually comes back in reciprocal sharing. When you see posts of author-friends be sure to take a few minutes to stop by and leave a comment and share on social media. Most blogs will have the share buttons to make this super easy. This all sounds so logical but, I am afraid not so regularly done. The more stops and shares, the more this bloggers post become visible.
IndieBRAG allows you to post info you would like shared on the Facebook Authors Group page. We usually post these on the indieBRAG FB page (which I hope you will stop by and “like” if you haven’t already) as well. It is easier to “share” from this page.
Work with the Blogger-
“ PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT HOSTS REQUIRE. If they want a word.doc with jpeg images attached separately don’t send a Google.doc with images embedded in the text of the article.
Hosts are doing all this to promote YOUR book for free – they don’t get paid, the least you can do is comply with what they ask for … and send it a good few weeks in advance, not at the last moment.”
Blogger
Bloggers are not likely to work with an author who “takes” and doesn’t “give”. Repayment for free promotion is your effort in getting the blog to the blogger with all the info in the proper format and in a timely fashion. If you don’t know how to do something, ask- they are there to help you make it the best post possible. But, your work isn’t done there! Now you must share it everywhere you can and answer the comments. You make friends and fans by engaging readers.
Follow up and follow through-
Once the blog is posted, be sure to check with the blogger to see if there is anything more they require and be sure to thank them! I don’t mean to lecture but I hear from bloggers all the time that an author sends off the post and then disappears, No work and no thanks. I personally have not experience this with our authors – but then again, they are a very special group!
IndieBRAG is a unique opportunity for authors. We provide you with the B.R.A.G.Medallion to bring attention and “respect” to your book. We also do as much promotion as we can to let readers know your book is a step above and worth checking out. One of the benefits to us both is the use of the indieBRAG Authors Group to pass information. We now have over 800 books honored and, of course, can not know the full content of each book. We list the coming promotion themes in hopes that you will notify us if your book fits a coming promotion. Please be diligent in checking – once a mailing goes out, we can not add your book and we hate to have anyone miss an opportunity.
All of the indieBRAG Team are here to help. If we can’t or don’t have the information you need, put it out on the group and see how or what other authors are doing. Be sure also to keep us posted on what you are doing and don’t forget to let us know when you change you cover so we can keep it updated.
Plan on sharing your success and failures with us as a blog. We all want to know how success is achieved and want to by-pass the pitfalls many of us have experienced.
Writing is hard work, but the end result is so rewarding. In most cases selling that book doesn’t turn out to be so much fun! Help us help you and get the most out of the generosity of others.
The indieBRAG Team
At the end of the month we leave for Philadelphia. IndieBRAG will be participating in a panel on marketing/promotions. The usual and mainstream ways of marketing will be covered briefly but the main gist is going off the grid. Unique and, perhaps, adventurous opportunities to showcase you books. It should be fun and informative. We will give you an update and share what we learn when we get home!
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