Once again this year the SPBE was so informative and helpful to all the self-publishers who attended!
I will be blogging about some of the things we learned and some of the people we met.
This was our first year as exhibitors and it was well worth our time and money- we met some very important people and we were able to share our vision with so many. We met authors, publishers, editors and others who contribute to making your books a success. W also spoke with other companies in the indie book field such as audio book producers, all of which were very interested in indieBRAG. Many suggested we do joint ventures with them and we will consider this if they are helpful to our authors and readers.
We spent a wonderful day with Katherine Ashe the author of the Montfort Series – one of our earliest Honorees. She did a terrific job of helping us spread the word and she gathered a great deal of information that will be helpful to us all. We really appreciate her support and her insights that will move us along in the future
We also were able to spend a bit of time with Darcie Chan, author of the best selling The Mill River Recluse, another of our Honorees. Darcie took part in one of the discussion groups, The Road to Success: Bestselling authors. She was joined by Brittany Geragotelis author of Life’s a Witch and Bob Mayer, bestselling author of more than 50 books. Barbara Freethy and Bell Andre, both Romance/Chick Lit. authors who have collectively sold over 3.6 million books, were the Keynote speakers. These 5 authors offered some wonderful tips and insights into selling your books.
Here is some of the info we would like to share with you- –
Did you know that Romance and Paranormal Romance are the biggest selling books at this time?
Also that series outsell stand alone books? The most successful authors are writing book series and are putting books out fast – every 4-6 months! Once you build a fan base, the readers want more and fast.
Bob Mayer, who has written both stand alone books and series, said his biggest mistake was probably not writing more series books!
All 5 authors discussed Branding so, let’s start there.
Branding is giving your readers continuity so they recognize you and your books. Series authors do this by making the covers carry a similar theme that tells your story. Knowing your audience is very important and having control over your cover can be crucial. Barbara Freethy’s first traditionally printed books showed a man’s bare chest on the cover. They were a bit provocative and not really what she wanted for her lighter books. She decided to SP and the first thing she did was change the cover to a couple about to kiss. Her books sales went up over night! She has continued this theme with different couples in similar poses for all of that series. Her series about weddings shows bridal bouquets- similar but different- on each cover. The title and author name are in the same size and font on each cover. Fans now are seeking her books, not by title but by author so she has her name in larger letters in the same place on each cover. This is branding. A reader just has to see the cover to know the author and the series.
This takes us back to knowing your audience and finding them. Stay tuned………
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