Book Marketing Tips You Cannot Miss!
I love new book marketing tips simply because it is the single most important thing that will sell your book. Sure, your book is very well written but if people do not know about it, its not worth much. Therefore, I am thrilled that fellow author and dear friend Darian Wilk, whose debut book broke the top 100 Amazon chart too, is here to share some of the precious gems. If I were you, I would give full attention because advice from the experienced is the best! :)
Oh and btw, please do not miss her latest romance novel, Reinventing Clare!
Over to you Darian!
For any published author, either self or traditionally,
marketing your work is not only an essential part of your books success – but
probably one of the most intimidating tasks we face. I am no expert on the matter, nor do I claim
to be one. But I’ve had my share of successes;
including being a top 100 on Amazon contender a few times, and roughly doubling
the typical first year sales of an Indie author. Not bad for a first timer with no publicist
and no marketing budget. I’m a big
believer in writerly karma, so I’m happy to share some of what I’ve learned:
- Facebook is your friend, use it. Create an Author fan page (not book title page), and post to it often. If you don’t have an author website (why don’t you?), use your Facebook page as one. Get readers to interact by posting questions, post images (did you know the #1 shared posts on FB are images? That’s a lot of traveling your post could do). Do keyword searches like Kindle, ebooks, etc. Pick pages with high amounts of followers, and send a message to the page owner asking if they’d be kind enough to post a link for your book. Most page owners are so thrilled someone actually asked if they could post, they’re excited to highlight you.
- Twitter is your friend too. I hate Twitter, but I use it daily. Tweeps love to retweet. On a bad day, one of my tweets gets retweeted once and only gets seen by a 1,000 people. A great day, over 5,000 see it. That’s a lot of potential readers reading my tweet. Learn hashtags. Did you know that #free ranks higher than #giveaway? Learn these tidbits well. Also, download Tweetdeck. You can schedule tweets and posts to your Facebook page in this one app. And yes, it’s free.
- Crowdbooster.com To better focus your tweets/posts, you need to know which ones are working – this service helps you do just that. With this (free) service, you can see what are the best days to tweet/post, who’s sharing your posts, how many new follows, and a ton more.
- Be consistent in your efforts. Marketing sucks. It’s time consuming, a pain in the a#$, and really no fun at all. But it’s consistency that will help you rise above the rest. Have a weekly meeting with yourself about what you covered last week, any follow-up you need to do this week, and what you’re working on this week. This journey is not all about writing, it’s a business; treat it as such by being organized and consistent.
- Bloggers rock, make nice with them. After the release of my first book, my goal was to have at least 2-3 highlights a month. Whether it was a review, an interview, guest post, etc. A consistent online presence is your goal. But remember for the majority of bloggers, blogging is their hobby, not their job. Don’t be demanding or emailing them constantly, they hate that and won’t work with you again. Be organized in the information you send them, reply to them quickly, and be polite and grateful. For starters try Book Blogs, and Book Review Blogs.
- Don’t go crazy with giveaways. I know, that contradicts what a lot of others say. I’m a rebel. What can I say? Giveaways gain exposure, but they’re lost sales. Use giveaways wisely. Post one on Goodreads, you’ll reach a targeted audience, with huge exposure. Get the most bang for your lost bucks. Like right now I’m offering Love Unfinished (my first book) for free on Amazon during the blog tour for Reinventing Claire. Simply because with the sales from both, I stand a good chance of finally hitting the top 100, get a huge sales rank increase, and oodles of exposure. Giveaways, are all about planning. Don’t offer one on a whim, plan it to your advantage.
- Novelrank.com, track those Amazon sales people. How will you know if your marketing tactics are working if you’re not tracking your sales? You should be tracking sales from all avenues. Also, track your expenses in a spreadsheet. Anything used for your work/promotions is a tax write-off. Stamps for mailers? Yup. New desk? Yup. Why not get a little back for what you put into it?
- Listing your ebooks onto Kindle, B&N, etc. yourself gives you higher royalties. Who doesn’t like a bigger royalty?
Darian is a women's fiction writer, author of Love Unfinished (available free on Amazon) and just released, Reinventing Claire. She loves the challenge and thrill of putting words onto paper, and forming it into a story. For her, the only thing better than that is her kids.
On the occasions she’s not engulfed in writing you'll find her reading a book, either for fun or for review on her blog, Crazy Lady with a Pen. When not reading, she’s spending time with friends and family. Life is too short to pass those beautiful little moments life has to offer by, and she wants to soak up every moment she can.
For more information about Darian, her books, reviews, or blog, please visit her website, www.DarianWilk.weebly.com.
About Reinventing Clare:
People get divorced, but that's what happens to other people. That's what Claire thought anyway, until her husband, Charlie, tells her he wants a divorce.
Claire has no choice but to take on the title of Divorced Woman, and face the question she has no idea how to answer. Who is Claire without Charlie? Her family believes her newly divorced woes can be cured by landing herself a boyfriend. With her dating dunce cap in hand, Claire stumbles her way through the foreign territory of online dating.
A teacher from hell, a softball coach, and a sap later, Claire proclaims herself the dating idiot she thought she was, and fears she's doomed to be a lonely, crazy cat lady. But an accidental run-in with an old acquaintance might change everything. What starts with comparing dating battle wounds over a cup of coffee, quickly turns into something Claire had given up on.
As Claire discovers maybe there is love after Charlie after all, Charlie realizes his mistake. He wants her back, and he'll do anything to prove it to her. Now Claire must choose who deserves her heart, and if she's really willing to give it away again.
Know More!
And want to try Darian for free?
Love Unfinished, Darian's debut novel will be available for free on Amazon August 20th – 24th!
Great advice! I had no idea #free ranks higher than #giveaway. I'm using free for now on!
ReplyDeleteGreat tips! I agree with you on the giveaways, though I think many of the free copies go to freebie seekers who wouldn't buy anyway. I like to see if I can get something from them for the freebie anyway like a link (see rewardingposts.com for a blog plugin that does this automagically) or a tweet (paywithatweet.com) or something similar.
ReplyDeleteAubrie, thanks for commenting! If you're doing ebook giveaways on Twitter, be sure to include #Amazon and #Kindle (if applicable)! Those are hashtags that are constantly surfed be tweeters.
ReplyDeleteWendy, thanks for stopping by!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, the best way to go with a giveaway is one that you get something out of it; either capturing the email addresses to add to your contact list (for future announcements), or tweets, sharing, etc. That's the ideal way to go for sure. Great tip to include!
This is amazing advice all at one place. Didn't know there are so many channels and writers have to look after each such aspect! Kudos to all the writers out there! Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteThese are some great tips! Thank you for taking the time to share your advice. It's much appreciated!
ReplyDelete