Marketing

#Let’sTalk – #MarketingIdeas – #WhatWorksAndWhatDoesn’t

/ Marcia / 56 Comments

Am I the only one who thinks that marketing is the most difficult, frustrating, and downright annoying part of writing that could possibly exist? (Somehow I doubt I am.) But whether that’s really true or not, marketing still needs to be done, and I’ve sworn for YEARS I was going to get better at it. *sigh* I haven’t. In fact, I’m so awful at it that I woke up today inspired to start a new series of posts where we can all share our thoughts on marketing and lots of other subjects from time to time. I’ve found this writing /blogging community to be among the most generous, supportive, and helpful group of folks I’ve ever met, so I’m hoping many of you will be willing to weigh in on all sorts of topics coming up in the weeks ahead.

With that in mind, here’s what I’m wondering today:

What is your favorite way to market your books?
Which paid forms of marketing have you had the most success with?
Are there any types of marketing writers should be avoiding?

I’ll start by saying I’ve never marketed my books anywhere other than  through blogging, and local sales. For several years, I sold quite a few books at every wildlife talk I gave and really enjoyed signing them after the talks. Trouble is, many in my audiences now have all of my books, so that market has been “saturated.” I need to branch out. (And to have this brain fog lift enough to enable me to finish my WIP, because I understand new books are a great way to sell OLD ones.)

NOTE: Jan Sikes has been running a series of very detailed posts on Story Empire, going into the pros and cons of various types of marketing.  It’s an excellent series, and you can check out the first post HERE. Thanks for reminding me of this series, Jan! LOTS of great info!

Now I’m going to turn the discussion over to you guys. Please feel free to share any marketing or promotional questions, ideas, and worries you might have. And we’d especially love to hear about some things that have worked … or NOT worked … for you. 

Thanks for joining the conversation!

LET’S TALK!

I Did It! #PublisherRocket

/ Marcia / 42 Comments

Welp, I got enough feedback and read enough reviews to convince me it was worth a $97 one-time purchase price, so I downloaded Publisher Rocket this morning. So far,  it looks pretty straight-forward to use, and I really do think it’s going to help me find exactly the niche categories I want my books in, and the best keywords to use in the Amazon descriptions. 

This is something I have NOT been able to figure out on my own, and I’m tired of stumbling around. I’m going to consider this a reasonable marketing expense, since the cost is comparable (or in some cases, lower than) many of the advertising options out there and,  unlike short-term promos, etc, I believe it will be beneficial for the long run. Not going to give up on sales and other promos, either, but I also want something working for me 24/7, and I think the proper listing on Amazon is a big deal.

I plan to update ALL my books using Publisher Rocket, and to use this tool right from the get-go with new ones.There are a lot of instructional videos offered,  so that’s where I’ll start.  Will keep you up to date on what I discover as I get more familiar with the program! Wish me luck!! 🙂

Publisher Rocket

What I’ve Been Up To – #MondayBlogs #Marketing

/ Marcia / 34 Comments


(Still Playing with BookBrush, Too)

A short time ago, I shared a post I found on The Creative Penn, written by Rob Eagar and regarding using language to help promote your books free. You can read the original post HERE.

I have been busily editing all my book sales pages on Amazon (via Author Central) to do one of the things Eagar suggested: adding accolades. I had thought you needed big-name Editorial Reviews in order to do this, but after some additional research and another great post on Indies Unlimited, Amazon Author Central: A Primer ( check it out HERE), I realized I could choose quotes from my Amazon or Goodreads reviews to share in the same manner. You can quote up to five reviews on your print book pages, but so far, I’ve only been able to add one on my eBook pages. (I’ve seen others with more, so I’m still looking for the workaround to that.) 

Here’s an example of what I did for my first Wake-Robin Ridge eBook page:

And here’s the Paperback page:

The process is pretty straightforward and easy, if you follow the steps outlined in the Amazon Author Central: A Primer link provided above. The longest part of the task was scrolling through my reviews, looking for lines that I thought would work well.

I don’t know if this will boost sales or not, but it sure can’t hurt, and hey–it’s free, so why not? And this may be old news to some of you, but it was completely new to me, so I figured I’d pass it along.

Also, as you can tell from the header at the top of the page, I’ve been spending a bit of time creating new  graphics on BookBrush. A few of you know I’ve been a bit under the weather lately, and haven’t felt creative enough to write, but I truly hate wasting time. These small promotional/marketing ideas have been productive ways to spend an hour or two each day, doing things that I wanted to get around to, anyway. Hope some of you will be inspired to give them a go, yourselves. 🙂 ❤

What makes a book a bestseller?

/ Aimee Easterling / 22 Comments

teasersquare600After two years of pounding the keyboard and putting out indie fiction, I finally hit what I consider a bestseller. Half Wolf had 6,000 combined sales and borrows during its first three months of life, and the sequel seems to be enjoying even better reviews (and, hopefully, sales).

While my figures still don’t hold a candle to those of some authors, I thought it would be worth mentioning what I did differently in case you want to follow suit. Here’s a quick rundown in what went into my bestseller.

  1. Studied the genre harder. I read widely and often and write what I love to read. That said, I noticed repeated criticisms of my Wolf Rampant series surrounding lack of sex and action scenes. At first, I turned up my nose and said, “Hmmph! That’s what makes me an indie author — I can write what I want!” But then I decided to give it a whirl. And I have to admit I feel like the resulting book was more powerful for the inclusions (even though those component are still below average on a modern chart).
  2. Paid for an amazing cover. I have basic photoshop skills and thought I could make my own covers…and I did manage to make passable ones. Then I upgraded to hiring a cover artist…and was amazed at the difference in sales. Rebecca Frank is, unfortunately, now booked months in advance and no longer accepting new clients. However, I highly recommend shopping around and paying for a top-notch cover to match your top-notch book, hitting all of the same genre buttons to signal exactly what’s inside.
  3. Workshopped my blurb to death. Seriously, I think about ten people helped me make approximately 100 revisions on my blurb. Even before that, I studied the blurbs of the bestsellers in my genre, noting word count and other factors. Overall, I spent nearly a week on the project! But the result is tight and humming with life and it sells books.
  4. Launched with forethought. A lot more goes into a sticky launch than just telling your fans and waiting for the sales to roll in. If you haven’t read it, I recommend Chris Fox’s Launch to Market as a primer. I used a spreadsheet and every bit of social capital I’d built up in recent months on my launch and it was very much worth it.

I hope that gives you some ideas for pushing your next book into the stratosphere! And, if you’re curious, Half Wolf will be free Saturday and Lone Wolf Dawn is already marked down to 99 cents for launch week. Feel free to lurk and see whether my second launch does as well as the first.

Question, Anyone…

/ Marcia / 2 Comments

Question-Mark-Man2

After reading about bundles and funnels for building sales, I think I really like the concept. I want to do something along those lines. Trouble is, the book I’ll be releasing next is only Book 2 in the Wake-Robin Ridge series, so I’m not sure how to go about it. I think what I want to do is offer Book 1 free in conjunction with Book 2. But that’s hardly a bundle. How would I go about doing this? Would I combine both books in one document, making clear that Book 1 is being included at no extra cost? That seems like the easiest way, but I’m not sure if it’s the best way. What am I overlooking? Anyone?