All Authors Must Promote and Market--
Even Traditionally Published Ones
Writing the book was the easy part! Now you have to sell it. Most people do not know where to start, and everything seems overwhelming... that is because it is! Take one thing at a time to learn then move on to the next. If you jump into everything at one, you will get nowhere.
Social Media
I admit, I never got into the Linkedin or Pinterest. What works for you might not work for someone else. There are others that I have not conquered, but as I said, one thing at a time.
Facebook groups are awesome. You can not only meet readers who will review, and of course, buy your books, but there are tons of authors who are willing to share their information with you. Take advantage of their experience. Things to remember about Facebook:
Twitter - Learn about Hash tags. Hash tags basically group "Tweets" of the same subject in one place. Everyone interested in that topic can go to that hash tag home and see the tweets. There are "Trending" hash tags, meaning these are the most active at the moment-- so figure out a way to get in there. If what is trending is #GameofThrones, then mention your novel is similar.. or even a novel you read. People get interested in you for being there.
WARNING: Interact in conversations, but do not spam. I did not understand this.. Every time I saw someone say something it was "buy my book." They froze my account for spam.
For Authors there are hashtags where everyone following that tag with RT all the messages. For example, #IARTG (Indie Author Re-Tweet Group) has 44,000 followers. So every time I tweet with that tag, everyone who is following that tag then Re-Tweets my post. You can literally reach millions by everyone working together!
Goodreads - Goodreads is like Facebook for readers. You can friend people, chat in groups, and recommend books to your friends. You can review books you've read and put them on a "shelf", as well as put books on your wishlist. As authors, we have the option of holding giveaways for paperbacks. GRs suggests you offer 10 books during each giveaway. That is $80 cost to me for the books alone, plus shipping. With no guarantee of getting reviews. Although people added my books to their "wishlist", I never saw an increase in sales. I did see an increase of people messaging me and asking for a free book. I fell for this once. I gave someone the book, in exchange for a review. She then turned around and sold it on Amazon as a "Like New".
The other thing with Goodreads is that there is a lot of animosity between the readers and authors. Some Indie authors behaved badly and ruined it for others. Readers feel as though they were invaded by authors. Because of this, in some groups if you even mention you are an author, you will get removed from the group. Read the rules, post in the threads/groups that allow it, and you can meet some great authors. Perhaps some wonderful readers--just tread lightly.
Goodreads does do something neat... When you post a review, you can post it to your GR blog, Twitter, and Facebook all at the same time. It saves time.
Amazon Author Central & Writing Amazon Reviews
Authors have profiles on Amazon that readers can visit. You can update it on Author Central by adding a bio, videos, pics, connecting your blog and twitter and more. Readers can "follow" you, meaning that when your new books come out they will be told.
Some people overlook writing Amazon Reviews, but doing so can put your name in front of thousands of readers--- and in your genre. You can edit your profile name to read, "Author Rhoda D'Ettore".. or "Fiction Author Rhoda D'Ettore" -- or whatever else you think will help. Writing reviews for other authors is good karma as well. More gets done when you work together.
Marketing Materials:
Vistaprint
Business cards & Rack cards from Vistaprint are awesome. You can design them yourself, they print quickly and often offer FREE business cards (you pay for shipping-- they are one sided with their website on the back, but starting out they are fine).
Rack cards hold a lot more information, such as author bios, book covers and blurbs and more. So once you get them, what do you do with them? Put them EVERYWHERE! I give them out standing in line at the bank, the grocery store, at Burger King, the doctor's office. Go to brick bookstores and place them on cars with a signature. People love having an autograph and are willing to support a local author. Plus, you know they are readers!
Also, I insert them into books for sale in pharmacies, book stores and other venues. No one notices and I can target my audience. If someone likes James Patterson, they will probably like my Newborn Nazi.
Vistaprint Sales & Coupons
This company is all about upsells and cross-selling--so take advantage of it. So you place an order for 500 business cards.. nice ones for $9.99. When you go to checkout, they will ALWAYS offer you a deal on a larger quantity. Therefore, no matter what you buy, always order the minimum at first. Also, they have 50% off anything sales. I bought vinyl banners for my table at author events, rack cards, the banner stands, business cards, and much more.... all for less than $100. Createspace charges twice that for a third of the items!
The Cons of Vistaprint? Their website services.
Over the summer I decided to get the free month trial of their website. I asked for my name as the domain, then promptly ordered their site for $25 per month. Yes, I got all the bells and whistles to determine what I liked. I ordered their email marketing package to send a mass mailing out, got the shopping cart.. the works. After a few months, it started freezing, and just became downright annoying. I thought it was a beautiful and professional site, however, I was on the phone with their customer service constantly to fix small things. Plus, they don't speak English.
When I decided to switch to the FREE weebly.com, I found I was not registered as the owner of my domain. HUH? Vistaprint registers themselves, then you have to pay them $19.99 to release YOUR name so you can transfer it. So after paying them $20, then godaddy $8 for the year, I decided to upgrade this site. That ran me about $59 for the year I think. Changing to this site saved me a lot of money and gave me better service. Plus, Weebly customer service is awesome-- and they speak English!
Social Media
- Facebook - Get a Facebook public page that people can "Like"
- Twitter - I've met some great and informative people here; We promote each other to our respective followers, reaching a greater audience
- Websites/Blogs - There are free blogs such as Blogger (Google) and Weebly (This site, although I pay a small monthly fee for certain features and bought my name as my domain through GoDaddy)
- Goodreads
- Amazon Author Profile Page (Author Central) & Review writing
- Youtube
I admit, I never got into the Linkedin or Pinterest. What works for you might not work for someone else. There are others that I have not conquered, but as I said, one thing at a time.
Facebook groups are awesome. You can not only meet readers who will review, and of course, buy your books, but there are tons of authors who are willing to share their information with you. Take advantage of their experience. Things to remember about Facebook:
- When posting from your public page, only those who "liked" your page and are signed on will see the posts
- Facebook ads do not result in the large numbers they claim
- Unless those who "liked" you page visit your page or share your posts, having a huge number of "likes" is not going to help. To me, the most use of Facebook are the groups.
Twitter - Learn about Hash tags. Hash tags basically group "Tweets" of the same subject in one place. Everyone interested in that topic can go to that hash tag home and see the tweets. There are "Trending" hash tags, meaning these are the most active at the moment-- so figure out a way to get in there. If what is trending is #GameofThrones, then mention your novel is similar.. or even a novel you read. People get interested in you for being there.
WARNING: Interact in conversations, but do not spam. I did not understand this.. Every time I saw someone say something it was "buy my book." They froze my account for spam.
For Authors there are hashtags where everyone following that tag with RT all the messages. For example, #IARTG (Indie Author Re-Tweet Group) has 44,000 followers. So every time I tweet with that tag, everyone who is following that tag then Re-Tweets my post. You can literally reach millions by everyone working together!
Goodreads - Goodreads is like Facebook for readers. You can friend people, chat in groups, and recommend books to your friends. You can review books you've read and put them on a "shelf", as well as put books on your wishlist. As authors, we have the option of holding giveaways for paperbacks. GRs suggests you offer 10 books during each giveaway. That is $80 cost to me for the books alone, plus shipping. With no guarantee of getting reviews. Although people added my books to their "wishlist", I never saw an increase in sales. I did see an increase of people messaging me and asking for a free book. I fell for this once. I gave someone the book, in exchange for a review. She then turned around and sold it on Amazon as a "Like New".
The other thing with Goodreads is that there is a lot of animosity between the readers and authors. Some Indie authors behaved badly and ruined it for others. Readers feel as though they were invaded by authors. Because of this, in some groups if you even mention you are an author, you will get removed from the group. Read the rules, post in the threads/groups that allow it, and you can meet some great authors. Perhaps some wonderful readers--just tread lightly.
Goodreads does do something neat... When you post a review, you can post it to your GR blog, Twitter, and Facebook all at the same time. It saves time.
Amazon Author Central & Writing Amazon Reviews
Authors have profiles on Amazon that readers can visit. You can update it on Author Central by adding a bio, videos, pics, connecting your blog and twitter and more. Readers can "follow" you, meaning that when your new books come out they will be told.
Some people overlook writing Amazon Reviews, but doing so can put your name in front of thousands of readers--- and in your genre. You can edit your profile name to read, "Author Rhoda D'Ettore".. or "Fiction Author Rhoda D'Ettore" -- or whatever else you think will help. Writing reviews for other authors is good karma as well. More gets done when you work together.
Marketing Materials:
Vistaprint
Business cards & Rack cards from Vistaprint are awesome. You can design them yourself, they print quickly and often offer FREE business cards (you pay for shipping-- they are one sided with their website on the back, but starting out they are fine).
Rack cards hold a lot more information, such as author bios, book covers and blurbs and more. So once you get them, what do you do with them? Put them EVERYWHERE! I give them out standing in line at the bank, the grocery store, at Burger King, the doctor's office. Go to brick bookstores and place them on cars with a signature. People love having an autograph and are willing to support a local author. Plus, you know they are readers!
Also, I insert them into books for sale in pharmacies, book stores and other venues. No one notices and I can target my audience. If someone likes James Patterson, they will probably like my Newborn Nazi.
Vistaprint Sales & Coupons
This company is all about upsells and cross-selling--so take advantage of it. So you place an order for 500 business cards.. nice ones for $9.99. When you go to checkout, they will ALWAYS offer you a deal on a larger quantity. Therefore, no matter what you buy, always order the minimum at first. Also, they have 50% off anything sales. I bought vinyl banners for my table at author events, rack cards, the banner stands, business cards, and much more.... all for less than $100. Createspace charges twice that for a third of the items!
The Cons of Vistaprint? Their website services.
Over the summer I decided to get the free month trial of their website. I asked for my name as the domain, then promptly ordered their site for $25 per month. Yes, I got all the bells and whistles to determine what I liked. I ordered their email marketing package to send a mass mailing out, got the shopping cart.. the works. After a few months, it started freezing, and just became downright annoying. I thought it was a beautiful and professional site, however, I was on the phone with their customer service constantly to fix small things. Plus, they don't speak English.
When I decided to switch to the FREE weebly.com, I found I was not registered as the owner of my domain. HUH? Vistaprint registers themselves, then you have to pay them $19.99 to release YOUR name so you can transfer it. So after paying them $20, then godaddy $8 for the year, I decided to upgrade this site. That ran me about $59 for the year I think. Changing to this site saved me a lot of money and gave me better service. Plus, Weebly customer service is awesome-- and they speak English!