Marketing for You, the Indie Author welcomes back Beth Jusino, Director of Book Marketing for The Editorial Department, who is also an editor, teacher, and former literary agent. Enjoy!
Once a week I have a conversation with an author who says, “I know I’m supposed to market. But I hate self-promotion! I don’t want to have to ask people to buy my book!”
I actually like to start the conversation here, because then I get to give them the good news: marketing (mostly) isn’t about direct sales. No one will tell you to stand on a street corner trying to unload a car trunk full of books like they’re Girl Scout cookies. Marketing is nothing more than building positive public awareness about your name and your books. There are dozens of ways you can do this, and most writers can build a marketing plan that fits their time, talent, and audience.
Marketing indie books, in fact, is full of surprises. Here are a few more that you might find relieving:
- Just because this worked for Darcie Chan/Hugh Howey/EL James doesn’t mean it will work for you.
Yes, The Mill River Recluse was priced at 99 cents, and took off after a sale on Kindle Nation Daily. Yes, Hugh Howey released his books as novellas first. And E.L. James built her audience writing Twilight fan fiction.
No, that doesn’t mean you need to do the same.
There is no single, secret path to sales success, so following someone else’s roadmap is no guarantee. Your challenge as an author in 2014 is to understand what’s working now, not what worked three or four years ago.
- If you hate Twitter, get off it.
Of all the popular social media channels today, there is none so mistrusted, misunderstood, and misused today as Twitter. For years, authors have heard that “being on Twitter sells books,” so they dutifully sign up, but then a lot of them either sit silently, waiting for followers to come to them, or they spam away any potential connections with awkward “buy my book” messages every hour.
If you this is you: get off. Twitter is not a magic bullet for book sales, and it doesn’t work for everyone. If chatting online with friends and strangers doesn’t work for you, or if you struggle to condense your thoughts to 140 characters, then there are better ways for you to spend your time. Step back and take a good look at where you are most comfortable. Is it face-to-face? Do you make a better impression when you’re speaking to a group, or in one-on-one conversations? You can spend your marketing time doing what you do best, and leave the tweeting to others.
- You don’t need a big Release Day.
In the old world of book publishing a book’s release day was a big deal. Publishers spent months building up to it: gathering reviews and media interviews, taking pre-orders from bookstores, and generally trying to build anticipation. That’s because once the book landed on store shelves, the clock started ticking.
Retail bookstores give a new book between three and six months. If the book doesn’t sell, they return it to the publisher for a refund. Before Internet shopping, that made it invisible to readers, and sales disappeared.
Today, thanks to the wonders of limitless online shelf space and print-on-demand technology, a book almost never goes out of print. Successful indie books tend to grow steadily over time, attracting more and more new readers. So give yourself permission to release quickly, and to market steadily. Sales can unfold gradually. Your marketing plan can be spread out over months, not days.
- You don’t need a publicist.
Many of the authors I meet have dreams of sitting down with Jon Stewart or The Today Show. They dream of the One Big Interview—the one that will catapult them to fame and fortune.
Most debut books and indie authors don’t have a story that’s going to get them on the news, no matter how much they pay a publicist. It’s not a slight against your book or your publishing choices. There’s just not much of a news hook to “novelist releases a book.” So before you pay big bucks for a traditional media campaign, take the time to develop your own unique angle. Look for places where your writing might overlap with current events.
One indie author, historical romance writer J.L. Spohr, released a novel last summer called Heirs & Spares. Instead of boring reporters with a standard “new book” announcement, she capitalized on the international frenzy of the British Royal Baby Watch, and sent a press release offering to provide a historical perspective on royal lineage. She landed multiple radio, print, and even TV interviews, and got to plug her book every time.
- The best thing you can do to market is write your next book.
Most authors tell me that they’d rather be working on their next book, not composing witty Facebook messages or mailing postcards to distant influencers.
And my answer is: that’s a GOOD thing.
It’s important to make time in your author schedule to attract new readers and connect with your fans. But the absolute, positive, best way for you to build your readership is to write another book, and then another after that. It’s hard to build an income or a loyal readership with a single title. A second (and third, and fourth) book will reward their loyalty.
However you set up your schedule spend at least half of your available time writing the next book.
How about you? What’s the piece of marketing advice that surprised you most?
Want to know more? For just a few more days, you can read the first chapter of my book, The Author’s Guide to Marketing, at . While you’re there, you can pre-order an e-book or paperback, and sign up for special perks and exclusive bonus material. Hurry—the campaign closes June 11.
Beth Jusino is a writer, marketer, editor, teacher, and former literary agent. She directs the Author Marketing program at The Editorial Department, teaches a quarterly publishing class at the University of Washington’s Experimental College, and blogs occasionally at www.bethjusino.com.
