Musing on marketing

October will be an exciting month! I’m finally starting to write properly again and have twisted my brain back around to marketing the Eshla series. So, the trilogy will be available free for two whole days on the third and the fourth.

Which means the next two weeks, I’ll be like a headless chicken trying to get all to get all three books advertised as free on as many sites as possible!

I tried a countdown deal before the summer but found it was nowhere near as effective as the free days that Amazon offer. Has anyone had any success with countdown deals, and if so, how did you run them?

It’s tricky, trying to focus your brain on marketing one series, while you’re writing in a completely different genre!

If you do pick up a copy of any of the books free, please help out and leave a review.

Fingers crossed!

Well, over 900 people downloaded my book from Amazon on the day it was free! 15 more people have bought it since. I’m pretty chuffed with that 😁 Now I just need to keep my fingers crossed that some of them like it!

Marketing books is a minefield. There are so many companies offering to ‘tweet thousands of followers’ on your behalf, for $10 – $60. I’m not convinced mass contact works though. I think the best approach has to be targeted. Once the second book is out I’m going to be experimenting with Bookbub and a few others who target readers Interested in your specific genre. Please comment if you’ve found anything that works well for you!

http://amzn.com/B00NJX2DQY

Goodreads

Today I have discovered Goodreads- yet another promotional tool available to independent authors! Thanks to Reece Evhans (author of The Seeker Series) who first mentioned it.
It took me a while to figure out how to get my book on there, and it threw me when they asked me to review it! But I eventually realised that you link yourself to the book when you join their author program. I’ve just applied now and am awaiting approval.
Has anyone else used the Goodreads promotional tools to market their work? And if so, did any have particularly good results?

What a year!

When I pause and think about it 2014 has been fairly epic. It’s been a year of adventures and new starts: marriage, new job, a second book almost complete and the leap into self publishing!
I say leap; it was more of a trip and a stumble followed by a huge learning curve! I naively imagined that I could proof read 65,000 words myself, draw a quick cover, slap it out through Amazon, get some friends to read and review and the thing would sell itself!
The reality is: the cover looks clumsy and has held me back from marketing ‘The Lost Heirs’ (I’m having a professional one done right now); I’m on my sixth reprint of the text and people are still pointing out errors! (As soon as I’m paid next month I’ll be employing a proof reader); and whilst lots of friends have happily bought the book (bless them!) few have reviewed it (one to be exact), people are just busy, that’s all. I’ve found the best way to get honest reviews is to approach other authors on WordPress who are in a similar position to me and offer to buy, read and review their books if they’ll do the same. It’s a slow process but it’s honest and it’s opened me up to some genres that I wouldn’t normally bother with; improving my own writing to boot.
So for 2015 I’ll be focusing on professionalism; investing in the project I’ve poured my heart and soul into these last few years. By Easter the second book should be available (proofread and with a proper cover!); and I’ll be experimenting with various different promotional methods whilst completing the third book in the series. I’ll let you know which ones work!
Have a wonderful 2015 – may it be full of dreams come true.