Indie Publishing Guide: Three tips for Book Marketing Indie Publishers Need to Follow
If you're anything like I was when I finished writing my first series, you're confident that the material is worth an audience but have no idea how to find that audience. For three years after I first published my first book, A Knife in the Back
, I cast around for ways to get it read. I had some success, but most of the time I felt like I was just spinning my wheels. Here's a list of things I did in attempt to market my work:
1. Run Goodreads giveaways.
2. Run freebies on KDP.
3. Held local readings.
4. Used Facebook and Twitter to advertise.
5. Given copies to my local library system.
6. Sold copies at my local library system.
Despite all of this, and seemingly despite my dedication, nothing really worked. Other than some freebie winners and a few intrepid Amazon buyers, my fan base was relegated to family and friends. (Not that I don't appreciate that! In fact, it's what kept me going!)
I'd always known I needed to do a better job marking my work, but I just couldn't get past my negative view of "selling". To me, selling my books was synonymous with taking someone's money. It felt gross and slimy. But there is a big difference between that and marketing. The turn began when I realized that marketing is just letting people know what I was doing.
That's it.
No pressure techniques. No scheming or smarminess. There are people out there who like to read horror, post-apocalyptic, and science fiction. I'm one of them. I know tons of them. So marketing is just letting people who like horror, post-apocalyptic, and science-fiction that I have a book they might like. More, "Do you like reading cool stuff?" and not at all "Please give me your money."
Before I even get started, all of the ideas for this I learned from reading four great books:
1. Your first 1,000 copies, by Tim Grahl
2. Write. Publish. Repeat, by Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant, and David Wright
3. Permission Marketing, by Seth Godin
4. How to Market A Book, by Joanna Penn
I definitely recommend reading them. They helped me overcome that first hurdle (the idea that marketing is slimy), and the second hurdle (defeating "the imposter syndrome"), and provided very practical tips for getting started.
In the next series of articles, I'm going to tell you how I applied their advice, techniques, strategies, and tactics, and give you an idea about my experience with it so far—what I learned, what I dumped, what I added, and what I made up myself.
Next up: Marketing Tip #1—Bring your work to the people who want to read it.
Are you a fan of horror or post-apocalyptic fiction? Join my email list and receive a free short story, audio book, and theme song for "Beta":
A monster terrorizes an isolated village in the mountains of Eastern Europe, draining the blood of its victims, leaving them frozen in the snow. The villagers hunt wolves, decapitate “vampires,” but the murders continue. As each new body is found, the residents grow more and more paranoid. Who will be next? Will it ever end?
Sign up here!
www.jamesnoll.net
--JN
, I cast around for ways to get it read. I had some success, but most of the time I felt like I was just spinning my wheels. Here's a list of things I did in attempt to market my work:1. Run Goodreads giveaways.
2. Run freebies on KDP.
3. Held local readings.
4. Used Facebook and Twitter to advertise.
5. Given copies to my local library system.
6. Sold copies at my local library system.
Despite all of this, and seemingly despite my dedication, nothing really worked. Other than some freebie winners and a few intrepid Amazon buyers, my fan base was relegated to family and friends. (Not that I don't appreciate that! In fact, it's what kept me going!)
I'd always known I needed to do a better job marking my work, but I just couldn't get past my negative view of "selling". To me, selling my books was synonymous with taking someone's money. It felt gross and slimy. But there is a big difference between that and marketing. The turn began when I realized that marketing is just letting people know what I was doing.
That's it.
No pressure techniques. No scheming or smarminess. There are people out there who like to read horror, post-apocalyptic, and science fiction. I'm one of them. I know tons of them. So marketing is just letting people who like horror, post-apocalyptic, and science-fiction that I have a book they might like. More, "Do you like reading cool stuff?" and not at all "Please give me your money."
Before I even get started, all of the ideas for this I learned from reading four great books:
1. Your first 1,000 copies, by Tim Grahl
2. Write. Publish. Repeat, by Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant, and David Wright
3. Permission Marketing, by Seth Godin
4. How to Market A Book, by Joanna Penn
I definitely recommend reading them. They helped me overcome that first hurdle (the idea that marketing is slimy), and the second hurdle (defeating "the imposter syndrome"), and provided very practical tips for getting started.
In the next series of articles, I'm going to tell you how I applied their advice, techniques, strategies, and tactics, and give you an idea about my experience with it so far—what I learned, what I dumped, what I added, and what I made up myself.
Next up: Marketing Tip #1—Bring your work to the people who want to read it.
Are you a fan of horror or post-apocalyptic fiction? Join my email list and receive a free short story, audio book, and theme song for "Beta":
A monster terrorizes an isolated village in the mountains of Eastern Europe, draining the blood of its victims, leaving them frozen in the snow. The villagers hunt wolves, decapitate “vampires,” but the murders continue. As each new body is found, the residents grow more and more paranoid. Who will be next? Will it ever end?
Sign up here!
www.jamesnoll.net
--JN
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