About a month ago I hit social media and asked my fellow independent authors to offer up their own tips on marketing for the self-published. If memory serves, I got a grand total of three responses. Now, you could be forgiven for thinking this might just be a simple case of me lacking followers … but when a subsequent post sporting a food item suddenly gets half a dozen comments and 20 Likes? Well, I’m thinking there are other reasons.

I think many are either self-conscious about voicing their ideas on marketing or don’t want to give their secrets away to the masses.

As for me, I’m too new to this game to have much direct experience, but I want to help. I want to enable us. All of us. So, what I am about to lay down in this post is mostly knowledge gained by research rather than experience, but I’m hoping many of you will find at least one thing that can aid you in bringing your writing to others.

So, you’ve written a book. Now what? Marketing!

You could have written the most amazing book of your generation, but no one reads it if you don’t get it in front of them. Marketing is how you get this done.

Go Wide

Speaking specifically of e-published books (as that is the most accessible medium for independent authors), you’ll be better served by getting yourself available on as many platforms as possible. Don’t just jump on Amazon.com and expect Kindle to be the holy grail. Make use of Smashwords at the very least, as it will help you publish to multiple electronic vendors simultaneously.

Do keep in mind, though, that Amazon does not allow a book to be sold elsewhere at a lower price than it is on Amazon.

Be Social

Take to social media, if you haven’t already. I’d suggest at least having a Facebook author page (or use your personal FB page for the purpose), and a Twitter account.

Got those? Good! Now, my first piece of advice regarding their use is: don’t spam a shit-ton of sale posts!

The fastest way to get ignored, unfollowed, muted, or blocked is by being an overbearing asshat with your pushy sales tactics.

Make friends. Join genre-based groups of readers and writers. Be supportive of those around you. Take the time to build a network of peers, because most of your first readers are likely to be other independent authors within your genre.

And don’t expect this to be a fast process. You’ll be wrong and you’ll be disappointed.

Also, when you do post, don’t try and make up reasons to insert links to your book’s sale page in random conversations.  Again, people will quickly tune you out. Commit yourself to making an actual sales post once per week (at most) to each of your social media accounts. Most people won’t fault you for this, and it likely won’t get you ignored by many.

When you do decide to make a sales post, do not just post a link to the book and say “Hey! I wrote a book! I’d love for you to read and review it!” Make a pitch! Use the blurb you wrote for your product details or something similar. Give people a reason to want to read your work.

Next …

Paid Electronic Advertising

Think Amazon and Goodreads ad campaigns. When all is said and done, this is where most of your sales will eventually stem from.

Jesse and Rebekah Teller suggested I buy a copy of Brian D. Meeks’ Mastering Amazon Ads: An Author’s Guide, and I was amazed at how informative this book was. What it teaches you can pretty much be put to immediate use, although you might not think so based upon some of the marketing numbers Meeks’ lays out for you. I’ve been playing with the ads myself now for a couple of weeks, but I’m still tweaking my cost-per-click and keyword lists. Jesse and Rebekah Teller, however, have found success using the methods in this book, and I can see why.

Despite what many seem to think, Amazon ads are far from useless. And they are not just for the heavy hitters. Do yourself a favor, and take the time to explore their uses. You won’t regret it.

As for Goodreads self-serve advertising, things get a lot more restrictive, with cost-per-click (CPC) being locked at $0.50 (as of this writing). Still, this is a massive pool of potential customers and, if used intelligently, can lead to a great boost in sales.

I’m not going to get into the particulars of how to set up the ads themselves, as that would be a book in itself. Suffice it to say, you should be doing your own in-depth research, and I strongly suggest reading Meeks’ book on Mastering Amazon Ads that I linked above. Besides, all of our ads will be individual to us and must be tailored to each book.

Public Relations Companies

I’m not going to go into huge detail on this one, as most of you reading this will be independent authors with little or no funds for advertising on this scale. However, it would be remiss of me not to at least offer some information regarding PR companies.

First of all, this is some expensive shit–relatively speaking. After investigating 5 different PR companies, I found the baseline initial investment to range between $2000-$5000. There was one place that offered an $800 “beginner’s package,” but this was strictly an analytics thing (finding your keywords and so on), with absolutely no actual advertising. Information is key, yes, but the sort of analytics this $800 package offered were the sorts of things that an author could learn on their own for free.

The bottom line on PR, at least for me, is that it is for those with more money to burn than I do.

Paid Reviews

Credibility is huge for all authors. A traditionally published author automatically benefits from the credibility that comes along with the name of their publisher, but independents don’t have this option boon. A paid review can go a long way to helping this.

Now, I’m not talking about giving all your buddies $20 to read and review your book. I’m talking about big-name review sites like Kirkus. At $425 it’s a little bit of an expense, but it most definitely works, and it has a pretty high value for the amount invested.

It works like this: You pay them to read and review your book. Once this is done, you get a copy of the review. If the review is positive, then you have the option of having Kirkus (or a site like theirs) post the review with major bookseller publications/sites. If the review is negative, then you can opt to forego any further action.

In other words, if you plan on going this route, you will want to be damn confident of your work. But if you do get a great review, you have something to shout about on social media, as well as some acclaim to add to your cover and book detail pages.

Get Yourself on Shelves (the sneaky way)

Get an ISBN. This varies in difficulty from country to country, and I admit that I am only versed in the process in the United States. That being said, there is a neat little trick that can help you get onto a few shelves.

Let’s face it, the old brick-and-mortar stores have limited shelf-space, and that means independent authors are rarely going to find their way onto them. However, if you have an ISBN and your book has been formatted for print-on-demand, then there’s hope.

Go down to your local brand-name bookstore and ask a clerk to special order a book for you: your book! (If you’re not already using a pen name, you might want to give the clerk an alias, so they don’t figure out what you’re up to.) Next, when the store calls to tell you your order is in, tell them that you already picked up a copy elsewhere. The retailer makes no money if they leave a book beneath the counter, and so your book will be put on the shelves. Most retailers will also continue to order (albeit in small quantities) any book that sells.

Neat, huh?

Have a Home on the Web

Social media is all well and good, but give yourself a home on the web apart from social media as well. A WordPress blog (like this one) or something similar will suffice. This gives your readers a place that is specific to you, mostly devoid of all the extraneous bullshit that comes along with social media feeds.

Blog!

I can’t overstate this one. It goes along with the same concept as social media but takes it a few leaps forward.

I didn’t really believe in the power of blogs before I tried it, on the advice of more than a few authors. Talk about your writing, but not only about your writing. Again, most of your early readership will come from fellow authors. They’re on the same (or a similar) path to your own. Don’t simply use your blog as yet another way to sell sell sell! Use it to give your potential reader-base a way of identifying with you, of learning who you are, and why you are the way you are.

Let them see the mage behind the page!

One more piece of advice though: be aware of the possible repercussions of certain topics. If you get controversial, you will be picking a side (regardless of whether you want to or not) and that will put some readers on the opposing side.

Branding and Merchandising

If you have a book, hopefully you have a cool-ass cover too. And if you do, have t-shirts made up, preferably with your name and book title on it, as well as your website/social media url, and maybe a quote or a bit of critical acclaim. “Business cards” or advertising style “postcards” are also a great idea to keep on hand–if you use this sort of thing, go down to your local gaming stores or coffee shops and pin one to the social boards most of them have hanging up for purposes such as this.

Help Others Succeed

I’m putting this in here near the end, but it’s far from the last thing you should be doing.

Help other independent authors succeed, or I can promise you that not many of them will help you. Even the most altruistic of us will feel used if a relationship of any sort appears to be one-sided. Do for others as you would have them do for you. Think of it as an unofficial code of camaraderie.

Do Not Give Up

Lastly, do not give up! 

Very few authors will ever find their road an easy one, be they independent or traditional. Writing is not easy. Succeeding is even more difficult. There are no real tricks in this beyond perseverance and ingenuity.

Don’t ever think “I can’t” or “I’m a failure!”

I’ll be honest that I see those two statements (and others like them) to be utter whiney bullshit. Have I been there? Fuck yeah, I have! And I felt like a whiney piece of shit afterwards. You know why? Because self-defeat is absolutely useless. It’s a waste of your time. I’m not saying you should feel like shit for doubting yourself–I’m saying you should feel like shit if you let that doubt hold you back or dictate your actions (or inaction).

Let me lay a little truth on you: the biggest roadblock to your success as an independent author is yourself. And the funny part is, all you need to do is ignore the self-doubt. I can’t tell you how to do that, other than to say just do it. Let doubt say what it wants, just keep moving.

Write, learn lessons from it, advertise, repeat … succeed. It’s just a matter of determination and perseverance.

The only failure comes when you cease the journey.