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Marketing. The Bane of a writer’s life. Despite all our wishes the truth is that most of us will not be instantly picked up by the huge publishing houses because our immortal words are nothing but pure inspiration. That leaves a few other options open to us, including small presses and self publication. Unfortunately small presses don’t have a lot of funds for promoting your work once it is published. As for self publication, you know the size of your wallet better than I do. This means that we have to market ourselves. We have to throw our bodies out into the wild, put ourselves at risk, and actually try to interact with our audience. In other words, we have to market ourselves.
Not an easy task. In fact, at the time of this writing, not a task I have taken a very active part in. Because my first not a self-published podcast book is coming out in April of 2009 I have no choice but to throw myself out there and hope for the best. The problem is that when we charge into the public eye we don’t want to go willy-nilly, rushing right and left and backwards. We need a plan and we need to know where to go.
Well plans come hard. Discovering where to go is a bit easier. Knowing how to do it is the hardest bit of all. Off to the side you will find the links to blogs and opportunities I have found for myself. If you have suggestions that you would like added, please mail me and let me know. Though I am still new at this self-marketing thing, I’ll attempt to sum up what I have learned so far. With time and experience, I can throw additions into the mix.
First thing, you should really know and understand your audience. Yes, you have written a book and the thing is great and you want absolutely everybody to read it, but the truth is that it is aimed at a core audience. When you wrote it did you have a youth market in mind, an older crowd? Is your work something that would appeal more to stay at home moms who love a cozy mystery, or is it geared more towards internet savvy surfers who love a lot of tech talk in their reads? You do have a core audience no matter how much you don’t like that idea. Figure out who they are. A few things you want to look at are ages, what books they like to read, associations they might belong to, magazines that interest them, newsletters, and where they live on the internet.
Yes, where they live on the internet. The last I heard, only about a third of all book sales now take place in brick and mortar stores. That means the rest take place on the internet and through catalogs.
So, now that you have figured out what your core audience is, focus on them. I repeat, focus really really hard. Stare at that market until your brain hurts. Look at where they go, what they do, and gear your efforts towards getting their attention. Below you will find a few ideas of how to do that.
Book reviews. This is an easy one. You have written a book. The more positive reviews you have, the better chance there is that someone will actually buy a copy. Here is the question, how exactly do you manage to get your book reviewed, and where do you go? You can find reviewers by searching for book review blogs. Search for book review on twitter and friend the people it brings up. Look for newsletters that pertain to the type of book you have written. Look for internet radio shows that do author interviews. One such is The Author Show, a west coast radio show that presents a new author interview five days a week. A number of the ones I have found will be available through the links over there to the side. Click a button and explore. Getting a review can be tricky. Some of the larger reviewers have hundreds of requests, too many by far for them to look at them all. The further you go down the food chain the better chance you have to have your work reviewed. A blogger with only fifty readers won’t be inundated with requests. Fifty readers of a blog might translate into only one or two book sales, but lets face it, that is one or two sales more than you had before, and those sales may translate into larger numbers through word of mouth.
Readings and presentations. Yes, uncomfortable stuff. Many writers are introverted by nature. In my case I know that is true. Unfortunately if we want people to know who we are, we have to stand up in front of them and show them our faces. Bookstores and libraries are good places to do a reading, but there are also book clubs and many online groups where a person can read their work to others. However, don’t limit yourself to only doing events where you read and talk about your book. Draw people in while stretching yourself. Create events where you talk about the process of writing, about character development, about where people can go to advance themselves as writers, or about other aspects of writing such as editing and publication. You can even talk about other areas that you are familiar with and use that to mention that you wrote a book. One of the places I have found is in the on-line sim game, second life. After joining I made myself an avatar, went looking for what second life had to offer, and found a very strong writing community. My first live readings took place there (podcasting does not count since it is recorded before being released). My audience varied from five or ten people to as many as thirty. At first I suffered from a case of nerves while reading to a stadium filled with cartoon avatars, but in time I smoothed down. One unexpected turn from reading in second life is that I was approached by a magazine publisher who asked me to please submit some of my work. I did, and within seven months they published four of my short stories. On top of that, they gave me a lot of free publicity. Because of the publicity and the readings, I was then interviewed on Second Life TV as a horror writer and was later interviewed at a horror fest, which brings us to a third leg on our marketing endeavor.
Media attracts media. The more smaller reviews you have, the more press clippings, the more positive comments, the greater your chances are to draw attention from the big boys. It’s a lot easier to approach larger outlets when you have a fistful of good press in hand. Because I did live readings I was approached by a publisher. Because I was in her magazine I was approached by Second Life TV.
Go regional in your sales attempts. You have a small press book. You don’t have a major outlet. Okay, then be your own outlet. Look at the areas around your home where your book can be sold, and don’t limit yourself. Bookstores, yes, but also coffee shops and Laundromats and hardware stores and art galleries and anywhere else where somebody can be persuaded to sell a couple signed copies of your work. After all, you are a local author. Many small businesses will go out of their way to promote you, especially if you can come up with a creative way to promote them in return.
A newsletter. Yes, a newsletter all your own. While you are going around talking to groups, doing readings, spreading yourself around, get some names and e-mail addresses written down. After all, if somebody likes your work once, it is quite likely that they will love it a second time. When you get new work out there send them all a letter to let them know where they can find it.
Author signings. Sort of goes along with doing readings and stuff, but in this case you are reading nothing at all. You are sitting at a table and signing your name to books that people buy. For the most part very few books are sold this way. The feedback I have heard runs from three to ten books. For the author signings tend to be long and boring and without great personal reward. Why?
Well, let’s be honest. For the most part the signings I have seen is a person sitting at a table, often a bit out of the way, a short stack of books at their side, wearing a bored expression. On top of that, I have been told that many people have a tendency to be intimidated by authors. Last time I looked I wasn’t very intimidating, but there you are. Facts are facts. It is time to strategize. You need to attack your book signings like you are at war...a happy war maybe...but at war. Bring fun things to do that will attract attention, something to draw kids to your table, something the adults can interact with. Maybe dress up as a character in your book. Read sections from your book to draw their attention. In my case, I plan on bringing my laptop to signings because I will have recorded episodes of my book on it with background music and FX added. People can hear a chapter or two, and they can also play with recording their own regular voices and then their mixer changed voices. From my experience, many children love seeing what they can do. Interact, be friendly, and don’t talk to them only about your book. Be a real three dimensional person.
Give your book away for free. What? Give it away? Yep. Run off to the main branch of your library and give them a few copies. Those books will be entered into their main database. When the other library branches are looking for books to buy yours just might come up.
8. Catalog sales. There are a number of catalogs out there that sell to your targeted audience. Look them up, contact them, and see if they are open to adding your book into the mix. You might have to accept that you will make much less money per book, but lets face it, making a buck on a few hundred books makes more money that five bucks on six books.
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Last update 1/16/09
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