How to Think Like a Swiss Army Knife

Indie authors need to wear so many hats today. As more and more “writers” enter the rush to find gold, the intensity to publish their own work and be successful salespeople increases daily. Everytime, I learn a new skill to promote my books (a good thing!), I can’t help but feel like a swiss army knife.

First there’s the writing and editing. No small task, and the reason we’re all doing this is in the first place! If we weren’t driven by an urge to write and share…the rest wouldn’t follow.

Then there are the IT skills needed to navigate Amazon, KDP, CreateSpace, and Smashwords (distribution to all major online retailers EXCEPT Amazon). It’s not easy. And if you’re unfamiliar with the IT world, and too broke to hire someone who has the skills (as most of us are), it can be daunting! I use Google to try and find answers to my

problems on forums from users who have had the same problem. Whenever I get to a point where I’m stumped and frustrated, I stop where I am and start again the next

day.

Then the marketing…don’t even get me started. Marketing can eat up hours every day, but the good news is that it CAN be done. Here are the resources I used and links

to “how to” articles that include instructions (step-by-step).

Book Trailer

I’m finding more and more that potential readers respond much more readily to pictures instead of words. So I tried my hand at creating a book trailer. I used Windows

Movie Maker (WMM). It’s free and I’m a PC user so the choice was a no-brainer for me. I found it easy to use. It did have some limitations, but for a free program, I can’t complain.

Here’s a link to a free WMM tutorial that I found helpful: http://www.atomiclearning.com/moviemaker2

I opted to buy a song on iTunes for $1.29 to accompany my video images. I loaded my finished video onto YouTube. All looked good from my laptop, but when I tried to

view it from my smart phone, YouTube wouldn’t let me play it. I figured out that it was because I used a copyrighted sound track. So I uploaded and tested the same

video onto Vimeo and I could indeed play it on my smart phone. So there it sits. I had a blast making it (yes I’m a dork.)

Here’s my book trailer video: https://vimeo.com/82410975

Local Media

I started out thinking that I would only gain a following for my writing by getting visibility in major publications like The New York Times or the Los Angeles Times. Then I came back down to earth and realized that local small-town newspapers are a whole lot easier to ask for and get a book review. So I sent an email request to the town newspaper where I raised my son (and my Labrador) in the San Francisco Bay Area. They said yes right away. I was thrilled.

Here’s the article: http://tinyurl.com/k4lhmxw

I’m still collecting data on how much visibility I gained from the article. Regardless, it made me feel much less tiny.

Online Book Promotion

I’ve gotten the best results (the most book purchases) by using online promotions to readers who are looking for cheap reads. This is the only part of my marketing plan that costs money, but so far, it has produced the best results. Here’s a list of the major players as of today:

BookBub: http://www.bookbub.com/advertise (BookBub is the priciest, and hardest to reserve the day you want for your promotion, but it also has the widest reach)
Book Gorilla: http://www.bookgorilla.com/advertise
Kindle Nation Daily (currently offering a “slide over” promotion with Book Gorilla: they’ll advertise on Book Gorilla for free if you buy one of their packages…probably owned by the same people): http://indie.kindlenationdaily.com/?page_id=642
eReader News Cafe: http://www.theereadercafe.com/p/kb-promos.html
Author Marketing Club: http://authormarketingclub.com/members/advertise/

I continue to post on Facebook (both personal and business pages) and Twitter and hope for the best, but I haven’t really seen any solid evidence that my posts translate to book sales. I purchased a Facebook “promotion” which did absolutely nothing.

There’s more…editing, cover design, how to target appropriate content markets and days of the week to maximize income…but that’s enough for today.

disclaimer: the information I’m offering here is based on my personal experience. I’m not claiming that it’s applicable to everyone.