S is for Strategy – Self-Publishing from A to Z
So, you may not know this but even published authors need to manage their own book marketing. That’s right, you heard me. Unless you’re Stephen King or the next Pulitzer prize winner, you will have to manage your own book marketing. So why not learn what you can anyway?
How are you going to make your book stand out?
Strategy is like spear fishing with your eyes open. Trying to self-publish without strategy is like trying to spear a fish with your eyes closed. That’s a total random metaphor but I hope you get the drift; you need to see your goal in order to obtain it. And I’m not talking about goals like ‘make a million bucks’ or ‘get my book to the top of the bestseller list’. These are too general. The pond is too big. You need to break down those massive goals into smaller ones, make them specific, make them attainable.
There are a two different strategies I think revolve around self-publishing: The strategy before you hit the publish button, and the one after.
Before you publish
You need to look at things like:
Efficiency of writing – How fast and well can you write quality work?
Appeal of writing – Are you writing something people want to read?
The product design – Are you producing a quality product that catches people’s eyes?
After you publish
Then you have the things to look at after you have your product, so how are you going to sell more books?
Place – Where are you going to sell them?
Price – How much are you going to charge for them?
People – Who are you going to sell them to? Who is your ideal customer?
Promotion – How are you going to get the book in front of your ideal customer?
10 Quick and dirty promotional tips
Write in a niche genre you know has a voracious readership
Write a series
Release your series in short succession, e.g. one month after each other.
Put your first book in the series permanently free.
Advertise on Facebook to your direct customer
Use your email list
Offer something for free at the end of the book to entice them to read more
Do blog tours with competitions to get readers onto your list.
Put your book on review sites
Contact bloggers in your genre, offer them your book for free in return for an honest review.
About the Author
Lana Pecherczyk Facebook TwitterLana Pecherczyk is an author, artist and bookshop marketer from Perth, Western Australia. She's the Webmistress for Romance Writers of Australia (and no, that's not Spiderman's lover), and is a fan of 'pro-caffeinating,'. She infuses her mash-ups of romance, fantasy, adventure and sometimes spooky horror with comedy because everyone loves a bit of fun in their lives, right? She also loves Sailormoon. No judgement.
Lana's latest novels are the Rom-Com Suspense, Robin Lockslay, and the Urban Fantasy, Hunting for Witches.
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