Peter Fang
asked
Alma Katsu:
I'm a recently self-published author (incidentally, I also wrote about witches). I find the biggest challenge is not writing the book, but ways to market my book and get exposure. I'm searching through good agencies and doing online marketing (in Amazon, Barnes Nobles, Google). Do you also have advice in this department? Thanks.
Alma Katsu
Well, that's a tough question to answer for a couple reasons. One, how traditional publishing houses promote books is pretty different from what self-published authors do. Secondly, it seems to be different for every genre, from what I've seen. Self-publishing seems to work better for romance, for instance, than non-fiction.
I've heard there are quite a number of different routes self-published authors can take in terms of promotion. There are groups on Facebook and elsewhere where authors can give and get advice from peers. There are many PR firms that work specifically with self-published authors, but opinions on whether this is a good investment seem to vary widely. Ask for references and check them thoroughly.
Self-publishing has changed quite a bit since the early days, which were like the wild west (from what I could see. My first books were close to paranormal romance, which was huge for self-publishing, so I got to see what authors in my genre were doing). Right now, making sales is pretty hard, traditional or self-published. It's hard to get traction on social media because platforms are geared to push people to pay for exposure. People don't read newsletters.
It also comes down to what your goals are. One person might be happy with small numbers of likes and shares on social media; a traditional publisher might look for different numbers. Same thing with sales.
One thing I will say is that, as an analyst, I see a lot of dubious claims made by self published authors about numbers of sales, etc. It's hard to check anyone's claims--and not that I do this kind of thing regularly, I don't really care what someone wants to say about themselves--but a little back-of-the-envelope math often shows that the claims don't hold up. So take what you hear from other people with a grain of salt, and don't beat yourself up if your numbers don't compare with the claims of others.
I've heard there are quite a number of different routes self-published authors can take in terms of promotion. There are groups on Facebook and elsewhere where authors can give and get advice from peers. There are many PR firms that work specifically with self-published authors, but opinions on whether this is a good investment seem to vary widely. Ask for references and check them thoroughly.
Self-publishing has changed quite a bit since the early days, which were like the wild west (from what I could see. My first books were close to paranormal romance, which was huge for self-publishing, so I got to see what authors in my genre were doing). Right now, making sales is pretty hard, traditional or self-published. It's hard to get traction on social media because platforms are geared to push people to pay for exposure. People don't read newsletters.
It also comes down to what your goals are. One person might be happy with small numbers of likes and shares on social media; a traditional publisher might look for different numbers. Same thing with sales.
One thing I will say is that, as an analyst, I see a lot of dubious claims made by self published authors about numbers of sales, etc. It's hard to check anyone's claims--and not that I do this kind of thing regularly, I don't really care what someone wants to say about themselves--but a little back-of-the-envelope math often shows that the claims don't hold up. So take what you hear from other people with a grain of salt, and don't beat yourself up if your numbers don't compare with the claims of others.
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