Not sure what I'm doing.

[Jessica]

To be completely honest I wasn't sure where to put this topic. So here I am, a baby author. Learning as I go. Writing was the easy part. Now comes the hard parts, I guess. I finished my book a year ago and kept putting the whole publishing thing off. I got hurt, stuck on the couch and thought now is the time. Its only now that I made that faithful leap with my eyes closed that I realized I should have done a lot more research. That being said I am completely and utterly open to advice, dos and don'ts, the what the heck were you thinking. I don't know how to blog, don't have a lot of money to promote... How do you do it? Please, please, pretty please those of you with the knowledge please share. I want to be able to make my dream a reality.

[Christina]

Hi Jessica. If you look in the author help folder there are a few others who have asked this same question. Unfortunately, everyone's experience is different. After all, if there was one 'simple trick' like the internet wants us to think, we would all be rich. :)
Start there and also in the author resources folder. Riley has posted a nice consolidated list as well.

[Jessica]

Christina you're awesome thank you. I completely over looked that folder. I don't even know how I did either.

[Charles]

Keep writing! That is the most important thing. Tether your expectations. Most indie authors don't see success until their 4th or 5th book in fiction. Don't give up! Nothing worth doing is easy, and being an author is no exception. :D

Maybe you'll set the world on fire with your first book, but if you don't, that doesn't mean you failed. :D It is a long grinding road for most of us.

[Courtney]

Not an author atm myself but the basic advice is generally you'll need a presence of some sort online - website, blog, what have you - to be accessible and connected with readers.

Also - get reviews. Inquire with blogs who review books like yours, offer free copies to readers in your genre in exchange for an honest reviews - it makes your book visible and envourages others to pick it up.

Seriously, though, even that generic advice is completely moot if you haven't

a) given your book to beta-reads who tell you what you need to hear - not want.

b) Take that advice very seriously - this is the reactions you'll get from other readers of your book.

3) As professional an editor as you can afford. Make a good impression to avoid having to pull your book later over harsh reviews because of too many typos and such.

d) A professional looking book cover. Readers do judge a book by its cover. While some may take a chance on a book with a poor one nobody ever passed on a book because the cover was too pretty :)

[Courtney]

Dude...I must be tired if "3" is coming between "b" and "d" now lol

[J.N.]

Persist.

There was a quote in a movie... I think it was "Point of No Return", with Bridget Fonda... The teacher told her, "Smile, and tell yourself, 'I never did mind the little things'".

[Jessica]

Thank you for the advice. Better than some of the other things I have been told. I've never blogged before so I am trying to black mail my kid sister into helping there. (I know horrible). But seriously thanks.

[Jim]

In agreement with the advice already given here. I'll just add this: There's no need to spend a lot of money on promotion. In fact, you really don't have to spend any at all. As for a blog, it's easy to set up. As for content, just keep it real, genuine. And yes, keep writing, keep putting quality work out for the world to enjoy. If you're good (and I'm guessing you are), people will take notice. It might not happen as soon as you want it to, but it WILL happen.

Best of luck to you, Jessica!
Jim
Luigi's Chinese Delicatessen

[Owen]

Also, take some time to study your genre to set your expectations. Learn how community-oriented your potential readers are, how they like to communicate and where they hang out. Marketing is a total waste if you don't understand the people you are marketing to.

And don't be surprised to learn that marketing is basically a waste until you are farther along. As has been mentioned elsewhere, most authors gain little if any traction until they get 3-4 or more books out there -- and those do early on can be a flash in the pan.

Finally, search this group. Tons of great info here, covering just about everything. Note where it does not agree -- that reflects our complex reality. The devil is in the details.

[Jenycka]

Owen wrote: " The devil is in the details. "

My granny used to tell me the devil is in smutty romance novels.

Right now, Jessica, just focus on getting a bit of a social media presence going. It can't hurt, and it could help. And as fans come aboard, they will appreciate it.

[Owen]

Jenycka wrote: "Owen wrote: " The devil is in the details. "

My granny used to tell me the devil is in smutty romance novels.

Right now, Jessica, just focus on getting a bit of a social media presence going. It ..."

Yes... I'd say in the details in those smutty romance novels. ;-)

Back to your regularly scheduled threading...

[[deleted user]]

Hi Jessica.

Marketing sucks. No way round it. There are as many opinions as options. I'm led to believe blogging for fiction writers is less important than just having a web 'hub' to promote your stuff. Dunno if this is true. Wordpress is easy to use. I'm led to believe a mailing list is essential. Don't know if this is true. I'm led to believe you have to be on Twitter and so on. Dunno if anyone has actual stats on book sales achieved via any particular social media platform. I haven't found them anyway.

Basically book marketing feels to me like (I imagine) wearing a very short skirt and standing under a street light on as many streets as I can find. It's not how I want to spend my time and I don't have the legs for it, figuratively speaking (well, literally too).

Good luck.

[Jessica]

Thank you guys. You guys are awesome!

[Ken]

Hi Jessica,
I know what it feels like. I have a book coming out in July and although I have done a lot of work and research, I feel like I'm drowning a lot of the time. I keep finding a life-saver and keep going and you will too. All I can say to you is don't feel like you have to do everything at once. You don't. I will echo what many above have said: "It's about the writing."

Unfortunately, it's also about the marketing. If you take an approach of trying to make it fun, connecting with others, and being helpful, it becomes easier.

One step at a time. Be proud of yourself when you do it and just keep going. It's what we all do. You'll learn something new everyday and it becomes part of the journey.

If there's something you get stuck on and if I can help you with it, I'll be glad to. If I can't, maybe we can find the answer together.

Take care and stay in touch.

[Owen]

Paddy wrote: "There are as many opinions as options. I'm led to believe blogging for fiction writers is less important than just having a web 'hub' to promote your..."

That's pretty much the reality. There are as many opinions as options in large part because there are as many outcomes as options. Especially in the indie market, very few useful general statements can be made, and if one could find the stats, it real trick is determining how they relate to a particular situation. That is (in general) not easy.

What I think it comes down to is not marketing per se, but your approach the concept of marketing itself. You can do trial and error, you can take an analytic approach, you can seek and follow advice based on your own notions of what is credible, you can hire out, or you can punt and refuse to deal with it. Some of these can be combined to a degree.

How a person approaches the problem depends on what they are comfortable with. Any of them offer some chance of success. Some are riskier than others (hiring out). For what it's worth, the most important thing is to make peace your approach to the subject, which maybe evolve over time.

Otherwise, what I think people mostly buy with their efforts is needless stress.

[Jenycka]

I've found that blogging seems to help my overall sales. But I am doing a series set in a fantasy universe so it makes sense that readers would tune in to learn more about the universe.

[Owen]

Jenycka wrote: "I've found that blogging seems to help my overall sales. But I am doing a series set in a fantasy universe so it makes sense that readers would tune in to learn more about the universe."

I suspect a significant portion also want to know more about your characters, in terms of what they look like (etc), and other such details your blog provides.

(With us, we can't figure out what they want out of a blog -- the small amount of feedback we get is that they essentially want nothing.)

[Riley, Viking Extraordinaire]

Owen wrote: "Jenycka wrote: "I've found that blogging seems to help my overall sales. But I am doing a series set in a fantasy universe so it makes sense that readers would tune in to learn more about the unive..."

That's why I give them what they want! Some of my most popular posts on my blog are the ones where I went through my spam folder to point and laugh at the spambots for their stupidity.

[[deleted user]]

I don't get any spambots. Wondering what I'm doing wrong.

[Riley, Viking Extraordinaire]

Ken wrote: "I don't get any spambots. Wondering what I'm doing wrong."

I post something close to everyday, and I tend to cover wide ranging subjects. I mean, it's a personal blog, a support blog, a review blog, and an advertisement all in one. As well as doing all that, I make sure I have it properly set up to be found at search engines, and connect it to all my social media accounts.
But I find the more often you post, the more spambots you have. Trust me though, you don't want the spambots. I have to go in and clear out several hundred messages a day from my spam filter, and I also look through it to make sure no actual people get caught in it.

[Jessica]

Ok so this might be a stupid question...What's a spam bot?

[Owen]

Jessica wrote: "Ok so this might be a stupid question...What's a spam bot?"

A script that leave spam comments on websites.

[Hayden]

When you see a spambot post it'll say something like "Great post. Click here for a bigger....whatever anatomical region you don't need increased."

Also, when it comes time to search for book reviewers, READ their submital guidlines. I can't tell you how important that is.

[[deleted user]]

Owen wrote: "Jessica wrote: "Ok so this might be a stupid question...What's a spam bot?"

A script that leave spam comments on websites."

That may be why I don't get spam on my website. All comments have to be approved before I let them post.

[Riley, Viking Extraordinaire]

Oh, I have to approve them, but I like to check my spam filters because I've caught more than one comment in it, and I never approve their comment with their name associated. Still, some of my most popular posts are just copy pasting the drivel these machines of spamming write into the blog.