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Name your most successful marketing technique
Michelle wrote: "Something I've found useful for promotion is using www.twuffer.com to schedule 24/7 tweets to let my friends on twitter know what books I have."Michelle, you are a Godsend! I knew there had to be a way to schedule tweets. Thank you for sharing!
Tori
Serial Games
I write a book blog, and I also write a blog about book promoting and writing, I tweet, I answer tweets that ask for book recommendations, I use a facebook page, in the past I have done book signings, (one good thing about those is that usually you can get a newspaper to review your book in coordination with the signing event) I have done book promoting events. It's hard to say which of these is the most effective. I guess the book events, but that was for my chess book, and we did simultaneous chess exhibitions, so I can't think of a corollary to my ebook fiction. My young adult fiction was in paperback and that was easier to do signings for. Plus it had certain themes that worked well with farmers markets, homeschooling, fairs, even potentially for environmental groups, although I did not use many of these resources. The Dark Lake, my new ebook, doesn't lend itself to any event that I can think of, other than perhaps a reading, which I have never done. Thanks for this topic, so very helpful!
Hi, the link didn't work for me either. Have you had a look at the 'Author's reading Author's' group?You can find it at http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/8523...
James
I've been using the larger "rack cards" (4x8.5") as bookmarks and they are SO much more effective...check out VistaPrint prices...colors and quality are super! Liam McCurry at thrillerpublications.com
In October of last year Patrick wrote about the benefits of Goodreads authors getting regular readers to review their books. I'd always thought "To sell, you need to be reviewed by professional reviewers." So the post has educated me. I'm wondering what the benefits or drawbacks are of authors reviewing and ranking their own book on Goodreads. How is this viewed?
Some of the lists on Goodreads, you have to vote your own book on. Like stories about love triangles, etc. I guess you will have to hunt around for that cuz it is too late for me to look.
Book Reviews: Has anyone used his/her Goodreads blog to ask friends and fans for reviews of their books, since blog posts are automatically sent to friends and fans? If so, was that a successful approach? Were free copies given as part of the review process? (My first book has just been published, and I'd like to have more reviews).
To date, my most successful move was joining KDP Select and offering my book for free for five days. I did so starting on Christmas this past year because I knew many would recive Kindles and start by downloading free books. For a time, my novel, Proximity: A Novel of the Navy's Elite Bomb Squad was ranked #2, right after War and Peace in the Kindle Free/ War genre. There were almost 3,000 downloads of my book. Many decided to purchase the eBook version of "Proximity" as a result. It became my best eBook month ever.
My publisher doesn't offer Kindle. My books are available as Ebooks on Barnes&Noble, and anywhere else that has e-books for sale. Could you let me know of a good publisher who does Kindles?Joyce Shaughnessy
blessedarethemerciful.net
Here is the most guarded secret in the publishing world! If you have your book in .epub form, it can easily be converted by you to a .mobi form.One way is simply to download the Kindle Previewer (from Amazon) for free. In the Previewer, select your .epub file for viewing. It is automatically converted to .mobi, given a file name with date, and saved on your computer.
Try it. It works.
Joyce wrote: "Could you let me know of a good publisher who does Kindles?"Calibre is a free software that will convert your EPUB file to MOBI (which is what Kindle uses). If you need to do any editing before you convert it to MOBI, Sigil is a great free editing program for EPUB files. It's actually very easy.
Stephen wrote: "To date, my most successful move was joining KDP Select and offering my book for free for five days. I did so starting on Christmas this past year because I knew many would recive Kindles and start..."Just to make sure I understand: If it is part of Kindle (KDP) Select, a book is free for a certain amount of time: Is this what you're referring to, ie, making your books available in that program, or did you go a step beyond that? I am new to all this and trying to keep it all straight.
Elle, When you enroll in KDP Select you are given the option to offer your eBook for free for five days as a promotion. You control when the period starts. I decided to try it, with the theory that if my eBook gets into the hands of some for free, it may create a buzz. In my case, it worked. After the five day period ended, I experienced the highest volume of sales for about a month before it returned to a normal rate.
That's very helpful, both knowing about the program, that it's adjustable, and that it works. Thanks!
Jaq, I did not break my offering into different events, but you approach is sound. I would tie it to an event, like a holiday or event that relates to your book if possible.
Please keep in mind these are my oppinions and experiences before continuing.I have seen several writers (not just here) saying I havn't sold a copy of my book in weeks...HELP...and I understand completely. I have only been published a few months myself but thus far I find the more effort I put in, the bigger the reward. Keep in mind self promotion is a FULL TIME JOB. That aspect is painful but true. Here is what has worked for me with results.
Freebie giveaway (KDP ebook) got me immediate notice, along with modest but CONSTANT sales...
Promoting from time to time on Facebook (kindle, kindlefire, authors on the cheap, ereader news, and such pages) small temporary increase in sales..
Paid social media mania event (23 hour through WLC) and my sales dropped steadily for 4 days...had me very frightened..not sure if the two were related, but that was the FIRST drop I had ever seen.
Twitter, I find the more followers I gather, the more books I sell, period. I promote my own books about once per hour, but also ReTweet other authors' promotions, their blogs ect, and they return the favor. I try to gain 100 followers per day.
Keep in mind my books ARE NOT in print as all indications show that printed books are selling less and less, and book stores are closing left and right, as well as publishers and presses selling out due to profit losses. Ebooks give me the flexibility I need, as well as the ability to know that quite obviously my readers are tech savy and can be found online. Hope this helps someone, feel free to ask questions, send me a message, or smack the back of my head and call me probie!
Jeremy wrote: "Please keep in mind these are my oppinions and experiences before continuing.I have seen several writers (not just here) saying I havn't sold a copy of my book in weeks...HELP...and I understand ..."
Jeremy also wrote: "I promote my own books about once per hour, but also ReTweet other authors' promotions, their blogs ect, and they return the favor. I try to gain 100 followers per day."
Could you give an example of what you Tweet about your books? I worry that I might annoy my small band of followers (about 27 b/c I'm feeling my way with Twitter and unsure about how frequently to use it).
Thanks for any examples/advice you can give!
I'll Give you a few examples directly from my feed...hang on let me fetch them....Example One
"It really keeps you guessing and turning pages." The Choosing is Only 4.99 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007B1WH02 #kindle #BuyIndie RT
Example Two
I was interviewed by @TheWkndWriter. Included SNEAK PEEK of the cover for my next book.Take a look/follow the blog http://theweekendwriter.wordpress.com... RT
Example Three
UK Know where #vampires & #werewolves really came from? Find out starting here http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007B1WH02 #kindle #WLCAuthor RT
Example Four
"the characters were so alive they could have walked off the pages." The Choosing http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007B1WH02 5 star Fantasy
The most important thing you can do with twitter, is gather more followers (this has to be a constant effort on your part, they will not likely just come in droves to your twitter feed) and reciprocate support for other authors. I generally follow at least 100 new people per day, and about 60% or so follow back. Also I try and RT other writers promotional tweets just as often or more than I tweet myself.
Jeremy wrote: "I'll Give you a few examples directly from my feed...hang on let me fetch them....Example One
"It really keeps you guessing and turning pages." The Choosing is Only 4.99 http://www.amazon.com/dp..."
Jeremy, you are generous to share the above, and I am glad to have the information, both the part about how to acquire Twitter followers (I would never ever have figured that one out) and your approach to drawing attention to your books using short quotes to spark interest. I read the blog interview about you and your work and enjoyed it very much. I'm signed up for it and will ask if he'll interview me.
You probably already know about this but if you go to http://tinyurl.com and plug in the long url address info for Twitter messages, tinyurl will spit out a much reduced url (I use it now and it works, like reduces 86 char to 26 or fewer, and, best part, it's free). Thanks again!
Elle,I am glad the little tricks I have learned in my short time as a published author are of some use to you. I have played with tinyurl a bit, though I do feel it important to let my followers see that they will be clicking through to Amazon, a site that is safe for them and free of viruses ect. Anything I can do to make them more comfortable with the click, means more sales in the long run...at least that is my approach :) If there is anything else I can do to help just let me know, I will do what I can and answer any questions I am able. Good luck grabbing those followers Elle!
Jeremy, I never would have thought about the need to reassure followers about viruses! That's very good info.Thanks again for educating me, and I'm sure as I move forward through alien territory (marketing) I will call on you again. Semper Fi!
Elle
Hi Jeremy, You obviously watch NCIS?
Good tips, I might need to look again at using twitter. My first taste of it left a bad impression.
Regards Davidrory.
Good tips, I might need to look again at using twitter. My first taste of it left a bad impression.
Regards Davidrory.
David,Yeah I am an NCIS fan, and Twitter took me a little bit to figure out, but it does work well if used properly. I hope you can have a similar experience as well!
What a great thread this is! I've already learned a lot and I thought I had a pretty good handle on what I needed to do! I've done several inexpensive online book tours. They've helped me get more followers and provided reviews that help me on Amazon and other places. True, not every review makes me happy, but that's the nature of the beast. If you haven't tried this avenue, look into it and see if it's right for you.
Can anyone tell me how (if possible) one goes about setting up a poll/survey on Goodreads? Is this possible for an author that is not the owner of a Goodreads group?Thanks,
Jon Michaelsen
www.jonmichaelsen.net
Thank you, Patrick!Our most successful marketing technique was to avoid amazon.com's 30% fee. I am not against amazon.com, I am against giving 30% of royalties to computer programmers who do not publish. This automatically supplied us with more revenue to invest in advertising on other media.
Where we see author's taken advantage of most, where this is most prevalent is programming and website integration to paypal.
This is key for new, indie, or for authors wanting more royalties, or better publishing contracts. They key is to have search engines find our book. This is not magic.
See how we did it... by keeping profits and high exposure through social media, integrated websites that all linked to paypal.
That is what amazon.com did years ago. Moore's law states that within 18 months to 4 years new technology increases by double where prices decrease by half. It's a law. Thus, amazon.com's time has run it's course.
While big name authors can merely release a book and have guaranteed sales, newbies have to market, so that's what we did by using existing technology (i.e search engines) to eliminate the middleman.
Again, I am not against amazon.com, I am against giving 30% of royalties to programmers who do not publish. I do not want to offend anyone using amazon.com. However, cost benefit analysis dictates there is a better, more rewarding way for authors to profit on each sale.
http://www.sonofadam.org was created by a small internet firm, datacuda.com, that linked the social media sites, author webpages, ebook download sites, and paypal account to the author and not amazon.com.
That may sound high tech, but the key is the internet search engine. Computers don't care what site they lead customers to - they merely search for the title of the book.
I'm new so forgive me if this has probably been mentioned a hundred times, but I was thinking about using Kindle Nation Daily to market my new book. Has anyone had much success with it? They certainly have the potential to reach a lot of people.
Great stuff here - thanks for sharing all. Today, no matter how you are published - you are your own best marketer.
Let's not forget the importance of blurbs, whether you are published or self-published. It can be hard to get bestselling writers to agree to blurb--they're besieged by such requests--but I recently found a great source of blurbs from truly famous writers. Secret revealed here. http://barbararogan.com/blog/?p=163
What?? Wildly shakes head. Pretending dead people gave you blurbs???
Are you serious, Clark?
Carla, blurbs from dead people doesn't really surprise me considering what has been happening in the world of ebook promotion lately. Authors begging other authors for reviews, authors swapping reviews with authors, authors using multiple ID's to post raving reviews of their own work, and on and on and on in a desperate attempt to sell a book. It's getting to the point that reviews are becoming useless because they are unbelievable.
I think that people are more likely to feel a connection to an author they have met at a personal appearance. There are always groups meeting that will welcome a free speaker. I think that the writer who is or can become an engaging public speaker can sell in printed copies and builds wider audience for eBooks as well by the buzz from the people who saw the presentation.Everyone wants to feel special and a signed book is a keepsake for many people. I think they are more likely to link to an author's site or blog and to follow them on social media like Twitter too. I know that it has worked on me as a reader. I plan to use speaking engagements to promote my book that should be ready in early 2013 in print and electronic. However it will be more entertainment and selling myself as the product than simply pitching my book as most people get turned off when a speaker does only a long commercial.
Carla wrote: "What?? Wildly shakes head. Pretending dead people gave you blurbs???
Are you serious, Clark?"
Clark? I'm Barbara. And no, I'm not actually pretending dead writers gave me blurbs. I wondered when I posted that satirical piece if anyone would actually take it seriously. Guess I have my answer!
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a call coming in from my dear friend Charlotte Bronte...
Whew - sorry Barbara. I hear so many whacky things form new-agers, I can't always tell when someone is kidding.Clark, :) think Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation.
Carla, true: there are many scams out there targeting self-published writers, starting with all the paid review sites. (Shame on you, Kirkus!) I'll bet that if I set up a website offering to provide blurbs from dead writers, I'd get some takers.
Haha - you should totally do it, Barbara.
Ted wrote: "Carla, blurbs from dead people doesn't really surprise me considering what has been happening in the world of ebook promotion lately. Authors begging other authors for reviews, authors swapping rev..."Ted I so agree!! My head is spinning trying to enter this world. When all I really want to do is write my next book!
Guess where I am right now? I'm locked in a Marriott(using hubby's free nights) for 48 straight hours of writing - I was up till 4 AM writing, scribbling crazy notes on my huge dry erase boards (I have two and a pile of markers,) and I admit talking to myself and pacing. BUT I love it.
I went to bed at 4 am last night. Slept three hours, grabbed a free breakfast, and I'm locked in again. Except for this break checking my emails - I have been strictly writing my second novel BACK TO THE GLEN.
Now this is what a writer's world is supposed to be - not chasing reviews and blog followers like a panting dog.
I did very well with a goodreads giveaway for my guide to names in the Hunger Games, Katniss the Cattail, right on movie release weekend. I tweeted fun facts from the book all weekend so I'd be noticed, and did movie reviews and a blog tour too. Doing everything at once, with a particular website to send people goes great. I got hundreds of likes on Amazon, and it's still selling well. I have too many tips to count...but they're all in a free ebook. Free Guide to Self-Publishing and Book Promotion: Inside Secrets from an Author Whose Self-Published Books Sold in Thousands https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
Carla wrote: "Ted wrote: "Carla, blurbs from dead people doesn't really surprise me considering what has been happening in the world of ebook promotion lately. Authors begging other authors for reviews, authors ..."I envy you,Carla. I did that once and finished a book in three days! Would love to do it again.
I agree that you need to go where your audience is, but you can also do it online. Try to figure out what online communities that your typical reader might hang out in, contribute to that community - and then you may be able to drop a link or sign line within the guidelines of that community.
Good points, all.
It depends upon the size of the event, the booth cost, travel expens..."
It depends upon the size of the event, the booth cost, travel expens..."
With all of the online/ social network resources for authors to publicize their works, which ones are the key ones to focus on. The overwhelming recommendations for authors to promote have included:* building a website for the book
* writing blogs consistently
* building a facebook fan page for the book
* building a facebook fan page for the author
* using twitter to build up a fanbase
* become active and interactive in goodreads
* (heard this from a friend) create a pinterest page and post up relevant pictures to the book to develop followers
While all of these ideas are all good and can generate solid followers, it is too much to keep track of realistically without making promotion of the book a full time job.
So my (long winded) question for all. If you only had time to invest into 1 channel of marketing actively, from the ones listed above or even not listed, which one would it be? why?
Thanks for your advice.
An excellent question from Wen-szu.The answer (in part) depends on your audience. If you're not sure where your audience hangs out, then try each of your ideas in a logical sequence. By that I mean you may want to hold fire on the website until you've tried facebook. The reason being that facebook is easier to access.
Also, it depends on your personality. Some people don't like blogging but love chatting; so again a website or blog may not be the optimal starting point.
Ultimately you will discover the blend of all those options that work best. In the meantime, devote a bit of time to each and see how you get on.
Thanks P.S. for the response. This is one issue that I will be pondering. Another random question. Do you know of any advantages of having an author's fan page versus a book fan page on Facebook? I heard that if we have a book fan page, it will appear automatically as a link when other people type in the book title. That is a huge plus but not sure if we can add that functionality to the author's page...
Best,
Wen-Szu
Patrick wrote: "Since the word of the last few posts seems to be "pain," I'm wondering if there's something Goodreads can do to help ease that pain. I've asked this before in other threads, but what else can we ..."
J.E. wrote: "Joanne wrote: "It seems to me that the serious writer and the good promoter are seldom found in the same skin. As a writer I want to focus on writing and find the very idea that I also have to prom..."
Hi Patrick,
If writers are going to use the advertising campaign, it would be nice to have some examples of what works. I'm thinking of the lists of best-selling books at Amazon. If there could be lists of ads that produce the most clicks and the most adds, authors could look at the ones for their genres and maybe get some ideas about what works and what doesn't. Right now, it's very hit or miss for someone who doesn't have any background in writing advertising copy (like me).
I'm sure it's like writing in general in that there are rules about writing advertising copy but there are probably examples of people breaking the rules and succeeding anyway. Still, as in writing, the people who break the rules and succeed are probably people who know the rules and are aware that they are breaking them. The ones who stumble along knowing nothing rarely succeed.
In the same vein, how soon should one change the ad if it isn't producing clicks? I'm doing an ad campaign now and asked a question. The answer was that I'm doing fine but I should add more genres. My book is a spy thriller. The genres I'm targeting are mystery, thriller, and suspense. I don't see anything else that fits so how could I add genres?
Thank you,
Richard Ferguson
While all of these ideas are all good and can generate solid followers, it is too much to keep track of realistically without making promotion of the book a full time job.Marketing is turning into a full-time job, particularly for those of us who are recently published and pretty-much unknown, and likely to continue so as low barriers to entry encourage more and more writers to enter the ebook marketplace.
One thing to keep in mind, a concept called 'Pareto's Principle', aka the '80/20 rule'. Simply stated, 80% of all benefits will result from only 20% of any activities.
The trick, of course, is figuring out what activities constitute the 20%. :)
Walter wrote: "While all of these ideas are all good and can generate solid followers, it is too much to keep track of realistically without making promotion of the book a full time job.Marketing is turning int..."
I agree - I come from a marketing background and I'm over it - feels like I left my job to do it all again in another field with no pay!
I have stopped myself doing too much, am focusing on one combined campaign now and giving myself a point where I can stop...
Kathy and all---and that's the situation for someone WITH marketing experience, so we can all imagine (or already know) how dire it is for complete tyros. The hard truth, IMO, is that very few of these methods if any are going to produce results. Think of yourselves as a book buyer: do you ever buy a book because an ad for it flashes on your FB page or some other screen? If you're anything like me, you don't even see that ad; you block it out or ignore it. How about blogging? Have you ever bought a book you wouldn't normally have purchased because the author blogged about it? I posed that question in this forum a while ago, and the overwhelming response was no, though some people pointed out that they'd bought books when bloggers other than the author wrote about them. Ditto tweeting.
The brave new world of e-publishing has opened the door to self-publishing, and that is a good thing---it gives writers options they never had before. But with this opening come a lot of unrealistic expectations. Yes, a few self-published writers make some major lists. But the vast majority of self-published novelists sell copies to their family and close friends and that's about it. I have a former student who self-published a novel. She's spent most of the last six months trying everything to promote it--giveaways, contests, blog tours, blog radio interviews, FB invitations to events, networking like crazy, etc. It's been pretty much a full time job---and she won't even discuss her sales except to say they're dismal.
Sometimes I feel that the energy spent trying to sell self-published work is misdirected, and that if writers put the same effort and hours into improving their craft, some of them at least would end up attracting offers from publishers, whose job is marketing.
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My twit..."
I will follow your tweets to learn more about how you do it
Anthea
Larry wrote: "Shawn wrote: "Yes, Larry, that is correct about recognition. It is also about relationships. Monday I'm doing a follow-up post on my blog about interacting at events, the dos and don'ts with fellow..."
Caroline wrote: "Twitter. Hands down the best. I don't tweet buy my book ever. I just read, share, and am myself. Because twitter is flash fiction writers who get it can really have fun and sell your work.
My twit..."
Larry wrote: "Shawn wrote: "Yes, Larry, that is correct about recognition. It is also about relationships. Monday I'm doing a follow-up post on my blog about interacting at events, the dos and don'ts with fellow..."