Marketing for Insecure Writers

Today we have Jim Bronyaur, author of thrillers The Devil's Weekend and In the Corner  talking about MARKETING. Yes, like it or not, it's that thing we have do as authors. 

But since this is the first Wednesday of the month, the theme is ANXIETY and INSECURE AUTHORS, right? We need tips to make us feel less insecure about the biggest task facing us after we publish our books-- MARKETING and PROMOTION.  

Take it away, Jim.

Marketing. Okay, I’ll wait for everyone to run or yell or boo at me. *checks watch* Okay, we’re back.

Marketing. Online marketing. Social marketing.

These are all essential tools for yourself, your book, and your platform.

The first thing you need to do is understand that your book is a product. And you, as the person selling that product, are indeed a business owner. Your business is to sell your product, your book. This right off the bat is where some people fail. You need to see the big picture of the product and the business and find a plan that works for you.

So, you have your product, your book, and now you want to market it.

Good luck!

Traditional marketing holds its own ground, but not for books and authors. I dare you to tell me without looking what the last four sidebar ads you saw on Facebook were. I bet you can’t. Because we’ve grown accustomed to ads. They are on pages, newspapers, even on the glass of the rink on a NHL hockey game!

So to market your book, you must do so in a way that’s new, different, and effective.

Personally, and as I’ve said before, the best marketing plan is to have another book in the works, ready to sell. The more you have out there is the more you can sell. The law of numbers is actually on our side as authors. Embrace it.

Good marketing means you’re real. You’re human.

This is why Twitter is popular. You have 140 characters to share a message, and no, that doesn’t link up every ten seconds. Please don’t pester everyone with your links, over and over. I personally tell myself I’ll Tweet my book maybe once a day, maybe.

So, without linking your book, how does Twitter help?

Twitter is a giant network.

You can find people to talk to. People who you can network with, share ideas with, and find new avenues of selling books with. You can join in on conversations via hashtags such as #amwriting. For those not familiar with hashtags, these are search items on Twitter. For example, if I put in #amwriting and search it on Twitter, anyone who has tweeted that hashtag will show. This allows me to engage in conversations and find potential new people to follow and new followers.

Another trick with Twitter is to use hashtags around your book, without being pushy.

I may Tweet something like this… “Current review for my #horror #thriller #ebook available on #kindle…”

All those hashtags can help me.

Another place to be is KindleBoards. Here you will find a community of authors with open arms. They share ideas, thoughts, history, and numbers.
Yes, numbers.

On KB, every month people will share their sales for the previous month. They will go into detail, discuss why the books sold may have risen or lowered. And I’m talking some heavy hitters here… people who sell twenty thousand books a month! And they are willing to share their advice and what they’ve done to get to that point.

How does that help you market?

You’re networking. You’re talking to new people, finding new places. That’s what marketing is all about.

I’ve gotten several interviews and guest posts and traffic to my blog and books from KB. Authors will hold contests and events, looking for other authors to help.

A perfect example… coming in October, I have a month long blog tour going on with several other writers I met on KB. We are all promoting each other’s books on different dates, etc.

Now, here’s possibly the best marketing plan out there… don’t market yourself.

I’ll say it again.

Don’t market yourself.

That’s right, don’t market yourself.

What does that mean?

That means just be there.

Be in the moment, in the now of writing and publishing.

Establish a blog that provides something that people want. I struggled with this for years until I finally started one. I decided to use my financial background to help analyze things. One of my firsts posts was the explaination of why Borders closed. The post still gets dozens of hits a week. I went out and tracked down other writers and brought them to my blog to talk about selling books.

I gave people a reason to come to my blog.

And yes, on my blog are links to my books, but the blog is not about my books.
I’m also active on Twitter using the hashtags (like I said above). I talk about books, publishing, and basically give people a sense of who I am, why I write, and the fact that I know what I’m talking about.

That’s my marketing plan.

I want to talk to everyone about books. I want to learn, I want to teach, and I want to enjoy.

Face it, you all know I’m a writer. So instead of trying to shove my totally awesome kick butt horror novels on you, I’m going to share everything I know about publishing. I’m going to be personable, real. I’m going to be someone you trust, and hopefully someone you enjoy to read… so once you’re done with this guest post, and my other posts, you’ll be ready to head over to Amazon and buy my book.
And that is new marketing.

So, remember, if you want to market your book… don’t.

But no seriously, like I said, posting your book on ads doesn’t work. Not anymore. You have to be face of your book, your product. You have to be out there, talking, posting, and being a human.

This is publishing, and it’s a business.

Thank you, Jim, this post was packed full of helpful information. Just like your blog! Anyone who hasn't been there, definitely go check it out. And guess where I met Jim and invited him to be a guest on my blog? Yep, Twitter!

How He Sold one Million ebooks in Five Months

John Locke is a super-salesman/businessman who regardless what he does figures out how to make money and be a success. Everything he touches turns to gold. If he ever writes a real memoir, I'll buy it.

I'm not one of his niche readers, will never buy one of his .99 books or even read a free one. Not because they aren't good, I have no idea if they are or not, but they're just not my kind of read. However, a book that gives guidelines and tips on being more successful especially when it has to do with my own rather unplanned, unorganized, write it and they will come approach to my career definitely has my attention.

And speaking of niche readers, that is a big part of his plan. An author must find their target audience, write to them, email them, love them. I totally agree with this! If only I could find my target audience, I'd do all of these things!

How can anyone not be impressed with Locke's accomplishments as a self-published author? In his book How I Sold 1 Million ebooks in 5 Months, he outlines how he did it. Some of his plan is applicable for about everyone, others are the kind of things a born salesman/successful rich guy will do and that would be really tough for a reserved, anxiety-ridden, overly stressed already woman (like me) to follow suit and have even 1/10 the same results.

Besides, I don't believe that everything works for everyone, but what I do believe in is making plans and setting goals. What Locke's book made me realize is that although I do this kind of planning and goal-setting in nearly every area of my life I have never done it for my own writing career. So he really opened my eyes to that.

As I read his business plan for marketing books, I was inspired to set up a professional author website. I finished it this weekend and am very proud of it!  Anyone who wants to stop by and say hi, I'd appreciate it! Better get in there now before it's crowded with all those one million readers who will rush over just as soon as I publish House of Diamonds.

Hi, I'm @KarenGowen, what's your name?

I started this event at the beginning of summer, with a specific purpose in mind. A kind of goofy idea, using lettuce, but it seemed to work. Actually it's been a blast, I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. That BBQ was something else. It definitely won the popularity prize and attracted the most people. Wow, it's hard to top that. Especially when all that's left is lame Twitter LOL.

Here's where we are so far on the Lettuce Be Writers Event:

 LETTUCE     WRITE  Top Three: Clarissa Draper, Jennie Bailey & Jennifer Soehnlin

 LETTUCE     READ    Congratulations to Jessica Bell for winning Like Bees to Honey.

 LETTUCE     BLOG    Join the Labor Day Weekend BBQ Blog Party

 LETTUCE     QUERY   Congratulations to winner Candace Ganger for the best query out of 30 entries.

 LETTUCE     SHARE   Jemi won Farm Girl & Leah won Uncut Diamonds

 LETTUCE     TWITTER  I'm @KarenGowen, who are you?

 LETTUCE     BUY BOOKS  Congratulations to winner Susan Kaye Quinn: Life, Liberty and Pursuit

 LETTUCE     REVIEW BOOKS  Book Review of Freak Observer by Blythe Woolston

 LETTUCE     HOLD & ENTER CONTESTS  Name the Contest Winner: A.L. Sonrichsen from The Green Bathtub

What to do with Twitter? That's what a lot of us say. I swore I'd never go there, but it's not that bad once you get the hang of it. I use it to:

• say stuff that is too short for a  blog post
• promote my new blog posts
• RT (that means retweet) inspirational tweets I see
• RT a really good post I read
• reply to an interesting or compelling tweet
• follow bloggers I enjoy

What I don't use it for:

• talking about politics, religion or sex
• tell you about that day old donut I just ate 
• wasting time (okay I'm kidding I really do use it to waste time)

Here's the thing. When you're an unknown author with a start up press you better do something. Blogging is fun, I enjoy it. Twitter I do mainly to drive people to my blog. And it works. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have as many followers as I do if it weren't for Twitter. Just another way to network People. It's not as fun as blogging or Goodreads, but hey it's what I do here on the internet. If it's social media, I'll explore it. It might be lame but it's still better than say-- actually leaving the house.

So there, Twitter is done, contest is over. Now. What was the point again? I'll get into that next time, this post is already too long. 

But here's a hint-- it has to do with authors supporting authors-- and how to harness this huge power to help us all SELL MORE BOOKS. Next post I'll talk more about it and that's a promise. So come back on Friday and find out more of what all of THIS ---
is actually leading up to. See you Friday tweeps, peeps and blogger buddies! And bring your friends, bring every published author you know who has a book to sell. Print or ebook, either one. Because this is a REVOLUTION-- authors supporting authors and rocking the entire publishing/bookselling industry. Peace Out (sorry I couldn't help myself)

Maybe Twitter's not so bad after all

I'm having one of those jealous weekends. You know the kind? Where everyone else seems to be doing their stuff so much better than you?

Ever since I got published, I've observed other writers to see how they market and promote themselves and their books. Knowing this is a weakness of mine, I wanted to learn from example. And I've learned a LOT but realize I'm still not very good at that part of being an author. So in a moment of  frustration I wrote this on twitter:  

Following other authors on blogs, facebook & twitter makes me realize that I am CRAP at marketing.

A few hours later when I went back to Twitter, I saw 5 or 6 responses-- other writers in sympathy, knowing how hard it is and just giving the sympathetic nod in my direction. Gosh, that made my day. It didn't sell any books but it sure made me feel better.

Saving Time with Twitter or I'll Follow you and You Follow Me

Before I started my twitter account, I believed this: "Like Facebook only a faster way to waste time." I'm still not sure I get it although I'm learning how to waste time connect with twitter.

Today I went through my dashboard to visit blogs I hadn't been to for awhile. I was procrastinating wanting to stay connected. Quite a few had twitter buttons. Aha! I follow & can now learn about their new posts through twitter instead of having to scroll through my dashboard. So yes, a faster way to waste time stay connected.

There's a lot I don't get about twitter. Like those who follow 10,000 people and somehow find my new account and start following me? He didn't look like a spammer. But, why? What's the benefit of following 10,000 people on twitter? So they'll follow you?

All this I'll follow you, you follow me, I'll friend you & you friend me, whether it's on twitter, Facebook or blogs has got me wondering: Are followers the new currency? *and btw I really really want to get to 275 here on my blog pleasepleaseplease*

Forget dollars, Euros or pounds. The new measure of success is our follower count. I'm waiting to hear this: "I want to be a millionaire hit a million followers by the time I'm thirty." (Correction: I won't hear it. I'll read it because it'll be a tweet.)