Some of us were innocent enough to believe that writing was the hardest part… It isn’t. You have to get your work out there. You have to face the Marketing Monster and—this is the tricky par—you have to win. I thought today I would share my marketing roadtrip, insights and tips. Perhaps you can learn from what I share (or even better, have some advice to add to the list).
Let’s start by what I believe is
The ultimate marketing boost
Cue my inner Loki Fangirl!
And wouldn’t you rather he be proud?
Unfortunately, Tom Hiddleston doesn’t seem to be very inclined to grab my latest novel and guilt readers into acquiring the book. I thought about suggesting he did a “KNEEL and READ!” scene, but was dissuaded from the idea by the nice men in white coats.
So, is the situation hopeless?No! There are a lot of
other things you can do (and a lot that you shouldn’t)
Here’s what I’ve tried so far:
Attempt 1: The Book Tour
I did this for my debut and it was amazing! I had a lot of fun and people saw a lot of the book, so I like to think I got some new readers. Plus, this was an amazing way of getting reviews—which are the thing to have, I’m told—which are difficult for independent authors to secure. For me, the most important part of the reviews was seeing what readers thought of the story I had worked so hard on.
Verdict: YES
Tips: Research carefully before contracting a book tour. There are a lot of sites offering to organize it, so be sure you get the best fit. You want to have maximum exposure, readers who will be interested in your book in particular and so on. The best idea is to check previous tours and see the response they got: if it worked for a book in your genre/style, then it should work for you too!
Attempt 2: The GoodReads Giveaway
I’ve done this for all my titles so far and plan to keep setting them up in the future. Real engagement is not terrific, but it helps to spread the word about your book and to improve discoverability. After all, if no one knows about your next release, no one will put it in their “to read” shelf.
Verdict: YES
Tips: I think it’s worth it to pay shipment and make it international in order to reach the greater amount of people possible.
Attempt 3: The Book Trailer
Both my Ghostly Rhapsody books have one of these. Both got a number of views, and even some likes, but the jury’s out there about sales or discoverability impact. This is probably one of those things that work better-slash-only if you already have a following. I don’t think I’ll repeat the experience. Or rather: I’ll probably repeat, but it’ll be more for entertainment value than for real marketing.
Verdict: BLEH
Tips: I’ve seen some long trailers. Personally, I think short is best: if you give it a try, do pack a punch in as little time as possible. Let’s be honest: most of us don’t have the budget to feature Tom Hiddleston acting as lead character, so our trailers will be about still images and short sentences. Make those images count. Deliver those words like a Hollywood trailer: do not attempt to explain the plot, but rather to challenge the reader to discover it.
Attempt 4: The Cash Giveaway
This got trendy when I released my book and, what can I say, one of the biggest flaws of my marketing strategy is the “by the seat of your pants” and “impulsive compulsive” combo. So I gave it a shot. It was a huge promo blast across the blog-o-sphere, and boy did it give me numbers. Followers sprouted everywhere! Problem is that they didn’t really care about me or my book (duh!) so those numbers had very little repercussion.
Verdict: NO
Tips: if you really want to give this a shot, get someone big to organize it for you so that you get at least major exposure. Try to do it along with someone else, so that you can split the costs (most people will try to get all the giveaway entries, so there’s no risk of you splitting the results).
Attempt 5: The GoodReads add
This actually got some genuine adds, and I like to believe they translated into interested readers. Problem is that I did it all wrong: I linked to the GR book page, but didn’t add any buy links. The text I use was half-cooked (read above about being impulsive and such). The cover the book had at the time was… not what it should have been. And, if that wasn’t enough, I had the add on at the same time as the giveaway AND the Book Tour, so I can’t genuinely measure sales or platform impact. Still, I’m going to try it again soon—except, you know, with an actual plan behind the campaign.
Verdict: YES
Tips: Even not knowing if this works, I’d try it out. You can select how much you want to spend, put a price-for-click, decide how much you want to spend a day (imagine a long term low profile campaign or an intensive campaign that shows your book everywhere in GR for just two days). There are a ton of options. Do as I did not: think before launching the campaign. If you do, this marketing effort shouldn’t be useless.
Attempt 6: The Cover Reveal
I organized one myself for my second novel with the help of all the bloggers who had been part of my adventures with book one. It went alright, but results were difficult to evaluate. I think it’s another of those things that work better if you have an audience who is willing to get enthusiastic about your next work weeks (months) before it is scheduled to hit the shelves. I honestly don’t know if I will try again for my next book or if I’ll focus on other things first.
Verdict: BLEH
Tip: It’s easier to get bloggers to agree to a cover review than it is to get reviews because there’s less time investment for them. Still, if you’re going to try and do it yourself, you need to prepare with time to spare… but not enough for the bloggers to forget all about you in the meantime! As with Book Tours, if you hire the service be sure to investigate first so you get the perfect match.
Attempt 7: The Free Book Promotion
Loyal to my spirit of “do random things as they pop into your mind”, I enrolled my second novel in KDP, which enabled me to offer up to five free book days every three months. I was having a “moment” the other day and set one such period up: two days, just one day in advance. I didn’t really advertise it. I checked by chance to see how it was going and found the book had made it to two-digits in Amazon’s Bestselling Free Books lists (#2 for YA Fantasy Historical, #14 for YA Fantasy Horror and #32 for YA Fantasy Paranormal). When I saw that, I did send out a message on Twitter and on my FB page… Which is not the best advertisement ever, I admit. I’m going to try it again, with some actual planning, and see what happens.
Verdict: YES
Tip: By offering your book for free, you’re not losing money from your sales. You’re getting a chance to reach potential readers who wouldn’t have spent their money in your book, hook them with your stories and turn them into potential readers who would spend their money in your next book.
That’s all… for now. I have more harebrained plans for the future, and I’ll be sure to share the results with you. Meanwhile—
What have you done for marketing?
Did it work? Do you agree with my verdicts? Was it different for you? Let me know!