Author’s Marketing Continued

This is the second year I’ve attended the Author’s Marketing Event. Last year, it was in Austin. This year, I made a weekend trip out of it and traveled to Houston. The information I received from these conferences are always insightful, and they help me realize that I’m not alone in the book marketing struggle.

By listening to marketing experts, I’ve discovered three things. One, some things regarding marketing I am very good at. Others, I desperately need to work on. Two, effective marketing requires time and effort. It isn’t something that happens idly. Three, marketing isn’t about selling your book. It’s about selling yourself, which for someone like me who is an introvert and uncomfortable with self-promotion, this is more of a challenge than people may realize.

Marketing is probably the hardest thing to do as an author. It entails much more than just selling your book. In fact, pushing your book at people isn’t marketing. It’s annoying. I don’t know about you, but there is nothing I find more irritating than logging onto Twitter or Facebook and having my feed filled with authors constantly shoving their book in my face and saying “buy my book.” I will be less likely to buy if I see that all the time. Marketing is not about your book at all, it’s about you, and the key to marketing is making connections.

To market effectively, you must be able to interact with people and get them to become interested in who you are. Only then will you generate interest in your book, which might get people interested in buying it.  But it all starts with your brand, which is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. Creating your brand involves many things, most of which require you to think outside the box.

1. Your book cover(s) represent not only what your story is about, but defines you as an author. You know the old saying, “never judge a book by it’s cover.” But people do. Make the visual aspect something that will attract people’s attention. That’s where your brand begins.
2. Your author bio should be about YOU, not about your degrees. Everything listed in your profile should be about who you are, including your profile picture. And your profile picture should be consistent across platforms. Share information and put up links so people can find you. Let people know who you are. At no time should you have to justify yourself.
3. Book signings and readings allow potential readers to get to know you personally and make one-on-one connections with you. Reach out to people and let them know where you’re going to be. Make an appearance at events and personalize your encounters. Take a photograph with anyone who buys your book and post it on social media. This will help make connections and establish relationships.
4. Attend book festivals and and art fairs and represent yourself well at these events. Create an eye-catching display with layers and interesting items. Make sure the covers of your books are facing outward. Add height and depth to your booth, and dress the part. Get up and talk to people. If you spend the entire event staring at your phone, people will bypass your booth. Mingle, interact. Talk to other authors. We all need to connect with likeminded people, and these events are GREAT for networking.
5. Bookmarks and other swag you hand out can say a lot about you. Are you the one handing out candy like every other author does, or are you offering something different? I hand out syringe pens with my website on them. Pens are useful and people will use them. Postcards have little value and usually end up in the trash. Bookmarks have value, as they are useful for people, but if you hand out bookmarks make sure your contact/social media information is on printed on them so people know how and where to connect with you.
6. Social media platforms are designed for communication and engagement, not for constant links to your Amazon author page. Share with people. Post interesting information. Comment on other’s posts and retweet things that are important to your followers (look at their pinned tweets). Relationships are important. Use social media for making friends. Contribute to conversations and give to others. Join groups and use hashtags. There are a ton of valuable hashtags for writers. I could spend an entire blog post just on this topic. The point is, let people know you are human. Get yourself out there and give back to people. It helps build your platform and gets your name out there. Marketing experts recommended that you NOT automate your social media platforms. If you do, you become too impersonal and people see you as a robot, not someone they can relate to. Be reachable. Making people verify themselves in order to follow you makes you unreachable to potential readers. Most won’t bother to go through the process. I know I don’t.
7. Videos and photos. Practice your sales pitch until you perfect it, then record it on your phone or tablet and put it on your website or social media page(s). Create book trailers, or simply post videos of you living your life–trips to the beach, videos of events you attend, or pictures of your dog. Look for news shows or radio shows that promote authors. Make your site and social media pages visual.
8. Get involved in writing organizations, local or otherwise. These groups are valuable in many ways. They can help you improve your writing, connect you with other writers, and members of these groups promote and support each other. Check your local Writer’s Guild, local chapter of RWA, or any other local writing groups. There are also writing groups on Facebook (although some are better than others) and Twitter that you can contribute to. This allows you to connect with other writers. Don’t be afraid to reach out.
9. Donations. Work on public relations by donating your books and your time to worthy causes. Offer to guest blog, offer giveaways, speak during school Career Days or other events. I donate books to US troops in remote areas and give to local libraries. I also have a Pinterest page for indie authors, where I offer free promotion. I also retweet other authors on Twitter. It benefits people and exposes readers to authors they might not have otherwise heard of. Offer freebies, donate books, and do things for free, simply because you enjoy doing them.
10. Writing books sells books.  Don’t neglect writing. The more books you have to sell, the more you will sell. Create variety so potential readers have choices. Afterall, if you don’t have books, you wouldn’t be marketing in the first place.

In short, don’t follow the same pattern everyone else does. Go against what is socially conditioned. Write YOUR book YOUR way, and be who you are are. Your brand = YOU, and that’s what people are “buying.”

Renegade Marketing

Book promotion is essential for authors.  There are millions of books published on Amazon every year.  How do we, as authors, make ourselves stand out in the crowd?

At a 2-day marketing conference I attended recently, I learned about something called Renegade Marketing.   Renegade marketing involves creativity.  Authors are creative people.  We create worlds, develop characters with distinct personalities, and write books about them. Surely we can come up with creative ways to promote ourselves and the stories we write.

I will be the first to admit that promoting myself and tooting my horn is something I am not comfortable with.  But even an introverted person like me can market like a renegade.  The key is to do something no one else is doing.

Every author uses business cards, postcards, and bookmarks to promote their books; these items are must-haves.  But what can I do that is different?  What will draw attention to me and attract people to my table, thus creating potential book sales?

Props!  Props are great.  And since my books are medical-themed, a stethoscope and lab coat will work nicely.  Many authors give away free things, like candy and bookmarks, but I recently purchased a bulk supply of syringe pens with my name and website printed on them and I will be giving these away during public events.  Every person who stops at my table will get a free syringe pen.  How cool is that?

Let your characters sell the book for you!  I have done this several ways.  First, I’ve written a string of blog posts (Meet the Characters) where I introduce each character in my book(s), one at a time.  Also, I have recently done a character interview where my main character, Randy Hanson, answered the interview questions.  This interview will be published June 9th.  I’ll post it once it’s live.

Generate Buzz!  Talk about your book.  Develop a 5 second sales pitch,  do radio interviews, attend book festivals and signings.  Get yourself out there.  Talk to people.  Post on social media.  Generate buzz about your book.

Book Cover!  Use your book cover to attract people.  During signing events, I display a large poster of my book cover. I also have my book cover printed on promotional materials (see coffee mugs above).

And…

 

 

Wait for it…

 

 

TA-DA!  Tee-shirts!

My husband also has a shirt, and I bought a baseball cap for my son with my website printed on it.

Be different!  Stand out.  Let potential readers get to know you.  Post on social media sites. Share pictures of yourself being a real person.  Do interviews, be silly, let people see who you are.  Give them a reason to follow you.  Book sales are generated by connecting with readers.

Don’t be afraid to be different.  Think outside the box.  Market like a renegade!

Book Marketing 101 For Dummies

You’ve spent weeks, months, maybe even years writing your book.  You’ve revised and edited so it is polished.  Your editor has torn it apart and made more changes.  You’ve designed an awesome cover, written a compelling synopsis, composed your author bio, and have e-books and paperbacks ready to go on sale.  So now what?

Marketing.

Marketing my book is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done.   I don’t know very much about this aspect of the writing business and wish now that I would have taken Marketing 101 in college.  I have been soaking up advice from other authors to gain more knowledge and hopefully discover creative ways to accomplish this herculean task.

I learned a great deal from my first book signing event, which was during the San Antonio Indie Book Fest back in July.  This book fest was beneficial in many ways.  Aside from the experience this event offered, I also gained membership in the Texas Association of Authors and had the opportunity to meet and network with fellow writers to see how they go about marketing their books.  The first thing I noticed the minute I walked in the door was all of the authors at this event had banners and posters and business cards and bookmarks to promote themselves and their books.  I’m not one who likes to toot my own horn, so all of this was a bit overwhelming at first.   Being the new kid on the block, many authors offered their advice and I left this event with a few valuable insights.

1. Eye catching displays draw people in.
2. Be accessible through social media.
3. Give away free stuff.
4. Think outside the box as far as book signings go.  Check out holiday bazaars, church bazaars, and local library events.
5. The more books you have published, the more books you will sell.

Since this book festival, I have invested in a banner, poster, and business cards, all of which are color coordinated and have information about my blog site, Facebook page, and Amazon author page.   I have recently set up a Twitter account as well, and all of my social media sites are connected with each other.  I follow several writing blogs and writing pages and am the member of four different social media writing groups.

Fellow authors and marketing experts post articles offering advice about book promotion, social media, and author’s platform.  Since all of this marketing stuff is new to me, I heed the words of those who know more about it than I do.  I’ve read many articles about this topic, and through my reading several things stood out.

1. Be consistent.  Use the same profile picture on each social media site.  Post consistently and post similar content throughout.
2. Promote other authors, like their pages, and follow their blogs.  Contribute to the writing community.
3. Don’t post the same thing 24/7.  In other words, don’t shove your book in their face.  Not only is that annoying, it also makes you look like an amateur.  Focus on your followers and give them interesting content they will want to read.
4. Connect with your followers, but be mindful that you will never keep up with every post, comment, or e-mail.  Respond when appropriate and comment on things that interest you.  As an author, you need to update your readers and followers regularly, but you should not be spending all of your time on social media.  Your time should be dedicated to writing.
5. You will not increase book sales by advertising through social media.  Social media is a platform you use to sell yourself.  If you sell yourself well, book sales will follow.

All of my social media sites contain similar content — I write, post, tweet, and share jokes, advice, quotes, and articles about writing and books.  I share other things too but that it my theme, so to speak.  On Twitter, I make it a point to retweet other authors and promote their books, websites, and blog pages for them.  This has led to them doing the same for me.  I am following other author’s Facebook pages, which has resulted in a few of them following mine.   I’ve made many connections with fellow writers and authors and have gained advice from them.  In return I have offered some of my insights and thoughts to them.   As writers, we need to learn from and promote each other.

Book signings are a great promotion tool.  They help you gain exposure and connect you to potential readers within the community.  I recently set up my second book signing at a local book shop that supports indie authors.  Not only is this book shop (The Twig) sponsoring this signing for me, they are also promoting the event and selling my book in their store on consignment.  The Twig Book Shop has advertised the event on their web page, in The Current (the local San Antonio events calendar), and on Texas Public Radio.  I had to do some promoting myself as well, so I e-mailed every local newspaper, magazine, current events calendar, and creative arts magazine in the city and added my book signing event to their calendar of events.  I queried Get Creative San Antonio who also added me to their upcoming events calendar.  I have sent out personal e-mails inviting people to this event and have spread the word through social media and word-of-mouth.  I am hopeful that I will sell at least a few books during this event and maybe gain a few new followers.  If nothing else, I will meet and connect with interesting people within my city.

Other marketing avenues I have pursued or am pursuing:

1. A potential interview with Texas Public Radio.
2. The possibility of putting my book in circulation in the local library.
3. Library book fests.
4. Attempting to get independent Texas children’s authors into my school and school district.
5. Once I get my second book out, lowering the price of the first one and offering free or $0.99 days.  I will have to discuss that with my distributor.
6. Constant word of mouth.
7. Handing out business cards to family and fiends, who in turn give them to their friends.
8. Renting a booth at a holiday bazaar or local flea market.
9. An article about my book in the Arts section of the local newspaper.

With millions of books out there, making your name and your book known to others is a trying task.  And since I have a full-time career, finding time to do all of this is often challenging.  I’m learning and discovering new things as I go and am always open to suggestions.  My first novel has been a learning experience on many levels.  Things can only go up from here.