Do You Have A Plan For Marketing Your Book?

 

Do you have a marketing plan for your book? I have a heck of a time with marketing and do not have a plan. I am very hit and miss, promoting through my newsletter (which has a very low readership), Facebook (through posts, not through paid advertising), Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. So I am semi-organized, but yet to see results. My goal is to support myself through my writing, so something has to give here. There has to be some kind of "Aha!" moment that allows me to move to the other side with promoting my work, to make it part of my overall plan for my books, and to have my promotions be supportive of me, So what should I be looking at?

The first thing that you need (aside from a book or books to promote!) is a website. I use free templates, you may choose to have someone do your website for you. It all depends on what your budget is. What do you want to include on your website? 

• A signup link for your newsletter. (Yes, you need a newsletter! I use Mail Chimp.)
• An updated author's bio. (I hate writing my own bio!)
• A page where you list your books, with a short synopsis, and a link for purchasing.
• Your social media links.

Make sure that your social media on all platforms is branded - that it all works together, that you are using the same headshot and bio. Include a link to your newsletter, and to your blog. (My blog is separate from my website, many people include a blog on their website.) 

When working with your newsletter you may want to send a sequence of automated e-mails that act as autoresponders to new subscribers. Provide some kind of sign-up incentives, such as a PDF or other form of downloadable content. 

You can also promote through podcasting, although this is an area that I am not currently making use of. You can also do live broadcasts on Facebook and Instagram. 

Make sure that you have an Amazon author's page, and that it contains all of the information on your work, including links. You can also include your blog and Twitter feeds, and videos.

Get sneaky! On the last page of your book (whether e-book or hard copy) include a link to your website and promotions for your other books. 

This is just a start, but I think that it is a fairly good start. Make a list of what you want to do, and organize that list by priority. You are a writer, and writing is a business. Make your business flourish!

(c) June 2021 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission of the author.

Video Marketing

Marketing is not my favorite activity, although as a writer it is a necessary one. Making videos - well, I have not attempted doing that yet. So why am I even considering it? If I will follow a link to a video, others will too. And I have learned a great deal through videos placed on individual sites, and on You Tube. There are some definite marketing advantages here.

Videos have their place in personal branding, as do the social media sites. Together they can form a marketing plan ... on that cinches an individual's brand, and gets (and keeps) their product known. We have to "be" how we choose to brand ourselves. Our work, our product, as to reflect our brand. When our respective audiences can see us :in person", through a video, they can identify with us. We become real to them. Now, all videos do not have to be personal videos, but the ones that are will, IMHO, have a greater impact.

We also need to consider conversion rates. What percentage of individuals clicking on a link are then going to follow through and purchase? If we can connect with them through videos, and get them to identify with us, and our brand, we will not only have a single purchase, but we have an audience that will follow us on social media, and want to purchase that next book, or CD, or attend that net seminar.

Allow your personality to come through. I am who I am ... in my mid-60's, a conservative liberal, and a wanna-be writer of cozy mysteries. This is who I am, and any prospective audience needs to understand this. My target audience is specific. Who are you? What do you want people to know about you? Who is your target audience?

I love videos - each has a story to tell! I look forward to getting my story out there ... and to hearing your story!

(c) 2015 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission of the author.  

Common Mistakes When Marketing Your Book

 

Marketing is never an easy task ... at least, not for me. Now I find out there are mistakes that we can make when posting on social media sites. that can shoot us in the foot! Who knew! I feel like I just went down the rabbit hole with posting!

The whole premise of posting on social media sites is to engage people, get them to read your material, and keep them wanting more. Generally this is done in a gentle way. The first thing not to do is to push people to buy your book. For heaven's sake - tell them what it is ab out, tell them why they want to read it, and allow them to make the choice! just a hint here - try and avoid the phrase "Buy my book", in all of its various incarnations! Put a book page on your site where people can get information on your books. I do a separate page for each of my books ... for me, that works out best.

Avoid using phrases like "You will love my book!", or "I hope you'll read my book!" You are weakening your position here, IMHO. Allow the prospective reader to decide whether they want to read your book, and whether they like it or not. 

If you are posting a link to your book, give it an intro. Do you click on links that you have no clue about? I sure don't!

Write your post for the site you are posting it on. Facebook, Google +, and Linkedin can safely take the same text and make sensed of it. With Twitter, you have to be a bit more creative. Another hint ... something that is worded for Twitter is going to look close to irrelevant  on the other social media sites. Saving time is a good thing ... looking bad isn't!

Watch the url's that you are posting.  If your prospective readers are from the UK, list the Amazon UK link. If they are from the US, list the US link. If you have prospective readers from both countries, list both links. This is a courtesy to your readers.

Map out a schedule for your posts, and say something different each time. Your book has more than one thing to say, certainly! Don't bore people, or turn them off.

Think before you post!

(c) 2000- 2013 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited in all venues without the written permission of the author.

Promoting e-Books

I am over half-way through a short (approximate 20,000 word) book on surviving the holidays. It is going up through Smashwords as an e-book. Now I have to think about howto promote this book, taking into consideration that this is the first in a series of self-help books that I plan to put out there. Simple thought process here - if people like one thing that I write, it is in my best interest to offer them other things to read too!

That much I am sure of. The marketing itself - that I am not sure of. I am working (at least with my first book) with an almost non-existent promotional budget. But more than budget, I am thinking about where to market to reach my target audience - women of all ages that are interested in being the best that they can be. This is often a hard things to do, as by nature women tend to put others first. Setting that aside for a moment, what do I need to know about marketing an e-book?

I have defined my target audience, now I am trying to develop a written marketing plan. I could choose to go with Kindle's KDP program, but I am not going to, for a variety of reasons - the main one being that it limits me to promoting through that program for a specific period of time. Multiple streams of income sounds better to me. Things that I will do include creating a page for my book on Facebook, creating a page for my book on my personal site, and chatting it up on Facebook, Twitter, and Google +. I will also either have a book trailer done, or create a short animated video to put upon my site, and on you tube. I will be contacting other authors in the same self-help genre, and ask if they would review my book, if I were to send it to them. And I will have a give-away, as the book should be up by the end of November (I can push it for the holidays). I may also put out a free sample chapter from the book.

What else do I "not" intend to do? I do not intend to do any "blog a thon" activity, nor do I intend to do guest posts. These are time consuming activities, if done correctly, and they would not make me happy!

One more thing that I am considering is having a book launch party - or, rather, a book launch cyber party! I have friends with confetti and glitter that will join in ... that would be fun!

Off to do some more thinking!

(c) November 2012 Bonnie Cehovet