Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

Thoughts/Ideas: Author/Author Marketing +

I have seen more and more self-publishing authors promoting the works of others on their websites and even trailers or a "snag-chapter" at the close of their ebook.

As a reader, I hate getting to the end of a good book and finding that part of the space at the end was made available to promote a chapter from somebody else's book. When I get to 96%... I expect that I have another 4% of the same book to read still and get frustrated when I find that is not the case. However, I love it when authors (particularly when it is a series) reserve the last page for links to their own blogspot/site and Facebook page so I can get my hands on updates and info about the next release.

As an author, promoting each other makes good sense. Especially when you consider that the more hits you get and statistics are available on your website - the easier it becomes for people/buyers to find you. If a well-written same genre author presented themselves I wouldn't have a problem "liking" them on their facebook page and posting on their site to help boost their own audience. If I personally fell in love with their book/series I would also have no problem posting a trailer or a link to their own site from mine.

The typical marketing strategy for self-publishing authors seems to be - buy it. I refuse. These vanity pubishers will generally charge between a couple hundred and a couple thousand for their "marketing package"... and what do you get? Burned. They list your book with Ingram and that's about it besides many broken promises. The thing is... if you have an ISBN set up - you can list your own book with Ingram wihout having to get charged $2400 by a third party to do it!

We are creative minds here and most of us can handle or learn to do the same leg work (even better) on our own...

What do YOU think of Author/Author Marketing?

What other ideas have you had and/or tried successfully?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bruce Jackson Spohn on June 4, 2012 at 7:10pm

You have made many great points. It is hard to get a lot of exposure when you are new. I see your point about too much stuck at the end of a book. I can see a place for a link to the new release or a coming attrction page to get readers interested in what is in the works.

You are 100% right about the cost of marketing! Most publishers well sell you a package and you really have no way to check on what is really being done for you and your book. I am trying to use Facebook and see what happen there. Also I am going to contact some of the local merchants to see if i can set up a Book Signing at their location.

I hope to hear from others about what they are doing to market their books. We can all benefit from the experiences of others.

Permalink Reply by PJ Sterling on June 4, 2012 at 7:21pm

Since I will likely be going the ebook route with this series for now it won't do me much good BUT for others who have physical hardbacks or paperbacks to sell... swing by your local Barnes & Noble and ask to speak to the store manager. Our B&N location actually held an event (which they promoted in the local paper and with in-store posters) last year for local, self-publishing authors. They were allowed to have tables and offer book sales, signings and answer questions on their books for 0% commission going to B&N. See if they might have an event like that and promote it like ours did. I think we had about 11 or so writers show up with a variety from "How To" to Fantasy/Fiction.

Bruce Jackson Spohn said:

You have made many great points. It is hard to get a lot of exposure when you are new. I see your point about too much stuck at the end of a book. I can see a place for a link to the new release or a coming attrction page to get readers interested in what is in the works.

You are 100% right about the cost of marketing! Most publishers well sell you a package and you really have no way to check on what is really being done for you and your book. I am trying to use Facebook and see what happen there. Also I am going to contact some of the local merchants to see if i can set up a Book Signing at their location.

I hope to hear from others about what they are doing to market their books. We can all benefit from the experiences of others.

Permalink Reply by Christopher Stewart on June 4, 2012 at 11:40pm

as a beginner author, i have found it difficult to attract attention to my first novel when i originally self-published it... i was under the impression that it being the first book of a series made it an additional hurdle... possibly, readers were not keen of buying into a series coming from an author they had never heard of...

so eventually, i decided to publish the chapters in weekly instalments, in order to increase interest for the series, but also to introduce myself as an author... after googling for the term bookcasting and to my surprise not finding a lot of relevant mentions, i decided to call this a bookcast... i used the Issuu publishing service which offers embedding of reader widgets (in blog posts for instance), and also enables one to allow/disallow downloading of the documents... i chose to disallow downloading, and i included an « About the Series » page, and an « About the Author » page, both with links (to online stores, and to pages and profiles on major social networks), at the end of each weekly episode... you can find chapters 14 and 15 in my blog here for examples of what episodes look like...

the first weeks were slow, but there has been a definite improvement at some point, and now every week the series is gaining readers... i have also received an offer from a publisher who wants to make the book available in paper format... we're still negotiating, but given they pay a very good rate, and they waived the cost of their publishing package, i am tempted to accept... the only obstacle is the duration of the contract... they want a five years deal, and it seems somewhat longish to me...

all in all, it has been a very positive experience thus far...

hope it helps !

blessings,

Chris

Permalink Reply by Stanley S. Thornton on August 20, 2012 at 8:03am

Last week or so, I recieved a letter from Google, advertising Google Adwords. They offered $100 free advertising. At first I ignored the letter, but still kept it. on the 15th I called their 800 number and talked to a representative. Using the $100 free, i've set up 2 text ads and 6 picture ads. I set the bidding at $1 max per click, and a max $10 per day. I also set up to be on sites in the US and Canada, though I have seen that my ad appears on at least one site in the UK. After 5 days, and $50 of the free advertising, I've had 36,155 views of my ads, and 97 people click through to my website. While I have a lot of information concerning my book on my website, I don't sell my books there. Since I joined the Amazon Affiliate Program, I put a link to my book, plus a banner ad to Amazon. Of the 97 who clicked the ads to go to my website, 9 took my links to Amazon.

I understand that may not sound that great, but considering the subject matter of my book, the book is titled "Christianity: Myths and Legends", I have to say that so far I have recieved pretty good results so far. I have sold one ebook on Amazon since i began this ad campaign, but I do not yet know if it was because of the ads or because they wandered onto my book as others have done in the passed. And Amazon says that apparently someone visiting my site saw some item not associated with my book and purchased it...lol

I also don't know how many of those who visited my website purchased elsewhere, or how many people who did not click through decided later to go to a book store and possibly purchase a book.

My next book might perform better, considering its a fantasy novel, and not a controversial topic. But this is a reasonable method to consider. At least I know 36,155 people have seen my ad, even if they didn't read it...and 97 people were curious enough to look. For a self-published book, i'd think that is pretty good, no?

Permalink Reply by zabrina murray on October 31, 2012 at 2:13pm

I have officially put up a website for my book! Go to zabrinamurray.weebly.com and tell me what u think. this is my first time to make one and would like some feed back please!

Permalink Reply by zabrina murray on December 2, 2012 at 6:52pm

I am doing everything on my own and still trying to figure out what else I can do. So far I have published my 1st book on Amazon, I have made a page on my facebook, I have Twitter, I have a website up,, and I have it in a public library. I just sent an email to a book store on how to get it in there so now what I would like to know is what else can I do to advertise it? If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated.

Permalink Reply by Craig Brummer on January 11, 2013 at 6:14pm

Hi Stanley,

Thank you for sharing, I found the information you provided very interesting. I'll certainly check into it when my novel is ready for publishing.

Cheers,

Craig

Stanley S. Thornton said:

Last week or so, I recieved a letter from Google, advertising Google Adwords. They offered $100 free advertising. At first I ignored the letter, but still kept it. on the 15th I called their 800 number and talked to a representative. Using the $100 free, i've set up 2 text ads and 6 picture ads. I set the bidding at $1 max per click, and a max $10 per day. I also set up to be on sites in the US and Canada, though I have seen that my ad appears on at least one site in the UK. After 5 days, and $50 of the free advertising, I've had 36,155 views of my ads, and 97 people click through to my website. While I have a lot of information concerning my book on my website, I don't sell my books there. Since I joined the Amazon Affiliate Program, I put a link to my book, plus a banner ad to Amazon. Of the 97 who clicked the ads to go to my website, 9 took my links to Amazon.

I understand that may not sound that great, but considering the subject matter of my book, the book is titled "Christianity: Myths and Legends", I have to say that so far I have recieved pretty good results so far. I have sold one ebook on Amazon since i began this ad campaign, but I do not yet know if it was because of the ads or because they wandered onto my book as others have done in the passed. And Amazon says that apparently someone visiting my site saw some item not associated with my book and purchased it...lol

I also don't know how many of those who visited my website purchased elsewhere, or how many people who did not click through decided later to go to a book store and possibly purchase a book.

My next book might perform better, considering its a fantasy novel, and not a controversial topic. But this is a reasonable method to consider. At least I know 36,155 people have seen my ad, even if they didn't read it...and 97 people were curious enough to look. For a self-published book, i'd think that is pretty good, no?

Permalink Reply by Craig Brummer on January 11, 2013 at 6:45pm

For author's who write trilogies a successful approach has been to give the first book free and then charge for the other two. Michael Hicks, who wrote the "In Her Name" series (great books by the way) does that and is doing the same with his "Harvest" series. On his website he states he's given away 250,000 books and sold 90,000. Giving away so many has also put him on the top of Amazon's list and built him a large following.

That's great for trilogies or series but more difficult if you're like me and write stand alone novels.

Permalink Reply by Dennis AuBuchon on March 18, 2013 at 2:42am

I have written two books and have not purchased any marketing packages from anyone. I do all the marketing myself. It does not need to cost money to market and promote your book. Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin to name a few offer opportunities to get my expertise on the Internet. I also have designed my own website, have written over 650 articles posted to a variety of sites and participate in forums when I have something to add to a question.

Permalink Reply by Craig Brummer on March 18, 2013 at 4:22am

Hi Dennis, I agree with the approach you're taking. I don't think the marketing services are worth a fraction of what they charge nor do I think they generate much in sales. From what I've read and seen the social media approach seems to work the best for Indie authors. I hope you are have great success with your books.

cheers,

Craig

Permalink Reply by Stanley S. Thornton on March 18, 2013 at 5:30am

My second book is THIS close to release. It's a fantasy novel. For this book, I have created my own publishing company, Mystic Dragon Publishing. So far, It is going to cost me a fraction of what it did to go with another publisher. Sure, I have to do a lot of work promoting my book. But I had to do that when I paid someone else to publish my book, except I am not paying a publisher $2 per copy just to have a book printer print the books for me. I go direct to the book printers myself.

Permalink Reply by Raam Anand on September 3, 2013 at 1:58pm

Great thread... and yes.... that's one ugly face of the marketing industry. They sell in terms of 'packages' and most of these packages use old-world marketing strategies that do not work today.