My Marketing Journey

I’ve finished my book. It’s been edited and published. How do I get it out to my millions of unsuspecting fans? Marketing. Yep, that’s right, it’s time for me to market. It’s the ongoing struggle of all independent authors. It’s time I share my struggles and victories I suppose. More importantly I want to share what I learned and what I’m going to do differently on my second novel.

Release Day.

What a joyous occasion this was for me. I was so excited to finally be getting my book out there. I put it on createspace.com, went through everything I needed to and bam it was available for the general public. Alright, here comes the sales, the reviews, and the money.

I was so wrong, I got minimal sales right off the bat. I think I sold four copies. Hey, that’s okay. That’s not bad for the first day. Or the first week. Or the first month… Okay, what am I doing wrong? I had no clue what I was doing, or what I was going to do. I guess I was just hoping that once I released it people would just be like, “Ooh, a new book”, and buy it up.

Selling on my own feels like a used car salesmen.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to get money to get my own books. I was hoping my online sales would give me the money for that but I was wrong. That’s when my amazing fiancée agreed to let me take out a loan to buy fifty books to sell on my own. It was the best thing I could do at that point. Who better for word of mouth than me?

I got the books and gave copies to my BETA Readers like I told them I would. Next step, everyone that told me, “Oh yeah, I’ll buy your book, just let me know when.” I thought they would go online and do it anyway, but that didn’t happen. It was time to call them on it.

I started selling finally. Everyone that said they would buy, was just waiting for me to bring it to them. In retrospect, I could have charged a delivery fee too. I wouldn’t, but it would have been funny. I now had some sales under my belt, but what should I do next? I turned to the internet. I already did a lot of research in the beginning but it’s a ton to take in and learn. After searching, I found having a professional review would be beneficial.

Reviews are awesome.

I didn’t think I could afford a professional review until I came across Readers Favorites. They are a low cost reviewer that hires everyday readers to review your book for you. They offered a free version but there was no guarantee it would be read. I jumped on that. Woo, what a rush, posting it for a review.

Weeks went by and still no review. Well, that sucks. Guess there needs to be a plan B. Good news, plan B came the next day after making a few more sales. I had enough to pay for the review. I was jacked. So jacked that I did my happy dance (looks more like convulsing mixed with laughter) and I submitted my novel with payment.

A few weeks went by and there, in my email, was the review. I was glued to the screen, reading and rereading. It was amazing. The entire time I was so nervous they wouldn’t like it but it was awesome. The review was a 4.2 out of 5 stars. I couldn’t be happier, well 5 stars would have been even cooler. I was ecstatic, it went all over social media, I was proud of it.

Now that I have this awesome review, what was I going to do with it? Readers Favorite already posts it on Nook and several other sites. I post it on Amazon but what else can I do? I know, I can advertise.

Advertising, expensive and the wrong kind won’t work.

I went to my author’s page on Facebook and posted my book on there for like the hundredth time. This time was different, I was going to pay to have the post be seen. Yeah, this felt great. I set my budget, it wasn’t a high budget, but it was mine so there.

I figured I’d sit back and let the sales come to me. After all, I just got this fantastic review, this should be a breeze. Yet again, I was wrong. Thousands of views and more page likes, but one thing I didn’t get was a sale, not a single one. What a waste of money, or was it?

It would have only been a waste if I didn’t learn anything from it. Maybe if I had a larger budget I might have received a few sales, but would it have been worth hundreds of dollars to receive a handful of sales? I don’t think so.

However, I did find that social media marketing is great to get an email list going on a website. Advertising used correctly will be more profitable. Used wrong, it’s a waste of money. Well, I don’t have a lot of funds at this point, so what’s my next option?

Book signings have been my best friend.

I found that I’m pretty good when it comes to book signings. As many people who know me, I’m pretty loud, in a good way, I think. I’m personable, funny, charming (Fiancée will laugh at this) but I can sell in person better than anywhere else.

Book signings have been my number one seller for me. Getting out and meeting people. Talking about your book is amazing. If your eyes light up about the book, someone will want to read it. They’re also a lot of fun, especially if other authors are there too.

What have I learned in this process?

The biggest thing I learned is getting the book out there to readers. On my next release, I’m going to try a couple of other tactics. I think the main thing, will be setting it as free for the first five days. This will help me get the book out there and get reviews from readers.

When it’s all said and done, getting more material out into the world is the best thing an author can do. It’s not anything I’ve learned, it’s just a proven fact. Keep writing, write some more, when you think you’ve written enough do it all over again.