Marketing Archives | NINC

As I turned to face the thousands of options lining my library’s shelves, I asked my librarian, “How do you pick which books to read?” I hoped that she might tip me off to a trade journal or confirm the importance of word-of-mouth recommendations. Her neck blushed pink before she paused and leaned toward me. “To be honest? I read books based on their covers.” A nervous laugh seemed to indicate …

Tis the season . . . for planning! There’s very little that I love more than a shiny new year, all empty and ready to fill with wonderful plans. December is the perfect month to take some thoughtful time to identify our goals for the next 12 months and then ponder how to best reach them. That’s never truer than when it comes to selling our books—plotting our marketing for the next year is essen…

It’s been a little less than a month since the NINC conference kicked off, and I have to admit that I’m still processing everything I learned. While I was not able to be at every workshop, I attended quite a few—and more than that, I talked to many people, and I listened to so many smart folks at both the UnCon and the PostCon. Not surprising to me—or to anyone, probably—the two buzzword phrase…

Most indie authors focus on selling books through the major book distributors. We study ads and agonize over how to get visibility and traction on these sites. We watch our numbers go up and down with pride and alarm. But, as we’ve been doing that, a few pioneer authors have been forging other paths to readership: Wattpad Patreon Kickstarter Serial apps If you find them all tempting, no worri…

We made it through 2022! A round of applause and therapeutic chocolate for everyone. Now it’s time to look forward to 2023, and I’ve put together a list of resolutions based on trends I suspect will drive book marketing throughout the new year. Where does this list come from? My own extensive research and experience running a small marketing think tank. I’ve been tracking data and trialing diff…

Thrillers are the third-ranked fiction genre, according to Bookscan. On the Kindle side, K-lytics ranks “Mystery/Thriller/Suspense” third as well, with thrillers leading the category. As of August 2021, analytics firm The NPD Group, which owns Bookscan, said, “The evergreen staple of summer reading, thrillers make up nearly one in eight adult fiction books sold.” That said, the market overall s…