Marketing Archives | Page 2 of 4

Authors are always on the lookout for ways to garner more publicity for their books. One way that’s been around for quite a while is to enter a contest. But there are many contests out there, and some of them charge high fees to enter, or require that you mail printed books to judges at your cost. The first thing to consider is what you want from the contest or award. Is there a cash prize, whi…

An author’s job: It’s not just writing It’s no secret that only half an author’s job is the actual writing of a book. The other half falls squarely in the realm of marketing. If you’re like me, spending that much time trying to build your brand and reach a wider audience is not what you want to be doing. Social media While it’s true that social media has become a critical component of marketing…

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…