book marketing

noticeyourbooks

How to get people to notice your books (4 Steps)

noticeyourbooksDo you wish you knew how to get people to notice your books?

In a very crowded market, it may feel impossible to get your books the attention they deserve. Many authors complain that they spend incredible amounts of time on marketing, but don’t see many sales result. Worse, they don’t even have time to write!

It doesn’t need to be that difficult to find your audience and give your books the readers they deserve. Here are four steps to getting your book noticed.

1. Publish your book with a professional, compelling cover design and description. It doesn’t matter how many eyeballs you get on your book if the cover turns them off.

2. Create a compelling offer. No, “buy my book” is not a compelling offer. Imagine readers are discovering you for the very first time. What can you do to make it easier for them to take a risk with a new author? Limited time low pricing can work, but doesn’t help support your career. Can you offer a free sample? A bundle with other products? Companion material that is free for you to produce and distribute — such as guides, education, videos or audio?

3. Expand your reach. With a beautiful book and a compelling offer in place, NOW you are ready to start spreading the word about your book. Start sharing with your personal network, grow your following on social media, share your free content on sites such as LinkedIn and Medium, email your list, schedule readings and talks, offer guest posts and reach out to influencers.

Caution! If you don’t have an attractive book and a compelling offer to send all the attention to, your efforts will not have the impact you desire. Your time will be wasted.

4. Advertise. Yes, sometimes you get out what you put in. I’ve seen the best results with two particular ad channels. I love the precision and control offered with Facebook ads. I’m blown away by the reach and result achieved with BookBub ads.

While these 4 steps will help you with an individual book push, you’ll fare even better if you grow your personal audience. Perhaps you’ve heard of Kevin Kelly’s theory that an artist really only needs 1,000 true fans to support a career?

What if instead of a constant hustle, you spent your time gaining your 1,000 fans? With a solid fan base, each work has a strong launching pad that will amplify all of your efforts.

Want help with this?

>> Learn the A-Z’s of building your author platform and winning your true fans.

Publishing Advice - 04/04/2016

Are you making this mistake with your Facebook ads?

One of the biggest complaints I heard from the authors who completed my 2016 Book Marketing Challenges survey was how easy it is to waste money on advertising.

Luckily, I've tested strategies and practices that remarkably improve ad results. This means that I've also paid good money for ads that were complete flops. Painful! These failed ads taught me very important lessons. I am happy to share my experiences so that you don't have to make the same mistakes I did.

Here is a quick 2-minute video lesson that shows how a specific change I made to my Facebook ads TRIPLED my book sales.

If you don't have time to watch the video, here's the big lesson I reveal.

Don't direct your ad directly to your Amazon book page. Instead, offer an easier "next step" such as downloading a sample of your book for free.

Insider tip: This lesson is a free preview of my Online Marketing Masterclass for authors that will be released to the public later this week.

Publishing Advice - 03/28/2016

2016 Book Marketing Survey Results: 6 Complaints

Book_Marketing_Survey_1

Do you struggle with the same book marketing challenges as other authors in your field?

I released a book marketing challenges survey earlier in the year and received responses from 93 authors. Some authors were just starting out self-publishing their books, others have published traditionally for years and years. Despite the wide range of experiences, there were a few themes that kept coming up.

Here are the most-reported book marketing complaints:

  • Difficulty getting attention or being discovered in a crowded market.
  • Ineffective marketing tactics - lack of results for efforts.
  • Struggles with social media.
  • Time management issues and information overwhelm.
  • Discomfort with (and outright loathing of) self-promotion.
  • Not enough money or resources.

Scroll down to read actual quotes pulled from the survey. But first, here are the numbers:

Primary income sources: 93 authors completed the survey. 10 of these authors make most of their income from book sales. The other 83 authors have another source of income.

primary

Publishing cost: While many authors spent none of their own money publishing their books, others spent over $20,000.

money spent on publishing

 

Marketing budget: While most authors spent less than $500 marketing their books, many more invested thousands of dollars into their book marketing efforts.

marketing budget

Stage of career: Authors that answered the book marketing survey were in all kinds of stages of their writing career. Some were very well established, others were just starting out.

established

 

And now, in your own words...

Issue: Getting Attention in a Crowded Market

“My main problem is getting interest in my books.”

“I feel like I'm not reaching the folks who would buy my books if they knew about them.”

“I don’t know how to stand out in all the noise.”

“I thought i had a decent fan base but with a new book out this doesn't seem to be reflected in sales or reviews. There's so much online noise out there, how does one stand out? How do I make the most user of my time?”

“I don’t know which market or platform is the best for my books.”

“I don’t get noticed among the hundred and thousands of other releases. My blog is... a waste of time. No one visits except writer friends and colleagues.”

Issue: Ineffective Marketing

“I don't want or need marketing tips that are fast and easy. What I want is marketing that is EFFECTIVE.

“Despite having consistent and topical blog posts, I also rarely saw a return on the effort, and I'm burned out!”

“Instead of wasting my time say buying useless adspace or sending free copies of my book to a website with only 3 visitors, I want to know where I should focus my energies to find people who want to read my books.”

“I have worked hard cold-calling book bloggers for reviews, sending personalized review requests, and soliciting free newsletters to promote price-reduction sales, and looking for guests posts for an author who neither will promote nor spend any money to promote. I have failed in both reviews and sales garnered.”

“I will probably do a guerilla marketing campaign, dropping cards and stuff. But I don’t know if that will help at all. I feel like such a noob.”

“I can promote until I'm blue in the face, but the only thing that seems to get results is giving away my books, something I am loathe to do on anything other than a one-time, limited basis.”

Issue: Social Media Struggles

“Posts that I make are not always seen. I don't know how many times to make a post or know when to make to reach my audience.”

“I deactivated my Facebook account a few years back primarily for lack of understanding. Although I have a Twitter account I have not taken the time to make it truly viable as a tool.”

“Social media seems like one massive endless swap and shop; people do stop to browse yet after piles of junk mail and slightly damaged articles offered as a real deal, they peruse seemingly legitimate offers warily.”

“I have trouble getting people to click through to blog posts and engage on topics surrounding the books. People are happy to approach and say that the books sound really interesting, but getting the clicks and better numbers is difficult.”

“I'm clueless when it comes to the internet. I'm sure I'm not using it properly to maximize sales.”

Issue: Time Management and Overwhelm

“With so many other novels flooding the market, it's difficult for me to find the time and motivation to chase marketing avenues. Oh now I have to write a blog, oh now I have to tweet about this, oh now I have to make a Facebook page about that. “

“Marketing is a full time job but so is writing and I simply don't have the time or the energy to do both.”

“I don't have the time or energy to put as much into social media as authentic relationships would demand.”

“Can I do it all alone with no contacts, author involvement or budget?”

“Which social media sites have the potential to help you market and which are a waste of time and effort?”

“I've gone to conferences and read all the information but it's not sinking in.”

“I have great ideas, but no time to implement them.”

Issue: Discomfort with Self-Promotion

“I struggle with being authentic while also promoting my book. I don't want to be one of those authors who is always pushing a link to her book (and there are a lot of them!).”

“I don't know what words to use to attract people without being cliché.”

“I hate being a salesman for myself. It feels awkward.”

“Plus, how do you promote yourself on social media without annoying people? I share when someone else says something positive about my work (through retweets, reposts, etc...) with a 'thank you' included, and I'm fine to share when my work is discounted, but otherwise, I don't know how to promote my work without feeling like I'm being a slimy used car salesman.”

“I don't like talking about my book or, worse, 'selling' people on my book. I just really hate being like ‘Buy my book! Buy my book!’ It is the worst.”

Issue: Lack of Money

“Can I do it all alone with no contacts, author involvement or budget?”

“I don’t have the resources to do anything that will make a big impact.”

“I want to hire a professional to help me, but I don’t know if it will be a good investment or not.”

Do any of these book marketing complaints sound familiar to you? Clearly, you are not alone. Authors work very hard to identify effective ways to promote their books, while salvaging some time to write and work on their craft.

I used the information in this survey to help craft some of the lessons in my upcoming audience building class for authors.

Did you find this survey interesting? Please share it using the buttons below. Thanks!

Publishing Advice / Writer's Life - 03/24/2016

The give and take of social media marketing (Plus my golden rule of self-promotion.)

giveandtakeofsocialmediaWant to avoid irritating the crap out of your Twitter followers, but still need to make sure the time you spend on the platform results in traffic and sales? Here’s my golden rule for self-promotion on Twitter:

Don’t exceed a 3:1 ratio of "gives" versus promotion.

What does this mean? This means for every single time I talk about myself, or my books, or classes, I talk about something completely unrelated to me at least three times.

Give. Give. Give. Take.

This 3:1 ratio is a bit high on the promotion side. I only talk about myself this much when I have something I am pushing hard. When I don’t have anything new, that ratio drops down to more like 10:1, or even 20:1.

Guy Kawasaki, who was my mentor and advisor during my Writer.ly years, told me his ratio might even be much higher on the “give” side. He manages aggregate news sites and tweets a huge volume of content. For mere mortals, the 10:1 or 3:1 goal is more achievable.

How does this play out? Let’s say I am promoting a new free class. Even though the class is technically a “give” as a free resource, it’s a “take” as I’m talking about myself and asking people to give me their emails when they sign up.

I know that to meet my signup goals, I need to tweet about the class about three times a day. I will use Hootsuite to schedule my tweets for prime times (early in the morning, one in the afternoon, one late in the evening). I make sure to change the tweets so that they don’t all say the same thing.

Once my promo tweets are scheduled, I fill up the space between with at least 3 high-interest “gives”.

What counts as a give? A give can be an article, a quote, a writing prompt, a recommendation, a joke, or links to other people’s events or books. As long as the gives are appropriate and interesting to my audience, no one seems to mind the tweets about my class. Most of my followers will miss them all, even though I spread them throughout the day.

The take is just as important as the give if you are on Twitter for business or audience purposes. If all you post are “gives”, then your efforts will not feed your email list or sales. If you have nothing in particular you are promoting, you can at least schedule out occasional tweets for people to come back and look at your most popular blog posts, or to sign up for your wonderful email newsletter.

It’s more of an art than a science. I break my own rules occasionally and do not always follow my own advice. Luckily, Twitter has a short term memory. It’s easy for my followers forgive my occasional over-excitement for my own projects thanks to the all the other wonderful content I curate for their benefit and enjoyment.

Do you need help using Twitter more effectively?

Sign up for my 3-Day course "How to Get More Followers on Twitter." It's free and delivered via email, so you can complete it on your own schedule.

>> Sign up here. <<

This is day three of my week of social savvy posts. Check back tomorrow to learn more about how to use Twitter to achieve your promotion goals.

Publishing Advice - 03/16/2016

How to use Twitter without embarrassing yourself.

HowtoUseTwitterPromoting your books does not need to be a painful exercise in narcissistic flailing and squandered efforts. Approached with the correct mindset, it might not only be very effective, but also fun! If you would like to know how to use Twitter without embarrassing yourself or wasting time, here is what you must keep top of mind. It's the biggie...

Twitter is the place for first discovery, not the final sale.

If you have ever worked in sales or marketing, you may have heard of the sales funnel. As you can see in the illustration below, social media sites (such as Twitter) are at the very tippy top of the funnel. This is where you get your first introductions. Potential readers may see your clever tweet and discover for the first time that you even exist.

social media sales funnel for authors

 

This first discovery moment is not the time to ask for a book sale. Sure, if you ask 100 people, you might get one or two sales. Is that what you're after, one or two sales? Is it worth annoying the 98 or 99 other people that didn't take you up on your quick offer?

Use Twitter to entertain or inform your potential fans. Give them interesting content to earn their attention. Invite them to click through to your blogs, or freebies or collaborations.

Here's an example of how I invite my Twitter followers to come visit my website:

Since my audience is full of writers, I offer the fun game as a way to interact (play!) and drive traffic back to my blog. It's subtle and appreciated by those that participate. You'll notice there is no sales push. I'm not selling anything with these games. I use the games as a way to move beyond introduction and discovery and give my audience a chance to get to know me.

More directly, you can offer information or freebies on Twitter. Here's an example of just that:

This tweet really helps move potential fans through the funnel. Not only do we go past introduction to entice people back to the website, but we offer them something of high value for free. While they may watch the video right away, if they want the guide they need to provide their email address. Once we receive their email address, we have permission to continue building our relationship and provide them more offers leading to a single sale, or even a life of fandom. (So we hope!)

If you would like to know how to use Twitter without embarrassing yourself, just keep thinking of the network as a very first introduction to your potential readers. Give, give, give.... give resources, information or entertainment. Be yourself and don't worry about "pushing" anything. Provide opportunities to invite your followers back to your website or to your events. Keep thinking about what you can offer to move your potential readers through the funnel and closer to fandom.

Do you need help using Twitter more effectively?

Sign up for my 3-Day course "How to Get More Followers on Twitter." It's free and delivered via email, so you can complete it on your own schedule.

>> Sign up here. <<

This is day two of my week of social savvy posts. Check back tomorrow to learn more about how to use Twitter to achieve your promotion goals.

Publishing Advice / Writer's Life - 03/15/2016

Why should authors be on Twitter? (4 reasons)

4reasonsauthorsontwitterSo little time, so much to do, right? As an author, not only do you have to actually write your books, but you also need to promote your works to readers. This can be an incredible amount of work. While social media provides direct access to millions of potential readers, most authors fail to use platforms in way that effectively promotes their books. It's easy to waste a lot of time messing around on social media without getting results. So, why should authors be on Twitter?

Here are four reasons why I highly recommend authors that authors check out Twitter.

1. It's easy to find people on Twitter who have specific interests that align with your books.

This is also called "targeting' your market, which sounds like a mean thing to do but is actually very thoughtful. For example, if you write historical fiction set in the Pacific Northwest, you can identify readers who might be interested in your books by searching what they are tweeting and which accounts they are following. In this situation, you might search for people tweeting about other historical fiction books they've reviewed on Goodreads, or using a #historical hashtag, or retweeting the @Smithsonian magazine account.

2. You can scale quickly.

Scale matters. If you only have an audience of 100 people, those 100 people won't be able to provide enough support to promote or buys your books in quantities that will enable you to make a living (or break even!) as a writer. Simply by following people interested in topics related to your books, you can build a targeted, respectable following. (Here's help on how to do that.)

3. You can use tools to dramatically reduce the amount of time you actually spend on Twitter.

Would you believe that I spend less than an hour or so each week maintaining my Twitter accounts? It's true! This is possible with third-party tools that help you post content, manage your following and respond to mentions. Here's my magic formula:

Feedly - Used to find excellent content worth sharing

Hootsuite - Used to schedule content and monitor mentions, conversations and topics

Tweepi - Used to manage and grow my following

4. Twitter can drive a lot of traffic.

Most importantly, authors that manage to connect with a decent amount of likely readers can use the network to drive a lot of traffic to their website. Twitter (and all social media networks) are at the very tippy-top of the sales funnel. [ctt title="'Savvy authors understand that Twitter is where you make an introduction, not a sale.'" tweet="'Savvy authors understand that Twitter is where you make an introduction, not a sale.' http://ctt.ec/brdYN+ via @Kelsye #selfpub" coverup="brdYN"] Authors posting compelling blogs, offering awesome freebies or hosting online events may tweet links to turn Twitter acquaintances into website visitors, book readers and possibly, eventually, fans for life.

Twitter can help authors connect with potential readers, build a sizable following, save time on marketing and drive traffic home.

Do you need help using Twitter more effectively?

Sign up for my 3-Day course "How to Get More Followers on Twitter." It's free and delivered via email, so you can complete it on your own schedule. Click here for details.

Publishing Advice / Writer's Life - 03/14/2016

Claim your name: First steps for authors on social media

claimYOURnameAuthors on social media often struggle in the beginning.

Aside from the fact that self-promotion seems daunting and distasteful, you must also contend with a vast number of social networks to choose from, each with their own best practices, unspoken rules and effectiveness. How can you possibly be expected to know where to start?

Good news! You don't need to figure out everything right away. You have plenty of time to try out different platforms. You may explore each one-by-one if you wish, trying them on for audience, ease of use and enjoyment. This is my best piece of advice for authors on social media.

Do this right now:

Claim your name on all the major social media platforms.

What does this mean? This means creating an account on all the major social networks, as well as any niche networks you think might be a good match for your work and your readers. This does not mean that you need to start using all these accounts right now. This simply means that if you do decide to try them out in the future, you will not suffer the annoyance of discovering your name is already taken.

These are the social media networks I suggest for all authors. Do you already have your name claimed on these sites?

There are many other social media or community sites that may also be a good match for you. Check out:

There are a billion more. Ask your readers where they spend their time online and what sites they like. That's where you need to be.

When you create your username, you will be very lucky if you can get your first name, or even your full name. Already taken? Don't worry, there are many ways you can craft a well-branded, professional username that will likely work across platforms. Let's say your name is Stephen King, you could try these public user names:

  1. Stephen
  2. StephenKing
  3. AuthorStephenKing
  4. StephenKing
  5. StephenWrites
  6. SKingAuthor
  7. theStephenKing
  8. RealStephen
  9. StephenSpeaks
  10. MeetStephen

If possible, you want to find a user name that you can use on as many social media platforms as possible. This will make it easier for people to find you.

Tip: DO NOT create profiles in the name of your book. You're an author for life, right? You are going to write many books, yes? It will be a big pain to have to start over again every time you publish something new.

Are you 8 for 8 for claiming your name on the primary social media accounts I listed? Do you know more social sites for authors and artists that I may add to the secondary list? Let me know in the comments below.

Do you need help using Twitter more effectively?

Sign up for my 3-Day course “How to Get More Followers on Twitter.” It’s free and delivered via email, so you can complete it on your own schedule.

>> Sign up here. <<

Publishing Advice / Writer's Life - 03/07/2016

Book Marketing Q&A with Kelsye - Free Online Event

book_marketing_Q&ADo you have questions about book marketing? Join me for a live, half-hour book marketing Q&A session.

Book Marketing Q&A

Wednesday 12/17 at noon PST. Hosted via G+ On Air broadcast.

Get immediate answers to your book marketing questions. Ask about free promotions, does paid advertising really work, selling on social media, or whatever you wish.

This event is free and will be recorded. 

RSVP Here

 

Kelsye_in_cafeAbout Kelsye: I'm an author, publishing consultant and Digital Publishing instructor at the University of Washington. I help authors across genres publish their books, including helping with launch strategy, interior layout, cover design, publishing on various platforms, marketing and author platform building. I have worked with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, CreateSpace, Google Play, Blurb and many other publishing tools. I have publishing industry knowledge, publishing experience with emerging technologies, technical expertise, and business and teaching experience. Learn more here.

Events / Publishing Advice / Writer's Life - 12/08/2014

VIDEO: How to Sell Your Books on Social Media

Recorded webinar: How to sell your books on social media

Do you wish you could use social media more effectively to sell your books?

Spend any time on social media sites and you’ll see authors promoting their publications. Most of the noise is sadly ineffectual. However, it is possible to connect with readers and sell your book using popular sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube. Your readers are online and they are searching for new books.

In this free, one-hour webinar, I share ten powerful promotion tactics you can use to sell your books through your social media networks. I detail such tactics as free day promotions, beta readers and reviewers, contests and sweepstakes and the pros and cons of paid advertising sites. This video is a must-watch if you would like to sell your book on social media.

TIP: I mention a spreadsheet with book advertising options in the webinar. You can view the spreadsheet here.

Next: How to get more followers on Twitter.

Publishing Advice - 06/05/2014

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