1. Ben James

    Ben James New Member

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    Marketing for self publishers.

    Discussion in 'Marketing' started by Ben James, Oct 2, 2018.

    Hi!

    I was wondering if anyone who has had success in self publishing could share which methods of marketing they found to be the most successful for their works?

    Particularly interested in self published non- fiction, but happy to hear from anyone with experience!

    Cheers!
     
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  2. Necronox

    Necronox Contributor Contributor

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    Don’t mind me. I’m just posting here because I am interested in the answers and can’t figure out how to mark this thread to give me notifications....

    Continue...
     
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  3. Ben James

    Ben James New Member

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    Welcome!

    And now we wait...
     
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  4. Ben James

    Ben James New Member

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    I realise now this thread may have been better suited to “Marketing”.

    If someone could advise as to how I can delete or move this thread (if need be) that would be great.

    Thanks!
     
  5. Necronox

    Necronox Contributor Contributor

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    Patience my young padawan
     
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  6. Mckk

    Mckk Member Supporter Contributor

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    moved to Marketing.
     
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  7. Ben James

    Ben James New Member

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    Much appreciated!
     
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  8. Carriage Return

    Carriage Return Member

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    Last edited: Dec 31, 2018
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  9. DeeDee

    DeeDee Contributor Contributor

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    Join communities who are interested in the topic and recommend the book without telling them you're the author :supercheeky:Just say it's a great book on that topic.
     
  10. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I'd strongly recommend the creative penn podcast (Joanna Penn) and the self publishing formula podcast (Mark Dawson) and self publishing journeys pod cast (paul Teague) for info on this sort of thing

    The very short answer is

    a) make sure your book is as perfect as possible cover, editing, blurb etc
    b) optimise its meta data, and pages on amazon etc
    c) Establish a mailing list
    d) Advertising via facebook, AMs and bookbub

    Be aware it is very hard to make any money on just one book
     
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  11. Lew

    Lew Contributor Contributor

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    I have had good success with facebook advertising. That said, I am not breaking even, but I am still having sales that are quite respectable for a self-publisher, and sales generates a critical mass of readers who don't know you, but still like and recommend your book to their friends.

    First, what @big soft moose said. You want your cover, layout, story line and interior layout to be so professional people will ask who your publisher was. Don't rush to publish, finish the job first, because you can't market an unfinished product.

    A lot of people recommend web pages. I have found that the only thing harder to promote than a book is a website. My preferred platform is facebook where I have an author page, https://www.facebook.com/Lewis-McIntyre-245650645781133/?fref=ts and on that page I have added to discussion groups, one on history, and the other on relativity physics, the subject of one of my next books... I use those like blogs. My author page links to my two book pages, https://www.facebook.com/TheEagleAndTheDragon/ and https://www.facebook.com/ComeFollowMePilateAndJesus/. Please these for ideas on layout, like and follow them if you like.
    My wife @K McIntyre has hers set up the same way, https://www.facebook.com/KarenDMcIntyreAuthor/, with links to her two books.

    From facebook you can advertise two ways, one free and the other at whatever cost you can afford.

    The free one is to search FB for sites that cater to indie publishers, or interest groups in your genre. Read the rules on each, some allow posts only at certain intervals, others on certain days, etc. I have a word docvument with about a hundred such sites, by name, hyperlink, applicable rules, number of members and my date of last posting. On that word file, I also have my post, which consists of a SHORT two or three sentence plug for the book, followed by the link to its amazon page. When you paste that text into the target site, it will automatically retrieve the image of your cover from amazon, and viewers when they click on the image will go stratight to amazon. Which is why I say SHORT blurb, because they will see your full blurb on Amazon. I copy my text, then open the hyperlink to each site, paste and post, and in about an hour I can reach several tens of thousands of people I don't know, for free.

    The paid route is boosting. From your author or your book page, compose a post like you do on the free special interest sites,, then boost that post., Boosting is paid advertising, for whatever amount and duration you select. Part of the boost allows you to select your audience: I select all English speaking countries (and sell in all of them by the way), ages, genders, and interest such as, for E&D, historical fiction, Rome, China, action/adventure and romance. Then you pay your money. Your post goes out not only to those who like/follow your page, but thousands of people you DON'T know who are in your target audience will see this on their profile as sponsored advertising. Last month's boost reached 20,000 people, generated 1800 likes (10%), and 500 link clicks: FB reports this to you when your boost is finished: a link click is if they clicked the shop now button or image to go to Amazon to see your book, FB has no way of knowing if, after that, they actually bought it.. I also got several dozen shares. Each boost has a high probability of not hitting the same people twice, so you don't wear out your welcome.

    Likes and shares are important, because if a stranger who read your sponsored ad actually clicked the like button, you will be notified, and can invite them to like/follow your page. As of now E&D has 800 followers, people who will see all my future posts. That way, even though they might not have bought your book, they liked what they saw, and if they see your subsequent posts, it may remind them to go check it out. Some will comment, most positively, and you can engage them in a conversation via comments. You may also get some jerks, but you can hide their comments so others don't see them. Also, there is a way to go to the people who shared the sponsored ad they saw, and thank them! They did you a special favor.

    So I don't want to make you drink from a firehose, @Ben James, but that's it in a nutshell. You wanted specifics, you got them. The most important thing to keep in mind is you must reach strangers, people outside your circle of friends, because you will saturate that market real fast, and then begin annoying them if you keep plugging your book to the same people.

    Marketing is work, and I spend several hours a week on that, but it is necessary for the self-publisher.
     
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  12. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I'd have said that boosting was less effective on FB than creating paid adds from an ad account but each to their own (in order to create an ad account you have to have a page not just a profile)
     
  13. Markus12

    Markus12 New Member

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    Hi everyone. I am not a specialist in marketing but I think you can start by sharing information about your writings on social media such as Facebook, Instagram etc. More people know about you more clients you will have.
     
  14. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Nope - there's no evidence that organic shares lead to sales (for Self or trad published authors) it is worth having a social media presence in order to connect with fans and network with other writers but its not an effective way of advertising your business and can become a massive time suck.. paid adverts on social media are an effective option but you have to know what you are doing as its very easy to spend a lot of money (particularly on facebook)
     
  15. Markus12

    Markus12 New Member

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    Probably you didn't understand what I was talking about. I just want to say that Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. have a huge population and you can use it to talk about and popularize your product. Of course, you have to be careful with scammers as well. So it is just my point of view. Thank you.
     
  16. DeeDee

    DeeDee Contributor Contributor

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    While this is true, it's also true that they have a huge population of wannabe writers, too. And that's on top of the significant population of actually published and successful writers. So every day you can see something like 100 people asking you to buy their book. Do you buy 100 books a day? So here's the problem: how to make that huge population chose you over the others. Just being there is not enough these days.
     
  17. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I understood fine but you're wrong - there's no evidence at all the publicising your book on social media through organic posts (as opposed to paid targeted promotion) leads to significant book sales - social media works better for connecting with people who've already bought your book, but even then mailing lists are significantly more powerful

    The two exceptions are a) where you are a non fiction writer who has already built a social media following around your brand as an influencer on a particular subject or b) where you are active in a niche community via groups

    But for the average fiction writer social media is one of the least effective marketing routes, and followers do not equate to sales. In terms of building your brand your time would be better spent writing another book

    That said a self pubbed author needs to have a facebook page because you can't run facebook ads without one, and twitter is useful for networking with other authors (editors, cover designers etc)
     
  18. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I've never bought a book because of an ad on Facebook or Amazon, but I recently bought two books because I read and enjoyed the Twitter accounts of the authors (T. Kingfisher and Myke Cole, if anyone's interested! I really enjoyed the Kingfisher book and bought the next in the series; Cole wasn't for me, but I'm glad I gave him a try anyway.)
     
  19. Laurin Kelly

    Laurin Kelly Contributor Contributor

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    The last few books I've purchased have been from following the author's Twitter as well - Cole McCade, Rick Reed and most recently Rebekah Weatherspoon.
     
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  20. frigocc

    frigocc Contributor Contributor

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    How did you go about finding those Facebook pages? Trying to get my stuff seen when it's done.
     
  21. Lew

    Lew Contributor Contributor

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    Just go on FB and search: historical fiction, fantasy authors, self-published author support, Kindle eBook promotions, etc.
     
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