Marketing

Even if you are traditionally published, marketing is the purview of the author. Basically, because the best thing that sells a book is that connection between fans and the author. There is no magic bullet to marketing or becoming famous. Like all creative industries that 'big break' is mostly due to luck and writing a good book. Marketing is just flirting with luck. So below is the journey you need to go through to market your book. You can skip some or do everything.

Before you write your novel

Create your brand - You do this by having a presence online. You can do this through Twitter, Facebook, Blogging. Whatever feels right to you. There is no one correct way to do this. The minimum should be a basic website or Facebook fan page. Get a professional photo of yourself. Use this whenever a photo is needed. A logo or illustration is also very acceptable.

Build a mailing list - On your website or through a provider like Mailchimp. This way when you write your book you have a fan base that you can easily inform. Another way to do this is to create a Group on Facebook. A good way to build this list is through group promotions on places like Bookfunnel and Prolific Works.

Find your tribe - Whatever genre you write in there are people who are fans. Find them and join the crowd. Talk to them about what you love. Don't talk about your book. Not yet. When you publish, you inform them and by then they are your tribe and not just strangers. Don't spam people with your book.

Enter Competitions - Wouldn't it be great if your debut book could have the tagline of 'award-winning author'. Write short stories and enter them into competitions. This will also help you to improve your craft.

Improve your craft - A good author is always trying to improve their craft. There are critique groups out there. Join them and listen to what they can tell you. If you want a more professional approach, try joining a site like Skillshare or Udemy . I joined critique groups like Fanstory and Critique Circle to improve my craft but there are many different groups out there.

Have a cause - Have a cause you believe in. This is part of your brand. What do you want people to think of when they hear your name. Do Youtube videos, donate your time and link your book or brand with this cause. You are trying to help with awareness but also riding on the coattails of something bigger than you are at the moment.

After you have written your novel but before you publish

Take a deep breath - You are super excited because you are finally at the finish line but slow down. It is important to take your time at this stage.

Teasers - Tease your mailing list, Group or tribe with bits of your writing, the cover reveal and your Woohoo moments. Get them as excited as you are. You can also do Newsletter swaps with other authors. The best place to look for these is to join author promo groups on Facebook. Best to stick with others of your genre.

Preorders - There is a lot of debate over the effectiveness of a preorder. This is useful if you want to start with a good rating. This is where taking your time is useful as you should have absolutely everything ready before you set your preorder as there are penalties for changing things at the last moment. Unless you are publishing through Smashwords who are a lot more understanding and will just move the date. But that isn't a good place to start with people and will impact your brand.

Reviews - Send out ARC's to reviewers. There are two ways to find these reviewers. One, literally google reviewers and check out their sites. Some even have convenient lists like Goodreads. Two, find a book much like your own and see who has reviewed it and ask them for reviews. I would not recommend trailing through Amazon. That is tedious and not as effective, as most of the reviewers on there don't do books. Other ways to get reviews is to sign up for Netgalley but this is better if you join a co-op and a month is the best amount of time per book. The more reviews the better at the start. Once you have 10 or so you should naturally garner reviews and you won't have to worry about soliciting them. There is no magic number but most promotion sites require a certain amount.

Launch - This can be online or a physical party. If you have links with your local library or bookstore organise to have your launch there. It is not worth spending huge amounts of money, as you will not see a huge return on this effort but it will give you a boost. A Facebook party can be worthwhile if you create enough hype and certainly cheaper than a physical event. You can also do book tours but this is only marginally effective so weigh up the cost versus return.

Interviews - Do as many interviews as possible. This is usually easier to get than reviews so offer this to those who have a TBR (to be read) list that is a mile high. Call up your local newspaper, offer to write an article on yourself and send it in. If you write it yourself they are more likely to run it as it means less work on their part. Radio interviews and podcasts are other avenues to get your name out there.

Goodreads - Add your book to Goodreads and claim your author account. This allows you to add details to the book. For everything else, you have to go through the Librarians.

Endorsements - Getting a review from a fellow author or a magazine is a great way to boost your sales. At this stage send out your book to people who might be able to give a short line of endorsement that you can put on your book. For Kindle place this in the summary section. Try people in your tribe who have some influence. Don 't be afraid to ask. The worst that can happen is they say no.

Covers and Blurb - Get a cover that reflects your genre. If you are on a budget try a premade cover. Write an amazing blurb. If you want to check out how to do that check out this video.

Published

Promote - Get your name out there and start ad campaigns. There are sites that will list your book if it is new. Or try Facebook and Amazon ads. I suggest setting a budget for this as returns are not great for your first book. It is when you have a large backlist that advertising makes sense. Below I will list paid and free sites that will take a book with no or few reviews.

Mailing List - Send out to everyone you know that your book is for sale. I suggest first going to your tribe and then to friends and family. This is to help with your 'also boughts'.

Merchandise - There are many sites that will put a quote from your book on a pen or a bag. These are great to use as giveaways. Avoid using your book cover as the image, as it was designed to sell books and not other things. I suggest Redbubble as they are Australian and so postage is quick for New Zealand.

Giveaways - Give away books. Promote that you are giving away books on your platform. It does not make sense to spend money on promoting a free book unless you are doing BookBub. The list below for promoting are all free and easy to use. Plan to list with them about five days before your promotion. If you have a short story or just want to be generous then try BookFunnel.

Goodreads Lists - Add your book to all the appropriate lists on Goodreads

Claim your author profile - Create an author page on Amazon by going to this site.

Write more books - Those who are doing the best are those who are writing a lot. Your best advertising is writing another book. Smashwords talks of this.

Paid Promotions

Book Basset (10 reviews needed)

Bookbub (if you can get this it is worth the money except in December)

Book Lemur