If you are brand new to writing, don't get overwhelmed. Begin marketing by being consistent in one style or venue and then expand your efforts through time.
Start with a website. If you don't have the wherewithal to do it yourself, hire someone. Ask around your fellow authors for recommendations. If you have a website you can't manage, you can hire someone to transition it to a more idiot-friendly platform. I did this recently, and it eliminated a lot of the frustration I felt in the delays to content updates by my former web person.
Blogs have been popular for a while. You can set up a blog through your Blogger or Word Press, though many people have their blogs at their websites because that provides fresh content routinely. Large group blogs, particularly ones that are anchored by
top selling writers, are successful at attracting a consistent readership. If
you aren’t in one of those, consider searching for groups like that and asking
to guest blog. Alternatively, be aggressive and create such a blog. If you are
consistent with your single person blog, you can develop a readership over
time. The key here is consistency and delivering content that appeals to your
followers. Essentially you are painting a word picture of your expertise in
your “brand” area.
Newsletters get back to that one-on-one connection. I rely
on my electronic newsletters to get the word out about my book. I put out a
newsletter quarterly and make it as professional looking and engaging as I can.
The tempo is upbeat. I use color photos. I offer extras (contests, recipes,
appearances) when I can. All of my social media links are included in each
newsletter. I use an inexpensive service, Vertical Response, to create the
emails and send them out. Another similar utility is Mail Chimp. I’ve built my
subscriber list up through activities in a marketing co-op.
Marketing co-ops like Booklovers Bench also create a buzz
and a professional brand. I banded together with several mystery and romance
writers a few years back to do this because I write mystery and romance. The
net effect is that we’ve pooled our readerships, thus multiplying our potential
market. We send book information to readers of our genres routinely. http://www.bookloversbench.com
Crowdsourcing is the new buzz word, or at least it’s new to
me. The recent contract I won through the Kindle Scout program for my G-1 came as a result
of reader input and viral marketing. Many authors are using utilities like
Thunderclap to promote. As I understand it, authors get their friends to agree
to post word of their event or book release on Facebook or Twitter. The
Thunderclap utility has the tweet and FB post already uploaded. Folks agree and
give the utility permission to post automatically (once) for that event on a
certain day, thus ensuring a blitz of low-cost information hitting a wide
audience. You have to have a minimum number of people to agree to help you. I
think it’s 100 but I’m not sure.
To sum up, many strategies are out there to find readers.
I’ve found I can’t do everything or even half of everything. It just makes me
nuts. My advice is to do the things you like or that you don’t find
objectionable. It’s also easier for me if I do a little each day. You can
prewrite blogs or other social media posts. Heck, on my Facebook author page I
can even upload and preschedule posts. That’s great when I travel to
conferences and can’t “tend the gardens.”
Maggie Toussaint
writing science fiction as Rigel Carson
Facebook * Twitter * Blog * Goodreads * LinkedIn * Pinterest * Booklover's Bench * Amazon
Author Central
.jpg)
.jpg)