Whether you’ve had major frustrations marketing your books or you’re just starting out, sales boosts can be extremely beneficial. Here are my top ten marketing strategies in a nutshell. (For more information on each one, check out our book the Busy Moms Guide to Novel Marketing).
- Start with a product people want to buy. Invest in a good editor and cover, create a story in a genre with a good fan base. Look at best-selling books in the same genre to get an idea of what people are looking for.
- Gather reviews. People want to know what they’re paying for.
- Start an e-mail newsletter, and offer a freebie of some sort for people who sign up for it. Pay for services like Ryan Zee who will get you subscribers who are interested in your particular genre. Swap articles, announcements, and contest posts with other, similar-genre writers who have also have newsletters.
- Don’t shy away from giving out some of your books for free. Learn how to free-pulse with the Kindle Select Program, and spread your free days out in a ninety day period to get next day sales after your free days.
- Find the right promotional sites for your genre and invest in monthly ads during your free days. Some of Angela’s favorite places to advertise on free days are Book Barbarian, E-reader News today, Robin Reads, Bookbub, Faithful Reads, Many Books, and My Book Cave.
- Start a Facebook author page. Make sure links to your website and author page are accessible from Facebook. Don’t make people have to turn into detectives just to find your books.
- Experiment with Amazon Marketing Service ads. Create ads with at least 200+ keywords and start out with dollar-per-day budgets. Experiment with different wording for your ads to see what catches customer’s attention.
- Create a nicely-designed website, and make sure links to your products are accessible on every page.
- Carry business cards with your author information. You never know when you’ll meet someone who likes your genre, or a teacher or librarian who can set you up for an author talk.
- Create a local presence. Sell your book at craft booths/art events, talk to local bookstore owners to see if they’ll give you space on their shelf, and donate your book to local libraries.
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