Basic Author Marketing. From words to sales

Transcription

1 Basic Author Marketing From words to sales

2 Who are we? The Writers Cooperative of the Pacific Northwest A collaborative group of professional, independent writers Work together to effectively market ourselves digitally Development of an online presence as a group and individually Focus on selling physical books

3 From a Hobby to a Business Business Mindset Hobby (writing) to a business (Author) Marketing is harder than writing a book Traditional Authors, Small Press, and Indie authors still need to market Very often a One Man Band

4 Midlist Focus - Workmanlike Mentality We all want to be Grisham, Nora Roberts, Dan Brown, Patterson, King, etc. Midlist is a term in the publishing industry which refers to books which are not bestsellers but are strong enough to economically justify their publication (and likely, further purchases of future books from the same author).

5 Author Marketing as a Family Photo

6 Midlist Author Marketing Must Haves Know Thyself Coherent Strategy Surrounding Your Publishing Mailing List, Newsletter, Steady Flow of New Subscribers Routine/Ongoing/Periodic Marketing Ad Stacking Marketing Mentality Getting Started (Examples)

7 Define what success means to you Your choice will determine how much effort/money you put into marketing Is the act of publishing enough? Do you want a traditional publishing deal? Do you want to see your book on a shelf somewhere? Do you want to see your book on the library catalogue? Do you want to break even? Do you want some money in your pocket? Do you want to pay a small bill a month? Do you want to be a full-time writer? Do you want to retire and write on the beach the rest of your life?

8 Come to grips with the type of person you are Your personal nature will dictate how you act and market Are you a technophobe? Do you like to DIY? Are you a graphic arts minded person? Do you have thin skin? Can you engage people in the real world or online? Are you self-aware or understand if you re being socially awkward?

9 Midlist Author Marketing Must Haves Know Thyself Coherent Strategy Surrounding Your Publishing Mailing List, Newsletter, Steady Flow of New Subscribers Routine/Ongoing/Periodic Marketing Ad Stacking Marketing Mentality Getting Started (Examples)

10 Marketing Starts When You Start Writing Write to market vs. write what you want Stand Alone or Series What is popular and can you incorporate that into your book? (Unicorns, Dragons) How am I going to get people into this book? (Lead Magnet) Do I need a prequel? Preview? Going wide vs. Amazon exclusive What genre will you be targeting? ( Is it crowded? Will you be alone? Covers? ( Don t start marketing after you launch your book

11 The best marketing is to write the next book The best marketing you can do is to write the next book. (Series or Stand-Alone) Authors need to write fast and released often. Success is better obtained through a large catalogue than one or two books. Three must haves: Multiple Books, Great Covers, Great Descriptions

12 Find your Book One Focus Marketing on Book One First Book in your series Boxset First in a World Best Book Most active genre

13 Midlist Author Marketing Must Haves Know Thyself Coherent Strategy Surrounding Your Publishing Mailing List, Newsletter, Steady Flow of Subscribers Routine/Ongoing/Periodic Marketing Ad Stacking Marketing Mentality Getting Started (Examples)

14 Why does everyone talk about Your List Why an list? Mailing Lists are the most powerful tools we have Book sellers do not share customer contact info is personal Supports: Reviews generation, Launching, Sales

15 Mailchimp/Mailerlite are Free (to start) Mailchimp is free up to 2000 subscribers Mailerlite is free up to 1000 subscribers Mailerlite is cheaper than Mailchimp Widely used and lots of online help content (youtube, tutorials, web posts, etc) Automatic sign ups (Web and Embedded Forms) Deliver free content (lead magnets, opt in giveaways, etc)

16 First layer of Marketing (Mailing List Engine) Collect Contacts Cultivate a Newsletter that has value Weekly, Monthly, or pre-written 12 months of newsletters. Short stories, character interviews, giveaways, etc Make it worth opening Contacts are not customers they are friends Community promotes you, supports you, gives reviews, and buys. Onboard new people continuously Website, giveaways, promotions, opt-ins, etc Instafreebie, Bookfunnel, Book matter (front and back) Once it s running its a set it and forget-it-ish

17 Midlist Author Marketing Must Haves Know Thyself Coherent Strategy Surrounding Your Publishing Mailing List, Newsletter, Steady Flow of Subscribers Routine/Ongoing/Periodic Marketing Ad Stacking Marketing Mentality Getting Started (Examples)

18 Periodic Marketing Push Don t get caught in the 24/7 marketing morass Beginners use Focused Simplicity Focused : Marketing Bursts 1-4 times a year for 1-2+ weeks Simplicity : Algorithmic or Formulaic Plan Monkey See Monkey Do Review, Revise, and Repeat

19 Find your Book One Focus Marketing on Book One First Book in your series Boxset First in a World Best Book Most active genre

20 Marketing Plan Goals Evolve over time At First: Familiarity with the products (amazon, mailing lists, etc) Running a time sensitive plan Readers who are more than friends and family Drive reviews and social proof Lower temporary prices Long Term: Profitability Read-through Subscribers/Social media followers

21 Midlist Author Marketing Must Haves Know Thyself Coherent Strategy Surrounding Your Publishing Mailing List, Newsletter, Steady Flow of Subscribers Routine/Ongoing/Periodic Marketing Ad Stacking Marketing Mentality Getting Started (Examples)

22 Key Term (1 of 2) - Conversion Rate The rate at which a person is willing to buy your book Driven by factors (in order of importance): Cover image Value of the reviews Number of reviews Price Book blurb Everything else... Conversion Rate is zero without traffic...

23 Key Term (2 of 2) - Traffic The numbers of people who are driven to and organically find your book Ways to drive traffic: Newsletters/Autoresponders Paid Traffic (Facebook or AMS) Organic traffic (rankings or search) Search engine traffic (google) 3rd party websites (youtube, blogs, social media, serialize publishing sites like wattpad or Inkitt)

24 Ad Stacking is in the Baking Aisle

25 Marketing is a Game of Layers Each layer by itself will not be profitable Added together will help you towards organic reach Work Amazon algorithms (overall rankings and subcategory rankings) Sustained purchases key, no one day bumps Drive Also bought recommendations Amazon marketing s and suggested titles

26 Layer Examples Newsletter Social Media Friends and family push Free promotions (Reddit) Ad stacking using book promo lists (one or more during marketing period) [ADVANCED] Paid traffic (AMS/Facebook) [ADVANCED] Newsletter swaps with other authors

27 Visual Example

28 Book Promo Lists Top 5 BookBub (price varies): BookBub trounces every site on this list by many orders of magnitude. ENT ($35) RobinReads ($30 $80): becoming more difficult to book FreeBooksy ($50 $100): the best site for free books outside of BookBub Book Barbarian ($25 $50): SF/Fantasy only Second Level FKBT ($25 $30) BargainBooksy ($25 $80): FreeBooksy s sister site for paid books; not nearly as powerful, but still solid Booksends ($25 $75): better for $0.99 rather than free books due to pricing of respective ads Book Adrenaline ($8 $20): Book Barbarian s sister site for thrillers/mysteries.

29 Midlist Author Marketing Must Haves Know Thyself Coherent Strategy Surrounding Your Publishing Mailing List, Newsletter, Steady Flow of Subscribers Routine/Ongoing/Periodic Marketing Ad Stacking Marketing Mentality Getting Started (Examples)

30 Sample Plans Starter Plan (KDP) Dead Red Example Starter Plan (Wide) YA Fantasy Example (WCPNW #1) Advanced Urban Fantasy Example (WCPNW #2)

31 Starter Plan (KDP Select) Day Zero: Set Book One to $0.99 (Day1-3) Book One free promotion Newsletter Social media Friends and family push Reddit promotion (Day 4) Book One price returns to $0.99 (Day 5) $0.99 promo (Day 7) Return Book One price to normal

32 Dead Red - Marketing Experiment Used the Starter Plan (KDP Select) Dead Red (Sci-Fi Horror) Giveaways: 1720 Earnings: $ (237 sales and 32k page reads) No barigainbooksy purchase Only my newsletter One single promotion at the end of April Book Costs: ~$150 (Cover/print copies)

33 Starter Plan (Wide) Day Zero: Set Book One to $0.99 (Day1-3) Book One promotion Newsletter Social media Friends and family push Reddit promotion Promo #1 $0.99 promo (Day 2) (Day 4) Book Promo #2 $0.99 promo (Day 6) Book Promo #3 $0.99 promo (Day 7) Return Book One price to normal

34 WCPNW #1 Example (YA Dragon Fantasy) Day Zero: All dragon books set to $0.99 Boxset set to $0.99 (Day1-3, Friday-Sunday) Free Promotion - New Dragon Book Newsletter, social media, Friends and family push, Reddit promotion (Day 4, Monday) Price Returns to $0.99 (Day 5, Tuesday) Bargainbooksy with new dragon $0.99 promo (Day 7, Friday) Return prices. Book 1 $0.99 Book 2/3 $2.99, Boxset $0.99 (Day 7-10, Friday-Sunday) Boxset Free Promotion Newsletter, social media, Friends and family push, Reddit promotion (Day 11, Monday) Boxset Price Returns to $0.99 (Day 12, Tuesday) $0.99 promo (Day 15, Friday) Boxset price returns to $2.99 Outcome: First marketing push, spent ~$100, ~10 Amazon reviews, ~10 GR reviews, broke even after 21 days.

35 WCPNW #2 Example (Urban Fantasy Part 1) Day Zero: Book One set to $0.99 Book Two set to preorder $3.99 Amazon AMS Ads throughout the time period and beyond (Day1, Wednesday) Newsletter, social media, Bookbub Blast to Followers Ads: BargainBooksy, GenrePulse, ReadCheaply, ebookbetty (Day 2, Thursday) September UF Group Promo hosted by UF Writers Assemble ($0.99 Group Promotion) Ads: Book Runes, ebookhounds (Day 3, Friday) Ads: BookSends UF Group Promo continues

36 WCPNW #2 Example (Urban Fantasy Part 2) (Day 4, Saturday) Another Newsletter Blast "last 3 days to get it at 99 cents" Ads: BookScream Last day of UF promo (Day 5, Sunday) Ads: FussyLibrarian Newsletter swap: Bear Mountain Books NL (Day 7, Tuesday) Ads: Fantasy Book Deals (Day 8, Wednesday) Raise the price to $3.99 Outcome: Over ~20 Amazon reviews, ~120 GR reviews, Spent ~3-4 weeks above #2000 ranking on Amazon, ~$5k in a month

37 Next Steps Know Thyself Coherent Strategy Surrounding Your Publishing Mailing List, Newsletter, Steady Flow of New Subscribers Routine/Ongoing/Periodic Marketing Ad Stacking Marketing Mentality Getting Started (Examples)

38 Actions to take Tonight (1 hour): Plan how you market your book (Review Marketing Starts When You Start Writing slide) Do I need to create a lead magnet? What Genre am I in? This week (3 hours): What platforms can I get started with? (website, mailchimp/mailerlite, etc) Next month (15 hours): Find 10 independent authors (small and medium) in your genre Subscribe to their lists, read their lead magnet books, view all of their copy, Amazon pages, burbs, bios, analyze their covers, etc. Print it off and lay it out on the kitchen table. What do you like and what don t you like Do not copy, but allow these people to INSPIRE what you do