How much do you market?

It's very difficult. I struggle majorly with it. Facebook groups, Instafreebie, regular output...these have worked some for me. Also newsletter swaps.

 

I've been giving Instafreebie a try lately. I did once before and did good with it but gave it up for reasons. I'm back in it and running a giveaway with other authors. It's going better than I expected so that's the good news. My attitude about freebies has been slowly changing over the past few months anyway. My sales increased a little from having permafrees that I can also do giveaways and email list stuff with. So there are a couple more options for others to check out. Also, I've been getting a lot out of Your First 1000 Readers. I'm also exploring Goodreads to connect with readers more and so far I have to say it's going to take ages on all of these things. But it's better than not having a plan at all.

 

How much do we promote? For my wife, it's a full-time job. Madness. She's on Twitter and Goodreads and Facebook and everywhere in between, updating our website and doing interviews (we just had one publish this week and she has a video interview coming up in a couple weeks), and networking/meeting new people, all while I'm writing my tail off and our third partner works the development angle.

 

I'll PM you my link. By the way, you can also add your blog to your Goodreads author page. I'm having issues linking it to my Wix account but it is possible (did it back when I had Go Daddy back in the day). Another thing I'm doing is working it on Pinterest. I love Pinterest quite a lot and do try a lot of the recipes and crazy ideas I pin on there. My 1940's romance series has a dedicated Pinterest page (as does Rose Historicals but it's still a few pins right now). I'm doing it mostly for fun and I put the link to it in the back of my books and on my website. It also goes out as a link in my newsletters. The pin board has mostly historical pictures with some fashion/hair/make up tips from that era. It's a good deal of fun and I hope to connect with other people who like that sort of stuff. I don't know where this will take me (if anywhere) but it's another avenue to try.

*Mailing lists, anyone? My goal is to learn automation in 2018. This will be the year I improve my relationship with mailing lists in general. For anyone doing marketing, just saying this should be our #1 goal besides writing good content!

Lucky you! Wish I could get someone to help me out like this! Our biggest enemy is obscurity. One of the things I've been learning lately is that oversharing is better than not sharing at all. So the more you're out there getting A.E. Lowan's name into the open, seeking to connect with readers through any way you can it's all a positive. Good luck with it all!

 

Mailing lists are really becoming a must, according to my wife, and we are working on putting exclusive content together for ours right now.

I know, I am super, super lucky to be on a team of 3! My wife is really good at the marketing stuff, much better than I ever was, and she is also our master plotter.

 

I did a little bit of marketing for Emma's Story when I released it. It wasn't much, and I kept telling myself I did it mainly to try out the wates and see what it's like. It didn't work out very well, but it was fun to try it.

I too have heard that the best way to promote a book is to write another book, and that's the plan for now. It'll be another few months before it's ready, but it's under way and hopefully it won't be delayed too much.
In the meantime I'm "promoting" myself as a writer/artist/person instead of the book I released. For this I'm mainly using instagram and my blog. On instagram I share little bits of poetry and random pictures of things I do.
On the blog I write about stuff I do. Lately there's been a lot about my book as that's what's taken up most of my time and attention, but there are other things as well, and far from all of it is writing related.

The theory is that if I get people interested in what I do, it'll be easier to get them interested in my books once they're available.

 

Promote before it's done. I let my reader base, all twelve of them, know what I'm working on.

So, I have a web site and a newsletter (every other month). There I say, here is what is currently for sale. Here is what I'm writing and roughly where I am in the process; you can look for publication in spring/summer/fall/winter. After that book is out, here's what's up next.

As the publication gets nearer, I can say a couple of more specific things. One is the cover reveal. The other is to say the book is at the editor. I get to blame the editor for delays. <grin>

I've not done any pre-release stuff--ARCs and the like. May do so on the next one (Into the Second World).

Then, after the book is out, I do (will do; haven't yet) a sale or a giveaway.

The above gives me something to say pretty much every month. I say these things in forums and in FB groups. I'm trying to care enough about Twitter to keep that up to date as well.

And a comment. I don't think of this as promotion. I mean, it is, but that word (along with marketing) has such bad connotations for so many authors, I try to look at it another way. I'm communicating with my readers and with people I think would like my books. If I don't talk to them, no one else will. I have a couple of bands I really like and I sign up for their newsletter so they can tell me when they release new material. I've done the same with Josiah Bancroft because I'm dying to get my hands on his next book. Of course they are selling me something, but honestly the sale is already made. They're telling me something, and I'm glad to hear it. It's in that spirit I approach my marketing.

>that one fatal click.
Here's hoping the click is fateful, not fatal.

 

I've been working on learning Pinterest better. It's going pretty well so far. The platform is used mainly for shopping purposes and I know there are authors who market on it. My goal is to have a fun space to share information related to the books I write. There's plenty of that on Pinterest and it's great for creating inspiration boards.