Marketing on a Budget

[Ned Marcus]

Any ideas of how to market for little or no money? I've been doing this for a while, so I've tried quite a few ways, but it's possible I'm missing something. I've listed what I do at the moment (plus one I plan to do).

Comments or ideas are welcome.

Here's the list:

• Blog
• Newsletter
• Book promotion websites (cheap ones like eReaderIQ)
• Kobo promotions
• Facebook page
• Pinterest (I've set up the page but not started yet)
• Selling short stories (hard and I've only sold a handful so far)

Is there anything I'm missing? Apart from luck.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Definitely things you're missing.

Ones I can think of off the top of my head:
- approaching book influencers with your book (this can be book bloggers, youtubers, instagrammers, tiktokkers, and anything else)
- Newsletter swaps: promote books of other people and in return they promote yours (usually via sites like StoryOrigin or Bookfunnel)
- Group promos. Like Newsletter swaps, but then with a group of authors working together
- retailer specific promos. Most sites (other than Amazon) run regular promo events. If you get in one, you discount your book there, and they promote your book (together with all the other books in the promo). Draft2Digital also offers these for some retailers.
- Free days on Amazon: if you're KU exclusive, then you can make your book free 5 days per quarter (or month, it's either one of those)
- Amazon promos. They run them, you can apply via your KDP marketing dashboard. Not sure what criteria help you get in though.
- Free first in series: have a book that is permanently free to draw in readers. Done mostly with the first in a long series, where you earn money on read-through
- TikTok: a bit genre dependent, but people have built author careers off a succesful BookTok channel. Takes time though to get a big enough channel

There are probably more. But they're all in the same idea.

Of course, ads don't have to be expensive, though they often are. Especially because it takes some learning (and thus money) to get them right. Main ad channels are Amazon and Facebook.

 

[Ned Marcus]

I've tried many of these without success. Unfortunately (from a marketing perspective) my series aren't long and I'm not exclusive to Amazon. One thing I've not tried is approaching a book influencer. I know that many influencers are expensive, but haven't heard much about book influencers specifically. Have you ever used one?

 

[skip.knox]

Not a bad list, so I took the liberty of combining from the two posts. It's worth pointing out that many of these actually do entail a cost, so each range from very cheap to break-the-bank expensive. All depends on how far you're willing to go.

It's also worth pointing out that time is money, and even the free ones are going to cost you time. And (I'm just full of postscripts today), even the successful ones are going to cost to keep them going--time and money.

• approaching book influencers with your book (this can be book bloggers, youtubers, instagrammers, tiktokkers, and anything else)
• Newsletter swaps: promote books of other people and in return they promote yours (usually via sites like StoryOrigin or Bookfunnel)
• Group promos. Like Newsletter swaps, but then with a group of authors working together
• retailer specific promos. Most sites (other than Amazon) run regular promo events. If you get in one, you discount your book there, and they promote your book (together with all the other books in the promo). Draft2Digital also offers these for some retailers.
• Free days on Amazon: if you're KU exclusive, then you can make your book free 5 days per quarter (or month, it's either one of those)
• Amazon promos. They run them, you can apply via your KDP marketing dashboard. Not sure what criteria help you get in though.
• Free first in series: have a book that is permanently free to draw in readers. Done mostly with the first in a long series, where you earn money on read-through
• TikTok: a bit genre dependent, but people have built author careers off a succesful BookTok channel. Takes time though to get a big enough channel
• Blog
• Newsletter
• Book promotion websites (cheap ones like eReaderIQ)
• Kobo promotions
• Facebook page
• Pinterest (I've set up the page but not started yet)
• Selling short stories (hard and I've only sold a handful so far)
• Book competitions. Some are free, some are paid, not sure most move a lot of copies, though every bit helps. Competitions like the SPFBO. They're for indie authors, they're hard to get in to, harder to win, but they should give plenty of exposure.
• book forums: reddit has an active fantasy subreddit (r/fantasy), where you can have people get to know you. They also allow a small amount of self promotion, are friendly towards indie authors, and have monthly reading challenges etc. But I'm sure there are other forums as well. People have also reported being active in Facebook reader groups. Though the important thing is to be active in the forum itself, keep your self-promo to a minimum, and always check the community guidelines.
• Wattpad, Royal Road, and similar: These are places to publish serialized stories. They're free to read (I think), but they have been a good place to create a following for some authors.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I know that many influencers are expensive, but haven't heard much about book influencers specifically. Have you ever used one?

I haven't tried, but as far as I know, most book influencers are free. You basically send them a copy of your book, and ask them to review it. If they like ebooks, then the process only takes time, if they prefer physical books, then you'll have to pay for a copy to be delivered to them, which isn't free, but shouldn't be too expensive.

The main problem is actually getting the influencers to read your book. The big ones probably get loads of books sent to them with review requests. Smaller ones might be easier, but also have a smaller reach.

The standard advice is to find niche influencers as close to your novel as possible. Try to build some kind of relationship with them (comment their posts etc). Ask them to review your novel (following any guidelines they've given about how to reach out to them). The best ones are up-and-comming influencers who don't have a huge audience yet, but who are actively building a following.

TikTok is the hip place for book influencers at the moment. But Instagram and Youtube also work. And there are countless blogs about books out there. Though finding one active and big enough to be worth your time might be hard.

Skip is right that many things take some kind of investment (Bookfunnel and StoryOrigin aren't free for instance), but some take more than others. And plenty only take time and not money.

A few more ideas (just so skip.knox has to edit his list once again... ):
- Book competitions. Some are free, some are paid, not sure most move a lot of copies, though every bit helps. Competitions like the SPFBO. They're for indie authors, they're hard to get in to, harder to win, but they should give plenty of exposure.
- book forums: reddit has an active fantasy subreddit (r/fantasy), where you can have people get to know you. They also allow a small amount of self promotion, are friendly towards indie authors, and have monthly reading challenges etc. But I'm sure there are other forums as well. People have also reported being active in Facebook reader groups. Though the important thing is to be active in the forum itself, keep your self-promo to a minimum, and always check the community guidelines.
- Wattpad, Royal Road, and similar: These are places to publish serialized stories. They're free to read (I think), but they have been a good place to create a following for some authors.

 

[skip.knox]

Edit done.
A curse upon princes and all the aristocracy. (seems appropriate for 7/14)

 

[Ned Marcus]

TikTok is the hip place for book influencers at the moment. But Instagram and Youtube also work. And there are countless blogs about books out there. Though finding one active and big enough to be worth your time might be hard.

I follow some good fantasy and SF YouTube channels, but they only discuss trad-published books. So far, I've not found any large fantasy blogs. If anyone knows of any, please leave a comment here. SPFBO is good. I've entered twice and got some publicity because of it. I've run out of books to enter and need to get my next one completed.

Reddit is somewhere I'm active, though I'd not really thought about it as marketing. You're right, though, it is. I'm not sure how many people will click on a profile and then go to the trouble of finding the website or look on Amazon. Perhaps it's better for familiarising fantasy fans with your name. I think it's supposed to be about 7-8 points of contact with a product are needed before people will click to learn more, so it's one more way. Some of the conversations are fun, too.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I follow some good fantasy and SF YouTube channels, but they only discuss trad-published books.

Daniel Green in the past has reviewed some indie novel, and he recently mentioned he wanted to give more indie authors a spotlight. So you can always try him (though that's aiming high...). I think you'd want smaller, up-and-comming channels. I've watches this a while back:

It's an interesting take about this. It takes time and effort, but it can be worth it.

Reddit is somewhere I'm active, though I'd not really thought about it as marketing. You're right, though, it is. I'm not sure how many people will click on a profile and then go to the trouble of finding the website or look on Amazon. Perhaps it's better for familiarising fantasy fans with your name. I think it's supposed to be about 7-8 points of contact with a product are needed before people will click to learn more, so it's one more way. Some of the conversations are fun, too.

It's a bit different I think. It's not so much people going to your profile, but rather, being known by people, which let's your get away with the occasional self-promo. There's plenty of people asking "I like X, what should be my next read?" If you always give a good answer to such a question, then you can occasionally slip in "I wrote something that's perfect for you." and get away with it. And they run a monthly book club, where you can submit your book to which gets lots of eyes on it. And a simple fact is that if people know and like you, then they're more likely to actually buy something from you.

 

[Ned Marcus]

Daniel Green in the past has reviewed some indie novel, and he recently mentioned he wanted to give more indie authors a spotlight.


It's a bit different I think. It's not so much people going to your profile, but rather, being known by people, which let's your get away with the occasional self-promo. There's plenty of people asking "I like X, what should be my next read?" If you always give a good answer to such a question, then you can occasionally slip in "I wrote something that's perfect for you." and get away with it. And they run a monthly book club, where you can submit your book to which gets lots of eyes on it. And a simple fact is that if people know and like you, then they're more likely to actually buy something from you.

Thanks, I'll watch some of his videos.

To be honest, I'm hesitant to recommend my own stories, even when they're a good match for what's being asked for.

 

[Ned Marcus]

It's a bit different I think. It's not so much people going to your profile, but rather, being known by people, which let's your get away with the occasional self-promo.

I've also noticed that Reddit Fantasy has a self-promo Sunday. Have you ever used this?

 

[Prince of Spires]

I've also noticed that Reddit Fantasy has a self-promo Sunday. Have you ever used this?

I haven't, but that's mainly because I'm not active on Reddit. I know a few other authors who are active in r/fantasy, and they've had good results with it. Both the self-promo thread and they also have a monthly reading group which you can submit your book for. It's a pretty good subreddit if you want to be active and known in the fantasy community I feel.