Marketing...part duex #bookmarketing

While scoping out pics for a blog post on marketing, this one totally fit the bill. Why? Because creating a marketing plan often feels like driving around on crazy looking roads like this. 

Learning how to market your books is a never ending battle. You find something that works once, then never works again. You have a random day of awesome sales you can't credit to anything other than dumb luck. You research and put everything to use only to see no change. Like I said...it's a battle. 

So, what have a learned since the last time I griped about marketing? 

Hire someone who knows what they're doing. Caitlin Bauer of Royal Social Media is one of these people. She came highly recommended to me by other authors, and she's totally held up her end of the bargain in training, graphics, ads, everything we've done together so far. She also breaks everything down at the end of the month of ads to explain what the heck happened. I can't recommend her enough. 

Facebook groups posting does work. Now, that's not to say it works as well as it once did before the almighty Facebook decided to screw around with how people see pages and groups. That's a whole other rant, trust me. However, I have the ability to watch the direct sales on 13 of my 15 books, and I can attest to the fact that it affects my sales. For me, posting in 30-50 groups per day works best. For you, it might be different. 

Participating in other authors events is awesome...and fun! I've done quite a few Facebook page takeover and events over the last few months, and not only is is gratifying to help another author out, you get to meet new readers you might not have before. Games that work well are having them like and comment on your FB page to be entered into a raffle for a cool prize, "Caption This" games, name the characters who said..., guess the symbol (I use a lot of symbols in my books), and this probably won't apply to every author but having people tell bad date stories in honor of my Date Shark books was a HUGE hit! Get creative, help another author, and have fun!

Consistent interaction with readers. Honestly, this has been the biggest eye opener for me. I've heard this said a zillion times, but only after Caitlin showed me how to put that advice to use did I begin to see what a difference it makes. Schedule posts/tweets/pins to post regularly so your readers always have new content. Follow a pattern or make it random, whatever works best for you. Use your analytics to see what times are best for posting. And don't forget to ENGAGE with your readers when they do comment or like something. Talk back, start a conversation, make a lifelong friend. It makes a huge difference. 

Specifics:

I recently tried a few new promotional avenues and thought I'd share how they went. Book Tweeters was very effective and reasonably priced. I plan on using them for future release day events. HeadTalker and Thunderclap campaigns have worked well for other authors, but for me I didn't see any increase in sales or traffic on the posting day, so I don't think I'll be using them again since they're very time consuming to reach the goals. 

Marketing each book and genre is so individual, there is no one-size-fits-all plan, but doing your research and keeping track will help you build a plan that works for you.

You Owe Me

I'm going to get on my soap box for just a minute today.

I generally leave my soap box sitting in a corner to be used only rarely, but I felt that I needed to pull it out today and touch on a subject that has been on my mind lately. The writing community is an awesome thing to be a part of. Authors who are working on building their platforms can find a lot of fabulous friends who will be happy to help support them,.


The key word here is "friends."



Not random stangers. Not someone who "liked" or commented once on a status update of yours. Not someone you saw belonged to one of the many Facebook groups you belong to. The writing community is a tight knit group, and even though new friends are always happily welcomed, those who are stopping by only to push their own agenda are going to have a more difficult time.



Something I've found happening quite often lately, personally and with other authors, is getting a message from an author or aspiring writer they don't know asking for favors. It might be something as simple as "I liked your page. Will you like mine in return?" or it might be something that requires a bit more like "I enjoy your books, can you read one of mine and tell me what you think?"



Let's take the "Like" exchange to start off with. Me liking your page doesn't do a lot of good for you, other than give you one more "Like." If I don't know who you are, even if I "like" your page, it's unlikely that I'll see, like, and comment on your posts, especially if it's not a genre I read, like male/male romance.



Also, I'm not really your tartget audience. You want actual interested readers to like your page, not other authors who have no real connection to you or your books. And to be perfectly honest, it's not polite and will start you of in a less than agreeable spot with your new "friend." There are plenty of Facebook groups out there to exchange "Likes." I don't participate in them because I won't "Like" and page I don't actually like or know anything about. Please don't solicit "Likes" from other authors out of the blue. If I know you and enjoy your work, I will "Like" you page. I don't ask every author I meet to "Like" my page because I assume they probably feel the same way I do.


Now, on to asking for larger favors.



Reading an entire book, or even a short story, takes a lot of time. That's not something I have a ton of, and I assume the majority of people I meet are in the same situation. The only people I ask to read something for me are close friends I know who, A) have the time and B) actually want to read it. Don't ask strangers to read your writing. Just don't.



On that same note, don't randomly ask people to share you announcements or sales or new releases. If you have a relationship with that person and know they have a blog or page where they share that sort of thing, ASK AWAY! Most authors will be happy to help. I get requests to share things about erotica or gruesome horror or something similar. Most of my fans and readers are teens. I don't share those types of posts. People who know me and what I write know that.



Being online takes away people's inhibitions in many ways. You wouldn't ask a stranger on the street to do a favor for you, especially one that is time consuming or might cause problems for them. Don't do it online either.



I don't want this to sound like I don't want to help other authors. Those who know me know that I spend a lot of time helping other authors with promotions, graphics, book covers, formatting, review/critiques, advice, whatever they need. I want other authors to succeed. I want books and reading to succeed. I love helping other authors, but being asked to do something for someone I don't even know sends a message of "You Owe Me," just because we're both authors. That's not how it works. Like every other business, you have to build relationships, not just take the "buy my book," "like my page" approach. It doesn't work.

Feel free to let me know what you think about this topic!