FAQ - Marketing Strategies
Welcome back to another FAQ. For those of you just joining us, I polled new writers and got their most asked questions and then asked my fellow writer's these questions. Below you'll find one of those questions and answers from each author. The author's Bios and links to their website/Amazon page etc. will be after all the answers. Check them out for some awesome reads!
Here is the fifth of the new author FAQs. Keep on the look out for more in the coming months.
Question 5 - What are some of your best marketing strategies? What worries you about marketing?
Azalea - As a new author, my main worry concerning marketing is finding the best way to get my books out there. With so many other indie authors, the field is quite saturated and this makes it difficult for you to be seen. It also increases the costs of marketing, which adds to the worry.
Tiffanie - I have had a bit of experience with marketing but not a lot. As an Indie Writer marketing really scares me. How do I get my name out there without paying millions, that I don’t have? The one thing I’ve been working with is a website. Keeping new information up and posting blogs that keep people interested. I know it’s not ads that toss my book out there, but I’ve found ads are hit or miss and most of the ones I’ve done, have been misses. I’m still coming up with new ideas and hopefully I’ll be able to find something that works, and doesn’t break the bank.
Jane - Marketing is tricky because of bring a romance writer. I often cant get ads.
I try to be active in the reader community.
I have a Youtube channel.
I go to local author events.
Kayla - Everything. Marketing is the thing that scares me the most. I don’t want to have to put that much time into making sure someone finds my book. I don’t like writing blogs, and I’m not a big fan of social media. I want to just…give my finished product to someone else and walk away.
Mart - I feel like I’m always just starting out. I’m learning to market on line, but it’s slow going. I feel a lot like I’m throwing notes into a raging river that’s full of other sodden notes. But I like to hand sell. My best sale is made when I put the book into somebody’s hand and start talking to them.
Ravyn - Honestly, the best marketing strategy I ever heard was to rely on experts. Basically, I was at a writing convention here in Mesa, AZ. A 2 days event where we ran around down-town Mesa going to different seminars and workshops. During one of them, I met a husband and wife team that had just released their first book ever. And it had 110 reviews. They achieved this by realizing they were writing about a post-apocalyptic world where the characters rode horses. Neither of them had ever rode a horse. So, they went to a horse group on Facebook and asked members for advice. They asked for help with every scene involving riding a horse, and each time they reminded people of the name of the book, and got the entire group involved in the writing of this story. They thanked the group in their acknowledgment and gave out ARC copies to a few members who had helped the most. They also did this when it came to other prepper related details, making it so they had fifty people, in the end, who were actively reading the scenes and invested in the story, and were given ARC copies, so when they released, they have 50 reviews they already knew were positive, and twenty other ARC copies out there with the reviews ready that they were fairly sure would be positive on release day.
Sidney - When at events or conventions: treat people like people, not walking wallets.
Strike up a conversation with people, then if they seem interested, you can go into your sales pitch and travel down the selling road. Most of the time I find the customer is the one who opens this road: "That's wonderful! So, that do you write? What are your books about?"
You're books should be able to sell themselves without you behind them shoving them down some poor souls throat passing by. I see this *way* too much at book festivals.
All authors tend to be introverts, so the thought of pushing yourself out there to sell as an extrovert is very frightening. Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out the whole marketing thing, just like so many others are.
Actually, a little secret about me is that I usually have to psych myself up for about five days before big events to get into that extrovert head space I need to be a sociable saleswoman. It's usually very draining and I need a good day or two after of introvert come down and rebalancing time after.
Marketing isn't as easy as A + B = C and never believe anyone who says you have to do X, Y and Z or you aren’t marketing right. There isn't a right or wrong path here, so you just test different avenues and see what works and what doesn't. If you find something that's working for you, build upon that.
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Author Bio's
Azalea - I'm Azalea Fox, a contemporary and erotic romance author. I love reading and writing about regular women and the awesome men who absolutely dote on them. Growing up, my favorite author was Nora Roberts and I used to spend my days indoors reading her books. Now, my favorite things are days by the sea and hanging out with my husband and daughter. When I'm not writing, I'm doing art, reading, or watching movies.
Tiffanie - Tiffanie lives in Michigan. She has her degree in Mental Health, specializing in Child Development and a minor in Early Childhood Education. She puts her degrees to work in her young adult and new adult fantasy writings. Though she has been known to venture off into other genres from time to time, she has been published in the anthology Out of the Green and is currently working on the first novel in her new series, Bound in Blood and Shadows. The first novel, Double-Edged War, was published earlier this year.
Find her at her Website
Jane - Jane has been obsessed with all things books since 2nd grade. She lives in Ohio with her twin daughters.
Find her at her Website or her Youtube Channel
Kayla - I write under two pen names. The first, Kaylie Lanshaw, is a collaboration between myself and another author (Tiffanie Shaw). We are currently writing a New Adult Post-Collapse series set in the year 2044, after a civil war has left the United States of America floundering. Drowning in debt, the country resorts to selling off states to revive the economy. When one of these states is bought by the King of the previously-hidden Vampires, the nation is left uncertain. It comes down to the Prince of the Vampires and a foster kid named Kaelin to prove that inter-species peace is possible. I also write under the pen name Kady Ellis, though these books are still in progress. The first book, which will be out hopefully by the end of 2019, is titled En Pointe, and is a M/M romantic suspense.
Find her at her Website
Mart - Martha J Allard is a writer of contemporary & dark fantasy. Her short fiction has appeared in magazines like "Talebones" and "Not One of Us." Her story "Dust" won an honorable mention in "Year's Best Science Fiction," 19th edition, edited by Gardener Dozois and her story, "Phase" was nominated for a British Science Fiction Award. Her nonfiction has appeared in Lend the Eye a Terrible Aspect and Deaths Garden. Her novel, Black Light, is a tale of love, sacrifice, and rock & roll in the 1980's. Martha is a life-long resident of Flint where she found magic between the cracks of broken concrete. She joined Flint Area Writers at the age of sixteen, and credits the group with teaching her how to write.
Find her at her Website
Ravyn - Ravyn Crescent is a survivor; living in a desert and dreaming of a better world. She lived through physical, mental, and sexual abuse and spent years focusing on helping others escape similar situations before realizing that constantly reliving those traumatic moments were tearing her down. She writes paranormal fiction, fantasy, and spends far too much time writing and researching about serial killers. In her spare time, she makes pet collars and works to educate people about pet nutrition, in whatever time she has left she does freelance editing. She has her own company, Crescent Canines.
Find her on Facebook
Sidney - Sidney Reetz: “That red-headed Devil woman.” Born and residing in Phoenix, Arizona, the caffeine dependent life form known as Sidney started writing in the fourth grade for her own enjoyment. The stories penned back then were during her high fantasy period and involved a lot of dragons, elves and magic. She was ten years old. Needless to say, they were horrible and will never see the light of day – but were fun to write and taught her a lot about discipline. In elementary school she entered the ‘short story’ competition and baffled the organizers when she dropped off a 150-some-odd page manuscript. They must have liked it; she won second place.When not transcribing the Devil’s words, Sidney is an avid crafter and all around nerd. She likes listening to true crime podcast and making themed playlist far too much.
Find her at her Website
