Marketing, The Hard Way

apgambrell

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I'm seriously climbing the walls here. I have tried everything I can to promote my book and I have only sold ten copies. I have no budget to buy advertising so I have been relying on social media (Google+, Facebook, Pintrest, Instagram and Twitter) and I even submitted my book to a site that said it would promote it for free (which, currently, I can't recall the name of). Still nothing. Has anyone else tried something with no budget and had it work? Care to share the secret, if you know it?
 

J. Tanner

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It sounds like you've tapped your social media reach. 10 isn't unusual. Some are a bit better, some are worse. (Mine was zero. I don't mention writing stuff to my friends.) But basically, you're done there for now.

The best marketing you can do is to write and release a second book in a series in a popular genre. Then a third. (And so on.)

The next best thing is to get a cover that looks professional and looks instantly like your genre to a reader. (This however, can cost money, but it's the best money you can spend.)

The next best thing is also just costing time--write a compelling blurb that explains succinctly what's at stake in your book for the characters.

The next best thing really is best done prior to publication but it's never too late with self-publishing. That being--make sure the first few pages in your sample shine. Hook the reader quickly, whether through incident, prose, or character.

The next best thing is to find some way to build social validation through online customer reviews and this also only costs time. You don't want to fake or cheat your way to reviews. Stay away from friends and family. You want to get them legitimately by requesting reviews from bloggers or giving away free copies to readers who do reviews, and so on. Find a way. It's a long, slow build. (You know you signed up for a marathon, not a sprint, right? :) )

When you've done all that, you've probably reached a point where paid advertising can make sense. (There are outliers who've done it early and successfully, but never expect to be an outlier.)
 

WriterBN

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It's different for every author--there really is no secret. A lot depends on genre and category.

And, what J Tanner said :)
 

gingerwoman

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I think you need to tap into the mystery writers' world online, if you google around there must be all kinds of online clubs and websites about mysteries and mystery writing, and you can ask websites that specialize in talking about mysteries if they will review your book. Romance writers often find blogging on each other's sites gets them a few extra sales too. Sometimes a lot of little things add up. :)

Social media can work a bit, but you're not tapping into a targeted audience, unless you're out looking for that targeted audience. If you are on twitter or tumbler you should be using the search engine to find others interested in mysteries and following them, so maybe they will follow you back and be interested.

It's usually a numbers game where the majority of people won't be interested, but eventually you'll hit on the people who are.

Number one for you right now is probably to try and get reviewed in places where mystery readers and writers are. That's all I can think of anyway.
 
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Literateparakeet

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Everything I read about marketing (learning marketing is sort of an obsession for me) says you need to start with a quality book (I'm assuming you've done that), then make sure your cover and blurb are professional.

I think the first thing you need to do is rewrite your blurb. I just looked at it and I feel like it tells me nothing, other than that your book is a mystery. The reviews sounded good, but without more of a blurb, why should I try it?

I don't think your cover is really serving you either. You can get a great cover fairly inexpensively if you use a pre-made cover. My first book cover, for Everything I Needed to Know About Parenting . . ., is pre-made.

Then I would suggest doing a giveaway at librarything, that is "free" advertising. I've done giveaways there a couple times and I always get a couple reviews out of it. In fact my favorite review was from a library thing giveaway (but don't ask me which one it is, that's like asking a parent which is their favorite child, LOL! )

Reviews are important. As a reader, I always read at least a couple of the reviews, and I put a lot of weight on the average number of stars.

But if I had to pick one thing, I would definitely say, rewrite your blurb.
 

apgambrell

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I updated the blurb. It should appear at some point later today (KDP says 12 hours). As for the cover, I have no budget to get someone to make me one but I do have some ideas on what I want it to look like and I am pretty good at drawing. If it comes down to it, I'll draw the cover myself.
 

Literateparakeet

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I updated the blurb. It should appear at some point later today (KDP says 12 hours). As for the cover, I have no budget to get someone to make me one but I do have some ideas on what I want it to look like and I am pretty good at drawing. If it comes down to it, I'll draw the cover myself.

Excellent. If you want some ideas of common pitfalls to avoid (I think the biggest mistake is typography), you might enjoy this
Book Cover Design Awards
 

apgambrell

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So I changed the cover and the book blurb on the back. Let's see if that helps.
 

Literateparakeet

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Good work, I think the new cover is much better. It definitely matches the description better, and so will help make it easy for readers to find it. I don't see the new blurb though...I'm talking about the description on amazon. :)
 

veinglory

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It looks like a mystery/procedural book. Best to focus in reviewers and news sites catering to that readership. For example find people (on Amazon, Goodreads) or sites who review that genre and offer them a review copy.

I also think the 'but' in the blurb after the ellipsis should probably be lower case? And you might want to open the book with more of a hook, something happening.
 
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apgambrell

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My spell checker corrected that. I don't think Ginger recognizes ellipsis.
 

Celeste Carrara

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Social media has worked for me as well as networking with other authors. A Facebook group a friend told me about (What To Read After 50 Shades Of Grey) worked great for me. They featured my book for one day and sales went through the roof!

I had no luck on Library Thing. Gave my book away free to a bunch of people and got zero reviews in return.

Goodreads is what has worked wonderfully for me. Get involved & join the mystery groups on there. If your book is available in print, do a Goodreads giveaway.

I've also had great results with blog tours. You can contact bloggers in your genre on your own, but I found most were booked, couldn't do reviews, and some that didn't bother answering my emails. So, I found a blog tour company that works in my genre and they contacted the blogs & set it all up for me. It was seamless and I had great results.

Marketing is a royal PITA for me and it started to overwhelm me. So, now I just do what has proven to work in the past and that definitely includes writing more books!

Good Luck :)
 

apgambrell

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I'll post in that group and I'll sniff around Goodreads when I have a chance. I'm not financially capable to purchase copies of my book (even at the cut rate price CreateSpace sells them to me for) just to give away to people and hope they review it. I have contacted local newspapers but they haven't answered me back.
 
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Celeste Carrara

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I'll post in that group and I'll sniff around Goodreads when I have a chance. I'm not financially capable to purchase copies of my book (even at the cut rate price CreateSpace sells them to me for) just to give away to people and hope they review it. I have contacted local newspapers but they haven't answered me back.

On Goodreads, you only need one printed copy to do a giveaway. I'm not sure how much that'll cost you on Createspace for your particular book, for mine it's only around $4 plus shipping. When you do a Goodreads giveaway you choose how many you give away and most (I gave 1 away for my first book, 2 for another release) will only do 1 two books. You will have to pay for shipping, but again you choose where you will ship to, so I kept mine in the US only to keep cost low. What's really great about it is for a very small fee you are getting your book in front of the eyes of all Goodreads users. When they enter to win they will put your book on their "to read" shelf and all of their friends and followers will see that they want to read your book which then gets your book in front of an ever larger audience.
 

allz28

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After reading your blurb, it sounds like you need to find a way to tap your Fan Fiction audience.
 

Kudra

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You need a website and an e-mail list. People who know who you are and hear from you regularly are much more likely to buy from you than those who've ever heard of you before.

Good luck!
 

kylaurel

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Check out my post "Novel Way to Promote Books and Help a Charity." Since I've just started this, I can't say yet how much it will help, but I think I will see some action on my books. And at the same time, I'll be able to give money to a cause I care about. You can't beat that!
 

Old Hack

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kylaurel, please don't hijack existing threads in order to drive traffic to your own. It's not helpful.
 

grizzletoad1

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I've had a moderate amount of success with my novel. To date I've sold about 200 copies between Kindle and Create Space. That is considered good by many here. I've had my novel up on my own website, a Facebook Page and have been advertising it on Goodreads. It's gotten a number of reviews on Amazon that so far average 4.1 out of 5 stars. And I did a book signing at a show that was held at a train station along the line the railroad in my novel is directly based upon which generated some sales too. But that boost has died out and now my sales have gone completely flat. I'm not sure what else I can do to get more interest up that won't cost me serious bucks. What I'm really lacking here is a professional review from "in the wild," not one that I paid for like one service offers (I can't remember the name of that thing off hand.) The reviews I have so far are from Amazon customers, not professional critics. I also don't have a publicist that could help me here. That's simply out of my league. So is there any more advice that I can glean here, besides writing another book? So far, that does not seem to be in the offing any time soon.
 

Bufty

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There's no guarantee a professional review will either be or generate what you expect.

200 copies is not bad at all, Grizzletoad, but will usually have exhausted friends and family plus maybe workplace and some outside interest.

It's not easy to get beyond that when one considers the hundreds of thousands of other self-published books floating out there in the wilderness of the ether.

Well done.

I've had a moderate amount of success with my novel. To date I've sold about 200 copies between Kindle and Create Space. That is considered good by many here. I've had my novel up on my own website, a Facebook Page and have been advertising it on Goodreads. It's gotten a number of reviews on Amazon that so far average 4.1 out of 5 stars. And I did a book signing at a show that was held at a train station along the line the railroad in my novel is directly based upon which generated some sales too. But that boost has died out and now my sales have gone completely flat. I'm not sure what else I can do to get more interest up that won't cost me serious bucks. What I'm really lacking here is a professional review from "in the wild," not one that I paid for like one service offers (I can't remember the name of that thing off hand.) The reviews I have so far are from Amazon customers, not professional critics. I also don't have a publicist that could help me here. That's simply out of my league. So is there any more advice that I can glean here, besides writing another book? So far, that does not seem to be in the offing any time soon.
 
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knowthyreader

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Try to approach it by thinking a bit differently about what you're trying to achieve.

The platforms used should not be the focus of attention, ultimately it's about the reader, and learning about the reader in the early stages is necessary to learn how you're going to reach them each time your book is complete and ready to buy.

In the early stages, time needs to be spent actually connecting with readers, you don't need to have a book ready yet to do this.

If you think about it like this for a moment, if you have not discovered which channels you will use to market your book to the audience that wants it, and what key activities you will perform to make this happen, very early on, then this will be more difficult later on, when a book is ready.