Marketing After you Self-Publish

[Starchaser3000]

One thing nice about the expanding international nature of the net (and being lucky enough to write in English) is that there are huge, growing markets for English books in India and China.

I have heard about this. So how can a self published author like me get their books into reading markets in Asia and Europe? Or at least what is the financial cost to do so?

[TerryRodgers]

One thing nice about the expanding international nature of the net (and being lucky enough to write in English) is that there are huge, growing markets for English books in India and China.

I have heard about this. So how can a self published author like me get their books into reading markets in Asia and Europe? Or at least what is the financial cost to do so?

I don't know if you have to do any additional marketing. If India and China can browse the Internet, they can find Amazon, Smashwords, etc.

[Starchaser3000]

I was thinking more in terms if I could submit a paperback to a book expo or a review company over there.

[Linton Robinson]

It's important to understand that you can't rely on people "browsing amazon" and running into your book.
It's not like a mall, where people walk by everything. Closer to the last act of "Raiders of the Arc".
People are not going to find your book. You have to grab their eyeballs and drag them to the buy button.

This is a hugely establshed fact of moving books, but one that it takes newbies awhile to pick up. You see spending a lot of time and money to get on every venue in the universe, and always seeking new "online bookstores", thinking that having a book on all these places helps it sell.
It doesn't.

You're better off having it in one place and directing your promotion and marketing towards populating that place with customers.

[jbcameron]

After becoming disenchanted with publishers' need for an established fan-base for a book, before even considering it for publication, I finally bit the bullet and published the first book of my paranormal detective series *exclusively* on Amazon Kindle two weeks ago today. Up until yesterday, I was fully engaged in marketing it. My efforts have managed to catch two new readers along the way, so far. It probably doesn't sound like much for two weeks of hard work, but then I'm not really holding out hope of becoming a millionaire overnight from my "Kindle-only instant best-seller." Back in the 90's, I enjoyed limited success with maintaining a constant reader base for my ongoing webcomic series. Visitors didn't flock there overnight, either. It took years of content updating and networking. In my experience, a successful marketing campaign requires constant nourishment, and often might not bear fruit for some time. My advice to anyone heading down this path is two-fold: (1) have patience, and (2) don't let the effort of marketing your existing work get in the way of writing something new. The most important thing you can provide is fresh content.

In http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/03/ ... e-authors/ (mentioned in this thread earlier), Joanna Penn states not to get bogged down with "shiny object syndrome" when it comes to jumping on the social networking bandwagon. That's good advice. It's easy to become so fixated on marketing that you lose sight of creating. However, the one point that I disagree with her recommendations is where she advises to spread out your involvement in the different forms of social media over a prolonged period. I'm going to offer you some different advice on the matter. Ready for it? Here it is:

Plan your marketing strategy ahead of time. Use your strengths to supplement your book release with value-added content. Then market the hell out of it!

This was a little something I learned back in my webcomic days. Why offer just a stale comic that changes every week, when you can add related features that keep bringing your visitors back daily? Prior to the publication of my book, I spent some quality time with Photoshop and a free interactive story tool called TWINE (http://www.gimcrackd.com/etc/src/). With a little effort, I developed an interactive preview of choice scenes from the opening chapters of my book, in the form of a text-based adventure. When it came time to publish and fire up the marketing machine, I devoted a week to the challenge - posting not only the book link, but artwork, the interactive preview link, and more. As the days went by, I added to the content, keeping Twitter and the Facebook content fresh, while advising online publishers of my short stories of the book's release, and directing their visitors to the new sites. As visitors trickled in, I teased them with updates to future content - a new book trailer, synopses of future book releases, Twitter retweets to short stories I published online, etc. I spent much of the following week putting together the trailer myself in Flash (which, in hindsight, I realized that I should have probably readied beforehand), and now have that published on Youtube, with updates feeding to an already established and growing collection of visitors. Free weekend downloads and eBlogging may be next on the agenda, but that's something for another day. Right now, I'm back into writing mode on my second book.

My point is: don't wait six months between the social networking sites. Establish your foothold on the internet and keep stoking the fires with new updates and content regularly. Get your name out there on forums, and avoid the urge to flood the internet with your book link. A link to a social media site is far less obtrusive than a direct link to Amazon, and earns you a better reputation in the long run.

If you build it, they will come... eventually. If you wait, expect to keep waiting forever.

JB.
https://www.facebook.com/ReadingTheDead ... Chronicles

[max2011]

That was great info. Thanks

[wondo]

I dunno, I still think the key is to just keep experimenting with different genres. Just keep writing. It is a long term commitment that will yield fruit over time. Try both fiction and non fiction until you find out what people buy. I have been doing both and, like I said, just now starting to reach sales figures that make me smile a bit. I am starting to gather enough info as to what I should primarily write. Some of the stuff I like the least is actually what seems to sell. You never know. I really don't think you can just stick one or two books up there and be successful unless you are really lucky. I never had much in the way of luck so I don't trust to that. As I have said before, it is not a "get rich quick" kind of thing. It takes work, time and commitment. Just don't slack off the writing for promotion or other activities. Writing is what writers do. Write it, edit it and revise it, then stick it up there and move on to the next project. The readers will find it eventually. If you have a lot of material up there, then it all becomes gravy. There is evidence that publishers are trolling through self published material, so if you have stuff up there there is a chance that someone will see it and offer a publishing contract. In my case, I don't really care. I don't really care if I ever get published or not. I just love looking at my Smashwords and Amazon statements and seeing that people actually fork over money to buy what I write. To me that is enough.

[jbcameron]

I dunno, I still think the key is to just keep experimenting with different genres. Just keep writing. It is a long term commitment that will yield fruit over time.

I agree. There's no better way to ensure reader interest than by constantly adding to your portfolio. Experimenting with genres is a great way to not only hone your talents, but to discover your writing strengths. I dabbled in science fiction and fantasy briefly, before moving into horror. The effort led me to discover that my real writing passion lies more in a combination of suspense and action, with a true love for witty banter to lighten the more casual moments. It's interesting to me that the act of writing is as much a journey of self-discovery as it is of creation.

Unfortunately, marketing is a necessary evil when it comes to self-publishing. Scheduling time for both it and my writing is what helps me manage both. I've found that planning ahead and taking the time beforehand to set yourself up on the social networking sites that you want to use to market yourself also saves valuable time later.

I hear sometimes about writers making millions from their Amazon Kindle book sales. Some people survive getting struck by lightning too, so I guess anything's possible. If making a fortune is your only incentive for writing, I figure you're probably doing something wrong. My goal is to one day walk into a bookstore or library and see someone perusing one of my books. I can't think of a more awesome high than that. Barring some amazing fortune, that's not something that's apt to happen overnight. Until that happy day, all one can do is to keep writing, remain patient, and keep stoking the marketing flames a little bit at a time.