Tag: marketing your self published book

Kelly Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Uncategorized

Marketing Missteps – Summary Episode

The day has come: we have finished our series of the top ten most common marketing missteps taken by self-publishing authors.

They were : (drumroll please)

But what does this actually mean?  When push comes to shove, shouldn’t we be looking to optimize our strengths, not obsess over our weaknesses and past errors?

Yes.  Absolutely yes.  Which is not to say that this list doesn’t have a place, or recognizing our mistakes an important role to play in upping our game and taking our marketing strategy to the next level.  But mistakes, and avoiding them, only gets us partway to success–just as swerving to avoid a sinkhole has its advantages (no jolts or damaged suspension) but ultimately leaves drivers no further down the road than before.  To push the analogy just a touch further, a serving driver has three probable choices: to swerve onto a sidewalk or ditch, to swerve into a parallel lane, or to swerve into oncoming traffic.  The swerve avoids a definite danger–total vehicular destruction–but the choice of which direction to swerve determines the ultimate fate of the driver (not to mention, pedestrians and other innocent lives).

Sure, the metaphor breaks down in places (no pun intended there), but it serves the point: we need more than just phase one.  We need a phase two.  We need to make active, positive choices to pursue success in addition to active, positive choices to avoid complete disaster.  To this end, over the coming weeks I’ll be launching phase two: a series of what will turn out to be, in essence, the opposite of a misstep.  What’s the opposite of a misstep, a bungle, a slip-up, a blunder, gaff, a faux pas?  Here it is: a triumph, a victory, a gain, a coup de maitre … in other words, the opposite of a misstep is a master stroke.

golf

Bear with me a second.  Marketing your self-published book is not golf.  Nor is it tennis, or one of those fun heist movies from the early 2000s.  But every artist, even a con artist, has his or her trump card–his or her master stroke.  And you’re not a con artist!  You have real art to sell, and you’re master of both your form and your material.  You have something on offer that’s valuable, and worthwhile.  We’re just going to take a closer look at how you can polish a few of your marketing moves, with insights from–you got it!  The masters of self-publishing.

Check in next week as we launch Phase Two!

 

Thank you for reading!  If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line atselfpublishingadvice@gmail.com.  And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of marketing musings from one indie, hybrid, and self-published author to another. ♠

KellyABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com. 10:00 AM
Book Marketing, Kelly Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Uncategorized

Marketing Missteps Episode 10 : Forgetting to Party (Hard)

Today, as I intimated in my post for last week, I will be examining our tenth and final marketing misstep.  We’ve examined nine others in rapid succession over the last two months, with root causes ranging from ignorance to self-absorption to poor logic.  But the common thread is, of course, personal experience.  I’ve seen people make all of these mistakes–and I’ve made a few of them myself!  These pitfalls are easy to avoid if we know what they are and why they’re a problem, but they’re equally easy to stumble in to if we’re not actively working to avoid them.  Whether or not you’re a veteran self-publishing author or brand-new to the field, the most important thing you can be doing for your marketing campaign is reminding yourself to invest your time, energy, and money wisely.

The Missteps So Far:

This week’s misstep is, as you might expect, in line with the general trend of the last few weeks.  Which is to say, it’s a misstep that has its root in a disconnect between knowing what self-publishing means and really knowing what self-publishing requires.  The misstep?

Forgetting to Party (Hard)

Look, it’s simple: if you’re not having a good time while marketing your book, no one else will.  Readers are drawn to the authors who love what they do, and let their enthusiasm for their book and their life as a self-published author seep into the margins of everything they do.  We can thank the rise of social media for this, perhaps, and digitization in general because readers now have more access to more details about the things they care about than ever before.  Whatever tweet, Instagram picture, Facebook post, blog, or Youtube video they stumble across is part of a whole–it helps them build a full picture, a context, for your work.

Excitement is like sneezes and the mumps: it’s contagious!  If you adopt a joyous, positive, “you first!” mentality while carrying out your marketing, that attitude is guaranteed to rub off on your future readers.  (And capture more future readers’ attention, to boot!)  Positive thinking begets positive thinking, and your readers will feed that back to you in the best kind of positive feedback loop!

Approach your work like you would a holiday party.  Your marketing process is a celebration of your dreams and vision, of Art (with a capital “A”) and all that is good in live.  Your job is to invite everyone you know and everyone you want to know to the party, then get out of the way so they can enjoy the main event.  If it’s a rough night and you’re not feeling up for rabid enthusiasm or passing the pretzels, it might be a good night to double down on the things you do enjoy, and save the rest for a day when you’re ready to meet the world.  But I’m betting, like any good holiday party, you might feel some trepidation about diving in to the marketing process–and that’s fair–but once you’re in the thick of it, chugging cider and swapping stories with friends and strangers alike, the world will look all the brighter.

 

Thank you for reading!  If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@gmail.com.  And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of marketing musings from one indie, hybrid, and self-published author to another. ♠

KellyABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com. 10:00 AM
Alternative Marketing Methods, Book Marketing, Kelly Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Uncategorized

Marketing Missteps Episode 9 : Thinking: “Aw, but these rules don’t apply to me!”

Week after week, for the last eight weeks, we’ve unpacked some of the biggest DON’Ts in the business, ranging from exaggerated self-interest to taking on tasks beyond your skill level to waiting.  But this week marks the penultimate misstep–the second to last misstep–the misstep that precedes the ultimate and most fateful of missteps.  Want to know what the worst of the worst of the worst is–at least, in my experience?  Stick around one more week!

But first, before I dive into today’s episode of wrong-footedness, a quick recap–

The Missteps So Far:

This week’s misstep is, as you might expect, in line with the general trend of the last few weeks.  Which is to say, it’s a misstep that has its root in a disconnect between knowing what self-publishing means and really knowing what self-publishing requires.  The misstep?

Thinking: “Aw, but these rules don’t apply to me!”

Once upon a time, I attended a conference with a number of other self-publishing authors and industry professionals.  After a panel session had finished and I was tidying up to leave, one of the other authors approached me and unloaded a small elevator speech about her book (which is actually good thing!  I always love a good elevator speech!).  The book sounded interesting in premise, but I was struck with surprise at not having heard anything about it before, especially since this was the last day of the conference and I’d spent a lot of time browsing among the various stalls that vendors and authors had set up in the hotel atrium.

“Where can I find this book?” I asked.  “I don’t remember having seen it outside.”

“Oh, well, you can find it on Amazon,” said the author, looking vaguely discomfited.

Fair enough.  But ever on the lookout to gather the top tips and tricks–and by “gather” I mean “steal”–of other authors, I took the opportunity to pivot and ask about marketing: “What are you doing to promote this book?”

Here’s the rub.  She said: “Nothing much, really.”  It turned out that she was worried that marketing her own book would take up too much time and wouldn’t do much to boost the sales of a book that came built-in with its own appeal and a timely subject.  She felt that her book hit all the “hot-button issues” of the moment and that this, ultimately, was the primary reason why books sold or didn’t, and that self-promotion was just a lot of hot air.

She couldn’t have been more wrong.  A month or two later, I remembered the conversation and pulled up her Amazon book page, discovering in the process that only two people had reviewed her book and they were both clearly personal acquaintances.  Her sales must have been very limited, indeed.  And as far as I could tell, she’d mentioned the book a couple of times on her personal Facebook account but hadn’t extended her marketing campaign to include standalone representation through Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media platform.

And she’s not alone!  Neglecting to market at all may very well be the worst mistake authors make–and among the most frequent.  But I’m here to be a little reality check: The basic rules of self-promotion do apply to you.  You might be famous, or mix with folk of a stiff upper lip, or be writing about a subject that touches on the lives of every single person on the planet in a useful and relevant way.  But–BUT!–if you don’t work and work hard, you will only ever find that the doors to healthy sales will stay shut to you.  Yes, there’s an element of the miraculous and the coincidental that helps determine a book’s blockbuster success, but very few self-published books reached acclaim without a good dollop of elbow grease to smooth the way.

Look, I’m not saying I’m the only expert out there.  I may not even be someone whose opinion you respect.  But my decades of experience in self-publishing on both sides of the published/publisher aisle can be distilled down to a handful of take-away statements, and here’s one: Even the traditionally-published author has to work, and work hard, to sell books.  Midlist authors rarely get a break, and they technically have the full force of a team of marketers and promotion experts behind them!  Self-publishing puts that weight on the author’s shoulders even as it returns the decision-making process and rights and royalties where they belong: in the author’s hands.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that no matter what kind of author you want to be, you should put together an actionable plan for marketing your book–a plan that extends beyond a few conversations at a conference.

Thank you for reading!  If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@gmail.com.  And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of marketing musings from one indie, hybrid, and self-published author to another. ♠

KellyABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com. 10:00 AM
Alternative Marketing Methods, Book Marketing, Kelly Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Social Media Marketing, Uncategorized

Marketing Missteps Episode 8 : Not Finding Your People

As the weeks go by, our list of marketing missteps grows longer, but here’s the thing: no matter which step you take next, or which foot you put forward, whether it turns out to be a mistake or a blinding success, there are options.  This is because you have chosen to self-publish, and self-publishing by its very nature puts the narrative into your hands at all stages of the process.  And while I do not advocate for underestimating the impact of these missteps I’m chronicling and examining here, I do advocate for not giving up if you happen to make one.  There are ways to overcome disaster–and I’ll write about those, too, in my next series!

The Missteps So Far:

This week, I’ll be looking at a mistake that at first glance might seem like a directive to the Millennial Generation, what with its emphasis on social connectivity and whatnot, but is actually a guidepost for us all.  The misstep?

Not Finding Your People

Many years back, when I was still in college, I took a course on the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.  (Yes, yes, I know.)  I’m more than 90% sure that I took the class exclusively because of inglenooks, a strange little architectural quirk endemic to Wright’s earliest buildings.  “And pray, what is this inglenook?” you might ask.  It’s a fireside niche, or place to tuck yourself away in, with a book and a quilt and a hot mug of coffee.  It’s a tiny little retreat that Wright carved out of designs that seemed to leave no room for more experimentation.

Forgive me if architectural anecdotes seem a little out of line with marketing your self-published book, but here’s the thing: niches aren’t just useless ornamentation, whether we’re talking about someone’s home or someone’s book hitting the market.  We need niches.

building blueprint

When it comes to publishing your book, we’re talking about placing something into a market already packed with hundreds of thousands of new books published each year.  It’s more important than ever for authors to understand their niches if they want to sell books, because niches provide access to readers through hyperspecific keyword searches and in the “If you liked this book, you might also enjoy…” tools generated by websites like Amazon, Goodreads, and so forth.

Ideally, authors should figure out what niche their books will fall into before they even write their book, but it’s never too late to put the power of niche marketing at your fingertips.  I’m not just talking about broad sweeping genre categories–like “Western” or “Crime”–but the hyperspecific demographic of who among the world’s millions of devoted readers will really love and devour your book.  Whether your book is in its beginning conceptual stages or is well down the road to publication, it’s well worth sitting down and making a list that takes into account all the major demographic data points: ages, genders, interests, hobbies, and geographic locations.  This will help you narrow down your target audience.  And once you know your target audience, you can start compiling another list of keywords that relate to these people (think “parachute silk” or “dinosaur bones”) and that you can use to flesh out your website and book page metadata to make your book more findable by people interested in these specific things.

I absolutely guarantee that it’s easier to market your book if you sell it as a piece about baking out-of-doors in a kiln oven with all-natural ingredients than to sell it as a simple organic cookbook.  A book that is confident in its niche–in its dedicated readership–is a book that knows where they’re at and how to sell to them.  You want to be the one selling a book that declares:

tumblr_inline_nhma94hBqD1qbk0s4

 

I suppose, when push comes to shove, what I mean to say is this: you both need to find your people and make them your people.

Thank you for reading!  If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@gmail.com.  And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of marketing musings from one indie, hybrid, and self-published author to another. ♠

KellyABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com. 10:00 AM
Alternative Marketing Methods, Book Marketing, Kelly Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Uncategorized

Marketing Missteps Episode 7 : Failing to Ask “What’s Next?”

Marketing is a minefield for self-publishing authors, and sometimes it feels as though there’s nothing we can get right–and a lot we can get wrong.  And I’m not going to lie: the marketing missteps I’ve chronicled in prior weeks, listed below, can cut off any chance of success.  But don’t look at this list as a litany of discouragements, even as it grows over the weeks to come.  I’m a firm believer in the old adage that “knowledge is power,” and I’m convinced that if you know the pitfalls that can await you, you’re almost guaranteed to steer clear.

It’s the greatest misfortune of all that self-publishing authors are launched into the world without a guide–imagine Dante facing purgatory without Virgil!–and are somehow expected to make a success of their work the first time out of the gate.  To that end, I’m compiling the following set of missteps I and other self-publishing authors have made, so that you don’t have to!

This week, I’ll be tackling a misstep which at first may seem a tad hard to define.  It’s the misstep that fails to innovate, that is content to settle into a routine without continuing to push the envelope:

Failing to Ask “What’s Next?”

Two sides of the same coin:

  • There’s nothing more worth cultivating in the world of marketing than the restless and questioning spirit of an innovator.
  • At the same time, there is nothing more toxic to marketing success than sinking into a routine without constantly asking “What more can I do?”

There’s no way around the fact that you’ve taken on quite a challenge in choosing to self-publish.  Many close friends of mine, whose books are perfectly suited to the world of indie publishing and whose moral compasses are aligned with the indie pursuit of authorial rights and control, have nevertheless chosen the path of constant disappointment so common to traditional publishing because they just can’t face the prospect of marketing solo.

“The bottom line is that I don’t think I’m at all a good publicist,” one of my friends told me this week. “I have next to zero web presence, either via website (although I am putting together a professional website!) or social media.”  In his case, the sheer volume of work and energy it would take to develop a web presence and push his book was hard enough, much less add that extra layer of questioning and innovation that’s necessary to really succeed.

But it doesn’t have to be that daunting.

Screen Shot 2016-05-04 at 7.30.34 AM

While scrolling through our Facebook feeds all day does not a strong book marketing campaign make, there are quite literally endless opportunities to procure exposure for your book in creative way–and yes, social media does play a big hand in many of them.  My advice?  Establish a routine for what I call a “Bare Minimum Marketing Campaign” (BMMC) that you can keep up with minimal effort week in and week out. On top of that BMMC, challenge yourself to add one new out-of-the-box promotion per week.  Make a custom photo, film an author video or a book trailer, craft an infographic, host a giveaway, do a planned or guerrilla book reading or signing, contact a favorite author of yours, and take advantage of the calendar to create targeted promotional gestures.  Brainstorm a list of possibilities and pin it up beside your computer or workspace, and start ticking off items as you move through it.  Once you finish your list, take it down, tuck it in your journal, and write a new one!  And don’t be afraid to look to what others have done–hop on Google, read a couple of interviews with self-publishing authors, and maybe even post some direct queries.  If Rilke can carry out a fruitful long-term advisory correspondence, so can you!

In short, don’t give up if your campaign feels a little stale.  Take your strategy stratospheric with ambition, one week at a time.  Keep what’s vital, and cut out the dead wood so you can move on.  Your marketing strategy doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s–it just has to look like something you find useful, and that you are proud of.

(And here’s a secret: I’m already proud of the steps you’ve taken!)

Thank you for reading!  If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@gmail.com.  And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of marketing musings from one indie, hybrid, and self-published author to another. ♠

KellyABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com. 10:00 AM