We’re assaulted with so much information these days, that trying to market one’s work as an indie author may feel like an impossible task. There are so many social media and people giving advice on how to use it that keeping up plus doing the writing may seem overwhelming to the point where you want to give up before you start.
I’d like to share five ways in which indie author marketing can be made easier. With a little planning, they can even prove to be more effective.
Make intentional choices. Choose the social media you use for marketing with intention. By this I mean you shouldn’t simply do any and all social media just because it exists. Start off with one or two types of social media and try to master them before you move on to another one. Also, choose your social media with your audience in mind. Who are you trying to reach on Facebook? Who is your intended reader? What social media are most likely to reach them? These are the factors you should keep in mind before you decide how to market your work.
Develop an email list. Your email list belongs to you and you alone. Using your email list to keep your readership apprised of new developments in your life, recommended books, promotions, and other benefits you can provide them is relatively simple. As writers, indie authors should understand the basics of writing a good newsletter. Schedule time on your calendar to write that newsletter on a regular basis. Keeping in touch with your readership will not only maintain their awareness of you but will help spread the word about what you’re doing.
Create a Street Team of early reader/reviewers. As part of your email marketing, develop a team of readers who’ll support you during your book launches. Call them what you like—your Street Team, your Launch Team, your Rad Readers—the point is to bring together a group of hard-core fans who are willing to read your work and post reviews online on the launch day. As incentive to join your reader team, offer free copies of your books. This doesn’t cheapen your work any more than offering an ARC to a traditional book reviewer would. What it does do is get early reviews posted, which can make a huge difference in your sales.
Adapt content into multiple formats. Take your existing content and find new ways to format it. If your work is out as an e-book and print book, don’t forget that audiobooks are also very popular. You might even want to consider creating a coloring book, a comic book, or a graphic novel from your existing content. Don’t forget that you also have the option of expressing your stories in video or as podcasts.
Don’t try to do everything. Nobody who runs an effective business does every single thing. And since writing is a business, it only makes sense to outsource the things that subtract from your productivity as a writer. What you outsource is up to you. If you think you can narrate your own audiobooks, that’s a viable option. But before you do so, consider what it is you could be doing instead. Decide where your efforts will pay off the most and let others handle the rest.
PS: My first novel, Identity Crisis, will be coming out with a new cover soon, along with coming back into print.
If you’d like to get a free copy of the novel, along with several other mysteries, click on the banner below!
Thanks! 🙂
