Category: Marketing

Whether you self publish or not, you are going to have to do your own marketing.

Web page – Have a web site that is the same exact name as your author name.  You can buy a domain name that is the same name as your book and tie it to your author site. You can set up a web site through Google Sites for

Facebook –  If you already have a Facebook account, simply add an Author page. Do not try to create a new account unless you have two phone numbers. Each account in Facebook is tied to a phone number. Facebook is more for the older crowd

Instagram &Twitter – This is where a lot of people hang out, including the younger crowd.

GoodReads – Most certainly get set up in GoodReads. Reviews from here are shared on other sites.

The #1 marketing advice I can give you is to have an excellent product!

Think about the old Christian movies (without wrinkling your nose!). Although the messages were really good, the products often were not. Compare those to movies of today like The Passion that grossed over a half a billion dollars! That movie did well because it was an excellent product.

The same applies to books. Especially YOUR book. Do you want it to be an old B rated film, or The Passion? Even with a small budget, the latter is possible.

When I was a girl learning to sew, my Mom told me to look at the mark at the other end of my fabric while cutting. Every time, this resulted in cutting a straight line! I encourage you to look ahead to the mark of excellence. By keeping your eye on excellence, no matter what part of the book creation process you are in, you will make an outstanding quality book.

Some pointers:

• Don’t rely on your friends to give you honest advice. Your friendship probably means more to them than telling you the truth about your baby. Join Facebook author groups to get strangers’ advice on everything from your cover design, back blurb, bio, or character development.
• Communicate your desires clearly with the people you hire (editor, cover designer, etc.). It’s OK to insist on good quality.
• Hire a cover designer that has experience doing book covers. Your cover is the very first impression of your book.
• Don’t do all of your own editing – even if you’re an English school teacher! You will become blind to grammar mistakes, confusing wording, and much else. Hire a professional.
• Research and mimick what big-name authors are doing. Go to a book store, Amazon, or their websites. Research their cover designs, book formatting, style, web site design, events, social media posts, etc.

Don’t get all humble when it comes to self promotion – you’ll only hurt yourself by not getting your book out there.

Here are some ideas:

• Talk about your book! It’s your passion – when you talk about what it’s about, that passion will get others excited about it.
• When people ask what you do, you can now say, “I’m an author!”
• Publish in all forms possible – paperback, eBook, and audio.
• Take paperback copies every where you go. I have a box in my car and I take copies on all my trips.
• Give away your book – paperbacks and eBooks. I keep Kindle, iBook, and .pdf versions in my Dropbox account so I can share it quickly through someone’s email address.
• Ask people to write you a review. Keep asking! Your reviews help sell your book to people you don’t know.
• Promote other authors – setup organized events for local authors, promote their books online, talk to people about their books. Be generous!
• Give a copy of your book to local libraries and see if local book stores will carry it.
• Get it into the hands of influential people.
• Give out business cards or bookmarks that advertise your book.

• Write up an engaging and suspenseful description of your book by using active voice. If you know how, use some html code to change the font attributes (color, bold, italics). This will help people to stay on your book page and read the description.
• Once your book is for sale, setup up an author page through Amazon Author Central. Enter a short bio and link your blog.
• In your Amazon profile (what people see when you write reviews) precede your name with “Author” and use your author name. In “About” include information about your book.
• Reviews on Amazon are what people use to determine if they will buy your book or not. Ask everyone who has read it for reviews! And don’t despair over those negative ones. Depending on your book content, they might actually strengthen it’s sale-ability.

A Facebook Author Page is free advertising! If you have a Facebook account it is easy to set one up. It is not possible for people to get to your personal Facebook page from your Author Page. Your author page will be public and available even to those who don’t have a Facebook account.

Since Facebook is constantly changing, I will not give specifics on how to set one up. However, you can simply do a search for “Facebook author page” and you will find lots of help.

A few tips:

• Pick out a name that is either your author name, the name of your book, or something that is relevant. Make it simple.
• Put a picture of your book right at the top and/or make it the profile picture.
• Create a post that will be pinned to the top that contains links your author web page, the Amazon page for your book, any other important links.
• Whenever you get a review on Amazon, take a screenshot of it and post it here.
• Keep an eye out for items in the news that is relevant to you book and post about it with a link to the news story.
• Stay away from politics, your kids & pets, and super personal stuff.