Booklinker: The first thing I found useful was ‘Booklinker’. This takes you straight to your page on Amazon. I wanted to make a QR code and put it on my book marks. I tried others but found this one easy to do. This is my booklink:
mybook.to/twentyone
Bookmarks: I hand them out to bookstores and of course readers. You can make these on CANVA, but I guess you probably know plenty of places that do that already.
Indie Bookshops: I’m traditionally published, so I don’t pay book production (or pre-production) costs, but do pay full price (with shipping) for my books and the publishers set the price, which is high. So, selling my books in a wonderful, independent book store would mean I’d lose money and isn’t worth my while. Instead, I focus on other sales outlets and do lots of promotion.
Join the British Library
Reviews: Send Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) to reviewers
Word of mouth: I tell everyone about my book – it’s the best form of marketing. Old fashioned, no social media. I love it! 😊
Blog: I set up a blog www.wifeinthewest in which I aim to spotlight and promote other authors. I don’t charge, I just want to help others to get their work out there. I don’t mind what genre. I post on all my social media pages to say who I’m spotlighting.
There are plenty of bloggers out there. I was recommended lori@escapewithdollycas.com. She shared my information with a bunch of other bloggers and reviewers across America. There were specific details I had to complete for each one, so a SOCIAL MEDIA KIT is useful along with MEMES.
A Social Media Kit is a collection of useful info which is ready to post. It might include a BIO, SYNOPSIS, JPEG IMAGES of your book and of you, an EXCERPT and CHARACTER INTERVIEWS, CREDITS from other authors and editors, SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS and BOOK LINKS.
MEMES: By this I mean an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, often with slight variations: No more than a sentence.
I use Goodreads and post reviews.
Honestly, I never thought to review books before I became published. How mean is that!
REVIEWS: Adding your review to someone else’s book on Amazon, Goodreads and Bookbub is said to be essential but I don’t know if this is true. It’s just another avenue to get your name out there. Of course, reviews are subjective and I’ve heard some horrible stories about how a 1 star review can drag your stats down dramatically. ForAuthors@Shepherd.com is worth looking into – he’s new, he’s free, and he’s great to work with. He will ask for a donation, but it’s up to you. Once your book is on his site, it’s there. Permanently. Check him out and please say I referred you.
RADIO: I’ve been on radio a couple of times – FromeFM Radio is brilliant. I also went on another station and cannot for the life of me remember which and maybe will find out later – they were worldwide. They asked for a donation. I have no idea if anyone heard my chat, but who knows? It’s well worth a shot.
PRESS: I’ve tried submitting information about my book to local papers. Some are helpful. Many like a photograph. It’d be brilliant if a tabloid or Richard and Judy got hold of it!
FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, UTUBE, TIKTOK: All of these you no doubt have used or heard of. I’ve posted on all of them – I use videos and reels. They reckon you should post twice a day. UGGH.
How do I make them? CANVA. I’m an IT novice and I can use it, so I guess you’ll find it easy. There are lots of free sites out there
HASHTAGS
Hashtags apparently hit algorithms. Sounds complex to me, but worth looking them up. If you go into AMAZON and search for hashtags, you’ll find out how many are used.
Mine are: #historical #romance #mystery #crime #WW11 #drama #saga #fiction #women #literature and I put these at the end of every Tweet and Instagram post. Why? In case it works. I don’t know if it does, but it’s meant to.
AMAZON: If your book is on Amazon, I guess you’ve already done the author bio thing. You can add all sorts of other info for free TOO. I’m not brilliant at negotiating around the site but you can search online for guidance.
BOOK GROUPS: If you are lucky enough to know of a book group, maybe they might like to read your book?
NEWSLETTERS: Apparently, this attracts fans. I don’t do this. I simply haven’t the space in my head, though I always try to respond to anyone who contacts me via social media. Matthew J Holmes apparently offers a helpful newsletter as well as various courses. He shows you exactly how to set up Amazon Attribution tags for your ads. You can use them not only for ads, but various other uses you want to track to see if they are converting into sales on Amazon. At the time I took the course, it was only $75, but I think it’s up to $150 now. You do get any updates he does. As you can see, its American. I get stuck with the American market because I’m with a publisher in NY.
David Gaughran has a useful newsletter. He also has books as well as free resources. He really knows his stuff. He was the person who got me using CANVA with a little You Tube ‘how to’ demo.
WRITING CRAFT RESOURCES:
I quite like Reedsy, though it’s not as deep as it could go, its free, it offers ideas so what’s not to like.
(Extra note from FWC: Jericho Writers also have useful resources).
FINAL NOTE
No doubt you could add to this list. Wouldn’t it be helpful if we could join forces and compile a marketing list?
©Lynn Griffin
Thanks to Nick Morris @ Unsplash for the image