Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Wednesday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

SIX WAYS YOU ARE RUINING YOUR BOOK MARKETING CAMPAIGN

By: Cate Baum

There’s a great deal of information out there to be sifted through to market your book well – but there’s also a lot you could be taking on board that could do your book more damage than good. Cate Baum busts some of the myths of indie book marketing and what you should do instead.

1. You are joining author groups to share your book, hoping for sales

If you join an author group on Facebook or Linkedin expecting to gain sales by posting your book release news, you’re looking in the wrong place. You will see these groups are flooded with ads for new books, and can look like a place where new books go to die, given the covers and comments on some forums, and there is little evidence of reader interest. You may get some pleasant comments and moral support but that’s about it. Your time is better spent elsewhere.

2. You are unwittingly relying on other amateurs for marketing tips

Many author groups lazily rely on their members to post tips, calling it a “guest post.” rather than a member blog post. Don’t take these to heart without plenty of research. At SPR, we have seen articles professing the secrets of the book universe that are actually full of misinformation.

Make sure that any advice you take is from someone who has actual professional experience in that area, and not just another indie author or someone jumping on the bandwagon. Also, check that author’s sales on Amazon. If they are not flying high, it probably means their advice is pretty useless. You can check their sales historically using NovelRank. You’ll find experts like Derek Murphy, Michael Bunker, J.A. Konrath, and Tim Grahl have consistently hit #1 with their books.

All non-author founder experts should state qualifications on their site. If not, steer clear. You can read about SPR’s teams on our About page, for example. It doesn’t count if they say “years working in the industry.” See if there is real evidence of achievement. Even some well-known author “experts” are just self-published authors using their website to lever sales for themselves, so be aware of this when looking into companies that profess indie author “knowledge.” How current is their indie publishing knowledge? Have they only worked in traditional publishing, or do they work professionally with indie authors every day? What is their day job? Does it relate to indie publishing in a direct way? If not, why are you listening to them?

3. You are targeting other authors and not readers with your paid ads

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Happy writing and running, Kathy
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