Hi! J here. Today’s post with be short and sweet. Now that you’ve Indie Pub’d your book and launched it, you need to market it. Here’s your secret, right up front: Market the Heck out of it! Marketing, marketing, marketing. It seems that’s all I ever think about these days.
I went to a writing conference this spring and took all Marketing sessions for the day. My head was ready to explode by the end of the day. But I did get a lot of very good information. One piece that really stuck out was a pie chart of all the types of marketing I should be doing. The pie chart came from Wayne English’s presentation. He’s with the Web Content Doctor and was kind enough to allow me to repost it here. Click on the link below labeled marketing pie to see the chart.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll tell you about my experiences with each of these topics. I’ll be spending the day today and Sunday at a craft fair selling and signing books. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Here’s a question for other Indie Pubs out there: What kinds of marketing are you doing? Is it successful? How do you define your success?
Writing Secrets of 7 Scribes 
Hi J. Can’t wait to see what great ideas you have for us. My two big marketing tips I got at Nationals last week were BLOG Tours and Twitter–must dos for authors. The consensus was that book signing were not great for generating big sales for the amount of time invested. Let us know how if goes at the fair this weekend. Good luck!
Yeah, I can see where people wouldn’t think signings have enough bang for the buck, however, I’m starting from zero when it comes to audience. I feel like I have to get in front of people whenever and wherever I can. I didn’t sell a ton of books today, but I just about made back the cost of the booth and I still have tomorrow to turn a profit.
Plus, I talked to lots of people, handed out lots of “Like me on Facebook” cards, got my logo out there for people to see and I came home with 6 new ideas for my two series.
And to top it off, I wrote 2000 words or more while sitting there, smiling and talking. Plus, it was a beautiful day to be outside.
So, all in all, I count the day a success on many fronts, even though I didn’t generate big sales. I think one thing to keep in mind, is that when you Indie Pub you don’t have to earn back your advance in the first month after publication. It’s OK to start slow and build from there.
Right now, I only have 2 books available, 1 YA/MG, 1 picture book. When I do this fair next year, I’ll have 5 picture books in multiple languages (English/Spanish translation and others – an idea from a teacher today), 1 novella, and at least 2 YA/MGs, probably 3. That’s a lot more product to sell, and I’m thinking about getting into the MonkeyGear business (T-shirts, notebooks etc).
I think it’s important to define your own success. You decide what makes a venture successful and measure against that. I can’t expect to generate sales like JK Rowling, Stephenie Meyer or Rick Riordan at an event because I’m not there. Yet.
Well said, and congrats on the success of the day. Keep up the good work and positive attitude and the sky’s the limit!
OMG! I had a GREAT day today – turned a profit, got the word out, talked to LOTs of people, got tons (more) ideas. I’m totally doing more events. Jen