Marketing books, writing & selling

Every one of us who have self published a book would always like more readers.

Of course, it becomes a fun way to enjoy the business end of writing. For some it is just a satisfaction that another person has read our hard work. For others it is about seeing commissions. Who doesn’t like a few pennies here and there?

With the Internet and all the websites that are available to indie authors, to promote themselves or even advertise on. There are particular ways in which to succeed or fall short. A question that may arise for many is,
“how do I get more clicks on my book page?”

In a simple numbers game and playing the statistics end of things, more clicks over time can result in a percentage of readers who will download and maybe even pay for my book. Yes this makes sense in a world where consumers who are ready to click and buy as they browse.

So why choose your page?
Statistics will show you that there are several thousand other authors just like you who are all posting and advertising the same thing.
A book for readers to read.

Why choose yours over another?
It is an interesting question to ask yourself, once upon a time one may have considered that having written 400 pages and created the book was an awesome achievement & to be honest it absolutely is. Give yourself a pat on the back for that accomplishment alone.
Now the task of having a tweet where you advertise yourself or a Facebook group post that will encourage others to click and buy your work. The hard part that may not have been considered when toiling over the rewrites.
One must now write the ultimate headline or tag line to encourage potential readers to stop by and check you out.
100 thousand word count and months or possibly even years of writing and it all comes down to a few words. The most important words.
The words that will catch the new readers eye.
The words that will catch a potential new readers mind.
A little bit of a difference there, isn’t there?

Having had sleepless nights at a keyboard while constructing the perfect book for the world to read and now you see or realise that it matters not the 100k words, nope. The next few words are the most important. A tweet with “x” amount of characters allowed. A tagline with 5 words. A 30 second elevator pitch type scenario. The most important words you will write for your new work (book) all comes down to 5 or 6 simple words.
Amazing isn’t it?

How does one gain readership from like minded people?
How does one market themselves to new readers?
How does one compete in the indie author world, all the while not trying to be some corporate marketing machine?

These are all very relevant questions to ask yourself. What “click bait” can you put out there?

Again going back to the numbers game, if they click on it to view, some percentage of these may be potential readers and even within that may be some potential readers who will actually give you a review too. I can be quite honest with you about this part, I never considered readers when I was writing my own books. I was enjoying the writing and enjoying the process of looking back over a lot of happenings in my life. I was writing for me essentially. When I felt good about any piece I had written, I got a great comfort and joy from the process of writing.

Ah yes, although the book world is a business. Without the potential readers and “customers” how can one “make it” as a writer?

Choosing to use marketing tips and skills is a fair way to compete in the indie author world. I say this from my own learning over the past couple of years. I have found it quite amazing to be honest with you. It can be a bit of a slog and deter from all and any writing that one may wish to do. One could employ a marketing team and spend mega bucks on spreading the good word about your new book. One could also advertise in many mainstream publications, again with a massive cost attached.

The alternative,
Use your writing skill or lack of to conjur up the best marketing words to help describe yourself and your work.
Find the five to ten words to best describe all it is that you have put into your new work.
Design a simple campaign for yourself that involves, even though repetitive, the campaign can be on all of your social media platforms. If you are similar to me you will be of the opinion that to be invasive in your marketing is vulgar or just not polite. Yes I agree. How and ever, as every site on the web will tell you, “if they don’t know you exist, then how do you expect them to find you?”

I am fully aware that all the hard work you have put in to actually writing your book has been a massive workload indeed. Then all of the time you spent deciding the title. You may havr even sought advice on how to have the most eye catching title. Then to find out, a tag line or twitter post could be the most important words you will actually write. Mind blowing isn’t it.

Here are a couple of examples I might have used. See what you think,
“your mind has never imagined a life like this”
Link to book here. TWO sons TOO many.

“Decisions happen to us all, some earlier than others”
Link to book here. 17 & Life.

“The best journey you will ever take, a journey to self”
Link to book here. Layman’s Handbook.

Do they make you want to click or know more?
I have found that these have been quite strong and believe me when I tell you I have dabbled with a few thousand other ones.

I guess to summarise,
People do want to know about your book.
Readers want to find you.
The best way is to experiment a few million times or so and keep on doing it.
You never gave up on writing your book, so don’t give up on letting people know.

Here is a link to my website where I dabble with some other writing projects like poetry and some short stories. There are links to other blog posts too.

Or my amazon author page

https://amcnallyauthor.wordpress.com/

Stay safe during the covid-19 times and keep on plugging away.