Marketing as a Beginner


The shop of the bookdealer Pieter Meijer Warnars--Johannes  Jelgerhuis (1770-1836)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

With a new fiction novella out in October, I have been brushing up on marketing techniques. As far as I can see, the only certainty is that there is no certainty. What proves successful for one author may not work for another.

My publisher has listed the need for Facebook and Twitter and I'll set up new accounts for my author persona. But social media is continually evolving and the new algorithms always tend to favor the website creators. FaceBook changes have made it more difficult to spread your news and views to all the friends on your list. And not all authors can afford or wish to afford paid ads.

In a new article suggesting how to stop wasting time with marketing, Tom Buford notes that 90% of his business comes from just two strategies: peer endorsement meaning recommendations from friends--this may perhaps include
affiliates?-- and using education based webinars to sell his products.

With a two step strategy in mind, I am considering slideshare and an infoproduct how-to course as a thankyou gift for purchasers of my book.

To work on my website, I'm following Tiffany Lambert's day by day blog--One Year in a New Niche.

Her blog may not be everyone's cup of tea but she's a great marketer and her openness and techniques are built for selling.

That said, here at Writers on the Move we have some of the best book marketers in the business. I have my copy of Carolyn Howard-Johnson's award-winning Frugal Editor and the Frugal Book Promoter  and a folder of helpful ebooks from Karen Cioffi-Ventrice.

Blogpost of the Month

This one has so much help and information that I'm still dipping into it weeks after publication.  Cynthia Lindeman writing for Boost Blog Traffic lists
101 Writing Resources That'll Take You from Stuck to Unstoppable. I don't know how unstoppable I shall be as I'm still having such fun with the list that I haven't quite got started.

* * * *

Next month I'll report back on my marketing plans and updates.

In the meantime, any help and advice in the comments below on which book promotion strategies  work best for you will be greatly appreciated. :-)




 Anne Duguid is a freelance content editor with MuseItUp Publishing and she passes on helpful writing,editing and publishing tips from time to time at Slow and Steady Writers 


14 comments:

Debbie A Byrne said...

Interesting post. I will check out some of these links.

Anne Duguid Knol said...

I'll be really interested to know your thoughts on the ones you try, Debbie. Thanks.

Karen Cioffi said...

Annie, thanks for the great book marketing resources! I've seen the Boost Blog Traffic article writing resources - it's great!

Anne Duguid Knol said...

Thanks Karen. It is a stunning resource list isn't it? Just amazing what you can find on the Internet. Revising my copy of "How to Create an Optimized Website" tonight--your bargain free gift for readers opting in to Writers on the Move. Very glad to have it. :-)

Carolyn Howard-Johnson said...

Thanks, Annie. I'll tweet this. Sometimes people forget that most authors don't have experience with marketing when they first start.
Carolyn
http://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromo

J.Q. Rose said...

Thanks so much for the information in your blog post! I took D'vorah Lansky's Book Marketing Challenge this June- Her website is buildabusinesswithyourbook.com The time was well spent and a shot in the arm for me. I,m trying to implement some of her ideas. One was to offer audio and video recordings on your blog. I did it! I made an audio recording of myself reading a letter to my ten year old self. I plan to do some more, but the house has to be very quiet for a recording. LOL Always someone mowing their yard or road construction or grandkids whooping and hollering. Good luck with your new release this fall.

Mary Jo Guglielmo said...

Annie, Interesting post. I'd love to see what you do with slideshare. Also, the frugal book promoter is a great resource for authors.

Shirley Corder said...

Annie, thanks so much for this and for some great resources. I also took D'vorah Lansky's Book Marketing Challenge and wow, it was a lot of work but well worth it. I'm still working on some of her suggestions. I'm now going to look at your links.

Anne Duguid Knol said...

Thanks Carolyn. I really appreciated the tweet and the share. It's so important when it comes to marketing.

Anne Duguid Knol said...

Thanks for the heads up about Dvorah Lansky and I'd be really interested to know what results you find from adding the audio recordings. Shall look out for any future challenges. And thanks for the best wishes on the book too. :-)

Anne Duguid Knol said...

Agreed about the frugal book promoter. Carolyn Howard-Johnson is inspirational and a great model. I'll let you know what happens with slideshare. Would like to get one or two done before my next post.

Anne Duguid Knol said...

Hi Shirl, looks like that's a definite for me to do next year too. Let me know, please, if you find any of the links particularly helpful. I'm wallowing around here drowning in information overload--much of it often contradictory. lol

Anonymous said...

I'm so new to the world of writing and promoting that all of these suggestions and links are helpful. My book is due out sometime this year, so I need all the promoting tips I can get. Thanks for the help!

Karen Cioffi said...

Hi, Unknown. First tips, create a name, rather than "Unknown" for your Blogger tag. This is part of creating visibility. Thanks for stopping by!

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