Creative Marketing Ideas

Melissa Pearl - Dec AdMarketing doesn’t have to suck. It can be interesting and fun.

I don’t know many authors who love marketing. I, for one, would rather spend my time writing and editing. I wish the books would just market themselves. Unfortunately they don’t and this year I decided to have an attitude check and come at marketing from a different angle.

Now, before I launch into this post, I just want to share that my best marketing strategy so far has been to make the first book in my series FREE and then run a Bookbub ad. I have two full-length novel trilogies and I have used this strategy for both of them. It’s paid off big time and given my rankings an awesome boost, therefore giving me that extra exposure that’s so vitally important. Continue reading “Creative Marketing Ideas”

Measuring Up

When I first started out in this business I was advised never to talk about my sales numbers. I thought this was really good advice and have tried to stick with this as much as I could.

The one problem with this is that it’s hard to know where you’re at on the scale of things. Is that imporant? Well, sometimes I think it is. Looking at your ranking, comparing your books against others it can be quite motivating…but it can also be really depressing.

Out of all the groups I belong to, I share my sales numbers with one of them. We are a very close-knit unit and talk daily. We discuss everything to do with writing and publishing. I trust them and they trust me. So, in my opinion, this is a very safe place to be open about how my sales are going. Like I said, it can be motivating, encouraing and also depressing. Continue reading “Measuring Up”

Missing Data

One of the biggest and most frustrating challenges authors face is marketing our books.

Part of the reason for this is that we deal with incomplete or misleading data. That means we’re guessing.

We respond to anecdotes. If someone reports great success with KDP select, we try it. If it falls flat for us, we scratch our heads. Continue reading “Missing Data”

Strategy … Or … Why Am I Posting on Facebook?

We all spend time posting to our Facebook Pages and personal timelines. How much do we think about WHAT we post?

Do you have a strategy for your Facebook Page? You see, in order to be successful at this indie author business, you need to treat it like … a business.

In order to do that, you first have to determine what you want to get out of your Facebook Page—for that matter, Twitter, Google+, Goodreads and everything else as well. Continue reading “Strategy … Or … Why Am I Posting on Facebook?”