The three big steps to marketing your fabulous self-published novel
Most writers say they hate marketing, but I believe that’s mostly because writers don’t really understand what marketing is. It doesn’t have to entail nagging an endless list of bloggers to review your book (and honestly most of them probably wish you would stop). Marketing does start the minute you put words on the page. It doesn’t have to be scary. Let me break it down for you.
1: Passive marketing
This is the most important part of your marketing strategy. Do not neglect it. It involves writing a good book, getting a good edit, laying out the book well, adding buy links to your other books in the back matter, getting a good cover, categorizing your book properly, and developing good keywords. And, oh yeah, writing another book. Passive marketing will be responsible for 80% of your sales. This is where most of your focus should be, but if you must, you can also work on the stuff that gets you your other 20% of sales.
2. Active marketing
This is probably the part of a marketing plan that people think of when they ask about marketing. It probably leads to about 20% of your sales long term. It’s worth doing right, but, when in doubt, put your money toward a good cover and your time toward writing more and better books. The payoff will be greater. In any case, active marketing involves tweeting about your book, posting it on Facebook, alerting your newsletter subscribers about the book, alerting relevant bloggers to its existance, and advertising it on various platforms. Generally speaking, don’t fire all cylinders if you’ve only got one book published. Wait until you have three or four to really go to town on this step.
3. Reactive marketing
When the dust has settled and your beautifully written and edited book with the fabulous cover is making its way in the world, you can consider opportunities that present themselves, like public appearances or guest blogging. Have some fun with it. The sky is the limit.
Self-publishing: not a get rich quick scheme, but it sure is fun.
Elizabeth Andre writes lesbian romance, science fiction, and paranormal adventure. She is a lesbian in an interracial same-sex marriage living in the Midwest. She hopes you enjoy her stories. She certainly loves writing them. If you would like to support her work, become a member of her Patreon or subscribe to her email newsletter.
