This week, Murderers, I am talking about marketing yourself and your book. I am a very poor bellringer for myself, always assuming that people will find my stuff without my hollering at them. Not so. My sales are pitiful. My publishers probably shake their head in wonder at such awful numbers. In other words, my marketing is ... well, murder. At least, it's dead at the moment.
Here is my take on this stuff:
If you want book sales, you have to have traffic. And you get traffic from marketing your work and yourself. One big part of marketing is having a website that is current. Keeping your focus on the main subject of your life, your books, your writing doesn’t hurt either. Especially if your website is sort of like a blog.
I am going to spend a lot of time over the next week getting my website revamped and just as I mentioned above, current and focused. I have a blog called WritingSpace but it sometimes is anything but writing-related, so I am considering doing a blog event for readers or writers that will bring in traffic. Maybe a contest, or a free offer. (more on this later) Offering things that interest readers is a way to draw attention to your website or blog.
Another way to get interest is to get book reviews. Too bad papers have pretty much ditched the book review stuff. Used to be that local papers loved local authors. Not so much these days. But getting some reader reviews is very important so - thinking cap on. Guess I will be out visiting the blogosphere a lot this week too.
Of course, Facebook and Twitter are a given, but I am not sure I have a lot of followers who are readers. And I want to really get interest, so I am going to have to do my homework on how to use these media outlets to get the most bang without spamming people. Nobody likes spam, except my dog. (hah)
So, Murderers, if you want to know more about this journey of mine on marketing and getting your sales rising, keep checking back. This post is the start of a series, I think. Or should I say I FEAR?
1 comment:
Kim, I think your words must be echoed a thousand times around the globe, they ring so true and so familiar. I can't tell you how many times I have to kick myself and ask those same questions again, and get re-energized to do some of the requisite promo stuff. I'm on a roll right now, but guess what? I'm not writing squat. I'm so obsessed with getting new reviews and ads done up, etc. that it is taking all my time. Sigh. I know there should be a happy medium, but I think it's only for people who don't work a day job like us! Thanks for posting this, it's a great article!
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