Support for Indie Authors discussion

Hello there, fellow Good-readers. Back in February I finally completed my first ever book and decided to upload it on to Amazon, using their direct publishing method. Unfortunately, I'm not all that great with promotion, and knowing exactly what to do when it comes to trying to sell my book.

Basically, I'm looking for a bit of help. Maybe some reviews of the book, any help on where else I can upload the book, a way to market the book (Twitter doesn't seem to be very helpful) Anything, anything at all that will help a first time self published author. :)

Thanks a lot in advance, guys!
It means a lot :)

Hey JD, have you had a chance to browse through the threads here? Heaps of great info on marking :)

Personally I like to canvas book bloggers and send them free e-books and pay for cheap(ish) promo sites, locking in a spot in their newsletter. Some will accept new releases, some will ask for a 10 review/4 star average rating before they accept a listing.

Hi, so, a couple of thoughts and you may have already done some of this.

1. Prior to book launch make a list of 100 people and places where my target market hangs out both online and offline.
2. Create an email list and offer an incentive for your target market to join your email list. This could be a giveaway, contest, beta reading, etc.
3. Run a Facebook Ad - this could be a little as $5 a day, I recommend running an Ad for at least 3 days in a row, driving traffic back to your website/book site
4. Just ask - set aside 20 minutes a day to Tweet or Facebook Message 10-15 individuals in your target market

Thanks guys! I've set up a Twitter account, (I'm terrible with social media) and I did pay for around a two week marketing push from a few book promotion sites, but that managed to do very little. I'll definitely have to browse these threads to see what other suggestions there are.

Thanks again!

Hi JD,
As Ashley said, there are many threads asking the same question. You will find them right here in the Author Help folder. I would suggest browsing those, as well as putting a review request in the readers folder.

Admittedly this is a bit pricey, but rewards can be immense. I have accessed professional reviewers of high merit and connections such as Readers Favorite, Kirkus, and Clarion. One downside is that they they can run from free to $400 plus for anywhere from one review to a package of three or more per book. Another that can be off-putting at first is that they will be honest and you may come away with a low rating and review for your money.

One upside is that you are in charge of whether they go public with your critique or not. They will just keep it to themselves if you like. - Another is that should you like what they say, they will with your permission post it to Barnes & Noble, library catalogs, etc., and these sources are highly respected when libraries decide whose books to purchase. - Another upside: I have gotten nothing but rave reviews from them and have gone so far as to have books reprinted so I could put snippets of what they said on my covers! - A lot to consider, I realize. But hope this helps.

Ahh, thank you! There's so much to learn about book promotion. It's crazy how many options there are. Definitely something I will look into.

It's the first day my book has gone free and it has been downloaded over 50 times and I'm actually registering in Amazon's top 100 free books for the kindle! Its an amazing feeling. I can't wait to see what else I can do.

Thank you all so much!

Another great source for suggestions on how to and how not to spend your promo time and money: The various "Naked" books by fellow Goodreader Gisela Hausmann. - I get nothing by promoting her; I just happen to like her books.

How can publicists help us in ways we can't handle on our own? This is not a rhetorical question; have yours helped you do things you couldn't yourself have managed with a bit of time and effort?

Thank you.

Edward wrote: "How can publicists help us in ways we can't handle on our own? This is not a rhetorical question; have yours helped you do things you couldn't yourself have managed with a bit of time and effort?"

There is thread that talked about that some:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Personally, we've never considered one. I don't think they do much, if any good, in our market -- certainly nothing that would justify the cost.

Of course, the big question in these sorts of issues -- publicists, paid promotions, paying for reviews from major agencies -- is: How do they boost the bottom line? Embarking on those means you are embarking on a serious busness, which means you need to realize a serious return.

Unfortunately, I have this feeling that many such services appeal to the author's ego. They can probably deliver a lot of feel-good attention, but what about the return on the money you invested? That, I'm more dubious about.

J.D., when I click your name and look at your profile, it isn't an author profile. Do you have another profile for the pen name on the book? Did you set up your amazon author page? How about a webpage? That way, when you run a facebook ad you can have people go there to read about you and your book.

For me, the best promotion has always been readers word-of-mouth. They lend copies to friends, give them to libraries, buy prints for their daughters ... So my best plan may be to try to get them into as many hands as possible. And so I am now trying my first giveaway. But always there is that part of me that wonders ... What if? ... What if I spent a little money? ... What if I brought someone on board who actually knew what she was doing? ...

Some interesting ideas here; I would love to hear more people's experience of Facebook advertising.

Re reviews: Very large numbers of reviews don't necessarily sell a book - I think word of mouth is more effective - but you need a certain minimum number of good, and genuine, reviews on Amazon/Goodreads so that casual browsers will have confidence in the book. If you are willing to review other people's books, it's worth joining the Goodreads Review Group (link below); when you join a round, you'll be asked to review four books and a different four writers will review yours. This gets round the problem of reciprocal reviews, which I personally don't like (though I know people do swap reviews).

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

Edward wrote: "But always there is that part of me that wonders ... What if? ... What if I spent a little money? ... What if I brought someone on board who actually knew what she was doing? ..."

I think a lot of us wonder that. But I think it this way: I open a store. I want to attract customers. I engage in a big promotion, possibly hiring people who are savvy about this (which I'm not). It works! People flcok to my store.

But I'm only selling one thing -- maybe two. How many of those people who flocked to my store, who were enticed by the big promotion are going the want to buy that one thing? And if they do, I have nothing else to sell them.

Are they going to come back? Are they going to wait patiently while I expand my stock?

And how many are going to leave and never come back?

But say I open a store that is well-stocked? Then, I run my big promotion. Then when people come to the store, they are that much more likely to find something they want to buy, and if they like it, I have other things for them to buy.

The promotion costs the same in either case. But in the first I very little to sell, I don't encourage repeat customers, and I alienate some people by enticing them to a poorly stocked store.

In the second case, I have a lot more to sell and I encourage customers to come back.

I don’t think we tend to think of our work in the those terms, but readers tend to. They prefer to see a “well-stocked store”, which seems to usually means about four books or more.

The wrong sort of promotion or the “right sort” at the wrong time can put you in a hole. We indie authors have the advantage of having all the time in the world, so we have the luxury of waiting to pick our moment wisely.

Mike wrote: "Some interesting ideas here; I would love to hear more people's experience of Facebook advertising."

We avoid FB completely, but there is a thread here that might shed some light on that: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I don't recall if it addresses paid ads on FB, if that's what you are referring to.

Facebook has been a really powerful tool for me. Maybe my best, other than word-of-mouth praise by my readers. But I have never tried their actual advertising offers. These seems a bit iffy to me, but I know nothing about it; have never investigated. Where Facebook comes in is in reaching and enriching lives of others and making connections. My books are more than just light reads, surface entertainment, and same ol' same ol'. They change lives as attested to by so many of their reviews, even professional. Facebook allows me to help others, offer insights, and connect - in the process empowering contact with readers of my books.

Hi there! PR is definitely difficult to do all by yourself, but if you're able to do it, it can actually be quite fun and rewarding. I would recommend creating a PR plan by looking at various resources and seeing what similar authors have done. Here are some tips that have helped me:

-Promote Locally: Contact your local newspapers, bookstores, etc. If your story takes place in a certain area, contact those local newspapers and bookstores and let them know your story takes place in that area. I just recently got an author interview with a newspaper and my book into a few bookstores using this very technique.

-Be Careful With Social Media: Utilize the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time talk about others and 20% talk about yourself. If you don't have important news, don't share it. So far, I haven't paid for any ads on FB, etc. and my audience has been steadily growing.

-Promote Within Your Genre: Every genre has their own databases and promo sites. Research ones that look legit and professional and add your book to those. 99% of the time they are free.

-Word of Mouth: Literally tell everyone and their mother about your book. Friends and family will promote your work for you.

Overall, keep promotion at a steady pace and space it out. You don't want to come in with a bang and fizzle out in a month. Hope that helps :)

Word of mouth and the quality of your book are the most important things. Use guest posting on blogs and use social media to give it a bit of a push and then just leave it be. If it's good it will get you money. Also free samples are always a good way to promote.

Just to throw out a readers perspective, I follow several authors and buy their books because I tried a free book on amazon that someone shared in a facebook group. Not facebook advertising, which I ignore.

Read Build Your Author Platform be Carole Jelen. I highly recommend this book. It has a step by step process that you can follow. Check it out.

If you are working on a second book, one thing that can develop interest and help build credibility and connection with your readers is to post new sample chapters in a blog while you are writing. That can attract notice and lead to helpful discussions.

Once we even placed the fate of an important character in the hands of our readers. That was not only fun, we got a new book out it.

Ina wrote: "Read Build Your Author Platform be Carole Jelen. I highly recommend this book. It has a step by step process that you can follow. Check it out."


Thank you! I will check it out :)

Diana wrote: "J.D., when I click your name and look at your profile, it isn't an author profile. Do you have another profile for the pen name on the book? Did you set up your amazon author page? How about a webp..."


Oh, I don't know actually. I'm pretty terrible with all the new social media and things. Don't really know.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/J.D.-Lawrence...

I don't know if that is what you're referring to? I assumed that was an authors page?

Thanks :)

JD wrote: "Diana wrote: "J.D., when I click your name and look at your profile, it isn't an author profile. Do you have another profile for the pen name on the book? Did you set up your amazon author page? Ho..."

I don't know why, but when I click that link, I don't get anything. Also, here on GoodReads, you have a normal profile, not an author profile page.

Diana wrote: "JD wrote: "Diana wrote: "J.D., when I click your name and look at your profile, it isn't an author profile. Do you have another profile for the pen name on the book? Did you set up your amazon auth..."

Does that mean I have to set up another account, or just change a few things?

Hmm. That's strange that it doesn't come up from the link. I'm pretty sure it's there, though.

JD wrote: "Diana wrote: "JD wrote: "Diana wrote: "J.D., when I click your name and look at your profile, it isn't an author profile. Do you have another profile for the pen name on the book? Did you set up yo..."

If you have books that are on Goodreads, there should be a blank author page associated with them. Go to that page, and at the bottom of the body text there should be a link asking 'is this you?' From there you will be able to contact a Goodreads Librarian to merge the accounts for you.

I think this one might be you. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Hi all - how do you know if you have a normal profile here or an author profile page?

If you have an author profile, there will be a little writing on it that says "GoodReads Author".

Susan click on a few people's names. Mine is just a regular user. Authors show their books they wrote

Thanks Diana - It looks like I'm a regular user, but I'd like to set up an author profile page & have tried, is this something that has to be approved? I'm so not a technical person......

See comment 28 above, and it tells how to connect to the "authorness" of your book.

Thanks Diana - did it!

I wonder with book bloggers, how long it takes to get them on schedule. I can only imagine they are swamped with books and have more books than time.

I have close to 50 books in my pile, & I pick up more everyday! I need to tell you can find a way to work it down.