More Marketing Tidbits
Last Tuesday, I talked about “the list”. Remember? Did you take notes? What? It was so simplistic that any moron could understand it without notes? I resent that! Wait until you’re as senile as me. I’m going to laugh and laugh. Of course, I’ll probably be dead, but no matter.
Prospects to Customers. Your list, once created is filled with prospects. Until they buy something that is all they are. They’re cute and fuzzy, and you can feed them M & M’s if they’re hungry, but they’re not customers until they fork over some cash.
Converting a prospect to a customer, takes time and effort, unless you’re famous and the people on your list are all millionaires. The first step is having people who like your work. To like your work, they have to see your work. This can happen in a variety of ways:
Your blog. If people enjoy your writing on your blog, they might want to read more of your stuff. Blogs take time and effort. People will not automatically flock to your blog. You have to inundate yourself a bit in blog world – visit other people’s blogs, comment on their blogs, figure out what people want to read, etc.
What blogs should you visit? Let’s use me as an example. I’m comfortable with being an example of “what not to do”. Freaking story of my life. I wrote a child psychiatry book. If I was smart, I’d primarily hang out on parenting blogs where I’d vigorously kiss butt, and try to engage parents in my writing and personality so that they’d want to buy my book.
I find I just can’t do that. I like what I like, sort of like my friend B who put me in spam. I frequent a variety of blogs – some mom blogs, some writing blogs, some weird blogs. I happen to love mothers of autistic children. I find their irrepresible humor and bravery buoys my spirit. I hang out on their blogs a lot. I’ve made some really nice bloggy friends that way. But have I sold any books? Probably not. Heck. Life is too short. I’d rather enjoy myself.
Your website. Direct traffic towards your website. This can be done through your blog with a connection, or on your newsletter, announcements, whatever you want to call them. The website should be interesting and entertaining, while exhibiting your personality. Have free offerings on the website. (I don’t. I’m a loser. I should work on that.) Have a link to your blog, and a link for buying your book.
Free stuff. You want to engage people in your writing. Again, you should offer examples of your work. I don’t do this enough. I’m planning on learning from my colleagues on this blog, as well as other indie sites. My main problem is that I’m not facile with the technology involved, and not great at learning it. Giving out free stuff to engage your prospects is a key part of marketing. Once you have a fan base who will buy your stuff without it, that might not be as important for you. Until then, do what I say, not what I do.
media. Get your book reviewed. Contact the authors of book blogs. They are lovely and very open to indie authors. Send out a press release. I nagged my local paper until they did a story on me and my book. It was either do the story or murder me. I’m glad they chose the story. Write articles for magazines and web sites where you mention your book in your bio.
I’m sure I’m missing all sorts of possibilities, but I’m just as sure that my fellow indies will fill in those blanks.
I’m on my way back from Mexico today, so I’ll be back in evil person next week. Speaking of murder, I wonder how my mother-in-law fared? Happy New Years, all!!
zoewinters
Moriah Jovan
R.J. Keller
robinaltman
Evangeline Holland
alanbaxter
hehehe Robin, yeah I was thinking “Do as I say, not as I do” because you’d say: “Do this… of course I don’t really do this, but . . .”
And hahahaha @ your local paper having to do a story on you or murder you. That’s funny!
I think persistence is very much key. And now it’s really about relationships. People are SO tired of being “marketed to” We should instead be “engaging with” people. Conversation, not “talking at.” (Which sometimes I fall into the trap of “talking at” people, and it’s something I really need to work on.)
Sometimes someone will pass off someone’s success as: “Oh, well he had connections.”
But connections are something you FORM through communication with people and networking, it’s not something you’re usually born with. Some people are, but most people aren’t. Most people work for every contact they have, through building relationships and engaging in communication with people.
When people like you as a person, they are more willing to try out what you’ve written (The weird caveat here is friends you have totally outside of writing who were your friends from “before” are for some reason less likely to buy or read your book), but acquaintances? For some reason, they are more likely to read it. If they like it, they tell other people, etc.
So you just keep making these relationships, getting your name and work out there, and if the work is good, some of those contacts start telling others as well and eventually it snowballs.
marketing is all about making those relationships and getting your name out there. And everything we talk about in marketing, is mere technique toward that end. IMO.
I’ve taken the (some would say extreme) step of giving away electronic copies of my complete novel whenever possible. I have a few reasons why I do this, but mainly it comes down to being able to compete against the big publishing houses. I’m self-published; nobody knows who I am as a writer; and so charging any amount of money for a PDF copy of my novel places too high of a hurdle for readers. A potential reader is more likely to give my work a look if there is no financial risk involved. They can download the book, and if they don’t like it then they haven’t lost any money. If they do like it, then maybe they will buy a physical copy of the book.
hey, jmreep! I don’t think that’s extreme at all. In fact Cory Doctorow does it.
And it’s a good tactic.
I’ve got a free ebook out right now, though in future I won’t offer a free ebook unless I simultaneously have a print book for sale.
In the future, as I start to build a bit of a reader base, what I’ll likely do is: Free podcast, VERY inexpensive ebook (like $3.25 or something, something that is definitely in the “impulse purchase” category), then a normally priced print book.
I would make all my ebooks for free indefinitely, but my genre has a pretty sizeable number of people who ONLY read ebooks or MOSTLY read ebooks, so I’m not sure how I feel about “giving it away” forever. Then again, maybe it would be wise to at least have a free PDF available of everything. I’m still very undecided on the issue.
Zoe:
Yeah, Cory Doctorow’s essays on the subject of giving away books was one of the things that inspired me to do the same.
Also, for me, I’ve never really equated the creative writing that I do with making money. In fact, I feel a little dirty — a little tainted by greed — when I charge for my creative work, so I try to charge as little as possible. (I’m a terrible entrepreneur, I guess!)
hahaha jmreep. I think part of this is the socialization we have that work has to be suffering. And you only should get paid when you’re doing something that makes you suffer.
Many people have a very hard time accepting money for what they love to do. But if everyone was doing what they loved and getting paid for it, the world would be a happier place. It’s still HARD work, even if you like doing it.
And then on the flip side, there is the “starving artist” view, that art isn’t really art unless you suffered in a hovel to produce it. i.e. you better not make any money doing it or you’re a hack.
But I believe artists deserve to be paid for their work. Because it is work. It’s very emotionally draining/exhausting work, and I think we should be financially compensated for that.
To me being a writer means being an entertainer. Entertainers should be paid, because they are providing a service.