Happy Friday, Let me tell you about this guy. He worked a crappy job he hated, rented a dump because it was all he could afford and his car was a used old beater. Know what his dream was? To be a successful author. So he started writing. Mornings before work, weekends, sometimes at night. Finally finished his book and put it on Amazon. You know what happened, right?
I hate marketing. I've had three websites that were nothing but trouble. I did them myself with one of the template sites. Waste of time. I've published more than 70 books. What does an editor want to know? What kind of author platform do you have to sell your books? Do you have a nice email list? No. 24 is not considered nice. My platform is 75 books! Isn't that enough?
I just want to write!
You're wonderful. When I get to be a quadrilionaire, I'm going to hire you to promote me. I'll give you half of that quadrilion. It will be a while.
Hah, Linda. When you say you hate marketing, what you're telling me is that you have a narrow definition of it, and it doesn't fit you. And when people ask about your platform, what they're asking is where you are reaching your readers. So nope, your books don't answer the question. But I can promise you won't need a quadrillion to get my workbook when it's ready. lol
Ok, ok. So the point of a website is to address a particular audience “felt need” not to showcase my work.
Hmmm..
I know who my target audience is thanks to spending hours doing lives on TikTok. I address viewers live questions about surviving and thriving after narcissistic abuse. A recent attendee said she’d never hung out for a full hour with a content creator before. I hear that a lot. For the size of my audience my lives are well-attended. They share super vulnerable things looking for help. There’s always a spike in my follows after each one.
What the point of my book (it’s being released on Monday!!)?
To help narcissistic abuse victims know that what happened wasn’t their fault.
Am I correct in assuming I should use that same goal for my website? That that’s the point of the website?
Yes indeed, you are. A really simple question is to ask -- can you do this when there's no book launch, can you do this a year after the book was published, will people still be interested. In your case, the answer is yes. You're fortunate because your topic/audience match is so clear. It's less so for someone who writes fiction, for example. Or in multiple genres.
My biggest problem is that I don't even know where to start. Over the years, I've heard, read, and followed people who only address part of marketing. Unfortunately, I don't trust the advice.
You are the one person who's never steered me in the wrong direction. Now, I'm like gum on the bottom of your shoe - you can't get rid of me ;). We're off to Death Valley tomorrow for a much needed weekend escape.
lol Denise. You are not gum on my shoe. More like the most patient friend I've ever had. Even when I forget to say hi for 3 months. Cripes! But yeah, you're so right. So many people have a very limited understanding of marketing. They learn one bit and then go teach it and that's fine for the people who fit that narrow definition. Usually the standard marketing that's pumped out doesn't fit creatives very well. Omg - enjoy Death Valley. Still winter here. I am so ready for winter to be done.
I wish I could send you some of our sunshine. Death Valley was a much-needed trip. Not very many people were there so we were able to enjoy the landscape. Mother nature at her best.
At this point, I'm not struggling to market a fiction book because I'm still working on writing/revising (yes, I understand that effective marketing generally starts early, but at this point my focus is researching the 'market' by understanding my target audience better and I don't have any way to test whether my 'marketing' is effective right now).
Actually, I take that back. I run an email newsletter with approximately 20 subscribers. Every week, I binge all the Amazon reviews of a book and analyze them. One of my most enthusiastic subscribers suggested that I could write a book about the topic. Thing is, I don't want to write a book if I don't think there's a reasonable chance it could turn a profit (I'm happy to maintain the newsletter as a hobby, especially since I get such nice responses from subscribers). One way to up the odds that such a book could turn a profit is to have more subscribers. I'm planning a book giveaway as an incentive to get more people to subscribe (and as a thank you to current subscribers), and one problem I'm running into is that... it's hard to find good books in the niche I have in mind. First of all, that's bad for my giveaway because it's hard to find books which I feel belong there and I'll probably have to make compromises. In the longer term, that either could mean that this niche lacks competition and a hypothetical new book could do well... or that there are so few books in this niche because few people buy them. Do you, by any chance, know any great books about understanding book-reader behavior based on real-world observations and not the author projecting how they believe readers should behave?
Another problem I have with planning the giveaway is that, because of the geographical distribution of my subscribers (and I assume potential new subscribers as well) I need to make the giveaway international. Making it US only would really limit what I could do with it. However, there is so little advice out there about how to do international giveaways. I figured out how to handle the shipping (I can ship 11lb. of books to just about anywhere except maybe Antarctica for a flat rate of 110 USD, and if the books go to a country within North America the flat rate is much lower, so now I know that 10lb. of books is the ideal weight for the giveaway). However, there are also a bunch of legal issues, and I'm still figuring that part out. So yes, another struggle I'm having is figuring out how to do an international giveaway while being compliant with laws in a bunch of countries while also getting familiar with various customs regulations and considering which countries I have to exclude for legal and/or logistical reasons (Cuba, Iran, etc. are obvious exclusions because of sanctions, my hands are really tied there, but other countries are more of a grey area, and at least one of my subscribers are in a grey-area country so I seriously have to think about it).
Hey Sara. Hope you don't mind if I throw some thoughts at you. Wow, that's a lot of red tape. There's no doubt that an organization giving away books would attract subscribers. I mean, that's what drove the success of BookBub, except that they send out newsletters with free digital copies. The strategy worked for them, and their list is gigantic.
But, that said, there's a secondary issue they had to deal with and it's that people who will sign up to get free books are not necessarily people who are eager to buy books. To make their business model profitable, they sell ads.
So the question becomes - if you untangle all the red tape and build a list of people who sign up to get free stuff, is that the list that will help you sell your book? Because you might find that it works great, but not for the purpose intended. Just food for thought. :)
Thanks for your reply to my lengthy comment (I'm shocked I let it grow so long). At this point, I'm not even sure there's enough interest in this niche to bother writing a book. So if even with a sweepstakes giveaway I can't get interest, that would be a strong signal that this is a book I shouldn't even write. And I intend this as a one-time giveaway, not an ongoing thing like BookBub, I'd send a 'giveaway is over, no more freebies' email afterwards so that the people who only want an entry for a sweepstakes would unsubscribe themselves. Even if I get, say, 10,000 subscribers, and only 5% want to stay long term, that's 500 subscribers I wouldn't otherwise have.
Which one? NF: Delegating caregiving duties with family members. I'm going to blog it, then create SWOT analysis (my throws out anything I bring). Horror/fantasy: Finally, a Special is born who can resist medallion control. She's been tricked before & needs to trust in her power to free herself. . . .
I write in more than one genre. I'll write the NF How-to on Caregiving as blogs and revise once I get reader input. For me, it's social justice: PCAs aren't paid what their worth, and family dynamics upend end-of-life care when it doesn't need to be that way. My fiction needs a cogent strategy. There are fantastical elements, but I base stuff in science and real natural phenomena. The same goes with my NF actually.
I hate marketing. I've had three websites that were nothing but trouble. I did them myself with one of the template sites. Waste of time. I've published more than 70 books. What does an editor want to know? What kind of author platform do you have to sell your books? Do you have a nice email list? No. 24 is not considered nice. My platform is 75 books! Isn't that enough?
I just want to write!
You're wonderful. When I get to be a quadrilionaire, I'm going to hire you to promote me. I'll give you half of that quadrilion. It will be a while.
Hugs,
Linda
Hah, Linda. When you say you hate marketing, what you're telling me is that you have a narrow definition of it, and it doesn't fit you. And when people ask about your platform, what they're asking is where you are reaching your readers. So nope, your books don't answer the question. But I can promise you won't need a quadrillion to get my workbook when it's ready. lol
I can't wait! Thanks!
Ok, ok. So the point of a website is to address a particular audience “felt need” not to showcase my work.
Hmmm..
I know who my target audience is thanks to spending hours doing lives on TikTok. I address viewers live questions about surviving and thriving after narcissistic abuse. A recent attendee said she’d never hung out for a full hour with a content creator before. I hear that a lot. For the size of my audience my lives are well-attended. They share super vulnerable things looking for help. There’s always a spike in my follows after each one.
What the point of my book (it’s being released on Monday!!)?
To help narcissistic abuse victims know that what happened wasn’t their fault.
Am I correct in assuming I should use that same goal for my website? That that’s the point of the website?
Wow…
Am I on the right track?
Yes indeed, you are. A really simple question is to ask -- can you do this when there's no book launch, can you do this a year after the book was published, will people still be interested. In your case, the answer is yes. You're fortunate because your topic/audience match is so clear. It's less so for someone who writes fiction, for example. Or in multiple genres.
Oh that’s a super helpful question. Ok! I got some work to do. Thanks so so much. This has been amazing.
Glad I could help! :)
My biggest problem is that I don't even know where to start. Over the years, I've heard, read, and followed people who only address part of marketing. Unfortunately, I don't trust the advice.
You are the one person who's never steered me in the wrong direction. Now, I'm like gum on the bottom of your shoe - you can't get rid of me ;). We're off to Death Valley tomorrow for a much needed weekend escape.
lol Denise. You are not gum on my shoe. More like the most patient friend I've ever had. Even when I forget to say hi for 3 months. Cripes! But yeah, you're so right. So many people have a very limited understanding of marketing. They learn one bit and then go teach it and that's fine for the people who fit that narrow definition. Usually the standard marketing that's pumped out doesn't fit creatives very well. Omg - enjoy Death Valley. Still winter here. I am so ready for winter to be done.
I wish I could send you some of our sunshine. Death Valley was a much-needed trip. Not very many people were there so we were able to enjoy the landscape. Mother nature at her best.
At this point, I'm not struggling to market a fiction book because I'm still working on writing/revising (yes, I understand that effective marketing generally starts early, but at this point my focus is researching the 'market' by understanding my target audience better and I don't have any way to test whether my 'marketing' is effective right now).
Actually, I take that back. I run an email newsletter with approximately 20 subscribers. Every week, I binge all the Amazon reviews of a book and analyze them. One of my most enthusiastic subscribers suggested that I could write a book about the topic. Thing is, I don't want to write a book if I don't think there's a reasonable chance it could turn a profit (I'm happy to maintain the newsletter as a hobby, especially since I get such nice responses from subscribers). One way to up the odds that such a book could turn a profit is to have more subscribers. I'm planning a book giveaway as an incentive to get more people to subscribe (and as a thank you to current subscribers), and one problem I'm running into is that... it's hard to find good books in the niche I have in mind. First of all, that's bad for my giveaway because it's hard to find books which I feel belong there and I'll probably have to make compromises. In the longer term, that either could mean that this niche lacks competition and a hypothetical new book could do well... or that there are so few books in this niche because few people buy them. Do you, by any chance, know any great books about understanding book-reader behavior based on real-world observations and not the author projecting how they believe readers should behave?
Another problem I have with planning the giveaway is that, because of the geographical distribution of my subscribers (and I assume potential new subscribers as well) I need to make the giveaway international. Making it US only would really limit what I could do with it. However, there is so little advice out there about how to do international giveaways. I figured out how to handle the shipping (I can ship 11lb. of books to just about anywhere except maybe Antarctica for a flat rate of 110 USD, and if the books go to a country within North America the flat rate is much lower, so now I know that 10lb. of books is the ideal weight for the giveaway). However, there are also a bunch of legal issues, and I'm still figuring that part out. So yes, another struggle I'm having is figuring out how to do an international giveaway while being compliant with laws in a bunch of countries while also getting familiar with various customs regulations and considering which countries I have to exclude for legal and/or logistical reasons (Cuba, Iran, etc. are obvious exclusions because of sanctions, my hands are really tied there, but other countries are more of a grey area, and at least one of my subscribers are in a grey-area country so I seriously have to think about it).
Hey Sara. Hope you don't mind if I throw some thoughts at you. Wow, that's a lot of red tape. There's no doubt that an organization giving away books would attract subscribers. I mean, that's what drove the success of BookBub, except that they send out newsletters with free digital copies. The strategy worked for them, and their list is gigantic.
But, that said, there's a secondary issue they had to deal with and it's that people who will sign up to get free books are not necessarily people who are eager to buy books. To make their business model profitable, they sell ads.
So the question becomes - if you untangle all the red tape and build a list of people who sign up to get free stuff, is that the list that will help you sell your book? Because you might find that it works great, but not for the purpose intended. Just food for thought. :)
Thanks for your reply to my lengthy comment (I'm shocked I let it grow so long). At this point, I'm not even sure there's enough interest in this niche to bother writing a book. So if even with a sweepstakes giveaway I can't get interest, that would be a strong signal that this is a book I shouldn't even write. And I intend this as a one-time giveaway, not an ongoing thing like BookBub, I'd send a 'giveaway is over, no more freebies' email afterwards so that the people who only want an entry for a sweepstakes would unsubscribe themselves. Even if I get, say, 10,000 subscribers, and only 5% want to stay long term, that's 500 subscribers I wouldn't otherwise have.
Which one? NF: Delegating caregiving duties with family members. I'm going to blog it, then create SWOT analysis (my throws out anything I bring). Horror/fantasy: Finally, a Special is born who can resist medallion control. She's been tricked before & needs to trust in her power to free herself. . . .
I am not sure I'm following along. Do you write horror/fantasy or when you said "which one" do you mean you write in more than one genre? :)
I write in more than one genre. I'll write the NF How-to on Caregiving as blogs and revise once I get reader input. For me, it's social justice: PCAs aren't paid what their worth, and family dynamics upend end-of-life care when it doesn't need to be that way. My fiction needs a cogent strategy. There are fantastical elements, but I base stuff in science and real natural phenomena. The same goes with my NF actually.
My A/B question is this: my super fans are authors and emerging authors. How do I nudge the needle to find readers.
What is your book about?