What works and what doesn't?

As an author what promotional tricks have you tried? Have they all been successful? Or have you had success with several different types of promotion?

Every author has to approach their promotion differently. What works for me may not work for you and vice versa. Determining what will benefit you in regards to sales is an important tool for authors who wish to have success and get the three, four, five digit royalty cheques.

I've included here some of the tips and tricks that have come my way. I am not saying they all worked for me - but its something that you can choose to play with. One thing I'd strongly suggest is setting your budget early and sticking to it.

For example, if your first royalty cheque is say $50, how much do you believe you'll get with say thirty to forty percent of that. What's your market like? Who are your readers? How much are you willing to spend to chase that sale? Confusing? It can be. Every author answers these questions differently, but one thing that I firmly believe that reaches across all genres and markets, is that an author is only as successful as their dedication to promoting their brand.

Now, there are a lot of promotional tools that you an use that cost very little or nothing. Things that are valuable, collectable, and readers will be delighted to get them. I bet you're saying, "Bookmarkers? Its an ebook!" No, an ebook doesn't require such a thing as the traditional book marker, but that's not to say that your reader wouldn't enjoy one.

Small bling bags to be given out at readings, signings, guest speaking engagements are all vital to putting yoru brand out there for your readers. If a reader is staring at bookmarker in one of their books that has your name and book title on...what is he/she absorbing? Your brand, or product.

I am not, however, talking about bookmarkers. Media kits, head shots, websites/blogs, groups, loops, blog tours are all excellent and vital promotional tools that authors sometimes don't take enough of an advantage of. These are relatively inexpensive and you can get a lot of bang for your proverbial buck.

Develop a readership. Create and use newsletters that tell your followers about you and about what's coming up. Don't fill it full of useless babbling, but clear informationt that tells them your book is available, what you're doing with it...what your next project is. Get that following, develop it and you'll find yourself with readers that purchase your books.

There are a lot more things that I've heard of or tried and I'd be happy to discuss them later, but for now I'd like to hear what you're doing to promote yourself and your brand.

Tags: branding, development, market, marketing, promoting, publishing, research, sales, segments

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lindsay Downs on March 23, 2011 at 11:58pm

I think one of the biggest things is to find and develope your niche. And take it outside your writing. When you talk to people somehow work your writing into the conversation. With eBooks we don't have bookmarks but we can use business cards with links to where the reader can find the book. Even if the link is just to your website. At least you'll get the person there and with luck get them to bookmark you.

On my blog I've noticed that I'm getting hits to it from the website, which is good. Sometime in the next few months I'll have a short off contract and am going to put it on my website. Probably as a freebie. Everyone love them.

Get on and follow as many blogs as you can. One I am really enjoying is Six Sentence Sunday. Let other authors read your work. Get feed back. Give feed back.

Permalink Reply by Patricia B on March 24, 2011 at 12:30pm