These days writing books is only half of the business of being an author. The other half boils down to marketing. With the e-book explosion authors can stand to make a lot of money, if they marketing themselves effectively. Here is MarketingForRomanceWriters.com’s top 10 list of marketing secrets you really need to know.
1. Content – You have to start with a well written, engaging book. No amount of marketing can sell a book that doesn’t deliver. So pay attention to your content, edit and format it properly and make it interesting or engaging and your marketing efforts will pay off.
2. Commitment – Stick to your promotional plan. Once you have decided what marketing elements you’re going to use, commit to putting them into practice. Do something every day.
3. Investment – Marketing your book is an investment into your future. Some marketing tactics are free or very low cost like social networking and building a website, while others may cost a bit more, like promotional efforts and print marketing.
4. Consistent – Make sure your promotional plan is sustainable and consistent. That means frequency of blog posts, attention to detail and delivering top end promotional material every time.
5. Credibility – Build your own credibility by being consistent and well-written. Your readers will get to know you and become confident in your ability to deliver quality work, whether its an e-book or a blog post. This boosts your credibility as a writer.
6. Patience – very few marketing efforts will turn you into an overnight success. Marketing takes time. You have to persistently plug away at your promotional efforts and slowly but surely they will begin to pay off.
7. Mix it up – An assortment of marketing methods is the best approach. Don’t try to do everything all at once though. Pick a few marketing tactics that appeal to you, that you can do consistently and that you think will work for your type of books and target readership and stick to those.
8. Be Different – Put an element of amazement into your marketing. Don’t be boring. There are so many marketers out there using the same boring tactics. Strive to be different. Delight, astonish or interest your readers. Make them laugh.
9. Engage – Reader interaction is an important part of promotional marketing for romance writers. Engage with your Facebook fans, Tweet regularly with your Twitter followers, build a comprehensive email list of dedicated followers. Building a loyal fan base takes time and effort but the results are exponential.
10. Monitoring – Online marketing is pretty easy to measure. Your web traffic can be recorded and analysed through a program like Google Analytics, your book sales can be measured through your e-book publisher or by setting Anatlyics Goals on your sales pages, Facebook and Twitter have statistics available. Montior what’s working for you and what isn’t, and focus on the big hitters and put less effort into the promotional elements that aren’t paying off.
