My book BEHIND CLOSED DOORS by K.F. Johnson has been out now for almost 6 months. It’s been doing very well for a first time author and maybe for an author in general. It has consistently broken Amazon’s top 100 list ranking in its genre as high as #8 since its release. Okay so what’s the problem right?
Who knew that being a self published author was such hard work? Well maybe you did, but I didn’t. Luckily, my book has been selling whether I promote it or not (lately) but how many books I sell are definitely correlated with constant marketing. If you, like myself, are not a fulltime author, you have other priorities that limit your ability to go full speed ahead on a regular basis.
I have a fulltime job, I’m a full-time mom, I recently got engaged so I’m wedding planning, I’m writing the sequel to my first release which thankfully, readers have been hounding me for, AND on occasion I like to sleep. There aren’t enough hours in the day! Regardless, if I want to keep up the sales momentum, gain new readers and keep my book relevant, it is imperative that I find the time to market within my hectic schedule.
Here are 5 tips to CRUNCH TIME MARKETING:
1. Stay active with social networking-periodically post to facebook/tweet your book directly from its sales site. You never know who may decide to bite and repost or retweet in the twittersphere. The good thing about social networking is that you can gain the attention of random people and/or garner the help of social networking friends without directly begging them to do it. WINNING!
2. Do author interviews-check which sites or other authors will allow you to do an author interview which will allow you to promote yourself, and in turn, promote your book to their readership. It’s a two-fer!
3. Update your blog/website-What’s going on with you lately? Are you going to be appearing at a book club? Are you doing anything interesting that your readership might be interested in, or that you’re excited about? Whatever it is, update your website or blog just to get attention to it. Nosey people read too!
4. Host another author or book-one hand washes the other in this industry. If you host another author’s interview or book, their readership will come to your site to read about them, and may potentially pick up your book on GP, even if it’s in another genre. At the very least, you’ll increase traffic to your site.
5. Repost-If you’re soooooo busy that you don’t have a smidgen of free time to do any of the things above, repost something you’ve previously posted. Retweet a previous book review/author interview that you’ve done or repost it to facebook. Maybe somebody missed your original post or will be newly interested in your book.
Welp…that’s all I’ve got for you today because I’m on crunch time myself right now.
Good luck!