727,125
titles were self-published in 2015. How can you make yours stand out?
As an entrepreneur, self-publishing
a book can be a great way for you to build authority and share your ideas with
a potentially unlimited number of people.
That said, authors still have to
get creative with marketing. This is especially true in today's saturated
market -- Bowker reveals that 727,125 titles were released by
self-published writers in 2015, and these numbers are only expected to rise.
Never before has it been so easy (and so hard) for a previously unknown author
to make an entrance in the world of literature.
Here are some of the unique,
counterintuitive ways that self-published entrepreneurs have marketed their
books.
1. They grow their following before
they release their book.
“You have to have fans before you
write your book, not after,” says Cary Carbonaro, author of The Money
Queen’s Guide for Women Who Want to Build Wealth and Banish Fear.
Carbonaro released her book a
little over a year ago, in October 2015. Since then, she has reached Amazon No.
1 bestseller status in the categories of new release and wealth management. She
accomplished this by following the “80/20” rule: focusing 20 percent of
her effort on writing, and 80 percent on promotion.
“It is counterintuitive to me, but
an audience is key; I am still finding mine,” she admitted to me. “In the
10 months since my book came out, I have done a nonstop media blitz. I
want to share what I have done with my fellow authors. I am known in my
profession and my book is about empowering women, my story and financial
literacy for women.”
Carbonaro is a full-time financial
planner, and authorship is her second career. This makes focusing 80
percent of her efforts on promotion a challenge, but she has managed to
make it work by being engaging and interactive on social media -- Evan
Carmichael and Nexus have both listed her as a top finance expert to follow on
Twitter.
A great strategy for someone
interested in audience building is to start blogging.
Jesse Tevelow, self-published
author of the bestseller The Connection Algorithm, warns aspiring
authors not to forget to set up landing pages and use an email marketing
service to build an email list.
“Authors often forget about the
marketing side of things, but it's almost always the difference between success
and failure (in terms of sales)," Tevelow told me. "You can write an
amazing book, but if it looks ugly and you don't have a marketing plan to build
buzz, no one will buy it.”
2. They start a 'launch team.'
While an audience is important, not
everyone who follows your blog or subscribes to your YouTube channel will
necessarily want to buy your book.
To successfully market his books,
Jesse Tevelow used a launch team: a group of people he found pre-publication
who genuinely cared about his work. The team helped amplify the effects of his
marketing efforts (which he has previously discussed in detail) once the books
were written. Other best-selling authors like Pat Flynn and Michael Hyatt have
also mentioned using launch teams.
You can find your team members
among the most engaging people on your email list, or from scouting targeted
people who share an interest in your book’s subject matter on social media.
Facebook groups are a good place to start.
Tevelow plans to go over launch
teams in more depth in his upcoming book, Authorpreneur. He has also
released a marketing platform called LaunchTeam, to help authors find and grow
their own community of ambassadors.
3. They know how to pitch major
media outlets.
When we hear of successes like
Carbonaro's and Tevelow's, it can be hard not to feel overwhelmed. The thought
of putting immense effort into writing a book, only to put 80 percent more
of that effort into marketing the book can be intimidating. But getting
featured in major outlets doesn’t have to be difficult, or expensive.
Tevelow recommends appearing on
podcasts as a good way to gain exposure.
“It's the best ROI for the smallest
amount of effort," he said to me. "For example, writing a guest
post might take 30-to-40 hours of work. Appearing on a podcast takes about
an hour -- and can move just as many copies.”
Of course, podcasts aren’t the only
option. Multi-award-winning author and PR coach Gisela Hausmann says that even
getting on TV is an achievable goal, as long as you pitch the station’s anchor
correctly.
Media exposure is an important part
of any good marketing plan, because unlike what happens with social media
platforms, you aren’t sharing the space with millions of other authors when
your work is featured on a news segment or in an article.
But whether you decide to contact
magazine editors, podcast hosts or your local news anchor, writing a good
pitch is what can make or break your media blitz efforts.
Hausmann, who has written a book
titled Naked Words 2.0: The Effective 157-Word Email as part of her
series of “naked” (no fluff) books for helping indie authors with marketing,
says the number one issue she encounters are “me-mails.”
“People, including authors, do it
all the time," Hausmann said to me. "Using too many I’s, my’s, and
me’s will turn every email into a me-mail. In other words, it's about 'me' (the
sender) instead about 'you' (the recipient).”
The ability to write “you-mails”
may not come to most of us intuitively, but it is a skill that can be learned.
Start by rewriting your pitches to focus on why your book is relevant to the
outlet and how media outlets can benefit from covering you (rather than telling
them why you want to be featured), and you will receive much more favorable
responses.
4. They get competitive.
While self-published books aren’t
eligible for many major awards, such as the Man Booker Prize or the Governor
General's Literary Awards, there are some competitions that specialize in
self-published titles. Hausmann believes that the experience of entering a book
competition is worthwhile whether or not you win, because it forces you to
consider how your book “stacks up” (pun intended).
“Typically, most of us don't follow
‘the competition,’ but once we think about entering a book, automatically, we
begin to check out others' books,” she said.
Competitions are also an
opportunity to learn more about your genre and possibly improve upon your work.
In 2013, Hausmann said, she entered her book Naked Determination: 41 Stories
about Overcoming Fear into the eLit Awards and won the bronze-level prize.
When she saw which books had won silver and gold, she realized that she could
have done better.
“I went over my book again, with a
red pencil, and also hired a new editor," she said. "Then, I entered
it in the Readers Favorite Awards and, indeed, the book won gold.”
Hausmann recommends that all
authors enter their book in at least one competition, but not without thoroughly
researching the award first. By taking a look at previous winners, and then
going to Amazon to check out each book's synopsis, you’re engaging in research
that can help you to grow as a writer.
5. They aren’t afraid to take
charge.
Most entrepreneurs have a story in
them, yet few will put pen to paper. Writing and publishing a book can seem
like an insurmountable task, but successful authors take this one step at a
time until they have reached their goal, and aren’t afraid to take charge to
reach it.
Self-publishing is the best way to
maintain maximum creative control over your work, including the design,
pricing and release date.
“I've spoken to all types of
authors, including those who traditionally published their books and achieved
bestseller status. The message I hear most often is that people aren't happy
with the traditional publishing model,” said Tevelow.
“I would never deter anybody from
trying to publish with a traditional publisher. However, authors need to
consider that it might take years until they find one,” added Hausmann,
who has registered all her books under her own publishing imprint, Educ-Easy
books.
There are pros and cons to each
model, of course, but if authors opt for self-publishing, they should
ensure that they register their book’s ISBN (whether under their own name or
their imprint/publisher name), as this number serves as the book’s commercial
identifier.
Individual
services such as editing can be contracted out, and the books can be uploaded
directly to bookseller websites. So-called “self-publishing” companies that
offer to do these things for you will expect a steep cut, as well as ownership
of your ISBN, which can cause problems down the line.
Written By: Samita Sarkar
Credit: entrepreneur.com
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