Getting Started With Marketing (Advice appreciated)

folclor

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I self-pubbed my series at the end of last November, but I am absolutely terrible with marketing. I have most social media platforms but no idea how to use them and I have absolutely no idea where to start marketing. Sometimes I think I have an idea, but the beast seems too large to take on. Often I feel overwhelmed and close out before I even start. Does anyone have a good idea of how to start?
 

CJMockingbird

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Twitter seems to be the quickest and most exposure, to my knowledge. Try to hashtag things similar to your theme, maybe tag your cover artist? I'm a noob to advertising but I use social media a lot. I wouldn't reccomend Facebook for promoting, but maybe have an author page with updates just in case? Also, if you have that friend that knows EVERYONE maybe get them to share a link once in awhile. The other one I reccomend is Tumblr. There's plenty of writing tags to gain exposure.

Also I think a common thing around here is seeing if blogs will review your book.

Hope that helped a little
 

Anna Iguana

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Hi Folclor, have you read literary agent Janet Reid's blog? I'm pretty sure she's talked about recent studies showing that Facebook has the highest return (measured by click-through rate, I think) of all the major social media platforms. Of course (and as she notes, too), that overall statistic might elide a lot of category/other differences. (For example, I'd guess that Facebook works better for marketing romance, but Twitter probably works better for marketing nonfiction, etc.) in addition to asking blogs to review your book, some authors do a blog tour (writing guest posts for blogs).
 

Undercover

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If you're pretty active on Twitter, I think that helps. At least for me. I had a book blogger request a review on one of my books just recently. As long as you're not posting a ton of tweets about your book, you're good. Examples of things to tweet about, writing tips, excerpts of your work, articles (that fit your Twitter page) poems? You can do polls too which I think is fun. These are all examples of tweeting something of value rather than choking people to death with your books.

I agree with CJmockingbird about Facebook. I don't do as well there. I just don't post as often which is part of the problem.

I think if you can find one social media site that you really like, I would focus on that. Doing them all can be really overwhelming.

Also is your books on Goodreads? You can do Goodreads giveaways. That always helps garner attention.
 

folclor

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Thanks everyone! I'm really absolutely terrible at feeling I should promote any of my own (the general newbie nervousness/"I'm not good enough" complex). I have a twitter but I'm actually more active on Instagram. I suppose I should make more use of Twitter. And, thank you, Old Hack! I am still such a newb in so many ways... I shall read it.
 

Daffyjkl

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I've used the KDP advertising and I am getting a sale a day from the campaigns. It's been a lot of effort, but hopefully worth it. I need to branch out and use some of the other option, Facebook advertising, Bookbub and BKNights, but most of all I need to continue writing and get more books out there.
 

folclor

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Oh. Hm. I noticed some of those things recently. I'll probably attempt with KDP and Bookbub, but I don't trust Facebook advertising.

Thanks to the advice I've gotten so far I've already set up a blog and started trying to join in conversations! Thanks again, everyone.
 

manego90

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He's right Twitter is good. What you'd also like to do is build trust with customers and potential customers by getting blogs and influencers of any size to review your book.
 

meaghangray

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Get on Book Boast for newsletter features--it's made a huge difference for me. It's definitely worth nothing that my book is free, so results may vary, but I tried bknights and got less than I did from some of the people on there. Even if your own newsletter is just starting, there are lots of people on there willing to feature an interesting book.

Good luck!