INDIE LIFE: Overwhelmed by Marketing and Promotion? I am! (and what to do about it)

INDIE LIFE
by Elle Strauss

You've written a great book, polished it up, got a cool cover.

Now what?

How do you get your baby into the hands of all those zillions of people dying to read it? They can't read something they've never heard about, right? How do you get your book in front of your readers?

I wish I had an easy answer. If you've been in the self-publishing world for any length of time (for me, it's been 1 year and 9 months, an eternity in self-publishing years), you'll know that the rules keep CHANGING. And I mean fast.

What worked last month  doesn't seem to work this month. Just when you think you have a handle on the "how to's" of promotion, it changes. It's enough to drive an indie author mad.

For instance last year I price matched Clockwise free. I let Pixel of Ink know, they picked it up right away, and voila, major sales push on the other Clockwise series books that lasted for months. Great! I thought. I'll I have to do is put the first book free, let POI know, and I'm rockin' it.

Except, it's not that easy to get picked up by POI anymore. In fact, it's quite hard. And you can't buy spots. It's a total crap shoot, now, and you can't count on it.

Also, at that time the Amazon monkeys tallied a free sale with the same weight as a paid sale. They've since changed it to 10 free downloads = one sale, which means it takes far more free downloads to get the same high speed traction as it did a year ago.

Like I said, change.

So, you put your ear to the wind. What is everyone else doing now. The clamor gets loud, quick.

Twitter, Facebook pages, google+, tumbler, pinterest, newsletters, giveaways, blog tours, street teams, paid advertising, teasers, picture teasers,  reviews, reviews, reviews! You must do it ALL!

Join me as I hide under my covers.

Okay, I'm going to give some practical advice.

1. Breathe
2. Give yourself plenty of time. There's a lot of pressure for indie-authors to produce and publish fast.
3. Realize that each book you write is different, and the publishing scene at the time of each release will be different.
4. Understand that some things take time, like building a twitter/facebook following and a newsletter list.
5. Don't panic.
6. Take a step back and make a list of things you feel you could/should do for the title in question and make a marketing/promo list. It will probably be different from the last book you promoted and different from the next one.
7. Work the list.
8. Take another breath and write the next book.

What kinds of things can be on your promo list?

Well, something that gets the word out, right?

1. Find early readers who will leave a review. Sometimes you might want to hire out, ie: a blog tour service, and other times you will want to take the time to contact book reviewers yourself. A good way to find book reviewers is to join a blog hop. Kathy at I Am a Reader, hosts a lot. If you want to hire a blog tour service, Giselle at Xpresso Tours, does a great job at organizing tours and cover reveals at reasonable prices. Reviews are especially important on Amazon.

2. Paid advertising. Lots of authors have had good results with Bookbub (though I've heard it's getting harder to book a spot) and Kindle Nation Daily/BookGodzilla. 
These kind of paid sites can be on the pricey side, plus you usually have to qualify with a certain rating and number of reviews.

A cheaper option is to pay for promotion on Facebook. You don't reach the same kind of numbers, but for the price (5-20.00), it's good exposure.

3. Let your followers know. As long as you mix your tweets, facebook posts, etc, up with other news, it's okay to tell people you have a new book for sale. They are following you (as an author) for a reason, right? Being part of a writing group really helps with this. When you post for each other, your reach grows exponentially. If you can't find one to join, then start one yourself!(link to Galley Cat)

4. Contests. An easy way to start is to offer a book on Goodreads (make sure you list your books there, even if you don't offer a contest). For the price of postage, you are getting word out about your book to a lot of potential new fans. This option is only available for books in print.

Use rafflecopter to offer prizes that will entice potential fans to follow you on twitter, facebook, etc, and sign up for a newsletter. Don't have a newsletter? I recommend Mail Chimp. It's pretty user friendly and free until you reach 2000 sign ups.

Those are the basics.

For more advanced advice on getting your book noticed, I recommend LET'S GET VISIBLE, by David Gaughran.

NEWSFLASH:
INdieReCon Marketing Mania is on right now! IndieReCon brings you a mini-marketing know-how blitz! Featuring articles and workshops from CJ Lyons, Georgia McBride, KP Simmons and Penny Sansevieri. Check it out!





How about you? Have you tried something that really worked for you? Please, do tell!

Elle Strauss writes fun, lower YA fiction (time-travel and fantasy). She's married with four children and divides her time between British Columbia, Canada, and Dresden, Germany. She also writes upper YA (historical and science fiction) as LEE Strauss. To find out more about Elle and her books check out her facebook page, and follow her on twitter. To find out about new releases sign up for her newsletter at www.ellestraussbooks.com .

Check out other Indie Life posts on the list below.

Defining Success

Defining Success

(Elle Strauss here. I recently posted this on Indie Elite, but I thought it was worth repeating.)

I've officially been an indie author since September 2011, so about a year and a half. When I put my first baby out into the world all by myself, my idea of success was simple. To sell enough books to pay for the cost of self-publishing.

I mean, I couldn't justify losing money on my venture, so if I could just break even... I'd be a success.

It's funny how my view of success has changed a million times in just a few months. Now with self-publishers hitting all kinds bestseller's lists and dominating Amazon's top 100, and doing it in record time, the definition of success, or at least our perception of what success is, can be all over the map.

-if I break even, I'll be a success
-if I make enough money to pay the heating...
-If I make enough money to pay the rent/mortgage...
-if I make enough money to quit my day job

At some point it moves from making money to survive to this:

-if I make the top 100 Amazon
-if I make NYT bestsellers list
-if agents start calling me
-if I get a publishing deal AND I get to keep my e-rights
-if I become a household name in the industry
-if I have a zillion fans
-if I get a movie deal

(Even Trad published authors get caught up in this. One well-known YA author actually tweeted about how HARD it was for her to keep getting asked when her book was going to be made into a movie. She felt like a barren woman who was always being asked when she was going to have kids. Yes, she REALLY said this!)

Let me tell you, this is a recipe for crazy making.

So, what is the definition of success?

I don't know. It's different for everyone. I actually have a hard time seeing myself as successful because I've placed a high bar in front of me that I haven't yet reached.

Sometimes you need to lower the bar.

I got this email recently. It made me smile. It helped me to lower my bar.


"... I've bought all of the clockwise series, Seaweed, Perception, and the Jars of Clay series, ... your writing is amazing, and I can only hope that one day I will be a success like you (:"

(emphasis mine)

Sometimes we don't see ourselves the way other people see us. I'd say, most of the time.

Are you a success? I bet you are. Just lower the bar and keep smiling.

Elle Strauss writes fun, lower YA fiction (time-travel and fantasy). She is fond of Lindt’s sea salt dark chocolate and hiking in good weather. Elle is married with four children and divides her time between British Columbia, Canada, and Dresden, Germany. She also writes upper YA (historical and science fiction) as LEE Strauss. To find out more about Elle and her books check out her facebook page, and follow her on twitter. To find out about new releases sign up for her newsletter at www.ellestraussbooks.com .

Why Every Indie Author Needs A Business Plan

A business plan--do you need one?

I confess, I was daunted by the idea when I first heard about it. I knew I needed to view my foray into self-publishing as a business venture, but how did one write a plan about that?

1) you write a book
2) you publish it
3) you hope it sells

What more could you  possibly plan? A whole lot it seems. Still, I had no idea where to start. The lovey Susan Kaye Quinn(link) had one, and she let me see what she'd done. It was helpful. She gave me phrases like, Goals, Audience, Brand, How will I promote, Marketing Budget.

You mean, I should break it down more than my measly three points, Sue? Well, she was certainly doing something right, since, her book was, like, selling.

So I did it, and it helped. I was starting to see myself as a business person, rather than "just" a writer hoping to break even some day.

Then Denise Grover Swank did this fantastic three part guest blog series on The Business Plan(link). Talk about comprehensive! And, man, it seemed to work for her! I was motivated to start!

I used her TABLE OF CONTENTS (yes, her business plan has a table of contents) as a template and officially began my own small business document, creating a comprehensive plan for 2013.

Denise's
Table of Contents
1. Description of Bramagioia Enterprises
2. Ownership of Bramagioia Enterprises and Location of Business
3. Products
4. Pricing Strategy
5. Financial Plan
6. Production Schedule and Writing Plans
7. Targeted Audience
8. Marketing and Promoting Plan
9. Web Plan
10. Long Term Goals
11. Summary

I added:

12. Projection of Perception series costs and profits

Some of the important things I learned by doing this:

1) Identifying myself as a business person with the objective of making a profit helped me to see myself as not just a creative person, but a person with a goal outside of that creativity (though linked. Makes sense?)

2) When you view things from a business perspective you make different decisions than if you're just making emotional or creative calls. (This only matters if you care about making money with your art.)

One big change I made while working out this plan was to fine tune my focus for 2013 in terms of what I was going to spend my time writing. From a business perspective it made sense for me to focus on my current series, the Perception Series and postpone a sequel to Seaweed. Denise did this with one of her series--focusing on the one that had the most financial potential and waiting on the one that didn't.

Before doing this plan, I'd felt "obligated" somehow to produce this next book. After doing the  plan I realized that I was free to do what was best for my business and that meant waiting on the Seaweed sequel.

3) Now that I have been indie publishing for over a year, I actually have some data, in terms of sales, promotional successes and flops, plus I've had a year to observe other authors, what worked or didn't work for them. I had information I could use to determine pricing strategies, and create a promotion/marketing plan.

4) Working on this plan also made me take a hard look at my web presence. From a writer/writing point of view my current blog was fine. Just fine. But it was missing the mark in terms of a business move. I realized I was at a place now where my web presence needed to refocus to readers and fans. Those were the people I wanted looking for me (and were starting to look for me) and I needed to give them what they were looking for. I also decided that the "networking" part was better spent on FB and twitter than on my blog.

5) Planning ahead with a production schedule. This was new and scary ground. By planning ahead I had to take a good look at just how long the process would take, or rather how long I wanted it to take. If I wanted to get books 2 and 3 of the Perception series out in 2013, I couldn't just wing it anymore.

Though I love my beta readers, they are all busy writing and building a business too. Turn around times are just too unpredictable. I made the leap to hire a developmental editor. Not only would this streamline things time wise, but I'd have a consistent set of editorial eyes to help me do the best job I could with a series. You  have to book a developmental editor 3 to 4 months ahead, so you have to plan, and be realistic with your production abilities. I went from thinking I could produce 3 books in 2013, to accepting that I could only produce 2 books if I wanted to do them well. And I want to do them well.  I now have deadlines for when the first draft needs to be completed, when it needs to be revised, when it needs to go to the D. editor, the copy editor, when the cover needs to be completed, when the promotion needs to start, etc, all on my calendar a year in advance.

So, if you're a writer looking to make money from your writing, I strongly encourage you to work on a comprehensive business plan. You'll be surprised at what you discover about yourself!

Elle Strauss writes fun, lower YA fiction. She is fond of sea salt dark chocolate and hiking in good weather. She also writes upper/mature YA (historical and science fiction) as Lee Strauss. 

Find her at www.ellestraussbooks.com

Lee Strauss has a new cover!

Seventeen year old Zoe Vanderveen is a GAP—a genetically altered person. She lives in the security of a walled city on prime water-front property along side other equally beautiful people with extended life spans. Her brother Liam is missing.

 Noah Brody is a natural who lives on the outside. He leads protests against the GAPs and detests the widening chasm they’ve created between those who have and those who don’t. He doesn’t like girls like Zoe and he has good reason not to like her specifically.

 Zoe’s carefree life takes a traumatic turn. She’s in trouble and it turns out that Noah, the last guy on earth she should trust, is the only one who can help her.

 PERCEPTION is a ( SF/mystery/romance) Young Adult novel that takes place in the not too distant future in a world changed by climate extremes, natural disasters and impending wars, and where scientific breakthroughs cause class divisions—both financially and philosophically. It explores the clash between faith and science and how differences can separate us as enemies or ally us together. And in some cases, even in the midst of betrayal and personal crisis, there’s room to fall in love. This is the first book in a planned three book series.

 You can "like" Lee Strauss on facebook and mark Perception to read on goodreads.

Lee Strauss is also known as Elle Strauss (yes, it's me!) Read this post if you want to know why I'm using a pen name.

PERCEPTION will be for sale on Amazon and at other e-retailer stores SEPTEMBER 12!

Elle Strauss writes fun, lower YA fiction (time-travel and merfolk). She is fond of Lindt’s sea salt dark chocolate and hiking in good weather. Elle is married with four children and divides her time between British Columbia, Canada, and Germany. She also writes upper/mature YA (historical and science fiction) as Lee Strauss. Visit her at www.ellestraussbooks.com