Self-Published Authors: How’s the Marketing Going? A Few Ideas…

Summary

Susie Kearley, a debut novelist, shares her marketing strategies and experiences six months after publishing her novel "Pestilence," focusing on personal outreach, social media, guest blogging, and various promotional activities.

Abstract

Susie Kearley's marketing campaign for her debut novel "Pestilence" has seen a mix of traditional and digital efforts. She emphasizes the importance of personal outreach by informing friends, family, and community groups about her book. Online, she utilized social media, created a book trailer, and engaged with her audience through a mailing list and blog posts about her 30-year journey to publication. Kearley also secured guest blog spots, a radio interview, and magazine coverage, which contributed to her visibility. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, her Amazon advertising campaign and presence on book promotion sites like Bookbub have led to steady sales and a small profit, indicating a successful marketing approach.

Opinions

Kearley highly recommends telling everyone about your book as a successful marketing strategy.
Engaging with the community, including local groups and church, was particularly effective and rewarding.
The personal touch in marketing, such as involving contacts in design decisions and sharing her publication journey, was well-received.
Guest blogging and press coverage were valuable tools for reaching a wider audience.
The author acknowledges the unexpected benefits of media exposure, like the BBC radio interview, even if it was initially nerve-wracking.
Kearley views her marketing efforts as a learning experience and is open to exploring further promotional opportunities, including book signings and festivals post-pandemic.
She believes in the power of online connections and continues to leverage them while in-person events are limited.

The Most Successful Approach

The single most successful approach to marketing, which I cannot recommend highly enough, is to simply tell everyone. I told everyone I could think of.

Friends and family all received emails. Social media contacts got to see my book cover before launch and help me decide on a design (it was a 50:50 split and I decided to go for the design that best reflected the apocalyptic storyline).

I told the neighbourhood watch coordinator, who sent an email to all the neighbours, the WI, countryside group, environmental group, local Facebook groups, home group, and people from church. The church group were among the most enthusiastic, which was fabulous! I also wrote a blog about my 30 year journey to publication, which has been the most viewed blog I’ve ever written. I sent a newsletter to my author mailing list, and my first review came from a lovely man on that list.

Radio Interview

I hadn’t planned to do a radio interview, but someone from BBC Three Counties Radio saw my ’30 year to publication’ blog doing the rounds on social media, and got in touch. They wanted to do a short interview about it as part of their Inspiring People series. With a couple of hours notice, I tried to prepare, but stumbled quite a lot, as they asked different questions to those I was expecting. It wasn’t my proudest moment. Maybe someone bought my book because they felt sorry for me?

A Magazine Interview

Since then I’ve done an interview with a local magazine, Vale Life, and asked one of my magazine editors to pop a single line about my book at the bottom of one of my articles. He said he could do better than that — and is running a short piece about my book in the next edition. Woohoo! Like I said, ‘Tell Everyone!’

Boomers on Books Interview

I was invited to take part in the Boomers On Books author interviews, so on 22 March I met with Vince Stephenson on video call to discuss my book, my career as a freelance writer, and the ups and downs of the writing life. You can view it here, if you wish! It’s all good practice for public speaking when covid restrictions are eventually lifted!

Other stuff

I’ve also created an account on Bookbub, and need to explore how to use that to best effect. Connect with me there if you like!

I’ve had an Amazon advertising campaign running for a few months, and it’s started getting a decent number of impressions — the current UK position is that it’s had 2200 impressions, 26 clicks, 2 sales, 281 Kindle Unlimited reads, and it’s cost me £2.56. I’ve made a small profit.

Looking forward, I need to explore other book promotion sites. I think talks, book signings and festivals are the way to go when the pandemic is over, but until then, I’ll see you online.

Did it work? Well sales are slow but steady. Follow me and I’ll keep you posted.

If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy…

Self-Published Authors: How’s the Marketing Going? A Few Ideas…

How my marketing campaign has fared, 6 months after launch

The Most Successful Approach

Guest Blogs

Book Trailer

Radio Interview

A Magazine Interview

Boomers on Books Interview

Email signature

Other stuff

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If you sell books on Amazon, you might want to read this!

I Thought Medium Publications Were a Con!

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