Once you embark on writing a book your brains are buried deep into thinking about how it will look as a finished product. At no point do you think about how complex book writing is until we get there. Then finally, the book is published and you wake up thinking “oh my, my achievement is accomplished…so what next?”
Stage two comprises of learning the little, gritty, nitty things which are part of publishing your own book, marketing and promoting. You spend a lot of time on the internet researching how to market, promote books and get exposure for your product which you believe is great. You find the quantity of available information to be very overwhelming and eventually settle down and work out which way will work best for you.
From my own experience and research, I have come to learn that every author wants to become a best-selling author. Well, it does happen but it does not occur over night. It takes a lot of effort and hard work to become the best-selling author just like any other talent or art. Nothing comes easy, there is a lot behind the scenes activities which are undertaken to accomplish the achievement. For example, a marathon runner does not just run once and win, there is a lot of practice involved in improving the running time.
Marketing of any business is hard and books would not be any different. The marketing organisations are also in business making their own money and do not guarantee success if you advertise with them. Therefore, as an author you have to gamble and play around with different marketing options, see the outcome and decide what works well for you. I find running one advertisement at a time a good way to gauge whether that marketing strategy has worked or failed in selling my book.
The fourth stage is the realisation that there are different marketing strategies for your book. Currently online marketing is what is favoured by most people. However, there are other marketing practices which can be utilised to put your book out. Such as I carry my books with me all the time and when interacting with people and get to know their interests, I talk about my writing and the published book. (of course, it has to be the right time to talk about the book not ram down people’s throat).
Some people get interested in looking at the book and I happily produce it in which sometimes end up with a sale or a promise for one. I might sell one or two but I’m exposing myself to different audience of people and probably the word of mouth in case the buyer finds the book interesting. I also take this opportunity to request for email contact and whether they would be interested in getting emails from me.
I’m still new on this journey and I’m learning heaps as I go. I have not sold a lot of books just one here and one there. I have embarked on writing my second book and passing the message to my new audience. Trying to be active on social media and build an audience. Time will tell as I continue to discover this writing and publishing world.
Lastly, I have come to realise that I enjoy writing and that is what I will continue doing, promote my book as much as I can and whatever I make out of it in terms of money I’m content with it. What is your take?