Thursday, June 28, 2012

Some thoughts

Here's a few things I've learned since I started doing this self-marketing/advertising thing.

1. Don't give dates publicly. No matter how concrete those dates SHOULD be, give a rough estimation. Things happen, or don't happen and everything changes.

       A.)Changing editors three times really messes up a schedule. It wasn't anyone's fault really, it was just 2 people, really wanting to help me out with this, but having no free time to do so. The third editor is a pro and cost me money, but also will get to it b/c its her job.


2. Don't be stupid. Yes, read your contracts, make sure you understand them...but for crying out loud, remember to fully read what the contract is for.

        A.) KDP select probably would have been a good idea had I taken the 5 days and spread them out over the 90 days of the contract. I read it to be 5 different sales events....dumb dumb dumb. blew all 5 days in the first week....geeze


3. Silly, random comments on forums DOES get you noticed, and some of that turns into website traffic, but the time to benefit ratio is terrible. Stick to sites like Goodreads and Twitter, that's what they are designed for.

4. Facebook and google + only works if your friends are really there to help you along OR you have something published and people come find you. Look at FB and g+ as word of mouth advertising. if the mouths don't spread the news, the word does not get out. Twitter is also word of mouth, but it's closer to real time and the discussions you have can be read by their followers and re-tweeted to more people. happens far more on twitter than fb or g+.

Lastly, and I mention this as more of a side note than something I learned...it somewhat applies to anything. Self-publishing, marketing, advertising should NOT be only yourself. there is a world of people out there on the net who are in the same boat you are and all of you should take advantage of that. Talk to people, ask questions, make contacts, work together to sell those ideas. It's not a competition in the book world because people don't just buy one book ever.


Once I get my book ready for (at least) online publication, I'll def post the new ideas I plan to implement. Until then - have a good one!

2 comments:

  1. These are very blunt, good-sense suggestions that we all need to follow...or should I just be honest and say "I need to follow."

    Good-looking site, Nick. And thanks again for the info about godaddy.

    Your sidekick on Book Titans...Erin

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  2. Thanks! I hope these little blog entries help you and everyone else out. If you come across any info you care to share, let me know and you can guest blog it, or I can just copy/paste it and give you credit. either way :D

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