Universe, I'm telling you now, I want to do this full-time. This meaning writing, publishing, and marketing my own books. It's not at a level where it replaces income from my day job, but I want it to. Soon. Because if this were my day job, then my nights and weekends would be proper slacking off time.
One of the ways to make this happen is to do my own marketing, make sure people know I'm a writer and find out how to buy my books. What has worked for me:
1. Mailing list - It's opt-in, so I know that these people who sign up actually WANT to hear news from me. So I give them first dibs on everything, from cover reveals to freebies to discounts.
2. Author blog - It looks like this site is where I dump my thoughts on anything and everything, but it's also where people find out about me, see interviews I've done, and get links to buy my books. I also try to post stuff here about the books so people can get a feel of my writing style and themes, in case they're still deciding whether to buy or not.
3. Twitter - This is where I interact with the most number of readers and other writers.
4. Instagram - I haven't actually done any marketing on Instagram, but I noticed that readers were taking pictures of my books and sharing it to their followers. I'm now on it to thank them for the love. :)
5. People - I've discovered that one happy reader can be responsible for more new readers and sales than a fancy ad. I try to get to know who these people are and thank them as best I can. I've given cupcakes, free books, shirts... whatever I can get my hands on.
The way I see it, it's all about access and recommendations. Once someone's curious and wants to try my books, I'll do what I can so she gets the book in the format she prefers, and thank her for telling her friends about it.
It sounds like work. Shouldn't this be my actual work? Universe, you hear me?
Haven't been to your blog in a while so I just saw this. Go for it, Mina! :)
ReplyDeleteYayie, I'm so inspired by you! I want to work on books full time, too! Sending out good vibes to the universe for us!
ReplyDeleteit does sound like a full-time job! marketing your work is really hard to do. but i'm glad you have this blog, after i bought your first 2 books and was waiting for more, this blog made the wait for the next book easier ;-)
ReplyDelete