What is Promotion?
Promotion is getting you and your product/service known and well thought of. Call it “branding” or call it “platform,” it simply means people know who you are and what you have to offer. The way you check the effectiveness of your promotion is by how many sales you’ve made.
A writer has something to sell like any retailer or marketer. This article covers promotion in any case. Before you decide your book is no good or your product is unpopular, you might want to double check the desirability of your product and your promotional methods first. You can do that using a giveaway.
The Five Day Free Promotion on Kindle Select
Kindle Select offers a five-day free giveaway. I used that to test the e-book version of my sci-fi fantasy novel (soon to be re-published as “Saving Tom”). During that promotion, my book jumped from from #1,300 to #9–quite a jump! I didn’t make a dime but I found out the book was marketable.
What else does a giveaway tell you?
I’m not a proponent of Kindle Select for the simple reason it ties me into an exclusive contract. But it is a great way to check a book’s appeal. If you promote your book as free and people won’t download it, then you know it needs an overhaul. It might be the book cover or the description or it’s listed in the wrong genre. You might need an editor to spruce it up. Once that’s handled, it’s time to test it out again.
Other ways to “test the waters.”
You can offer a copy directly to someone who has a book review blog. You can claim a partner status on Book Bub and offer it free there. Or you can give it as a gift to those who subscribe to your blog. The point is get your name and work seen while you build a list and let people know you’re an author (or a retailer/marketer). Even if you sell sunglasses, you can write a booklet or a catalog and use it to build a list. Promotion isn’t just about fiction writers.
You need a following.
You should be promoting your book before you even publish it. Chris Well has a great course at Build Your Brand Academy on how to get media coverage by writing articles on the subject of your book’s theme. The author’s bio at the end of the article promotes your book to the people who were interested in the subject of your article.
Unfortunately, when you sell on Amazon, you don’t know who bought your book unless they leave a review. Even then, how do you let them know you just wrote another one or that you have something else to offer? You can’t unless they visit your author page and choose to follow you.
Use a free book as promotion.
You can write a novella or offer the first 50 pages of your novel as an incentive for people to join your mailing list. If you sell real estate, you can write a short book on how to find the ideal home at the right price. In the book or booklet, be sure to remind them where they got it and that they can get more solutions or answers from you at your website.
Get search engines to promote you.
The reason you must have your book on Amazon is because it is one of three of the most powerful search engines on the internet. You want to get known and well thought of? Then get your name, book or other offer on Amazon, YouTube and Google.
You have to be on Facebook, not because spamming people about your book works — it doesn’t. You need profiles on Facebook and other major social networks with copies of your articles or at least links to them. You need a WordPress blog, videos on YouTube and your articles all over the place. Then Google will pick that up. Someone searches your name … Voila! You take up the entire first page.
Very successful people often advise “surround yourself with powerful associates.” Here’s a list of powerful internet associates you need on your side:
–Amazon
–YouTube
–Goodreads
–Ezine Articles
–BookBub
–Barnes & Nobel
The top three — Amazon, YouTube and Google — are absolutely necessary if you want to be found.
Writers write.
Bottom line is you promote yourself by writing. Articles, sales copy, bios, press releases, news stories and interesting social network posts are all part of it. If you don’t feel up to the task, mosey on over to Fiverr.com and find someone who can help you.
I hope this article obliterated any idea that a lack of sales automatically means you or your book are lacking. It breaks my heart to see a writer quit for the wrong reasons. At least try the above before you come to any final conclusions.
Have you had success selling your book? Please share your expertise in the comments below or write something I can share on this website.