Marketing… marketing… marketing. As a consumer you are sick of it, but as an author, it may mean the difference between selling to fans and not. In this guest post, author H.M. Clarke shares what is working for her.
Marketing
The one word every Author dreads. But marketing is necessary if an author, whether they are independent or traditional, wants to be successful.
And successful marketing does not mean that you have to slavishly follow the current fads and quick tricks that can be seen pushed around the place – Most of the time these will not work for a majority of authors who take the plunge (usually accompanied by a lightening of their wallets).
You see, what some people do not realize is that a technique that works well for one person, will not necessarily work well for another. But there are always the good, old and reliable ways to do your marketing and will work for anyone who is willing to put in some initial time and effort and who is not afraid to wait a while to see the payoff.
Now you may be wondering what marketing technique am I referring to, and you might be surprised to know that it is something you will have heard repeated many, many times before.
Want to know what it is?
It is Email List Building.
I can hear the shoulders slumping from the let down as I type this. But it is true. Email lists and Email marketing is the key to having a chance of success in this business. What people have a problem with is using email list building and marketing effectively. There are plenty of articles out there that explain how to do this, including a brilliant one here on Book Marketing Tools.
The best way to build this is to have a free promotion on your ebook (or even better, have a book permafree), and in the very front of it have a graphic leading people to sign up for your mailing list. Really canny authors will also give subscribers another free gift for signing up as well (in my case I give away more free books).
This process is where the wait comes in. It can take a while and several promotions to build up your list to a size you feel ‘comfortable’ with. And the one thing you have to remember is that email subscribers are more likely to buy from you when you promote to your email list then Facebook or Twitter followers.
As you see, the next step is how to keep your email list entertained and not be ‘salesy’ while doing it. And I will talk more about that in my next article.
If you have an ‘ethical bribe’ or a favourite way of building your email list, please share it in the comments. I would love to see what works for others.
H.M. Clarke is an Australian writer based in Ohio. She is the author of the Scifi novel, The Enclave, The Way to Freedom series and several paranormal novels. You can find out more about Hayley and her books athttp://www.hmclarkeauthor.com/ and you can stalk her on Twitter @HMClarkeAuthor.