Marketing your work

I held out for a traditional publisher for my novel Sakhira, because I wanted it to be professionally edited, and wanted the validation of a publisher saying it was good enough. I was also expecting the publisher to do a lot of marketing, but the reality is that that simply doesn't happen very often any more. I wasn't expecting sales to be in the millions (although of course there is always the secret hope it would go viral!) but I thought I'd sell a few hundred copies. The sales reports though were far from my expectations.

I decided to self-publish a collection of short stories on Amazon, following my experiences of traditional publishing with Golden Story Line books. A friend of mine published her book "Anna" using a hybrid publishing model, and has also been struggling with marketing. 

As a result, I've been exploring ways of marketing my work, and today's blog reflects on that journey, and provides practical ways to market your work at low cost.

Your Brand

Before you start trying to market your work, consider your brand, and think about what you want it to be. What sort of image do you want to project for you and your book: imaginative; professional, arty, light, dark. The image should tie in with your genre. A mood board can help with this. Think about the colours you want to use, and the typeface (font) you like. I have covered this in more detail in a previous blog. It's a good idea to play around with ideas here. 

You will need:

• Images: of yourself, your book, and images to use on your website. I like Pixabay, which offers free images that you can use commercially https://pixabay.com/ Decide on an image to use for your social media and as a logo to represent you, or choose a good headshot. If you'd like to design a logo, there are free services that can help: https://www.design.com/
• Book blurb: The text that appears on the back of your book is its blurb, and is often really difficult to write. This blog offers a method to do this: https://the-write-link.webnode.page/l/writing-a-synopsis-that-sells/ You can also use AI tools like Chat GPT, (https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/) provided your publisher accepts AI generated content.
• Promotional text: draft emails, texts, letters that you can customise and send out. I often use lines from my work to post on social media.
• An author bio: it's ironic that writing promotional materials can be tough. Many websites and publishers want an author bio, and often specify the word length. They are usually written in the third person. I keep a document with a 50 word version, 100 word version and 150 word version that I can adapt or update as needed. I love the ones that appear in Terry Pratchett's books.

Terry Pratchett was born in 1948 and still is not dead. He started work as a journalist one day in 1965 and saw his first corpse three hours later, work experience meaning something in those days. After doing just about every job it's possible to do in provincial journalism, except of course covering Saturday afternoon football, he joined the Central Electricity Generating Board and became press officer for four nuclear power stations. He'd write a book about his experiences if he thought anyone would believe it. All this came to an end in 1987 when it became obvious that the Discworld series was much more enjoyable than real work. Since then the books have reached double figures and have a regular place in the bestseller lists. He also writes books for younger readers. Occasionally he gets accused of literature. Terry Pratchett lives in Wiltshire with his wife Lyn and daughter Rhianna. He says writing is the most fun anyone can have by themselves.

You can read them all here.

I also used Chat GPT, (a free AI tool) gave it links to my social media feeds, and asked it to write one in the style above, with some great results.

Social Media accounts: 

There are a lot to choose from, but perhaps start with two, and then move onto the others, as you gain confidence. They all have slightly different ways of operating, so pick one you are already comfortable with, and create your author feed there:

• Facebook
• X (formerly Twitter) 
• TickTok 
• Bluesky 
• Mastodon 
• Instagram 
• To manage my feeds, and ensure there are regular postings, I use Buffer, a really nifty, free tool. 

Note: pay attention to site security, and ensure that your birthdate, address, email address etc are not publicly visible.

Writer's Website

One of the first things you will need is a website. Think about what you want to call it – many authors simply go with their own name; others choose something a little different. I use my blog The Write Link as my author website.

If you are tech savy, there are plenty of easy-to-use platforms (like Webnode) where you can create your website for free or at low cost. It helps to have a domain name (that's your own web address ie: https://the-write-link.webnode.page/ ) which you can buy in order to have a lot more choice, or simply use what the website offers for free.

If you're not tech savy, then, you can always hire someone to do the job for you. You can find freelancers with reasonable rates on Upwork  or People Per Hour 

Your website should include links to all of your social media accounts and feeds.

Book Reviews

Book reviews are another means of publicising your work. There are reviewers who will post a book review for you, if you send them a copy of your work. It's important here to choose reviewers for your genre of work. These services are in high demand, so it may be hard to garner reviews. Of course, you can also find paid review services. 

• A great list of reviewers can be found here.
• The Book Network offers a range of promotional services for a fee, but also allows you to post your book for free.
• Independent Book Review may be willing to review your book.

Other avenues to promote your work:

• Email / text everyone in your contacts to tell them your work has been published. Friends and family will often buy copies of your work.
• Reader forums: search for and join forums and groups for your genre. Do pay attention to the forum rules though – many require you to be a paying member to promote your work. I used: SFF Chronicles https://www.sffchronicles.com/
• Sites / journals / editors that have previously published your work

Marketing Template

You can download a book marketing template here to help you market your work.  

Marketing your work is a challenge, and will take a lot of effort on your part, but celebrate the fact that you have a published work to market!