So I'm new to this endeavor, if you consider a year of trying to figure out the best way to promote a book in a country where English isn't the spoken language and the fact that you no longer live in a nation where English is spoken as being new. Yes, that is my current problem, I don't live in an English speaking country so I can't promote my work myself by sitting and handing out copies at fairs or any other traditional methods of promoting. So I sit here staring at my multiple Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads account trying to figure out what to do next. Because my books aren't gaining any real interest.
Now, before I decide to give up and call myself a failure I decided to do some research, find a way to do this. There simply has to be a way, right? Please? Somebody? No? Well, fine then. I'll look at marketers...
And all of the marketers I'm finding? Most seem to be scams or something I would call a scam. Let me see, there's the "pay us $300 to promote your book, oh uh we mean your FREE book, and we'll advertise it to our 30,000 subscribers." Wait. Subscribers? That's all? And who makes up this subscriber list? It wouldn't happen to be, oh I don't know, OTHER WRITERS would it? Hoping for the same exact thing they just paid you $300 for?
I did my research, I got all the accounts, bought a website, got the email server list thingy from MailChimp for all of these hordes of email addys I was about to get, and looked at more marketing research. I realized something after the renewal emails started from GoDaddy...authors themselves are a major consumer, they drive an entire industry that's just one giant circle-ahem, that's an entire exploited population. Selling authors the idea of huge downloads for giving away products and PAYING other people to do it has become so popular that for the first month I actually paid attention to my Twitter account it made up the majority of my followers.
"Pay us!" Came the demands in nicely formatted, more than likely 5iver produced advertisements. "We'll make you a star" I read over and over in alluring, eye-catching fonts and colors. Give us some money, along with our other 5,000 hopeful authors and we'll make you a star by advertising to our, ahem, 5,000 subscribers. Geez...really?
Apparently some of these gem marketers have succeeded in making some authors...well, not rich but have drawn quite a few downloads. 20,000, 30,000 more (!!) downloads of your FREE book are promised to hopeful authors, spending money they don't really have in the hopes of becoming successful. All that does, according to the Amazon forum for authors, is draw Amazon's ire. You see, I have done research.
I've noticed a multitude of "best value for money for your free book promotion" posts by authors lately. "How to promote your book with this site or that" have suddenly become all the rage with authors. Then there's the thousands of ebooks doing the same exact thing. Some of them are even free, or pseudo-free, just give them your email address and you'll get the book. That's not free.
In the end, I don't want emails to send out newsletters I'll never write to people that will never read said newsletter because they just wanted the free book. I'd like some loyal fans, people that want to fall into the worlds I create and discuss them with me, that want to know more not because I sold them a $299 cover but because they love Madeline or John Earl and want to know what else happens next.
This isn't a "I hate marketing" post, not at all. I find it interesting and informative to research how to best grow an audience. It's a skill I've yet to master and may never master. BUT, a list of 100,000 people is not a fan-list. Twenty thousand downloads are not promises of sales, especially when you don't get the longed for reviews to go with those downloads. Spending money to make money is a necessary evil in our world, but spend it wisely. That's the point of this post. THINK about what you're spending your money on.
Are you paying someone to market your book to another author just like you or is that marketer really made up of the perfect audience for your book? Is BookBub just a status symbol for authors now or will they truly provide you with your money's worth considering you've done a lot of work already to even be considered by that entity?
My road is hard, it's paved with language barriers and divided by an ocean. The sweet marketing ideas I've come up with would probably work if I was back in America but I'm not, you can tell that by the web address for this blog. I'd spend a good few dollars if I was at home to try to market my books in ways that make sense to me if I was there. But paying someone that has nothing to really offer me isn't an option, I like eating after all. Be careful out there, people. There are scams out there that don't even look like scams. If you're a writer you have to be somewhat intelligent. Look at what you see, observe it, analyze it, THEN make a decision.
I don't really have an answer as to how to best market your book, I'm a writer after all, and not a marketer. I've followed the rules and laws setup by the plethora of other writers up there that tell us all "this is all you need to do". I'm still writing this not angry but definitely frustrated post. Totally frustrated.
