So You Want A Fandom [#Publishing] [#MarketResearch]

Marketing Bros: 2016-2020 & Beyond

A third basic guideline is that book's cover art should be competitive with best-sellers in the same genre. Not only does this entail market research, it also requires some basic knowledge about how to judge artwork and typography, in terms of marketability in a particular genre. On top of that, it can be difficult to commission a reliable artist.

Oftentimes, self-published writers hire a favorite artist without considering what their target audience looks for. They love the commissioned art but fail to understand why their book isn't selling.

I have also seen self-published writers who did all the proper market research, then picked up some cheap prepackaged book covers from an artist who hasn't quite mastered typography or design layout. Their books might be amazing, but they do not look competitive on a professional level. Readers pick up on subtle cues that hint "amateur," and skip over them in search results.

The fourth basic guideline is that digital marketing is necessary. This should probably be basic #1. Some self-published authors do invest in print copies, and hand-sell them at conventions and independent niche bookstores, but these are few and far between. Print is expensive. The return-on-investment (ROI) is often so marginal for print books, self-published writers focus much more on ebook and audiobook editions.

There are many different schools of thought on how to market books online, but everyone agrees on the fundamental need. Visibility is vital to sales and reviews. If no one sees your book, it's as if it does not exist.

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So, how do you market your books online?

Ha. Hahahahahahaaaaa. 

Therein lies the golden ticket. Lots of people claim to have the answers. This industry is chock full of self-publishing gurus, and every one of them is selling something to help you out. They're selling webinars, seminars, classes, workshops, exclusive podcasts-behind-a-paywall, how-to books, and so forth. Many of them will just reiterate the basics I mentioned above, and they'll go over the stuff I cover below. Maybe they'll add their own strike-it-rich ingredient which worked wonders for their sub-genre in 2016. A few will be selling valuable services or custom-tailored advice.

Author newsletters, aka mailing lists, are a thing. Many career indie authors swear that they built their fan base through weekly emails. They swear that it is critical to have a newsletter, in order to be self-reliant instead of dependent on Amazon. Other indie authors send out irregular or infrequent newsletters, and some of them say that they're doing just fine, thanks.

Discount book newsletters are big. Amazon sends a newsletter to subscribed readers, but one must already be a best-seller to get on that list. Bookbub is the holy grail for authors—both indie pub and trad pub—and few who apply can get their book listed there for a day. Lesser discount newsletters exist. Most charge a fee for listing, and they entail a waiting list, sometimes more than a year out.

Amazon ads and Facebook ads are a thing. Many career indie authors discuss ad spend, and how it helped them build page view counts, which led to sold copies of their books.

Keywords and SEO analytics are a thing. Many career indie authors get savvy with UTM codes and landing pages and all that jazz.

Book review services and review swaps are a thing. Many indie authors enter Booksprout and other services, hoping to gain early reviews on or before their launch month. The Amazon visibility algorithms favor books with a growing number of reviews within the first month of release.

There are many other tips and tricks. Some indie authors pool their works together and sell them collectively in a discount bundle, using StoryBundle or other services. Some authors swear that constant networking is key, and they swap promotional blurbs for each other's books in every issue of their weekly or monthly newsletter. They might participate in genre anthologies. Some indie authors jump through hoops to get their book listed in libraries and retail bookseller catalogs. Some return to trad pub and sign a contract with a small press, for some extra exposure or marketing help. Some resort to guerrilla marketing gimmicks. Some try podcasts or YouTube shows to add an ancillary audience. Some try to build an audience through online serialization.

I will take a closer look at these routes in future articles. In summary: If there was a guaranteed formula for success, every passionate and driven writer would have a super-hot best-selling book or two. We are all stumbling around, trying to find best-practices that work for us.

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If you hang out in self-publishing circles for a while, you will see differing schools of thought, and factions for each methodology.

Here is a general overview.

KU vs. Wide: KU stands for Kindle Unlimited, a subscription for readers. Indie authors who participate in KU must be exclusive to Amazon, meaning their ebooks are unavailable anywhere else. The benefits are a shared royalty pool which is calculated per pages read. This agreement is lucrative for some authors; their book might earn more from Kindle readers than from regular copies sold. But for other authors, the tradeoff of having their books unavailable beyond the Amazon ecosphere means career stagnation. Those who want to sell beyond Amazon call it "going wide."

Clean vs. Adult/Explicit/Erotica: Clean Fiction is a movement away from graphic sexual content, graphic or gratuitous violence, and swearing. Lots of popular books could technically be considered clean fiction. Authors of clean fiction might still enjoy explicit content, and they have various reasons for not writing it. For instance, graphic sex or violence can draw a reader's attention away from where the writer wants the focus to be, in terms of theme or story.

Write to Market vs. Write what you love: These don't have to be mutually exclusive. Popularized by indie author Chris Fox, the phrase "write to market" is meant as a success-geared improvement upon "write, then market." A write-to-market author will study their preferred sub-genre and include a few popular tropes or elements in their own books, as a way of welcoming new readers and getting them to try something unknown.

Rapid Release vs. One-book-a-year: Many career indie authors swear that the key to their financial success is rapid release, or producing as many books as possible and releasing them within weeks or maybe a month of each other. This way, the author never falls off the 30-day-cliff of Amazon's hot new releases algorithm. At least one of their books is always visible and trending. That results in more copies sold, and their visibility has a chance to soar. Hitting a best-seller list on Amazon—especially as a debut author—is like winning the lottery. Rapid release ensures a higher probability of getting there.

And of course, being an Amazon best-seller leads to much higher visibility, which means more readers. It has a snowballing effect.

Rapid release works best with series, since there is continuity which encourages readers to follow-up and buy the next one. Many career-focused writers are feeling pressure to write series, as opposed to stand-alone novels. And they are feeling pressure to write rapidly.

I see exceptions here and there. This industry is in flux.  

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*** A/N: Torth Book 5 is up on my profile! Please add it to your library to receive chapter updates. First new chapter begins this Saturday. 

Hopefully this article wasn't too much of a close-up look at how the sausage is made. I don't write rapidly (not even close to rapidly enough to be competitive with the book-a-month crowd), and I have not considered writing to market until this year. ***