Painting With Light

Sometimes You Get Lucky

Yoo hoo! It’s finished!
That novel I’ve been talking about for the last year is done!

I can hear you now … there he goes again, tooting his own horn. However, I sincerely hope you’ll forgive me a couple of paragraphs on my latest effort … there doesn’t seem to be anyone else around who’s going to do it.

Such is the life of an indie author. Even when you have a modest amount of success, it seems you can’t rest on just writing a book.

Not even one the reviewers say is worthwhile:

I’ve been fortunate to get such good reviews, but if you’re an indie like me, then despite what the reviewers may say, you’re the one who’s got to blog about it … write about it on your web site … build a media page … and go out promoting it.

In other words, you must establish your own platform.

You Must Have a Platform
As an indie, it’s not really a surprise there’s not going to be a big promotional program behind your work.

However, what a lot of indies (or readers) don’t realize, even if you’re fortunate enough to land an agent, who can then secure a publisher, there’s still no guarantee of a big marketing budget.

Since most published books never sell more than 1,000 copies, many publishers manage to stay afloat only by shifting marketing responsibility to the authors. So most book marketing today is actually done by authors, not publishers.

Book proposals, even those from experienced authors, today need an extensive section outlining the marketing platform the author already has in place to publicize them.

Publishers fulfill important roles in making books available in sales channels but, other than the dozen or so blockbusters, whether books move in those channels depends primarily on the authors.

With That In Mind, Here Comes The Pitch
Oh, No! Here it comes! He’s going to say “Buy My Books!”

Actually, I’m not. That’s one of the things even I have blogged about. Blatant selling turns people off, and I’d hate to lose you as one of my Gentle Readers.

Do I care if I sell them? Of course I do. But they need to stand or fall on their own merit. What I would ask you for is information.

If you’ve read one of my books, have you posted a review? If you haven’t read one, what do you think of the things you’ve read about them? What would it take to entice you to read one?

Leave a comment. I’d really like to know. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have another book to write.

Tags: award-winning writing, book marketing, indie writers

This entry was posted on May 19, 2014 at 9:00 am and is filed under Award-Winning Fiction, Book Promotion, Market Your Book. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.