Wednesday, October 10, 2012

So, I've written the book...where do I find readers?

I think marketing is, without a doubt, the hardest part of writing a book. I made it through the first-draft woes, survived Revision Hell, made it through all the subsequent edits, formatting, and finally submitting it for sale. One would think that would be the tough part, but my head is spinning from trying to learn marketing strategies.

The biggest marketing problem soon became clear to me. There are plenty of places to connect with other authors...finding readers is trickier. 

I started out by joining some tweet teams through http://www.worldliterarycafe.com. That seems to help, but I'm not connecting with people and there is no way to know if anyone is buying my book based on seeing it on Twitter. I knew I needed another method to reach potential readers. 

Enter Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com. This is where a lot of readers hang out, and so far has seemed the most helpful. The deal is, though, just putting your book up on Goodreads isn't enough. You have to help people find you. I was amazed at how easy this was to do. For free, Goodreads will let you do a giveaway on their website. It's very simple. 

In the bar across the top of the page at Goodreads you click on the drop-down menu next to EXPLORE. In the list that appears, click where it says 'giveaways' and in the next screen off to the right is a link that says 'List a Giveaway." From there you just fill out the information you want to include and submit it.  Once reviewed, your giveaway will be listed. 

I thought only people I invited could enter the giveaway, so I wasn't sure how successful this would be. However, people actually search out these giveaways and enter, even people who don't already know you. I submitted a giveaway for Always & Forever and scheduled it for one month. It will end October 14th, and Goodreads will pick the winner and give me their address. I'll then mail the signed copy of my book to the lucky winner.  I can also list another giveaway if I choose to, having the potential to reach even more people. 

Out of the people I invited, only about ten entered. At the time I'm writing this blog, 403 people have entered the giveaway in total. Pretty cool, since I wouldn't have reached these people otherwise. Also, 195 of those entrants added my book to their "to-be-read" piles. Maybe in the future, when they are looking for something to read, my book will come to their attention yet again and they will consider buying it. As far as free advertising (well, besides the cost of a book and postage) it doesn't get easier than this. 

One thing though, your giveaway has to be a physical book, not an ebook. If you only have ebooks currently, I would recommend checking into Amazon's on-demand publishing service, https://www.createspace.com/. The quality is very nice and you only have to pay for the books you actually buy (you can order one at a time). They take care of everything (orders, shipping, returns, customer complaints, etc.) once you've set your book up and put it on sale. I've also heard that https://www.lulu.com has on-demand printing services, but I've never used them so can't attest to the quality. 

If you haven't entered my giveaway yet, it's ending soon. You better hurry! You can enter here.

So, what methods do you all use to connect with readers? I sure could use some more ideas!

Have a fabulous day! Happy writing and marketing ;-)
eeeChantelfff

18 comments:

  1. Hi Chantel, Tribemate ;-)
    I've used Goodreads Giveaways to good effect as well, once I had the paperback available. They almost always produce reviews as well.
    LibraryThing is handy for ebook giveaways as you can give a higher quantity at no cost, but the yield of reviews is much smaller.
    Another great place to get reviews and subsequent exposure is in the numerous Goodreads groups. I'm busy soliciting reviews for my latest release The Crucible Part 1 and have had good take up in a lot of those groups (The Nexus, Basically Books, Writers and Readers, Indie Book Collective, Making Connections, Creative Reviews to name but a few).

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    1. Oh - I actually heard of LibraryThing but never looked. I'll have to check that out. Also, I've only joined one group in Goodreads and never found anything to contribute. I'll have to try being more social. It is a bit hard for me, because I am so shy. I just need to do it and quit being such a scaredy cat ;-) Thanks for sharing the name of the groups you are in! So helpful. Have a great day, Ruby!

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  2. Thanks, Chantel. I haven't participated in this but thanks to this post, I'm going to do it today.

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    1. It was so much easier than I anticipated and really seems to work. Good luck with your giveaway!

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  3. Great post, Chantel. I had no idea how the Goodreads Giveaways work and this was extremely helpful. Unfortunately, my book is only available as an ebook at present, but I am definitely going to stash this information away for the future. Reaching readers is so crucial as you said. I'm a member of Goodreads but really need to become more active there!

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    1. With the on-demand publishing nowadays, it's really simple to do this if you are self-pub and in control of when you publish what. Formatting is a little harder than for an ebook, but with the instructions they give it's not too difficult (hey, I figured it out... how hard can it be? ;-) It did take me a few tries running it through their checker to do it correctly, but they let you know when you've messed up so you know what to fix.

      Glad this was helpful! Good luck with selling your book!

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  4. Fantastic!! Thank you for this information. I had no idea and it is very useful.I'm onto it for my paperback. Thanks for sharing!!

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    1. Thanks so much for leaving a comment! It's great to know this was helpful to you. Have a terrific day! Good luck with your marketing!

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  5. Someone recently did a fascinating article on how effective (or not) Goodreads giveaways really are. (http://www.savvyauthors.com/vb/content.php?2301-What-authors-Really-Give-Away-in-a-Book-Giveaway-by-Kelley-Harrell)

    I've done it 4 times. The restricted giveaway of one book (only Australia) yielded the least entries - but I got 2 great reviews from it. The book didn't sell any better, though. I've done giveaways for 3 of my SF romance books. Sales did not rise and I didn't get any reviews, despite having over 1,500 entries for one.

    Many people enter the giveaways to score a free book and then immediately sell it on ebay - usually without reading it. That said, if it works for you, gets your name out there, that's fabulous.

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    1. Thanks, Greta. I suppose there probably are those who do that. But I know there are also people on Goodreads who are actively reading, so I guess I'll cross my fingers that I have more of those types entering than the other. :-) I'm still trying to figure all this out for sure. Good luck to you!

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  6. Well, what do you know? I went to EBay and typed in my book's title and there it is! How coincidental is that?

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    1. Well - so obviously some of them are just doing it to get free books to sell. That is disappointing. Hopefully the majority of them are really after the book to read though. I'm thinking the ones that don't put it on their 'to-be-read' list may be the ones just getting a book to sell. Crossing my fingers my book goes to someone who really wants it, but either way, it was seen by a lot more people than it would have been otherwise. So, I'm still thinking overall it is a good deal.

      I hope the one an EBay goes to someone who really wants it! Your books are great!

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    2. Thanks! that's one way to look at it. It means my books are circulating. It's like a virus, right? We want them to change hands.

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    3. haha - yes, exactly! And we want them to be highly contagious, as well.

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    4. The books that are one sale on ebay may not have come from Goodreads (or any other) winners. I say this because I just typed my name in at Ebay and every book I have is listed there, and I've never done a GoodReads promo.

      At the same point and time though - they were all my trad published works. Hmmm . . .

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    5. That is a good point, Kimberly. They might be books someone actually bought and finished reading too.

      I'm pretty excited because the person who won my book has over 300 ratings of books on Goodreads and keeps her stuff private. I think she is a reader, not a bookseller! That is exactly what I was hoping for!

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  7. Thanks for the info, Chantel. I acted on it before I closed the window on your blog. I joined both your recommendations. I am having a very rough time trying to get readers. I'm an Indie-Author.

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    1. Good luck, Ruth! I hope this helps you connect with more readers. I'm still trying to figure it all out myself. Marketing is a tough job no matter how you are published, I think. Thanks for commenting!

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