Marketing a Book Consists of Using Timelines, Consistency, and Creativity For Success
You get to read a short story based in The Backup Superhero universe, and some more Indie Reads.
Marketing is the toughest part of the entire book publishing process.
To begin this whole conversation about marketing, it makes the most sense to discuss why authors have trouble doing it.
Three main reasons are:
Lack of experience
Insufficient tools
Weak consistency
The truth is, authors can all benefit from a little bit of research because we don’t know it all.
The market is always changing. By this, I mean the way readers purchase their books, how they hear about them, and what the trends are. Without keeping up to date on these and learning how to properly use them to your advantage, you’ll always be falling behind.
So what components attribute to the success of book marketing?
Telling authors that these three components alone will guarantee success would be a lie because marketing is complicated with numerous moving parts.
However, knowing that there are three basic building blocks that create a steady base for your future marketing is the truth.
Timelines:
Like many processes, the marketing process benefits from a well-planned timeline.
And, believe it or not, you can have this timeline start at the beginning of your writing journey for the project. From the time you start outlining your book or writing the first chapter.
Your timeline should span the length of the project and beyond, including these things:
Draft deadlines (first, second, third, final)
Reveals (Cover, location, character, description, release date)
Social media (what types of posts and how often)
Alpha reader, editor, beta reader, and ARC reader dates
Blog or book tours
When you establish this at the beginning, you set yourself milestones to reach. And, if you need to adjust the dates, you already have everything ready to do so.
Consistency:
One of the best things you can do for yourself is to remain active on social media.
When you consistently post and engage on social media, you keep yourself and your work in the minds of readers. And by doing so, they become more interested in your work, pulling them into your potential reader base. The thing we strive for.
If being consistent is difficult for you, try creating posts ahead with scheduling applications or making a schedule to complete social media posts.
Creativity:
Catching the eye of readers requires thinking outside the box.
Circling back to the research aspect, when authors research the market and genre for their book, they can see what other authors are doing. Looking at these portions will help give you the information you need:
Social media accounts of authors
Book reviews
Their websites
What are other authors in your genre doing and more importantly, what are readers responding to?
Thinking of these two questions will take you far.
When thinking creatively, authors should also take their own skills into consideration. While one author can make cartoons for their followers to watch, another may draw comic sketches that are short and easy to follow. Each author has their own strengths.
What can you create and how can you engage your readers?
Authors should remember that book marketing success is based on the foundational aspects of timelines, consistency, and creativity.
Marketing is tough, but you can make it easier for yourself when you assess your skills, do your research, and get creative.
Backup Superhero Universe Story
A few years ago, I was part of a neat anthology called The Decagon Key which features some very talented authors.
The premise is that a key travels throughout many different universes and wrecks havoc on each one it touches. And it just so happened that my story in this anthology is based in my universe of The Backup Superhero.
Which I’ve put here for you to check out.
But, if you want to see everything that The Decagon Key does, be sure to down load the book, which is free.
Indie Reads
Eloise Taylor is waiting. Having made a childhood promise that she intends to keep she is now one of the oldest unbonded omegas at the San Francisco Academy of Omegas (or SFOFA). As her heats become more and more unmanageable and dangerous she refuses to even consider a pack.
Pack Russo is notoriously anti-omega. At least its pack leader Leon Russo is. Eric Zhao, Gage Larson, Dominic Dubois, and their beta Owen Samuels don't really understand it but follow their pack leader.
When faced with an ultimatum on both sides Eloise and Pack Russo are suddenly operating in very close quarters. Will they be able to move on from their past or will their past come back and finish the job, never allowing this pack to move forward?
Before the incident, Martha’s biggest worry was her parents’ divorce. Now she’s hiding from a zombie horde hell-bent on annihilating humankind nicknamed “Chippers.”
However, this attack wasn’t spurred by a viral outbreak. Rather, these zombies seem to be puppets of an AI technology gone rogue, and with every day that passes, it’s learning more about how to accomplish its sinister goal.
But why is an AI creating, controlling, and upgrading zombies—and more importantly, how do you stop an ultra-intelligent, world-ending technology that can shift course at a moment’s notice?
Only one thing is clear: there’s no going back.
With a past she can't outrun - and a killer on the loose - every breath could be her last...
After barely surviving a brutal attack in a Florida marsh, psychic criminal profiler Scarlett Hart moves north to the quaint New England town of Clayton to find healing. Slipping off a ladder while decorating the long-abandoned house she buys feels like an ominous start to her new life. But when she lands in the strong arms of her rugged, handyman neighbor, Callum Sullivan, she thinks maybe her luck has changed.
That is until eerie visions of missing women begin to appear in the mirrors of her home—women who take their last breaths in a wooded swamp that reminds Scarlett a little too much of the marshy grave she only narrowly escaped.
She’d like to keep her past submerged in the murky waters she left behind. But Callum has secrets, too, and as their passion ignites, they realize their own twisted histories are intimately connected to the victims in Scarlett's visions. With danger lurking in every shadow, can they solve the chilling mystery before the killer linking their tragic pasts silences them forever?
Love in the Age of Wealth Inequality
Harvey Aguilar owns two pairs of pants and lives in the shabbiest apartment complex in the school district, but he keeps quiet about his family’s tightrope walk with homelessness.
When his classmates come to believe he lost a lottery ticket worth millions, people start paying more attention, and the careful illusions Harvey created at school begin to crumble. With more scrutiny on his lifestyle comes more shame. As Harvey wrestles with feelings of inadequacy, he must chart a path to find his own worth or lose the girl he loves and his dreams for their future.
Backup Superhero Merch!