Recently my colleague Mark Johnson, author of The Madman's Bridge, sent me a text message to ask if I had some hints on what it takes for a New Zealand writer to make it in indie publishing. What strategies were the most effective? Where should he concentrate his energies? Where could he go to find out what successful indie speculative writers doing to market their books? All good questions and, lacking the answers myself, I contacted some fabulously generous successful Kiwi speculative writers and asked if they would mind if I put them in touch with Mark. They said yes: USA Today bestselling urban fantasy novelist TG Ayer, speculative thiller writer Richard Parry, and award-winning writer and editor, YA specialist JC Hart kindly agreed to share their knowledge and give Mark a crash course in marketing.
This is what they came up with -- a 101 vlog on book marketing for the fledgling indie writer. In this first installment, Tee, Richard and Cassie talk with Mark about:
1. Intros! Including genres and WIPs (work in progress).
2. Platforms we use to engage readers and make sales (website, email lists, amazon follows and more).
3. Timing for release windows.
The video is an hour long but definitely worth the time investment because it's chock-a-bloc full of must-have marketing information to save you time and effort. (You don't have t watch it all at once. Bookmark the page so you can come back to it, or grab your lunch pull up a chair and tune in.)
Great content, right? Thanks so much Tee, Richard, Cassie, and Mark!
Look out for the next installment of this amazingly informative vlog where the Awesome Foursome will be covering:
4. Efficacy of boxed sets - yes or no, and why?
5. Best use of advertising spend (Bub featured deals, Bub ads, Facebook, Twitter, Book Barbarian, newsletter swaps, list generators and the relative differences and benefits of these services).
6. Self-help books (Cooper's ads bible, Fox's writing-to-market series, Cohen's blub treatise, Gaughran's series on book twerking).
7. Maximising short term revenue vs. long term revenue (including price points, discoverability vs. sell-through.)
To find out more about these writers, please check out their websites and their books:
TG (Tee) Ayer: http://www.tgayer.com/
Richard Parry: https://www.mondegreen.co/the-man/
JC (Cassie) Hart: https://just-cassie.com/