You've written your book - and now you want to sell it. What should you do?
Marketing a book is supposed to be the hardest part of self-publishing. Services like Lulu.com and Amazon's Createspace mean it's never been easier to become an author and publish a book. But getting people to hear about it and actually purchase it is another matter.
Before you despair: Some self-published books go on to great success. "Fifty Shades of Grey" is only the best known.
And lest you think the grass really is greener for those going through traditional publishers, I've published two books by that route, and from my experience they don't do a lot of marketing either. The publishing houses' traditional marketing strategy consisted of wining and dining the key editors and reviewers for the big newspapers, and then paying to display their authors' books prominently in the bookstores.
The bookstores are going to the way of all flesh, while the influence of the big name book reviewers is probably doing the same.
So what can you do?
After talking to experts and authors, here are seven thoughts.
1. Be wary of "marketing consultants" who offer to help you market your book for a fee.
My Wall Street Journal colleague Adam Najberg wrote a thriller set in China and tried publishing it himself. He found lots of consultants willing to take his money. But none could offer any proven track record of success. Furthermore, when he told the consultants he'd be willing to pay them on a commission basis - so they would only make money if he sold books - they vanished.
2. Don't get suckered by the Social Media hype.
The aforesaid consultants, plus other people who have thought about the subject for thirty seconds, will offer you the bright idea of Tweeting about your book. "Why don't you start a blog?" they'll add, before also suggesting you give your book a Facebook page.
These are all fine, but don't expect them to change your fortunes. It's the fallacy of composition. When one person Tweets about his or her book to an adoring world, the Tweets may have value. But when every author on the planet is Tweeting about their books, the value rapidly evaporates. As for blogging: Time spent on an unpaid blog will simply take you away from writing for a living.
3. Give away free content.
This was the number one suggestion for new authors by Dan Dillon at Lulu. If you've written a series of books, give away the first one for free so readers can whet their appetite. If you've written one book, give away the first few chapters for free. "Giving away content is so valuable because you're an unknown quantity," he says. It lets readers try before they buy.
4. Publish in multiple formats.
Even if you are expecting to sell most of your copies in "ebook" format on the Kindle or Nook or Kobo, you should still publish a hard copy as well - and vice versa. Dillon says that by Lulu's experience, authors who publish in multiple formats typically sell about four times as many copies as those who publish only in one format. It isn't simply about increasing the number of people who are willing to buy: It also gives poential readers another signal that your book is professional and that you are a real author.
5. Go to events where your audience hangs out.
Book signings in bookstores are passe, even for big-name authors - and even if they can find a bookstore. What can work, though, is to go to live events where you are likely to meet the type of people who are likely to buy your book. Naturally this works better for non-fiction than fiction. A friend, who co-wrote the definitive history of wheelchair basketball, sold copies at the London Paralympics in 2012.
6. Pick a killer title.
James Altucher, author of self-help book "Choose Yourself!", came up with a clever way of picking the best title. With the help of acquaintances he put toger a short-list of possible titles. Then he created Facebook ads for each one, inviting interested readers to click on it (The ad just clicked through to Google.com as a dummy page). Then he looked to see which ads got the highest click through rate. Choose Yourself! crushed the competition, Altucher says. In total he's sold nearly 200,000 copies.
7. Team up with an email marketer.
"Email marketing is the most powerful marketing tool, something that publishers have not come even CLOSE to figuring out yet," says Altucher. Someone with a big email list contacted him about Choose Yourself! and they shared revenues raised through the channel.
