Top 5 mistakes authors make when marketing their books…
Writing great and marketing great are different animals entirely. When sales are sluggish, that doesn’t mean your book isn’t great. Might just mean your marketing isn’t great. Are you making one of these 5 mistakes?
1) Your website is kind of horrible. Sorry!
I hate saying that one, but 20+ years in marketing and I keep seeing it. Two of the most common mistakes are…
- It’s a typical boring author site with the standard books/about/contact pages that are supposed to showcase you as an author. And I get it. All those “author website” firms tell you to do that. Trouble is, most of those websites don’t do much to actually sell books.
- It’s a mishmash of stuff that doesn’t earn you credibility. (See #2)
2) Your content focuses on yourself instead of your audience
To be fair, this is harder for fiction authors than non-fiction. Because if you write business non-fiction (seo, marketing, self-growth) there’s no end of topics you can blog/write about to attract the right audience for your books.
When you’re a fiction writer, it’s harder. I get that. You need some heavy duty creative thinking. But some questions to get you started… Who are your readers? Who are your characters? Is there overlap? What topics do you touch on? Is there an overarching theme? While it’s harder to brainstorm content for a fiction writer, once you’ve got some angles narrowed down, you can really knock it out of the park in a way non-fiction writers seldom can.
3) Thinking social media sites can help to sell books.
Social media sites can help you find your audience, but they seldom sell books. Let’s be honest — when people are on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, they’re looking at lots of stuff. You might be the rare person that has a different result, but the exception seldom changes the rule. (See #5)
4) Relying on FB as your primary social media channel
The average facebook user has over 300 “friends” and 15% have 500+. What do you think the odds are that most of your readers even see your posts?
And if you’ve created a “page” for your book, it’s even worse. Facebook will only show your posts to roughly 2.5% of your followers unless you pay for increased exposure. So if 500 people who love your books follow you on Facebook and you have a page for your book, maybe a dozen people see your post. If they engage, then Facebook will show it to a few more.
Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use facebook — but don’t rely on it as a way to communicate with your audience. See #5…
5) You aren’t using email marketing effectively
Imagine this. You finish a book, send an email to your list and get a whack of sales and reviews. Email is still the best way to reach people because you don’t get lost in a feed like you do on social media.
But most authors are real weak on email marketing, if they do it at all. Sign up for updates isn’t exciting. Unfortunately, the retail industry has taught people that sign up for updates means sign up to get bombarded with ads & promos.
You’ll need to think creatively again. And no, you don’t need to offer a free book, like some people suggest. Because here’s the thing — if people save the book because it’s free, but don’t read it, you lost engagement. If you’re going to do a giveaway, do something they can consume instantly.
Feedback?
Tell me which parts of this are fuzzy for you or you struggle with. Maybe we can have a conversation that helps other authors, too!
