Want to get THOUSANDS of indie books in reader hands? Read this
Marketing indie books is a marathon, not a sprint
Welcome, indie authors! If you’re like me (and many others), you want to sell thousands of books over the course of your writing career. Sadly, that’s not only a monumental task, but one mired in countless pitfalls, scammers and wastes of time.
I should know, I’ve tried everything.
So how did an unknown indie author get 9000+ books in hands in their first year without working with a publisher? And how do they keep routinely topping categories when they’ve only just started?
I’m going to tell you exactly how I did it so that you can overcome the average 250 sales hump. Not only that, but I’ll help you set up your indie empire for long-term success.
Remember: selling indie books is a marathon, not a sprint.
Let’s get started.
Step 1: Plan to write and release multiple books
Cue thousands of indie authors screaming
“But writing books is so hard! My manuscript is a goddamn literary masterpiece. Isn’t one perfect book enough?!” Your words are bullets. I’m Neo in heels, dodging every single one. It doesn’t matter how good your novel is if nobody sees it amongst the bajillion other novels out there.
What you need to do is think broad.
Let me explain:
If I released only one book, I’d have to compete not only against LGBTQ+ titles, but science fiction and its subgenres, too. That’s thousands of other titles against just one book in the battle royale that is Amazon dot com.
The only way to get your books closer to the sun is to crowd out the roots and pierce the canopy. That also means your book covers have to rock, your keywords gotta’ hit and your descriptions must slay.
A word of advice: Don’t supercharge your marketing efforts until you have a few titles out. By all means, hunt for reviews, but save your cash until you have enough words penned to make a dent.
Speaking of words, it’s time to start thinking like a marketing expert.
Step 2: Indie Author Upgrade
You are your own marketing team. Act like it.
“M”arketing expert?” You cross your arms. “I’m a writer, not a goddamn marketer!” Well, yes, but if you don’t have the money for a decent marketing team, you have to be your own marketer.
To set you up for marketing success, this section contains my marketing stack. Please keep in mind that many of these tools are paid and there are free alternatives out there. Furthermore, I’m not affiliated with these brands.
Jarvis — an AI I want to actually marry — helps by giving you various recipes to put book-words into, then it spits out fully-fledged marketing blurbs, like literal magic.
It even has Amazon product description helpers, as well as blog post witchcraft. Content marketing is very good for indie authors.
I use Jarvis for social media copy, email copy for my tiny sci-fi newsletter and I use it to retool my Amazon descriptions. I use it to inspire me to make social media posts for TikTok. I use Jarvis for cold email outreach.
Anything involving words — outside of manuscripts themselves — tends to go through Jarvis first. I cannot overstate how much time its saved me.
The next tool you’re going to want is Publisher Rocket.
Publisher Rocket is awesome. You can snoop to see who your direct competitors are, build up a list of applicable keywords and check out what search terms bookworms are actually using.
Publisher Rocket can help you not only pick the best keywords and categories, but will help you with your eventual Amazon KDP Advertising — export those keywords, baby!
The third tool I’m going to present to you is something you’ll need a bit later: Sellzone. Being able to track backlinks to your Amazon books is a literal game-changer.
With Sellzone, you can see which book bloggers link your books, what their domain authority is, how many backlinks you have, and you can even snoop on your competitors’ backlinks and keywords.
What that affords you — as a budding marketer— is the ability to track down what work your competitors have already done. Then, you can mimic them, and do it better.
As a noob marketer, there are many more tools you need to get familiar with: Mailchimp for email list building and marketing, possibly Wordpress for an author’s website, Canva for graphics and maybe even Crowdfire for social media post scheduling.
Before you go on a spending spree, I’d advise you to brush up on marketing fundamentals, and before that, get some dangin’ reviews.
Speaking of reviews:
Step 3: You need reviews. Go get them.
Easier said than done, right?
“Reviews?!” you shriek. “I’ve asked LITERALLY EVERYONE!” Believe me, I know your pain. Do you want to know the truth? Your friends and family are not your readers! Your readers are out there, on the interwebs, waiting for you to fight the attention economy to make it to them.
A lot of indies sign up for book tours with little returns. Plenty sign up for swaps on StoryOrigin and get nada. Or, if you’re an aggro gayweeb like me, you weaponize anime thirst traps to attract readers (and because it’s funny.)
Regardless of how you go about it, you need reviews. Without them, Amazon won’t push your indie titles. Not only that, but reviews are the social proof your novels need to entice readers to buy them.
If you’re pre-release, consider investing in NetGalley. I know it’s expensive, but getting those first few ARCs is important.
For your cold outreach practices, emailing book bloggers can be a good play. Make sure to follow submission guidelines. Pick the correct niche, send out your cold emails (maybe with Jarvis’ help!), and play the waiting game.
BookSirens is also a good place to get reviews for your work, though just like NetGalley, they cost money, and want advanced reader copies.
My current favorite tool right now is Voracious Readers Only. It’s $20/mo — and there’s a free trial option — and you get eager readers requesting ARCs in your inbox. Not only that, but you can include them in your mailing list, too.
Finally, you need to tap your circle of readers. There’s a reason some indie authors are pros at the social media game: it works.
Step 4: Use paid newsletter promotions
If you won’t invest in your books, why expect your readers to?
“Money?” you scoff at me, crossing your arms. “Well, money doesn’t grow on trees, you know!” I know, but if you’re expecting readers to purchase your labor of love, you have to get serious about it.
Indie authors are small business owners. As small business owners, you need to work on making this long-term marathon bear fruit. I’m not yet breaking even, either. But what I am doing is the hard work, knowing that it will pay off. It’s already starting to, and I’ve only just begun.
Here are some paid newsletter blasts that I vouch for:
CraveBooks is more like a distribution network than it is a paid newsletter blast. However, coordinating promos is so much simpler using their services. You can tag a few different outlets — including TheFussyLibrarian — and watch your promos flow. It’s a time-saver.
The Fussy Librarian is my favorite paid email blast. They have a huge list of dedicated readers, all looking for discount and free eBooks. Do not sleep on securing spot: they fill up quickly.
If you’re writing sci-fi or fantasy, Book Barbarian is a great option. They helped put 7k+ eBooks in hands this past weekend! I’d say they’re solid.
I’m new to BookRunes as well, but they were also a part of my last promotion, and I’ve got to say it seems like they’re doing everything right.
ManyBooks is a good option, but I can’t quite say they were the one to do the heaviest lifting during my last promo. I wouldn’t count them out, however.
For more places to promote your free or discounted eBooks, check out the Reedsy repository of e-newsletter blasts.
The best way to get your book out there is to get readers invested by giving them something, and as you’re probably as new to building readership as I am, leveraging paid newsletter blasts is the way to go.
Step 5: Try *almost* everything, within reason
You can’t know what works for you until you try
“But,” you begin, brows twisting. “I just don’t think I have the time?” Listen, I get it. I’m privileged for many reasons, and that’s why I wrote this article. I want you to stop wasting money on false promises and start doing the hard work to make this marathon succeed.
Stuff that will absolutely not work:
- Instagram book promotional services. Almost none of them have ROI stats. Engagement metrics are meaningless when Black Hat services for just such a thing are extremely plentiful.
- Influencer Marketing. Some influencers are solid, and booktok is uniquely valuable, but most are useless. You’re better off partnering with NSFW content creators, because they actually know how to run a business. I am completely serious.
- Facebook Ads. These have worked for some, and I maintain they’re solid for email lead-gen ads. Problem: FB is notorious for robo-clicks and the inability to attribute sales across the Amazon channel. Unless you can do retargeting ads, it’s probably a waste of money.
- Amazon Ads…until you can steamroll your categorical competition. Do not start doing Amazon ads until you have a few books under your belt, have done the keyword research, and have solid reviews.
- Avoid anything that guarantees you eBook sales, because that’s a lie.
- Twitter. #BookTwitter is far less chill than #BookTok and isn’t likely to spend any money (I’m being real). However, it’s great for hanging out with other authors — who do like supporting their fellow indies.
Stuff that’s worked for me and you should try:
- Building a TikTok following and using TikTok ads. Every time I’ve announced a giveaway, I’ve run a TikTok ad. They work. Not only that, but TikTok is a wildly engaged platform and it’s fun.
- Reddit content marketing. Yes, Hello! If you saw this article on Reddit, that’s called content marketing. Sadly, you have to overcome skeptics who can’t possibly imagine you want to give as much as you want to get. It’s still worth it, but Redditors are weird. LOL
- LinkedIn. Entrepreneurs support entrepreneurs, and that’s what you are. Hang out with techies on LinkedIn, chill with other writers, and rub elbows with people looking for some leisurely reading. Because nearly everyone on LinkedIn is a suit, you’ll stand out.
- Discord Communities. I have my own queer artist collective. I’m also a part of several trans and writer communities. It’s always good to find like-minds, and what better place than Discord?
- Reaching out to book bloggers. Identify your niche, do your research, and put out some outreach emails. Not everyone will want your book, but some will be more than happy to read your labor of love!
- Avoid book bloggers that ask you to pay to hop the line, unless their website stats are nuclear. They’re likely a scam.
- Reaching out to indie bookstores to see if they’ll carry your paperbacks. Make it easy for book stores by giving them a way to wholesale score your paperbacks. Make it even easier by offering free copies. I’ve found this to be wildly successful. Indie bookstores are so nice ❤️.
When it comes to marketing your indie books, try anything — within reason.
If someone promises you “engagements” or “sales” it’s best to walk away. Work on building your own communities and your mailing list. That will go a long way to longevity for your writing career.
In Conclusion: Writing an indie book is one thing…
Marketing your indie book is a whole other beast
I truly hope this article was helpful for you. No doubt, I’ll have something much more buttoned-up in the future, but this is all I got for now. I’m working on taking over the cyberpunk fiction world, you see 😉.
Marketing is the big boss battle. It requires so many different disciplines, a level head, and ultimately the knowledge that becoming a successful indie author won’t happen over night.
You’re competing with an entire money-flush legacy industry. In order to soar beyond it, you have to take your work seriously and have patience.
I believe in you.
Now, get out there and topple some categories, baby~
(Psst: If you want access to some of the more expensive paid tools I listed above, I have some seats available. Reply below and let’s see what we can do.)
About the author:
Kira Leigh was a marketing she/her, and now they’re an author they/them. Send them a line if you’d like to work together and check out their science fiction book series. They’re since moved on from Amazon into legit eComm, so buy better quality books on their site if you’re so inclined.
