Publishing is an amazing thing! I mean really. The excitement, elation, relief, and sense of accomplishment that comes with it, man, it's amazing! Add that to the end of finally writing a book and it's a high like no other. The process is daunting, but you overcame it, pushed through, and here you are, a published author! Yay!
What happens next is anything but that high though. You watch your numbers dwindle and you have no idea what's happening. You didn't plan for this to happen, but you didn't plan for it not to either. Marketing. It's scary as hell, most of us try to avoid it, but it's a necessity. It has to be done.
This is the part that no one really talks about. The what all goes into and comes out of marketing part. I think they do it intentionally. They avoid it, because doing it is infuriating, lack luster, and from an outsider's view point, can seem downright crazy. No author wants to be seen as crazy, but more than that, they never want to discourage someone from doing something they love because it can be hard.
It is hard though. I've birthed 3 children, been a single parent, and have been single with an empty next for over a year now, and it's been hard. Marketing is harder. It isn't the putting myself or my books out there that is difficult. It's doing it in the right places that is the challenge. I've got 3 things about marketing that I want to share with you that no one has ever shared with me.
1) The reality of 100:1
2) Getting out of "Your Circle"
3) Targeting is Key
The Reality of 100:1
This was one that I learned while selling Mary Kay many ages ago and working as an office assistant for a pretty amazing sales team. I didn't think it applied to book sales, with things like KDP Select and social media as big as it is now, but it really does. 100:1 goes like this. For every 100 people that are exposed to a product, 1 will buy it.
Increase the 100 to 1000 and you about have it right. It will vary, of course. Some days it will be 60:1 or 100:7 but ultimately, in the scheme of things over time, it does work out to be 100:1. That being said, think about how many books you want to sell in a set time frame.
Let's call it 100 books in 30 days (that was my goal starting out, I've missed it by a long shot!). It doesn't seem like much, 3 books a day should be easy peasy right? Yeah. Let's break that down, though. 100:1 x 3= 300. In order to sell 3 books in 1 day, 300 NEW PEOPLE need to see it as an option and know it's available to buy. Three of them will. You might get lucky some days and do a lot better than that. Those are really great days. Most days, it's a ton of work to get 3.
Getting Outside Your Circle
You eventually reach a point where everyone on your Facebook friend's list is tired of seeing your marketing posts. It's the easiest place to get started, so it is where most of us start. Friends and family know your book(s) exist and after a year or so, if they haven't bought it already, they probably are not going to. Time to explore other avenues.
Your first thought probably, like mine was, is to start spreading things out to other platforms. That's a great idea, but make sure that the people that follow you on those other platforms are NOT just the people that follow you on Facebook. Don't unfollow them if they are, just start following other people as well and build up a new circle of people on each platform.
Find ways to reach NEW people. Remember the 100 x 3 thing? Yeah, this is where that applies. You have to rotate people out of that 100. The same 100 people over and over again is not going to serve you well. They might share your stuff all the time, but they are usually sharing it to the same group of people they always do as well. You need to get outside of that, and the sooner the better.
Targeting is Key
Targeting is selling to the right people. People that you know want to buy what you are selling. Let's go back to the 7.3 billion people on the planet and figure 1% of them will buy your book, if they know about it. That's 73 million people. Out there, right now, willing to buy your book! Now, look at your 100:1 figure. How long will it take you to reach all of them if you are reaching 300 NEW PEOPLE a month?
At 300 people a month to get 3 books sold, you can see how daunting marketing can be. Who's got time for that? I sure don't. Targeting those 73 million specifically is going to be your quickest and easiest bet. It's far from easy though.
You have to know who those people are. You have to know where they are and the best way to get your book in front of them. When you know those things you can create ads that appeal to them specifically, you can place ads where they are sure to see them, and things will take off with very little effort on your part. Literally, because they already want your book, they just have to know it exists and how to get it.
It's much harder than it seems for authors. We write what is in our heads with no concept of marketing in our minds. We can see our readers enjoying our stories, but really don't give any thought in the beginning about how to reach them. This is a big part of why so many of us fail or struggle for years on end. We don't take the time to figure out who our audience is or where to find them. We know they exist and figure we can find them when the time comes.
