The basics of marketing your eBook

A lot of people going into self publishing believe all they have to do is shout about their eBook 24/7 on social media and the sales will come rolling in, but social media is just a tool to help you sell, not a complete marketing strategy.

Using the 4 Ps, you can review your performance and work out your strengths and weaknesses in your marketing strategy. Remember, you are competing with thousands of other titles on the Internet. You should be regularly asking yourself "How do I compare?" and making sure you are fulfilling your audience's needs so they keep coming back to sample your work.

PRODUCT
Quality - cover design / formatting / editing
Formats - is your eBook available on all of the main platforms?
Is it a series? Could it be a series? Should it be a series?
How does the word count, structure etc compare with your competition?

PLACE
Do you know where the majority of your audience shops online?
Are you offering your book there and maximising all of the tools available to you?

PRICE
Don't cheapen yourself and your work, but don't out price yourself out of the market either.
Keep experimenting with price until you find what works and don't be afraid to try free or discounted promotions.

PROMOTION
What is your USP - unique selling point - or hook for your eBook?
Have a marketing plan in place with clear action points and time scales.
Utilise your favourite social media.
Research book bloggers to review your book.
Consider doing a blog tour.

Self publishing mistakes

It stands to reason we would eventually end up discussing self publishing mistakes, but it's ok to make mistakes as long as you are learning from them.

Nobody is going to get it right first time because the online world of publishing is constantly evolving.

All of these points I've covered in depth in individual posts within the Self Publishing series, so here are the headlines again:

• DO spend time learning about yourself and your goals, the audience you would like to write for and the book you want to produce

• DO invest in a professional edit and book cover design

• Marketing online is more cost effective, but focus on one or two social media strategies first and give them time to prove themselves before moving onto the next best platform

• DON'T put everything into one book, there has to be more so you are able to build your brand

• Never reuse an ISBN

• DON'T do a massive print run unless you have a solid marketing strategy in place to sell those print copies

Writing for life

As we near the end of this mammoth self publishing blog series, here are a handful of useful pointers to summarise what we've been covering over the last few months:

• The online publishing world is changing daily

• There is no secret (and easy) formula to success

• In my humble opinion, Amazon is the best place to start your self publishing journey despite its quirks

• Write a fabulous first book

• Then write many, many more great books

• With self publishing, your writing really can be tailored more to what you actually want to write, rather than writing for markets and trends

• You will never just be able to write - the time and effort you used to spend sending out zillions of query letters and first chapters to agents and publishers has been replaced by marketing and promotional activity

• In my humble opinion, Twitter is the best place to start building your fanbase

• Take the time to engage and connect with your audience

Websites for eBook promotion

Today I'm going to direct you to some great posts which list a host of websites for promotion of your eBook/s across the pricing spectrum:

Savvy Writers & eBooks online

ePublish a Book - this is a 6-part series

The value of free

The immediate value of selling your eBook for free is that you'll most probably get a fair few downloads, which naturally results in great and instant exposure. Then, continuing with the "pushing sales" theme, keeping the price at 99p will ensure those downloads actually earn you some real bunce.

By just tweaking this winning formula, however, you can get a much better deal for yourself which will pay dividends long term. Pricing at £2.99 after the free book promo will give you 70% revenue from each sale (verses 30% from a 99p sale) whilst also attracting an audience that is more likely to read your book (rather than downloading simply because it was "cheap" and storing it on their device for "later"). You'll break even faster and be attracting the right kind of reader.

Research proves that not all free and 99p books are read - I can testify to this with my own reading habits - impulse buys - but most books priced at £2.99 are because the potential reader has taken a look at the book, read the blurb and the first few pages. They are immediately showing more of an interest in you and your work and are willing to invest that little bit extra.

I've gone into the maths in this earlier post, but the point is to make sure you put a serious value on the time, effort and work you've put into your eBook. Don't pay hundreds of pounds to run an ad campaign for exposure to promote your free eBook!

Learning from an expert

I was reading an interview with John Locke, who sold a million eBooks in five months on the Kindle platform a few years back now, and I wanted to share two things I pulled from it.

He advised we should set ourselves small but achievable goals to help us in marketing and one of his suggestions was to start with securing five 5-star reviews for a current title in, say, a month. Then build it up. Little steps.

He also suggested creating soundbites about our books and writing life to be used to promote ourselves and our work whenever and wherever we're out and about and asked. Having these little details pre-scripted in our head will mean we're always capable of making the most of every opportunity to promote ourselves.

Expanding and nurturing your readership

The final reason to try self publishing is because there's the opportunity to earn more over time (higher percentage of royalties on a like for like digital rights contract) than you would with a traditional.

Of course, for this to happen, you have to be prepared to be in the business of writing and marketing for the long, long haul.

Personally speaking, the biggest motivation for me is when someone really appreciates my writing and tells me so. I believe looking after my readership is an investment. How then, can you expand and nurture your readership to keep the momentum going?

First of all, you need to connect and engage with your audience on a regular basis - and I'm not necessarily talking about public speaking engagements like book signings, book readings and About The Author events - all of which are important - but there are little things you can be doing as well.

• Give away free books in promotions as we've just been discussing using KDP Select
• Include links to your other titles and your website in your books
• Keep producing great stories
• Have an author platform on your favourite social media sites - Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Google+ and write a blog to share yourself
• Keep the above presence continuous and not just before you launch a new book!
• Secure reviews and learn from them to grow as a writer and improve your craft