How My Job as a Book Marketer Turned into Another Way to Help and Support Authors

Photo credit HtcHnm via Pixabay

 

One of the things I love about being a book reviewer is that it is a great way to support other authors. The same goes for my monthly newsletter; I get to not only learn about other authors and their books through interviews, but I also have a chance to share all about their work and books. 

 

I am not one of those authors who view other authors as competition. Heck, no! We are all in this thing together and I believe it is important to support other authors.

 

We need to lift each other up, not tear each other down!

 

That said, I will always jump at the opportunity to do something that will support another author.

 

So imagine my delight when I was offered the position of Marketing Manager by PsychoToxin Press last year, in December. This position enables me to not only help support other authors but also to get the word out about some amazing books! (It helps that I’m a booklover and love to read a lot!)

 

While I have worked in book marketing, I have been using any and all available resource to promote authors and share about forthcoming books. Recently, I started to think about how I could also use this blog for that purpose.

 

In the past, I did post about other authors on this blog when they had books coming out. I featured guest posts, did a series for both Read An E-Book Week and Youth Art Month, and included my blog in blog tours.

 

Then for the longest time, this blog went quiet. There weren’t that many posts and authors didn’t use it for promotional purposes anymore.

 

That is about to change.

 

It was not too long ago that I started regularly posting on this blog again. I mostly used it to promote my own books and talk about the writing life.

 

Now, however, I will be including other authors on here and promoting their books. I will also be posting about forthcoming books as well as any guest posts the authors wish to share. I plan to interview authors on this blog as well.

 

I will continue to post about my own stuff as well – in fact, I’m posting a cover reveal for my forthcoming novella, All the Beautiful Things, tomorrow – and there will also be posts related to writing.

 

But for the most part, I will be posting about other authors on here and providing them with just one more place on the Internet where they can share about their books, or anything else they want to share. Who knows? My blog just may be a part of an author's blog tour again!

 

It’s just one more way to help and support other authors, and I’m happy to be able to offer this to them through my blog.

The Self-Publishing Problem

 Towards the end of last year, when I decided to take on the challenge of writing and self-publishing an ebook for every month of the year, I automatically decided to use Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing service. A writer friend had done the same when she did this challenge some time ago, and since I was already using KDP to self-publish poetry and children’s books, it was an easy choice. I went about this business as the months of 2022 went by.

 

Then, in June, I discovered that Amazon was refusing to remove books which promoted transphobic, homophobic and hateful material targeting the LGBTQ+ community. As the parent of two kids who are a part of this community, I was concerned. I felt that I had to do something.

 

That “something” ended up being the decision to look elsewhere to self-publish my ebooks. I just didn’t feel right doing business with a company that was okay with selling homophobic and transphobic material.

 

I chose another service for this challenge. The first ebook I self-pubbed with them went through without a hitch. The bonus was that, unlike Amazon’s KDP ebooks, the ebooks I published through them were also distributed through other online retailers, such as Apple Books, Kobo and ScribD. An even better thing that I liked was that the ebooks were available in various formats: PDF, Mobi and EPUB. (Not everyone likes reading ebooks as a PDF!)

 

But now, with the ebook I self-published last month, I ran into a problem.

 

As a self-publisher, I always take advantage of any opportunity to promote my other books, and not just those which are self-published. That said, if I have relevant titles which are only available on Amazon, then I will include them at the back of the ebooks.

 

Unfortunately, the service I was using doesn’t like that.

 

Shortly after I released the free ebook for July, I got an email from them saying they could not list my book in their Premium Catalog. When I asked why, the response was that this ebook contained links to books on Amazon. As they put it in their email to me, I was not allowed to include any links to competing retailers “of any sort.” Not only did this mean Amazon but also other retailers such as Barnes & Noble, etc.

 

Well, that sucks!

 

The reality is that there are a lot of self-publishers out there who aren’t exactly making a huge profit off of this venture. I am one of them. I have yet to earn what’s known as a “full-time living” as a self-publisher. This is WHY I use free self-publishing services for ebooks such as Amazon’s KDP or this other one. (I create my own covers but I do pay for editing.) 

 

Also, as a person who RELIES on sales of books in order to actually earn anything as a self-publisher, promotion of other books listed at the back of the book is important.

 

Especially the books that are ONLY listed on Amazon!

 

Now, I know that a lot of people don’t like Amazon. I know some people who refuse to shop through Amazon as a matter of principle. But, you know, Amazon is a business. And, they are just one of the many online retailers out there which sell books. (When I made the decision to stop using Amazon to self-publish ebooks, I debated asking my publishers to remove my books from Amazon as well. However, I decided not to, because even though there is a lot of controversy surrounding the company, there are A LOT of people who still use it to buy books AND ebooks for their Kindle. So, that would mean a huge loss of sales for them, which was not a good thing for me to suggest to a business that relies on sales of the books they publish in order to stay in business.)

 

When I self-published ebooks through KDP, I didn’t come across this problem. I included books with links to Barnes & Noble, Kobo and even Walmart, and Amazon didn’t give me any problems over that. However, it seems that this other self-publishing service I have used does have a problem with that.

 

And I have a problem with their having a problem with that!

 

So, I am trying to figure out where to go from here. I DO need to use a self-publishing service that will not charge me, but I need to be able to have the freedom to include whatever links I’d like to include anywhere in the book. Period. I also need a service that will allow me to make the ebooks available as a free download. (Some of them will be used for promotion of other books.)

 

I just might end up going back to using KDP for the free ebooks. I talked it over with my oldest and he told me to just do what I had to do. I may not feel comfortable with this arrangement, but given that being able to have the freedom to put whatever content and links I want to in my book is super important to me (and part of the appeal of self-publishing itself), I will choose a service that enables me to do so.

How to Use Social Media to Market Your New Book: Guest post by Marcela De Vivo

Writer Marcela De Vivo is a guest on my blog today. She took the time to share with authors some tips on how to use social media to promote your book.


How to Use Social Media to Market Your New Book
By Marcela De Vivo

What is Social Media

As an author, what better way is there to promote yourself other than social media? No, really—as a seasoned writer, you have all the tools you need to create successful social media outlets, as social media is all about snappy prose (and catchy graphics and images, if you’ve got that in your tool belt as well).

Social media is a great way to personally engage with your audience. It’s like free advertisements and you control the content. Set up a Facebook fan page, a Tumblr, Instagram account, Twitter, a WordPress blog—or all of the above.

Having various outlets is incredibly helpful; not only do you now have multiple ways of getting the work out on your new book, you can also use them to promote your promotions of yourself (like a Matryoshka doll of social media!). For example, you can post links on your personal website that will lead others to your Twitter or posts, your Tumblr, your Facebook fanpage or any permutation that you can think of.

Where to Start

One of my favorite authors as a teenager was Meg Cabot, best-selling author of The Princess Diaries.  Now, she had quite a following (and a movie deal) by the time social media became in vogue, but that didn’t stop her from utilizing what is a valuable resource for many: she started writing weekly blog posts.

As an avid reader of her works, I also became an avid reader of her blog. She wrote about her day-to-day life, but also included tidbits about books that she was currently writing and editing. Her website was a great way for her readers to stay in touch with what she was working on.

A personal blog is a great way to start your foray into social media—readership of your blog will soon translate into a readership of your work. Plus, you already have the necessary skills as a writer!

To further promote your website, you can hold contests (perhaps with a free copy of your book as a prize), add social share buttons (so people can share links to your posts) and Facebook commenting (so people can share their thoughts on your work!).


Successful Social Media

Probably one of the most notable authors for social media is young adult writer John Green.  John Green is something of a social media juggernaut: he’s on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook and perhaps most notably, on YouTube. He runs a popular channel along with his brother (their channel is aptly named “VlogBrothers”). Video can be a great way for your readership to get to know you “personally.”

Personally, I’ve never read his books, but his posts that make their way onto my dashboard on Tumblr are so funny, that I often find myself wanting to pick up one of his books—and isn’t that the ultimate goal?

Measuring Activity

Once you have your various social media outlets set up, you can use a tool to track the activity on the sites. Certain tools are capable of tracking visitors, leads and customers.  Tracking such activity is a great way of measuring the effectiveness of your social media outlets in promoting your new book.

So, get out there and create that blog! And Twitter account, Tumblr, YouTube and Instagram accounts. It’s a great way to get a loyal following.

BIO:

Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer in the Los Angeles area whose writing covers a range of industries, including marketing, tech, gaming, health and fitness. She uses various social media outlets to successfully promote her blog.