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Have you had enough of book marketing?

Cover of "Kindle Wireless Reading Device,...
Cover via Amazon

I started publishing last October. Whilst writing I’ve been doing for a long time, publishing it’s a new thing. Yes, I heard about digital publishing and thought it was worth a try. What I didn’t quite comprehend was that I’d have to become an expert in marketing to try and get my book sold.

But I read about it. I tried what blogs, articles, books, word of mouth said. I must say I can’t read one more word on the subject. My head is spinning, I have no time to do everything I’m supposed to be doing. I have a full time job, I don’t have much of a life but still, a tiny bit of it, and there’s no human being who can do everything that is suggested and survive.

I was talking to a friend and fellow author and ranted on marketing, as we both were saying we needed time to write: Here goes what I wrote, among other things:

Join this! Do that! Blog the other! Sign here! Become an Associate! Pay me and I'll make you gold! Are you gold? Everybody gives advice. 'I published my book and sold thousands' Well, I'm pleased for you. Keep doing it. If you make so much money why do you want mine?

She loved it and I couldn’t help but keep thinking about it. And came up with a few more:

Change your cover! Change your description! Create an author page in Amazon! Not only in Amazon.com, in all of its stores! Publish in other platforms! Join KDP Select! Get off KDP Select! Get paid reviews! Don’t pay for reviews! Create a book page in Facebook! Create an author page in Facebook! Like my page! Do a press release! Organise a giveaway and give your book free! Don’t give your book free; it has a negative effect on everybody else! Increase the price! Reduce the price! Change the categories! Understand the algorithms! Use analytics! Use calls to action! Do a cover reveal! Join Pinterest! Join Goodreads! Be my friend! Join Twitter! Retweet! Have a book trailer! Do contests! Use Rafflecopter! Do blog tours! Do blog hops! Pay for promotion! Use free sites! Content is key! Style is key! Know you target audience! Create a platform! Interact don’t just advertise! Be interesting! Be yourself!

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, consider yourself lucky. If you do, don’t worry, we’re all in the same boat. Hopefully it won’t be the Titanic.

Keep smiling.

I feel better now.

(As an added noted, I’ve met great people in the process, made new friends, and have some laughs along the way. But oh boy…)

Ah, and the piece of advice I’ve decided to follow (because it tells me to do what I really want to do, and what better advice than that?) is to write more, because the more books you have, the more likely you are to be discovered as your books will cross-promote each other.

So I’m off to write. Thanks for reading!

By olganm

I am a language teacher, writer, bookworm, and collaborator at Sants 3 Ràdio (a local radio station in Barcelona, where I returned in 2018), who lived in the UK for 25 years and worked for many years as a forensic psychiatrist there. I also have a Ph.D. in American Literature and an MSc in Criminology. I started publishing my stories, in English and Spanish, in 2012 and now have over twenty books available in a variety of genres, a blog (in English and Spanish), and translate books for other authors (English-Spanish and vice versa). In 2020 obtained the CELTA certificate as a language teacher, and offer Spanish and English classes. Writers and readers both in English and Spanish are my friends, colleagues, and allies, and after living in the UK for over twenty-five years, have returned home, to Barcelona, Spain, searching for inspiration for my stories. I also love owls and try to keep fit following fitness YouTube videos.
Do feel free to connect with me. Here are:
My website/blog:
http://OlgaNM.wordpress.com

23 replies on “Have you had enough of book marketing?”

Yes, I think it’s easy to get distracted on the way by all the advice…Keep going and do what you really love with your friends!

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I absolutely agree with you Olga. If you are a perfect marketer (communicator) you have no more time to write and then….what can you communicate then. I think it’s necessary to have a good balance between the minimum to communicate but the main thing is to have something to say, so to write. Cheers

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Brilliant blog, Olga. I think more indie writers (and it is something I’ve been banging on about recently) have to start questioning the long-term validity of allowing themselves to be so readily exploited by the big boys, by which I mean GR, FB, Twitter & so on. Why do we dance to their tune? Do we really want to spend our lives tweeting/retweeting, clicking millions of LIKES, attending our squealing way through endless uninebriated virtual parties/events or voting on interminable GR lists? Why have indies fallen for this? Although of course by diligently doing all that stuff, individual authors can no doubt point to incremental advantages, and there must always of course be the occasional lucky lottery winner (the exception which proves the rule of such antics). Indie authors are merely doing what these big organisations who control social media are telling them to do. LIKES? PARTIES? EVENTS? This is the language of adolescent camaraderie and bonding. Aren’t we grown-ups? Don’t indies need to take a step back and try some lateral thinking to try to circumvent the blind alleys GR/FB/etc. want to drag us down? As I’ve mentioned before, I think groups of writers have to get together and look for a ‘corporate’ reaction to/exploitation of social media, by clubbing together and finding strength collectively. I don’t know the answers, but we’ve got to learn to keep asking questions, otherwise we’ll just stay up an exploited blind alley the social media giants have led us up.

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Oh my. I agree with this 100% and I really needed to read this today. Thanks for saying what most of us are probably thinking deep down.
I’ve tried to do some of these things to see if they really do make a difference, but at the end of the day… I’d rather write the next book and let the story speak for itself.

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I feel your pain..! I’m sick of the whole business. I just want to write books, end of. I didn’t want all this shit about marketing. I’m hopeless at it. I’m autistic and I can’t even interact with people about the weather, let alone sell them my books.

I think it is the Titanic after all.

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Love this, Merita! I sometimes get tired of interaction with people too. It’s hard to do the sales thing when you feel like Grumpy Cat and just want to bury your nose in a book, though I have to say I’m happy we can do a few things on the Internet. Kind of nice to be able to promote from the quiet of my own house!

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I agree that it’s way too easy to get caught up in the whole marketing ‘thing.’ Is it important, sure, but it’s a long slow process and I find myself getting too obsessed with how many ‘likes’, ‘follows’, or ‘views’ I have on my author page or my blog. The distractions mount as sales lag expectations and I convince myself that one more post or 100 more views is all I need to breakout. It’s not rational, but there is something oddly comforting to know that at least I’m doing something. That that something may be counterproductive seems irrelevant. Unfortunately action becomes its own reward, when patience is what’s really required. Deep down I understand it’s all about making connections, but it’s never easy. For what it’s worth, your blog connected with me. Well done!

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Facebook is abusing the word – friend – it all becomes a game, leading to disillusionment I think DH Lawrence said that we shouldn’t use the word – love- – for a hundred years so that it can acquire its original meaning again. We are being played by the social media. We are pawns in somebody else’s game. Or something like that.

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“It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world!”

Great job, Olga.

Hope you get to read my short short story, “The Moonlight Bar,” at my blog site. It’s an attempt to get some of the rust off from trying so hard at ‘promoting.’ I would like to get back to my WIP, a book where not a word has been written for several weeks.

My best to you….

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Thank you all for the comments. Sorry I couldn’t reply sooner but although I can read comments and approve them at work I can’t reply.
Yes, I feel better for posting it and I’ve decided I’m going to try and do the things I really enjoy as there’s no guarantee of success with anything.
Thanks all and keep writing!

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Thank you. Yes, I know some of these things work for some people, but time is a finite commodity and in other walks of life we’d only invest with some security of return…I’m going to try and see if doing things that I feel more at ease with helps. If not…well, at least I won’t feel like a hamster in a wheel…Wonder what they feel like? Maybe they’re happy…

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