In a previous post I said that I had a lot to learn about marketing. Being in Kindle Direct Publishing Select means you get the option to either make your book free for five days within the enrolment period, or do a countdown deal. I thought I'd be able to do both, but I have since found that once you make your book free, you cannot do a countdown deal at a later date. Anyway, I initially made Out of my Debt free just before Christmas, and then I decided to use up the remaining four days on alternate Mondays in January and February (there'll be a similar arrangement for Love You and Leave You).. The book has sold on 'free' days, though not in huge numbers, but then the only marketing I have done is to tweet about the offer.
Twitter is brilliant, but I have discovered that tweets do not necessarily result in sales - even with re-tweets. So where else can I market my writing (and preferably for as little money as possible)?
Whilst I'm not a huge fan of Facebook, I am considering setting up a Facebook page specifically for my books. I will definitely set up a board on Pinterest. I plan to create a moodboard using images which have inspired my writing.
Back to Twitter, I saw a post from a book blogger offering guest posts on her blog, so I contacted her and hey presto, here's a link to my guest post. Thanks again, Sophie.
I wrote an article for a magazine covering Edinburgh and the Lothians last year and so I approached the editor to ask her if she'd run a piece on Out of my Debt, given that the story is set in Scotland (albeit in the Scottish Highlands). She very kindly offered to review it and the review appeared in the magazine, on Amazon, and on Goodreads. Here's a link to the review. Thanks again, Anne.
I have approached the local magazine I currently write for, to ask them if they'll run a piece on my books.
I have also decided to invest a little money on a Mslexia noticeboard listing. Mslexia is a magazine aimed at women writers, and with 27,000+ readers, I'm hoping I'll be able to attract some new readers.
When the KDP Select enrolment period expires I plan to self-publish my books on Smashwords.
And that's where I'm up to. I'm still learning. For me, marketing is harder than writing! And finding the time to do all these things, as well as write, is difficult, but it will be worth the effort.
