The speaker at our January meeting was our own member, Andrew E. Kaufman, who discussed the marketing steps he’d taken since his book was launched in June and described how he’d pushed it to the top of the sales in his genre on two different occasions.
Andrew began by telling the story of an author who bought his own book to improve his sales ranking at Amazon.com. The author not only bought copies of his own book, but he also wrote reviews. He kept expecting Amazon to notice, but they didn’t—at first. Once Amazon discovered what the author was doing, his book and reviews were removed from Amazon.
Andrew’s story is much like other debut authors. He had a book that he’d spent three years writing and wanted to have it published. Everyone told him to get an agent. He followed that path for about a year, got a lot of requests and interest, but was always rejected because the book was “a little too different.” He was also told that the mixed genres of paranormal, forensics, and mystery wouldn’t sell.
Andrew felt that the agents had no grasp on the market or what would sell. They were “in a box” and couldn’t get out. He also pointed out that agents are overwhelmed with queries. They receive far too many submissions to deal with and one agent frankly told him that he “wasn’t just turning down good work, he was turning down great work.”
After over 100 rejections, Andrew decided to self publish his book, While the Savage Sleeps. Amazon’s Kindle was just starting. E-books hadn’t yet changed the reading landscape, but Andrew felt that was coming. He describes himself as loving the “quality of bucking the system. ” He says, “He was always the kid who said, ‘Why?’”
He released his book in the middle of June and by the end of the month had sold three copies: one to himself, one to his editor (who he says felt sorry for him), and one to someone who actually bought the book on its merits. He quickly realized that being on the Internet does not mean that you are being seen on the Internet. He spent two weeks going to forums learning how to promote. The book took off in middle of July. It got into the top 100 in the middle of the night and kept climbing throughout the day
Here are Andrew’s ten tips for writers. Note that some of these are the traditional “rules,” while others are new to the e-book world.
- Be a good storyteller. No amount of marketing will help a book that is poorly written.
- Have a good title and cover. Andrew liked his title, but hired a graphic designer to redesign the cover when he realized his original cover just wasn’t selling books.
- Craft a great hook for the book. Andrew’s is, “Two strangers. Distance separates them. A dark secret connects them. A voice from the grave will draw them together.” The hook should be less than 25 words.
- Have a description that makes readers want to buy the book, not move on to something else.
- Market directly to readers through the various forums. There are forums for Kindle, IPad, the Nook, etc. This marketing needs to be done subtly not, as Andrew says, “by shouting, HEY! READ MY BOOK!”
- Get reviews and when there are good ones, have your friends mark them as “helpful.”
- Set up Google Alerts so you know who is talking about you on the web.
- Get professionally made promotional materials like booksmarks and postcards.
- Do interviews with reporters or bloggers who are interested in you or your book.
- Be persistent. Marketing takes work and time. Kaufman says that he spent about six hours every night working the forums and marketing his book when he first started. Now, he’s “down to 3 hours a night.”
Other factors that are very helpful are having a good website. The website won’t get you found, but it will help to sell readers on your book once they find you. Andrew also likes Facebook and Twitter as tools for marketing.
Andrew’s website can be found at www.andrewekaufman.com.
