Lesson 21

Writing Class 101 by Rick Kurtis
 Marketing and Ads. Lesson 21
 Congratulations! Your book has been accepted, completed, and is on the market. It doesn’t matter if you found an agent who found a publisher, used a vanity publisher, or even self-published. You have To Market Your Book. They all say they put it out there.

The truth is, at least in my case, vanity, you give them a cover letter or fill out a form letter, and they put it on the Internet with your book cover. Can anyone find it? Only if they know what they are looking for. Your book is placed on certain sites along with the ever-growing number of over 7 million books. Twice a year, they will place your book in the Ingram catalog for 35,000 book stores to page through. If a tradeshow should happen to come along they might invite you to display your book, or they will display it for you for a modest price, like $200. They encourage you to do book signings in stores, libraries, or churches. This way they make money by selling you your own book, which they make a profit for sending an email to the printer. Let’s get away from this and continue.
You need to advertise, but no sales, no money. Get online and find all the free author sites you can find, and sign up and post your author profile. Make sure to write them down so you can periodically check back and update. Also pick a few social sites for free. I have a dumb phone, not a smart phone, so my Instagram has twenty-seven followers and has no pics on it. My twitter I can do with the computer, but I keep forgetting. Facebook sends your post out to maybe twenty friends unless you buy ads. They call it ‘Boost.’ Join a lot of book club’s where you can share. Not to say that any of them will buy your book, but it gets your book out there and seen by other people. It also gets you noticed by a lot of people in the industry, not to say that helps, but it doesn’t hurt. The more exposure the better.
LinkedIn started as a job market site, but has turned into a pony show. I have connected to a whole market of editors, agents, authors, along with other businesses in the book industry. They are all trying to market themselves for free, so don’t expect many sales.
Book marketeers will display your book and take a piece from each sale, which is fine. We all want to make a living. They say they will send your book blurb out to over X amount of emails for X amount of dollars. You can buy a set amount or buy a bid by clicks. Let me explain. You pay, they send. Out of 60,000 emails each month for three months, I paid sixty dollars per month, $20 for each of three books. From 180,000 emails, I received over 6000 clicks on one book and 11,600 clicks on another book, and let’s say 2000 or so clicks on my other book. A click is when they see the ad (my book cover and blurb) and they click on the site to read more. They are curious or interested. The sites even keep track and tell you how many people opened up to read the first chapter. Back to clicks. This doesn’t mean sales, and if you pay ten cents for each click, which house would you be and now. The Poor House, or your budget would be closed out and reached the first day. Better area clicks can cost up to twenty-five cents a click. As I said before about authors and people, people want cheap or free, authors supply, and ad-people get rich with or without you getting a sale.
I have asked for shares, comments, and help to spread the news. It takes only a minute to push a button and costs nothing to share. Out of 900 friends and numerous different posts, I see may be one or two shares. I can’t even get my relatives to share, and they post all the time. Enough!
Everything free is good. Update weekly, monthly, and be consistent with the sites that you choose. Change the blurb. Add reviews or comments. Mix it up and freshen monthly. Show them that you are a person. I was told to be personable and not push the book sale down their throat. Make them like you.
Others say post a video to increase views and shares. Seventy percent more people connect to videos then to just a book cover and blurb. If you can do a YouTube, go for it. Podcasts and blogs help if you know how to use them too.
I personally am stuck on the bottom and trying to decide to go back to writing. I didn’t grow up with the technology about the computer, and know very little, so I have a difficult time in connecting. Writing is less stressful.
We can get into more at a later time, but for now, go out and play. Enjoy your week, and I’ll have something more to vent about next week. Until then,
 
Happy Writing from rickkurtisbooks.com