All the Marketing I Did Not Know, and Other Ways I Misunderstood How to Sell My First Three Books: Part I
When I wrote my first three books–The Christmas Courtroom Trilogy–I thought I did what an Indie author is supposed to do. I focused on writing good books, meaning I wrote many drafts, revised them many times, and then hired an editor who encouraged me to work even harder. I then hired a copyeditor to comply with the style manual. And while that was in process, I worked with an illustrator who created eye-catching covers that matched the themes of the books and a book designer who pulled each book together in print and eBook. I then worked with my editor to upload the books on IngramSpark (for access to book stores and libraries) and to the Amazon platform (because that behemoth does rule the world).
Job well done, right?
50% right. 50% wrong.
It was appropriate to work as hard as I could to create polished books, but I stopped short of doing the one thing I later realized is critical. I was so excited to get the books into the world when the production process was finished that I didn’t build in time for a proper launch plan.
It was as if I had shown up on readers’ doorsteps on launch day like a door-to-door salesman. If the readers didn’t know my book was coming, they might not be home. Or worse, if they were home, they might refuse to answer the door for fear of the unknown.
Author Platform Building versus Book Selling
Author platform building is about building name recognition as an author, starting with building and maintaining a website, establishing a presence on social media, and becoming and staying engaged in the reading and writing community. It is the scaffolding that will support book selling, but it is not the same as book selling because book selling is about–well–selling a book. They are two completely different things.
Building a platform–if you are not a celebrity and don’t come with a jillion followers on social media–is more of a marathon. Book selling is more like a very fast mile run, with a long warm up period if you do it right.
Without necessarily meaning to grow one, my platform has grown since I started Charlotte Readers Podcast, where I have interviewed over 300 authors about their books and writing life. The podcast allowed me to meet authors from all over the US and three countries, become more invested in the writing community, and learn more, including that in addition to working on my author platform, I needed to think strategically about how to sell my next book (assuming I ever found time between podcast episodes to complete it).
Sidebar. If you are a traditionally published author, the same rules apply, because the publisher will expect the author to do a great deal of work to sell the book the publisher owns. So why not own the book yourself if you are going to do the work? But that’s a topic for another day.
In short, when it comes to selling books, I learned there has to be a plan. I didn’t have one with my first three books. I’m changing my stripes with my upcoming novel, Deadly Declarations.
The first and most important part of my book promotion plan is the fact that I have a plan. And the most important part of that plan is planning ahead.
The Caveat to What I am About to Say About Book Selling
The disclaimer to what I am going to say is that I have no idea whether my plan will work, that is, whether it will sell books.
Indie authors have given me lots of advice, and I am working with an excellent publicist. But the book world is fickle and what works one day, may not work the next.
Plus, we could have a Pandemic on my launch day. It’s happened before.
Plan Ahead on the Book Covers
Covers sell books, so it is important to get an early commitment from your cover designer. For Deadly Declarations, I made a deposit with the cover designer in August for a book to release seven months later.
Planning ahead allowed me to get on the designer’s calendar and time for the back and forth between designer and author needed to create the best front cover for the book. It also allowed the time we needed to create a nice back cover for the advance reader copy (more about the ARC below).
When I received the back cover for the ARC, the cover designer also provided a 3D mock-up of the front cover that I could use for the cover reveal and on my author website.
I also received four months prior to the release date for the eBook and audiobook the covers for both and as I write this, the plan is to have the back cover on the final print book completed four months before the print book release date.
By completing the covers for the eBook, audiobook, and print book more than four months in advance of their release dates, I can use them to generate interest prior to their release. And maybe even drive some preorders (more about preorders below).
By starting early, I was able to develop a front cover for Deadly Declarations that I am proud of and one that is eye-catching. And the best part is readers won’t see it for the first time when I knock on their door on release day.
Plan Ahead for the Production of Print, Ebook, and Audiobook
I didn’t create audiobooks for my first three books until several years after their release, and by waiting, I missed out on readers who listen to audiobooks. But it takes planning to complete the audiobook.
When I created audiobooks for my Christmas Courtroom Trilogy I used the ACX platform, connected with a narrator, and followed the process that took several months to complete.
It is smart to allow at least three months to complete the process, because whether you produce your audiobook through ACX or Findaway Voices or some other platform, there is quality control that needs to be done by the narrator and the author, and then the platform will take time to approve the submitted audio prior to release.
This time around, I obtained a commitment from my narrator to start in mid- December so that we have the audiobook ready by the time of the release of the eBook and print book.
But you can’t make an audiobook without a completed manuscript, so with Deadly Declarations, I created a schedule for completing both print and eBook four months in advance of their release dates. I met that goal on the eBook when it was completed in early November, four months in advance of the March 1st eBook release date. The final print book with final back cover will be completed in early December, four months in advance of the print book release date of April 5th.
You might ask: why is Landis releasing his eBook on March 1st and the print book one month later? The answer is: It’s an experiment. The idea is to try to generate interest online before the release of the print book. We will see whether that works.
Preorder Links Let People Know You’re Coming
Another thing I will say about planning ahead is that it allows for preorders, something I didn’t do with my first three books. The preorder process can be a little confusing the first time you try it, but here’s what I’ve learned.
Online is where we find eBook preorders. Just upload your eBook file with book cover and set a publication date and price, and you are cooking with preorder gas in the online community.
IngramSpark is for print preorders. Just upload your print file and cover and enable distribution on a certain date and your print preorder link will find its way into the world.
By taking these steps, an author is in the position to promote preorders of their book in print and eBook in advance of the release date and make sales before the book is published. It’s definitely a strategy worth making a habit. I wish I’d done it sooner.
Give your Reviewers Time to Write their Blurbs
Like the book cover, the blurbs–not such a stellar word for book reviews that appear on the covers or inside the book–are an important selling tool. Readers like to know that someone who knows how to write a book has read your book and likes it.
Authors are busy people and they appreciate being asked to review other author’s books, but they also appreciate being given enough time to do so. After all, they are busy writing and trying to sell their own books.
With all my books, I’ve tried to ask for blurbs several months in advance of the deadline. For Deadly Declarations, I solicited author reviews in August and early September with a requested deadline of the end of October. I wanted to give them more time, but I still had some tweaking to do before sending the book to them and the copyeditor. Planning ahead allowed me to receive blurbs from nine talented, award-winning authors and they arrived in time to be included in the advance review copy (more about ARCs below).
Build the print ARC early for the advance readers, trade reviewers and influencers
Another thing I did not do for my first three books was create a print advance review copy (ARC) for advance readers, trade reviewers, and influencers.
The print ARCs serve several purposes. One, an author can give them to advance readers so that they can read the book before release day and leave reviews online soon after the book releases. Oh, and just like the authors who blurb the book, advance readers (whether they are fellow authors or just readers with an interest) are busy people too. Which is why I am beating the point to death about the need to plan ahead when asking for their help. It’s common courtesy.
I decided to invest in producing and distributing print ARCs of Deadly Declarations because I believe readers appreciate holding a finished book. It has heft to it, and it’s the least I can do for them for taking the time to read my book and leave an honest review online. And for those advance readers who prefer digital, I will have a digital ARC they can read on their Kindle.
The other reason the print ARC is needed in advance is for trade reviews and if you want to have the trade reviews completed somewhere close to the release date, you have to plan ahead. Some trade reviewers prefer print. Others prefer digital. Having both forms is helpful. And a good rule of thumb is to complete them at least four months in advance of the release date.
The same is true if an author wants to be interviewed on a podcast, radio show, YouTube event or TV show prior to the release date. It’s nice to be able to give the interviewer a print copy of the book.
Oh, and did I mention Bookstagram tours? Bookstagramers like to have print copies too. They can take nice pictures of the book to post on their Instagram feeds.
Finally, the print ARC gives my team the chance to hold the book–to get the feel of it–and to read it in print before pulling the lever on the final print book. The gremlins we missed in earlier proofs will show themselves when we hold and examine the print ARC in our hands.
Try to Make your Way In and Out of Metadata Hell
I shied away from metadata with my first three books. When picking categories and keywords, I threw darts, and I was a bad dart player.
This time around, I’ve invested time to learn more about metadata. I subscribed to Publisher Rocket, a program that allows an author to search for categories and key words that fit their book, and the cool thing is, the program tells you the kind of searches being done on Amazon for books and eBooks down to the very words or phrases used, including how many searches a month are done with those words or phrases. I’ve used this method to generate categories and search terms. Whether they work will depend to some degree of luck, but a lot less luck will be needed than what I needed with my first three books.
The reason I use the term “metadata hell” for this subsection is because that is where I was when I discovered that IngramSpark uses BIASC codes for categories (it’s what libraries and bookstores use to place books on the correct shelves) and Amazon has a much different and expanded list of categories that is not easy to navigate, and although Amazon will allow up to ten categories, they won’t let you put in but two when you upload your book and then you have to go to Author Central, find your book and send a request for more categories to be added later. It was a mystery to me how to find this information, one that was not nearly as enjoyable as writing the mystery, Deadly Declarations. But if I hadn’t started early, it wouldn’t have gotten done.
The People Side versus the Electronic Side to Book Selling
I have learned there is the people side to selling books and the electronic side to selling books.
I love independent book stores, which is where actual people sell books. I also love it when people buy my book by searching for what they like online. I admit it. I love finding readers in many places.
The problem is that different strategies need to be employed to sell books with the help of people versus robots.
The book stores–where the humans tell readers about books–can order books from the Ingram catalog (which is why authors should be in that catalog), but someone–a person–needs to get the word out to the book stores that your book is a book worth having on the shelf.
Some book stores won’t stock independently published books, whether through the Ingram catalog or on consignment, because they don’t want to take a risk. This is sometimes due to a bias in favor of traditionally published books, because it has been vetted. Does that mean it will be a better book than the Indie book? Not necessarily. But until someone–a human–convinces the book stores otherwise, it’s often hard for an Indie author to distribute widely in book stores.
I decided to hire a publicist for Deadly Declarations and one of the things she will do is help me navigate the people side of distributing my book to book stores, because I can’t do it alone, and because a good publicist like the one I have knows how to talk with book stores, and how to let them know what they need to know to make their decision on whether to stock the book.
The electronic side of selling books is much different. Meet Mr. and Mrs. Algorithm. And while you’re at it, take a course in how to stand on your head to please them. And while you’re at it, meet the neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Metadata, and their cousins, Pricing, Discount, Promotion, and their triplets called Amazon Ad, Facebook Ad and BookBub Ad.
My publicist will be my interpreter for these electronic families and how to talk to the real book store people too. I am sure I will stand on my head a lot. But I will do it with time to spare so the decisions we make are not by the seats of our proverbial pants.
And speaking of interacting with actual people, my publicist will help me arrange and plan book events where, hopefully, humans will attend and we can talk about the book. Those will be fun, but like everything else in a thoughtful process, they require advance planning.
By completing the production of the book four months in advance of release, it will free me up to do promotion and plan events around and beyond the launch date. The time will fly.
I Intend to Experiment And Not Be Afraid to Do So
What I look forward to with the launch of Deadly Declarations is trying new things that I didn’t try before and seeing what happens.
I plan to try Kindle Unlimited for the first time on the eBook. I will still put the print book on IngramSpark and distribute it on sites like Barnes & Noble and Amazon. And the audiobook will still be distributed widely and not be captive to Audible.
The goal of trying Kindle Unlimited is not so much to make more money but to see how it works and to see whether it introduces me to more readers. Maybe they will find their way back to my first three books if they like Deadly Declarations.
I also plan to experiment with online promotions and ads and pricing. I may get lucky or learn something in the process. The eBook is now up for preorder at $1.99, one-third of the price it will be after the release date. Maybe that will help me find more readers.
I will experiment with expanded categories and targeted key words in the metadata, and I have a large group of advance readers on my team–I am very grateful to them–who will help get the word out with their honest reviews and in ways I wasn’t able to do for my first three books.
As a podcaster who interviews other authors, I will experiment with how to integrate information about my book into what I do as a podcaster without being pushy and I will seek to partner with other podcasters who enjoy talking with authors about their books. I didn’t have a podcast when I launched my first three books. It will be interesting to see if it makes a difference.
But above all, I hope to learn more about this thing called book selling, because ultimately, I want people to read my book.
To be continued….