Wednesday, October 7, 2015

IWSG: Marketing Mojo



It's Insecure Writer's Support Group day! The first Wednesday of every month is when members of the Group post about our writerly insecurities. If you want to sign up, go HERE. Thank you to Alex Cavanaugh and his co-hosts for making this event happen every month. 

Marketing. Doesn't the word strike fear in your heart? It does mine. If you're an indy author or with a small press then you know the agony of marketing. You're expected to do it yourself. But of course, you can't really do it by yourself. You need help and you have to ask for it. You have to ask bloggers to host you and share your books. It's a lot of social media. Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Wattpad.

That's why I've done virtually no marketing of my books this year. The push and the grind of trying to get sales is stressful. I just didn't want to do it. Blogging has been part of that push and grind for me too. So I took a break.

But, well, I really want to be a writer. A successful writer. So I'm starting to come back around. I'm getting those stirrings where I'm sort of caring again. About writing and even marketing. And maybe when I really get back into the writing (I've only been outlining) I'll care about blogging again and sharing what I'm working on.

So--since I write paranormal and this is October, the most paranormal month of the year, I went out on a limb and took things in hand a bit. I made Second Death free (which wasn't easy, but I'm pretty sure it was the hour I sat at my laptop pasting in the free link from B&N at Amazon so they'd price match) and put books II & III on sale. AND, I'm doing Facebook and Twitter sponsored ads. We'll see how it goes *shrugs*

OH! And I decided to be a real author and start a NEWSLETTER. It'd be awesome if you subscribed up at the top in the sidebar--and receive a free book (See? I've got marketing mojo!).

And...I'm thinking about writing a short story for the A-Z Anthology contest. Not that I'll win, not with all the other awesome authors and submissions, but I think it will be a good experience for me.

How are your marketing skills?

Have you even run ads?

How do you promote your books?