For Authors
Before my first book was published in October 2020, I spent six months setting up systems for readers to find the book. I knew nothing about publishing and marketing, so I picked the brains of experienced and reputable Indie authors.
If I hadn’t set the systems up before I published, I would have had no sales, because the right readers (those who like romantic time travel) wouldn’t have seen my book, so wouldn’t have bought it.
The tsunami of information online makes it difficult to focus on essential, respected sites. NB social media is NOT on my core list, as it rarely leads to significant sales. It’s a nice-to-have, and only if you enjoy it.
The sites and courses are listed in the order that I used them, from beginner to more advanced. I’ve personally used all these sites, except for the cover designer site (my cover designer can’t take on any more clients), and the Mark Dawson Scholarship Scheme (which I didn’t qualify for).
FULL DISCLOSURE: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. If you click on them and go on to use/buy something on the site, I receive a few cents for guiding you there.
Writing To Market
If you’re reading this, you’re probably close to publishing your first book, or you’ve already published one, two, or more books. You may have written the book or series of your heart and not thought about it fitting neatly into a genre. My current series (my first series) The Shorten Chronicles is the series of my heart and it’s a mash-up of genres. I only realised this when I was writing Book 3…
The Shorten Chronicles is a time travel saga with a romantic subplot, a mystery to solve, and a small element of sci-fi (when Sophie figures out the mystery of the portal). A mash-up. What should I have written? Simple time travel standalones where the female protagonist falls in love with a hunky man (wearing a kilt) from the past and marries him.
If you want to sell lot of books as painlessly as possible (who doesn’t), a mash-up of genres is a BAD THING. Books/series that aren’t a single round genre don’t fit neatly into a neat Amazon genre hole — and they are much harder to market.
Why? Because the story doesn’t match readers’ expectations. Readers look at covers and blurbs looking for stories they know they already like. Yes, they want a new story with a new voice with different characters, but they want the stuff that happens to be roughly what they expect.
There are rare outliers/exceptions, but the following would not meet readers’ expectations and therefore be difficult to sell:
· Sci-fi space opera with fantasy dragons and witches and a lesbian subplot;
· Cosy mystery in a grotty industrial town;
· Rom com with grisly murder;
· Contemporary romance with sci-fi alien invasion.
Okay, those are extreme examples, but you see where I’m going with this. Give your book/series a long, hard look. Does it meet ONE genre’s expectations with a twist and a small, sub-genre element, or is it a MASH-UP?
If you’ve written the book of your heart and it’s a mash-up, you have a choice if you want a successful book business:
· Put it out there and make the next book/series true to one genre, making you sure you still love writing it, or
· Tweak or rewrite it so it fits sweetly into a round genre hole (and again, you still love writing it).
If you do 1 or 2, readers should buy it and love it. And Amazon will flog it to other readers who like that sort of book.
Okay, let’s set up your platform for success!
Essential Resources
1. Jericho Writers. Annual subscription fee: $270.80 (or $41.66 per month). Excellent for craft advice, basic marketing, finding editors, and for newbie authors. Visit website.
2. Mark Dawson’s Self-Publishing Formula: podcasts and emails. Free, fun, and highly informative. Visit website.
3. Mark Dawson’s Foundation (for authors of limited means). Visit website.
4. Mark Dawson’s Launch Pad course (previously called 101). One-off cost of $597. Once you enrol, the course is updated regularly at no extra cost. Openings twice a year. No exaggeration: this course was the foundation of my writing career. Visit website.
5. Mailerlite. Free to start (up to 1,000 subscribers). The software that enables me to send emails to readers in my Readers Club (mailing list). Building up your own list of readers (who love your books) is essential. Think of it as owning your ‘readershipland’ (you don’t own Amazon or FaceBook and you don’t want your business to be 100% dependent on them or any other business). Yes, it’s a learning curve if you’re a Luddite like me, but Mailerlite’s customer service through live chat is excellent. Visit website.
6. Derangeddoctordesign. From $350 per book.
Unless you’re a professional book cover designer, DO NOT design your cover yourself. Crap cover = no sales. Waiting lists for good cover designers can be up to a year. Submit early and, if you can, once you’re happy, get them to design covers for Books 1 – 3, even if Books 2 and 3 are just ideas in your head. That way, you retain the same branding, colours, style. I’ve heard good things about derangeddoctordesign.: Visit website.
You need a cover that shouts your genre and, if possible, your sub-genre. Choose a style that has similar colours and font to those used by successful authors in your genre (indie, not traditionally published). This ensures that browsing readers will subconsciously know what sort of story you’ve written, and you’ll attract readers who are looking for your sort of book. For example, time travel covers are different from urban fantasy or cosy mystery or gritty thrillers or steamy romance.
7. Bookfunnel. $20 a year.
You’re going to write (or have already written) a fab short story or novella linked to your Book 1 (and subsequent books in the series). This should be of the same high standard as your main books, including the cover quality. You’re going to give away said short story or novella exclusively and free to readers who join your mailing list by using a Bookfunnel link. You will also need Bookfunnel to send advanced reader copies (ARCs) of your books free to your street team (for reviews) and, if you want to, to editorial reviewers. Visit website.
8. Your Website.
Set this up only once you’ve decided on your covers and your branding. Your website should be your pen name, match your cover branding and your books’ genre, like mine. Here’s an example of a pitch-perfect website of a thriller writer: Visit website.
Option 1. Free. You can build a website yourself. Mark Dawson’s Launchpad course has a module on this.
Option 2. Pay a website designer. Visit website (UK based). You can also find a reputable designer near you (if you’re not in the UK) through Reedsy. Visit website NB You should not pay much more than about $1,400 for the website (they’ll be using templates, which makes it relatively quick and easy for them). Ensure you can call them on the phone to talk stuff through (if they don’t give out a phone number, walk away) and ensure that any fees to maintain the website in the future are reasonable or that they’ll train you to make future tweaks yourself.
Selling Direct. When you set up your website, make it also an online bookshop where your readers can buy direct (you keep more of the royalties). You can also convert your website later into a shop but this becomes more costly / complex the more books you have. You can sell your ebooks exclusively through Kindle Unlimited on Amazon (or sell wide on other platforms), but as long as you’re not on contract with a publisher for your print books or audiobooks, you can sell these direct, controlling pricing, promos and much more.
I use Shopify (Visit Website). There’s a learning curve to setting it up but it can grow as your business grows. I use Bookfunnel (Visit website) to deliver audiobooks and Bookvault (Visit Website) to deliver print-on-demand physical books.
9. Dave Chesson’s site. Free. A goldmine of free, crucial information. Visit website. Most wonderful of all, an easy way of formatting your book description (HTML) on your Amazon book page: Visit website.
10. Dave Chesson’s Publisher Rocket. $97. One-off cost, and the site is regularly updated. Though nothing can substitute for you trawling through Amazon’s categories yourself, this is useful for choosing your categories and later for Amazon adverts. Visit website.
11. K-Lytics. Expensive annual subscription, but they often have discounts. Keep an eye on their website. In-depth analysis of Amazon’s categories that allows you to see, at a glance, which categories are relevant to your book and are the best for visibility. After a while, you get a feel for it yourself. Visit website.
12. David Gaughran. Indie author and Indie publishing/marketing expert. Free. His YouTube videos, his website, his newsletter. Visit website.
13. Vellum. $200 (eBook only), $260 (eBook & print books). One off cost. MAC only.
For my first book, I outsourced formatting (paying for this), but it took me longer to explain what I needed than for the changes themselves! Vellum allows you to beautifully format your eBooks and print books, and quickly and easily change your backmatter in your eBooks (and you’ll need to do that, if you publish more than one book). Visit website.
OR
13. Atticus. $147 (eBook & Print),
Became available only recently. Does formatting and has other functions as well. Windows as well as MAC compatible. Visit website.
14. Better Blurb Writing by Olivia Atwater. $4.99 The clearest, most succinct guide to writing your crucial book description. View here.
15. Theauthorhelper (formerly Readerlinks). $25 per month. Your sales and kindle unlimited downloads on Amazon updated every 15 minutes. Not worth the cost if you only use it to check your Amazon sales. However, with a little legwork, you can see most of your business stats in one place. Visit website.
16. Scribecount. Recently changed their pricing, making the service less attractive for new authors. Your sales and kindle unlimited downloads on Amazon and (once you’ve found your feet and decide to branch out to non-amazon sites like Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo – there are others). Visit website.
17. HiddenGems. $20 (non-refundable deposit) to reserve your slot for readers to review your Advanced Reader Copy (ARC); a free copy of your book. They’re booked up months in advance but if you’re organised, you can choose a future slot to coincide with your first book launch. Full price details on their website. Respectable site where you can submit your book to readers for review (if a reader chooses to). When you first publish, you have no readers and therefore no reviews. As you have no reviews, you won’t attract readers. This site helps you get started. Visit website.
18. BookSirens. One-off Cost: $10 per ARC that you upload, then $2 per reader who uploads it. Respectable site where you can submit your book to readers for review (if a reader chooses to). When you first publish, you have no readers and therefore no reviews. As you have no reviews, you won’t attract readers. This site also helps you get started. Visit website.
19. VoraciousReadersOnly. Maximum $20, depending on the number of reader downloads. Respectable site where you can submit your book to readers for review (if a reader chooses to). When you first publish, you have no readers and therefore no reviews. If you have no reviews, you won’t attract readers. Another site to get started. Visit website.
20. Ingram Spark. $50 to upload one print book but see ALLI discount info below. I use Ingram Spark for Print Books only. Amazon KDP couldn’t get the fantasy frame straight on my paperback, so I went to Ingram Spark. Ingram Spark’s not the easiest site to navigate, and you have to wait for them to approve things at various stages, but you can do paperbacks, hardbacks and large print. For most people, print book sales are tiny, so this is a ‘nice to have’ option. Visit website.
21. ALLI. From $94 a year. Informative and reliable, and invaluable if you need more complex advice, including legal help. Visit website.
22. Joanna Penn. Podcast and newsletter. Particularly knowledgeable about current and future developments in publishing. Visit website.
23. Mark Dawson’s Ads Course. $849 (one off cost), but you can pay in instalments. For this you will need time and commitment to follow the (many) courses step by step AND a budget to test ads before putting in more money. Organic sales happened after I started advertising, not before. I tackled each ad platform, easiest first: BookBub, Facebook, then Amazon ads (over 18 months). There are others. Learn each platform thoroughly before moving on to the next. They’re all different and you’ll find one will probably suit you more than others. NB these ‘pay-to-click’ ads only work if your book is well branded, well edited and fits roughly into a familiar genre. Plus, you need at least SIX books in a series to break-even/make a profit.
Every time a course is updated, or an entirely new course added, you don’t pay any more. Visit website.
24. Amazon Ads Unleashed by Robert J. Ryan. Cost: $4.99. Once you've done the Amazon ads course, this book will clarify anything that remains unclear. However, despite arming myself with all the knowledge I could find, I've found it difficult with Amazon to break even. View here.
25. BookBub. Six months after publishing, submit for a BookBub Deal. Price varies depending on your genre. Few people get them but if you do, it will hugely boost your sales and profile. Do NOT submit until your mailing list system is ready and your Amazon categories are sorted. Keep submitting every six weeks. If your submission for 99c discount fails, submit immediately after for free. Visit website.
26. Bookbrush. $8.25 a month. I use this site every day to design/tweak pics for my website, social media and ads. Visit website.
27. AMMO Course (Author Marketing Mastery through Optimization). This is a long, intense course, It is not suitable for authors who have less than 8 published books and/or authors who can’t or don’t want to learn additional computer skills. The course’s cost makes it only an appropriate investment for authors who want to build up a serious ecommerc business, selling their books direct. Visit website.