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. The first series of 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 the third book…

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 to make a living sooner? 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 a 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 genre and don’t fit neatly into a neat genre hole 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:

·      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 choices if you want a successful book business:

1. If it’s not TOO much of a mash up, go with it. Yes, marketing is harder but when you find your fans, they really do love your writing. This is what I did. Or,

2. Put your books out there but make the next standalone book or next series true to one genre, making sure you still love writing it, Or,

3. Tweak or rewrite your first book so it fits sweetly into a round genre hole (and again, you still love it).

   If you do 2 or 3, readers should buy it, and Amazon will market it to readers who like that sort of book.

BTW, it’s wise to write in series and stick to one genre. Makes advertising way easier.

Okay, let’s set up your platform for success!

NB This checklist is designed to stop you going down pointless rabbit holes, but going through the steps may take you months (or years). Building any sort of profitable business takes time and this industry is no different.

But it’s easily doable IF you do the steps thoroughly and keep going!

THE BASICS. HOW TO BUILD YOUR PLATFORM.

* denotes an essential step or service

LEARN

1. * David Gaughran. Free. Visit website.

Indie author and publishing/marketing expert. His YouTube videos, his website, his newsletter. Basically, everything he’s ever said or done.

2. * Dave Chesson’s site. Free. Visit website.

A goldmine of free, crucial information.

3. *Author Nation. Free. Visit website.

The site is geared around the annual conference. but there’s also useful info on how to start, how to improve, and how to how to make a living from your writing.

4.     Launch Pad (previously called 101). Paid. UK-based. Visit website.

You can learn the basics of indie publishing for free from YouTube and podcasts, but this course has all you need to know in one place. Openings twice a year. Get yourself on the waiting list. This course was the foundation of my writing career.

5. Jericho Writers. Paid. UK-based. Excellent for craft advice, basic marketing, finding editors, and for newbie authors. Visit website.

6.  Dave Chesson’s Publisher Rocket. Paid. Subscription (wait for Black Friday, often a one-off cost). Visit website.

Useful for checking out the best 3 categories for your book on Amazon and choosing key words to help Amazon market your book. You can easily trawl through Amazon’s categories yourself but Dave has an awesome database which helps you avoid ‘ghost’ categories which Amazon lets you choose but no reader can see.

7.  Joanna Penn. Free. Podcast and newsletter. Particularly knowledgeable about current and future developments in publishing. Visit website.

SERVICES

8.     *Flodesk. Free basic tier. Paid as you gain more subscribers. Visit website.

This is currently my email service provider. But do shop around. If you can, wait for Black Friday, and take advantage of one-off deals.

9.     Derangeddoctordesign. Paid. Visit website.

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.

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 sub-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.

10.     *Bookfunnel. Paid. Low annual subscription. Visit website.

You’re going to write (or have already written) a short story or novella linked to your Book 1 (and subsequent books in the series). This should be 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, for paid editorial reviewers.

ETHICALLY BUILDING REVIEWS

— BEFORE YOU PUBLISH

11. HiddenGems. Paid. Visit website.

Readers read your Advanced Reader Copy (ARC); a free copy of your book. Some will review once it’s published. Hidden Gems is booked up months in advance but if you’re organised, you can choose a future slot to coincide with your first book launch. 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.

12.  BookSirens. Paid. Visit website.

This site also helps you get started.

YOUR WEBSITE

THIS WILL BE THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR BUSINESS.

13. 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.

The Launchpad course has a module on this. Visit website. Or, if you’re open to AI, it can give you a short list of the best host sites and guide you through building your site, step by step.

Option 2. Pay a website designer. Visit website (UK based).

I was let down by an expensive website designer one week before I launched my first book. Tina from Sprkdesign stepped in and saved my launch (and my sanity).

You can also find a reputable designer near you (if you’re not in the UK) through Reedsy. Visit website.

NB If a website designer is more expensive than most, it doesn’t mean they’re better. More likely, they’re after a quick buck. Ensure you can call your designer on the phone to talk stuff through (if they don’t give out a phone number, walk away). Also, check that any fees to maintain the website in the future are reasonable or better still, they’ll train you to make future tweaks yourself.

SELLING DIRECT

When you set up your website, you can also include an online bookshop where your readers can buy (you keep almost all the royalties). Alternatively, you can set up a separate website that acts as a shop. Selling direct costs time and some money. It’s also, initially, a steep learning curve. I recommend you only look at this once you’re basic platform is up and stable.

Yes, you can put this off (or never do it), but setting it up only becomes more costly / complex the more books you have. If you sell your ebooks exclusively through Kindle Unlimited on Amazon, you can’t sell them direct on your store (or on other major retailers), But as long as you’re not on contract with a traditional publisher for your print books or audiobooks, you can sell these direct, controlling pricing, and promos. Crucially, you hold your readers email addresses and can speak to them directly. I have thousands of followers on Amazon. I have no idea who they are. Amazon keeps them secret.

I use Shopify to set up my shop (Visit Website).

I use Facebook ads to drive traffic to my shop. Get comfortable with Facebook ads before you embark on selling direct (see advertising course above). There’s a learning curve to setting up but your shop 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.

AMMO Course (Author Marketing Mastery through Optimization). Paid. Visit website.

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. But if that’s you, it’s the best.

 FORMATTING YOUR BOOKS

14.  Vellum. Paid. One-off cost. Visit website.

For Macbooks 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). Pays for itself many times over.

OR

15. Atticus. Paid. One-off cost. Visit website.

Macbook and Windows. Formatting and other functions.


OTHER USEFUL RESOURCE

16.  Better Blurb Writing by Olivia Atwater. Paid. Low cost book. View here.

Blurbs are tricky. This short book is the clearest guide to writing your crucial book description.

DISTRIBUTING YOUR PRINT BOOKS

17.  KDP. Free. Visit website.

Most authors use KDP. However, be aware, the printing quality isn’t great.

18. Ingram Spark. Upload free, but charges for updates after a set period. Visit website.

If you join the indie author trade body, ALLi (see below), you get a coupon which makes the updates free. When you’re starting out and only find typos down the line, this pays for itself.

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 and make them available worldwide. For most people, print book sales are tiny, so this is a ‘nice to have’ option.

YOUR TRADE ASSOCIATION (IF YOU’RE BASED IN THE UK)

19.  ALLi. Paid. Informative and reliable, and crucial if you need more complex advice, including legal help. Visit website.

PAID ADVERTISING

Once your basic platform is up, and your book is published, it’s time to learn another crucial part of your publishing business: paid ads and marketing.

A few gifted authors sell organically just from social media. For me, social media only sells a few books and the sales don’t justify the daily grind or the time spent.

Learning paid ads is also time-consuming but the heavy lifting’s front-loaded. NB You’ll only break even or make a profit after you have at least 3 books published (preferably in a series). Again, you can learn this for free from YouTube and Facebook groups or pay for a course where it’s all in one place.

20.  Learn Self-Publishing Ads Course. Paid. Visit website.

One-off cost but you can pay in instalments. The course is regularly updated so you can revisit it in the future, to update your knowledge. Every time a course is updated, you don’t pay any more.

You’ll 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. Each ad site is 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.

21.  Amazon Ads Unleashed by Robert J. Ryan. Low book cost. View here.

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 found it difficult to break even. For Amazon Ads to work, your books already need to be selling (EG pushed by Facebook Ads).

PAID NEWSLETTERS FOR PROMOS

There are numerous sites where you can pay to put you book (usually discounted for a one-off sale) on a newsletter. See David Gaughran’s list for the best ones.

Here’s the one that sells the most books. Downside: pricey and hard to get selected.

22.  BookBub. Visit website.

NB BookBub Deals are separate from BookBub paid ads.

Once you have 3 or more books in the same series, submit for a Deal. The prices vary 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, you’ve checked and rechecked that your website is perfect, and your Amazon categories are sorted. Keep submitting every six weeks. If your submission for 99c discount fails, submit immediately after for free.

AUTHOR NEWSLETTER ‘SWAPS.’

Contact another indie author who writes in your sub-genre, offering to feature a book of theirs in your newsletter if they do the same with your book in theirs. Some won’t reply, some will decline graciously, but you might get a ‘yes.’ If you’re just starting out and you have a small list, don’t reach out to a big-time author!

GRAPHICS FOR YOUR NEWSLETTER AND ADVERTISING

23. Canva. Free. Visit website.

I found this difficult to learn but many authors love it.

24. Bookbrush. Paid. Visit website.

I use this site every day to design/tweak pics for my website, ads, newsletters, and social media.

KICKSTARTER

25. Free to initially set up but maths/learning/a lot of time required. See website.

You have to bring your readers to the platform to acquire more readers on the platform. Once you have an audience, kickstarters can raise you profile, find you new readers, and increase sales. You can make fabulous special edition books with gold and ribbons etc through Bookvault. Some authors love kickstarters so much they do four a year. This is a direct selling strategy which aligns with your Shop. Many authors use Backerkit (to help with their campaign). See website.

***

And that’s it.

Work through the sites and courses at your own pace — and enjoy the journey!

Have I missed something? Tell me! Contact.

TOB Publishing