For Writers: Marketing Your First Novel by Jennifer Gilby Roberts

Please welcome Jennifer Gilby Roberts to the blog as she celebrates her first novel The Dr. Pepper Prophecies turning one!

Marketing Your First Novel: What I Would Do, Knowing What I Know Now

When I published my first novel, The Dr Pepper Prophecies, I knew sod all about marketing.  I discovered Kindle publishing, dug out the novel I’d written and edited years before, created a cover and put it up for sale.  Then I started learning.  It’s a good job too, because if I’d done the reading first I might have buried the book again.

I now have two novels, one novella and two short stories out and I’ve been a published author for a year.  I don’t claim for a moment that I’m a marketing expert, but here are five things I advise debut authors to do:

1. Start with Amazon

There are many ebook distributors, but to start with I would just go to Amazon, for four reasons.  One, it has the majority share of the market.  Two, in return for exclusivity, you get perks that you want.  Three, Amazon’s system is the best at giving new authors a chance, because it promotes whatever the customer is most likely to buy regardless of who published it.  Four, formatting for one ereader is hard enough (the Smashwords “meat grinder” is an absolute bitch).  Make it easy on yourself when you’re starting out.

 

2. Give away as many copies as possible

I know you want to sell books (me too!), but part of a first book launch (probably the first few, unless you really hit the big time) is giving copies away.  Because you need reviews if you want your novel to go anywhere and this is how you get them.

 

I screwed up my first launch.  Being in KDP Select (the reason for being exclusive to Amazon) gives you five free days out of 90.  I set TDPP on free for the first five days after publication.  With no reviews and little publicity, most of the downloads were by people I knew.  And that’s great, but it’s not enough.

 

What I should have done was to make it free for two days, two weeks from publication.  There are tons of sites where you can list freebies, but most require one or two weeks’ notice.  Even a few mentions would have got me more downloads.  Then I should have used the other three days 6-8 weeks later, once I had some reviews.

 

You can also give away copies through LibraryThing giveaways.  Goodreads only allows paperbacks in its giveaways, but there are various read for review groups where you can offer ebooks.

 

3. Wait for reviews before approaching bloggers

There are three basic ways to get reviews: free giveaways, asking Amazon top reviewers and asking bloggers.  It may sound a bit strange to say ‘get reviews before asking for reviews,’ but hear me out.  Book bloggers and top reviewers get loads of review requests and they can’t accept them all.  When deciding whether to review your book, they will look at the existing reviews.  As a debut author, you have no reputation to call on.  Get some reader reviews that say your book is worth their time.

 

Once you’re ready, find reviewers on The Indie View List.  I also have a Twitter list of chick lit bloggers you are welcome to follow.

 

4. Write a prequel and make it free

One post I read advised writing a prequel short story to a novel and offering it free.  First, this gives people a chance to try out your writing and your main character and see if they like them.  Second, permafree books maintain low sales rankings (low being good).  My story, Wedding Hells, is ranked around 3,000 on Amazon.com (200 on Amazon.co.uk) and “sells” 5000+ copies a month.  It ranks high – usually on the first page – for all my main keywords.  That gives me exposure I wouldn’t otherwise get.  Plenty of those readers will go on to buy The Dr Pepper Prophecies.

 

The process of going permafree on Amazon is not straightforward.  KBoards have a thread where authors help each other.

 

5. Learn about marketing

Unless you’ve been working as a book publicist, you have masses to learn.  Go to Amazon and search the Kindle store for ‘sell Kindle books’ and ‘marketing Kindle books,’ sort by ‘price low to high’ and download any books on ebook marketing that are being offered for free.  There are always some.  You can amass a huge library like this, and learn all the basics and plenty more without spending a penny.

 

Extra Tips:

• Non-US authors: Amazon (and other US-based distributors) will withhold 30% of your royalties if you don’t sort your tax status with them.
• Some books – no matter how brilliant – don’t sell.  Don’t spend money that you can’t afford to lose.
• Good pre-made book covers can be had for far less than custom made ones (you can always upgrade later).  There are many options, but the best I’ve seen are at GoOnWrite.
• You can have just about anything for your book done on Fiverr for not very much.
• If you’re considering investing in Grammarly software, don’t pay full price.  Get on their mailing list and they’ll send you increasingly good offers.  I got it for 55% off.

Read Chick Lit Plus’ review of The Dr Pepper Prophecies.

~~~~

To celebrate The Dr Pepper Prophecies’ one-year anniversary since publication, Jennifer Gilby Roberts is giving away one paperback and five ebook copies!  Enter on Rafflecopter.

Find out about her other great celebration offers, giveaways and extras on her blog.

~~~~

25-year-old Mel Parker has a few tiny problems:

• Her job is terrible
• She’s been dumped yet again
• Her ex is now her boss
• Her parents think she’s a loser compared to her perfect younger sister
• All her efforts to improve her life seem doomed to failure
• Her best friend, Will, is in grave danger of being stolen away by his evil girlfriend
• There just isn’t enough chocolate in the world to make up for the above.

So what do you do when you’ve pretty much given up on your own life? Help others, of course!

After all, what’s the worst that can happen?

~~~~

Buy for Kindle or in paperback on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and other Amazon sites.  The paperback is also available from Barnes & Noble.