As a new author, I jumped head first into self-publishing with my first two works. As far as mistakes go, I tend to think that I made every one that seasoned authors warn new authors about, and like many, I didn’t realize how challenging marketing would be.

Here are two versions of my marketing history:

Scenario 1: I wrote a book, posted it to Amazon, and expected my work to speak for itself. After all, I put a ton of effort into writing, and editing. That idea quickly vanished and I found myself searching high and low for ways to market my material.

Scenario 2: I wrote a book, found a publisher, and expected help with events and getting the word out from my new business partner. I had a publisher! Again, the idea quickly vanished and, again, I found myself in a marketing quandary.

So what is a new author to do? There is no silver bullet for this beast. I’ve tried google ads, Facebook ads, Twitter ads, lots of ads. Whenever I’m tempted to write an ad, I have to put the situation into perspective. How many times have I clicked on an ad and actually bought a product? For me, the answer is: close to never. I don’t believe ads work to sell books. I do believe that ads help build a following.

Strategic Advertising

Instead of targeting an ad to buy a book, I’ve been targeting to build an audience. I primarily use Facebook to build my platform. Periodically, I place $5.00 to $10.00 ads with the goal of gaining followers. The more followers I gain, the more I can reach them with free posts to my Facebook page. Are people more likely to buy from someone they don’t know through a random ad on Google, or are they more apt to buy from an author they have chosen to follow?

Rather than spend money on marketing, I now look for creative ways to reach my targeted audience. At first, I was thinking too big. Ads people can buy are a massive audience, and people seeing the ads are inundated with competing advertisements. I’ve shifted my efforts to reach people closer to home. I’m targeting my effort by honing in on people that are interested in my work, rather than casting a small net in a large ocean, hoping to get a fish or two.

Advertisement Alternatives

I’m looking to libraries, and looking to hold events. I can talk all day about my publishing endeavors, and it’s a chance for me to connect with people while showcasing my work. Instead of spending money on ads, I’m spending on marketing materials such as pens, coasters, and bookmarks, all with images of my book and my website address printed on them. I use these for incentives to help promote my work.

Instead of spending time on advertisements, I now spend my time researching ways to get my book out to bloggers and review sites. The more reviews I can get for my work, the more my writing will be visible to others searching Amazon for their next read.

As an author striving to get my material out to the world, I am faced with countless sites offering services for marketing and promotion. I tend to believe that it’s not the authors making money, but rather the companies and individuals offering services to the authors who hope that by paying another party, their work will get noticed. My advice to other new authors out there: don’t fall into that trap! Find ways to reach your audience that won’t cost a large sum of money. I have yet to read about a pay service that will guarantee sales.

It used to be that publishers took care of marketing, but I believe that to be less so now. More and more, authors need to handle their own marketing, and much of that marketing is about connecting to readers and building a foundation for future works.

A version of this post originally ran on the Hometown Authors site on July 31, 2018.

In advance of my upcoming release of THE CHOICE from Double Dragon Publishing, I will be posting about the characters in my story. 

The first person I’ll start with for this series is, as should be, the main character. JARED STONE is a complicated character to explain. Not because of his personality, but because Jared Stone is two characters in one! 

As my book blurb summarizes, Jared Stone is split between two worlds. Forced to make a decision between right and wrong, Jared’s world is split between good and evil. In one world, Jared is a young man, focused on rebuilding his life. In another world, Jared is known as JROCK, a ruthless gang leader.

 Jared is forced into rehabilitation after regaining consciousness from a coma; a result of the decision he made. He learns how to fight for what he needs in order to lead a normal life. To add to his difficulties, he is bombarded with visions of his alter ego committing atrocities he could never commit.

JROCK is Jared’s alter ego in another universe. Unlike Jared, JROCK is not happy unless he’s causing someone pain or hardship for his own gain. He is motivated by greed, and preys on other people’s kindness; a trait he considers as weakness.

Jared and JROCK find their worlds intersecting and trade places. How does Jared cope in JROCK’s world, and how does JROCK add chaos to Jared’s world? Well, I can’t get into that without writing the book here – grab a copy of the CHOICE this spring and find out!

I haven’t posted in a long time, and it’s usually a sign when an author goes quiet for a while after completion of a book. I’ve been busy dealing with the slew of rejections many hear authors groan about. I can break my silence now and say that as of yesterday afternoon, THE CHOICE has a home with Double Dragon Publishing! I signed the contract and it’s in the mail, making its way to Canada as I write this.

The first step to publication as many know is to create a ‘perfected’ query. Writing a query is certainly an art. My query went through many stages of revisions, and I admit, I started querying too early. After many (many = MANY) rejections, I began to re-think my strategy and began to research publishers – a learning step for me as I submitted to some publishers that do not fit with my story. This isn’t a complete misstep for me since material was requested from me over a Twitter contest. I figured that if they wanted to see my story, why not?

I had very good success querying small to mid-size publishers. I even queried editors at major publishing houses to receive personalized messages back thanking me for reaching out. One publisher was not acquiring at the time and was focusing on television only, but liked the idea; another thought my writing was a little too dark for what the publisher’s needs were at the time, but she thought the idea was great. Contrary to what feedback many in the industry give, some editors still like to work with authors and want to see their work.

I had a couple requests for full manuscripts from various publishers. One publisher that requested my full manuscript switched gears, to focus solely on romance going forward. That stung for a bit, but if they didn’t want a great story, their loss! Plus, I had my sights on Double Dragon at that point and really wanted to submit to them. As soon as I was able, I submitted my fully edited work to Double Dragon, and just shy of six weeks later, received my acceptance.

At first I saw the header line in the e-mail and expected a ‘thanks but no thanks’. Instead, what I read made me nearly fall out of my chair.

‘Thank you for your submission, I would like to offer you a contract with Double Dragon Publishing…”

Wow! What a feeling, compared to trudging on through rejections. My story will be available in both electronic and paperback format in early 2018.