June 21, 2025 • 32 mins
We explore how to market your book effectively without compromising your values or feeling overwhelmed. This episode offers practical strategies from metadata optimisation to social media marketing that work for both indie and traditionally published authors.
• Marketing is about connecting your story with readers who need it most
• Prepare comprehensive metadata including keywords, descriptions, and retail links
• Create titles and covers that meet genre expectations rather than trying to stand out
• Develop multiple versions of your blurb from one-sentence to full description
• Make a dedicated book page on your website with downloadable media kit materials
• Use universal purchase links for all promotions rather than favoring one retailer
• Create evergreen social media content that can be regularly recycled
• Design a unique hashtag for your book or series to build brand recognition
• Build an advanced reader team through platforms like NetGalley or your own list
• Focus on marketing activities you genuinely enjoy and can sustain long-term
You can download my metadata template from my website to help prepare your book for publication. Remember, marketing is a marathon, not a sprint - find what works for you and keep connecting with readers who will appreciate your stories.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Amara's Armchair Anecdotes.
And today I'm talking about howto market your book.
So it's how to sell your bookwithout selling your soul.
So just some practical tipsabout you know how to go from
the book idea to long tail sales.
There are some tips here thatwill be helpful, whether you're
an indie author or whether youare traditionally published.
(00:26):
First, I'm going to start withsomething that's more relevant
to indie authors, which is whenyou are first preparing a book
to be published, the first thingthat you need to do is prepare
the metadata.
The first thing that you needto do is prepare the metadata,
(00:47):
so that is like the title, thedescriptions, the ISBN, all of
the things that you will need toupload your book onto retail
platforms.
So to do that, oh my gosh,welcome to amra's armchair
(01:11):
anecdotes.
And today I'm talking about howto market your book without
selling your soul.
So there will be tips here thatare relevant for indie authors
as well as traditionallypublished authors, and I'm just
sort of going to take youthrough all the things that you
need to think about beforepublication and then the launch
(01:31):
and post launch.
So first of all, I just want totalk about what is marketing.
So marketing is aboutconnecting your story with
readers who need it most.
So you think about it asstorytelling.
You're just telling a story ina different format and it's
something about you know don'ttry to be everywhere, be where
your readers are.
(01:52):
I found that definition reallyhelpful in terms of thinking
about it, about connecting withreaders and about sharing my
story and sharing news of mybook and sharing all the
different things that I've beendoing and that helped me to
figure out how to market and tonot view it as something, you
(02:14):
know, really daunting, but justif you focus on it being sharing
and joy, I find that it makesit easier and I found things
about it that I really lovedoing.
Before I start talking about theyou know big marketing, I
wanted to talk about metadata.
So this is more relevant forindie authors, and the metadata
(02:37):
is all of the information thatgoes into your book.
So it's the things that we see,like the title and the cover,
but it's also the things that wedon't see.
So when we're uploadinginformation about our books to
retailers, it's where wecategorize them.
It's the keywords that we listso that if people are searching
(03:00):
for a book and they use thosekeywords, they find our book,
and so I'm going to share on mywebsite and within my show notes
a template of a metadatatemplate.
So it's an Excel spreadsheetthat, when you are an indie
author, you basically use toprepare all your information
(03:22):
about the book before youpublish.
So you obviously need to havethe title, and then you have
three different descriptions.
You have a short description,which is your one sentence, a
medium description, which is afew sentences, and then your
full blurb.
Now you need all thesedifferent descriptions because
when you are entering yourmetadata on the different retail
(03:42):
platforms or when you aremarketing your book on social
media, you need the variety ofdescriptions that you can use.
Then you need to think aboutthe keywords that you're going
to use, and so for that, you buyRocket Publisher and you
research which category yourbook should be placed in and the
(04:04):
keywords that should be used.
And this spreadsheet that I'vegot is really helpful because
it's about putting all of thelinks that you need as you are
promoting your book, of thelinks that you need as you are
promoting your book.
So it's, you know, linking allof your sales pages, your book
funnel, landing page, reviews,etc.
(04:25):
And so I find this reallyinvaluable for preparing my book
for launch and then also forhaving the one place where I've
got everything, where I can justclick on things I can click on.
You know, if I'm looking forthe retail link, I want a nice
shortcut for that.
I've got everything listed andthat's the one thing that is
sort of invisible, that is inthe background, but that is
(04:48):
really important because if youset up your metadata correctly
and you fill out all of theinformation that is requested on
retail platforms and thedifferent platforms that we use
to get a book to publication,all of that links together and
all of that sort of workstogether to market your book,
because then if you have the oneISBN for your e-book and you
(05:13):
publish it on the six differentretail platforms, all of those
retail platforms will be linkedbecause you're using the one
ISBN.
So it's just something that'sreally important in terms of
preparing a book.
And the other reason that it'simportant to have that
spreadsheet is you want to copythings across.
You don't want to be typingthings in and possibly making
mistakes, and so it's aboutpreparing everything and also
(05:35):
making the publication processeasier and quicker.
So I will link that to the shownotes.
So when we're talking aboutmarketing, we're talking about
the core content.
So your first thing is yourmarketing book, which is the
blurb of your book.
So you're thinking about yourtitle.
(05:57):
Sorry, this is the firstmarketing book.
It must speak to the genre andevoke emotions.
You can test options with yournewsletter or social media
followers.
It's really important that it'snot too generic.
My first debut novel, the GoodDaughter, was published, and
then, very soon after that,karen Slaughter also published
(06:19):
the Good Daughter, which was acrime novel, and I had all these
people go.
I saw your book here, I sawyour book there.
It wasn't my book, it was KarenSlaughter's book, and since
then I've Googled and there's somany titles of the Good
Daughter.
Another thing is titles are notcopyright.
You can have the same title.
(06:39):
The only issue is you do notwant to have them in the same
genre and ideally not to bepublished too close together,
like my book was with karenslaughter's book, where then it
causes that confusion.
I would really recommend thatyou google the titles and check
retail platforms and see ifthere's a similar title, so that
(07:01):
you've got that unique feature.
And then the second thing that'sreally important is your blurb.
So the blurb is the back of thebook on a paperback.
It's the description thatpeople are looking at to think
about.
Is this the book that appealsto them?
So you need to include theemotional stakes and the reader
promise.
(07:21):
As I said earlier, you need tohave the various versions the
one sentence, the few sentences,the full blurb to use for all
your different metadata and foryour market copy, and there are
online tools that will help you.
So there's a tool with authormedia that I will link to in the
show notes that you can look at.
They have a blurb writing tool.
(07:44):
What I do is I look at books inmy genre.
I use them as a model, so Icopy the different blurbs.
When I was working on thislatest book, which is a
historical mystery novel, I wascopying different books in that
genre.
I was looking at how the blurbswere constructed.
I was then writing my blurbssort of using that as a model.
(08:04):
You can also use generative AIto help improve your blurb.
So when you sort of havesomething that you think is at a
good point, you can put itthrough chat, gpt and get it to
improve and give you sort ofdifferent options, and I find
that it really helps with thoseemotive words and just really
(08:25):
making those snappy sentencesjump.
The other part of marketingthat's really important is your
cover.
So when you are designing yourcover, it's really important
that you meet the genreexpectations.
Now some writers might thinkthat this is the time to stand
out and to do a different cover,and that's really not the thing
(08:48):
that you should be doing.
You need to research what ispopular in your genre, research
how those covers are designed,and you need to then create
something that meets those genreexpectations.
When you're thinking about thecover, I remember a lot of
people looking at it in terms ofthumbnails, and we do have
visual cues that tell us whatsort of a genre it is and what
(09:11):
they should expect, and so thatis part of short-circuiting that
quick decision-making processfor readers who are looking for
a book, and, at the end of theday, you don't want the wrong
reader who doesn't like yourbook or your genre to give you a
negative review.
So it's not about enticingpeople for the sake of enticing
it.
You want the readers who willenjoy your book.
(09:33):
You don't want people who are,you know, hate crime thrillers
or really crime thrillers,picking up your crime thriller
and being like, oh no, I thoughtthis was, you know, a romance.
Um, that will not help you.
Um.
So when I am looking at covers,I research and I create a
pinterest board and I collectall all these different covers
(09:55):
and I look at what are thesimilarities to use, make sure
it looks good on a thumbnail.
So you know your covers aregoing to be really small that
people will initially see, andyou can design your own covers
and you can use photos, but youneed to buy a royalty free image
from either deposit photos oranother service source.
(10:18):
You can use canva to createimages and use them to publish,
and it's covered in the termsand conditions, and they also
have templates that can reallyhelp you with that initial
design process to come up withyour cover.
Some fonts if you are usingfonts that are online, you need
to also make sure that theymight be copyright and you might
(10:39):
need to buy them and have thelicensing to use them.
So be careful with that too.
If you are an indie author, itmight be helpful to write a
contract for yourself as thedesigner and including that,
you've got the image licensingrights.
Every once in a while there are, you know, retail platforms who
request to see that you've gotthe image licensing rights.
Every once in a while there are, you know retail platforms who
request to see that you've gotit.
(11:01):
So if you were, for example,getting a designer to do it,
they would write up a contractand they would include in that
the licensing rights that theygot for that cover.
You can also get it generatedby you know a cover designer, or
you can buy pre-made covers.
There are some you know optionsthat are easy to buy.
(11:21):
It's just you can get themadjusted for the different
covers, different size covers.
You also need to pay extra.
So we've now got our metadata,we've got the title, we've got
the cover, we've got the blurband now we're looking at the
media release and the publicpromotion, publication promotion
(11:41):
.
So when you are doing a mediarelease, you want to write two
versions, one for general mediaand one for genre specific
outlets and you want to create apress kit and for this to be
available on your website.
So it needs to have an image,author, photo, bio and links,
and ideally what you want to dois reference that in your media
(12:02):
kit and not have journalists whomight be wanting to write about
your book, trying to contactyou to get an author photo,
trying to contact you to get acover of your book.
All of this information shouldideally be available to them,
because sometimes they havequick deadlines where they're
wanting to just get somethingdone quickly.
The other reason that you wantto have a media release and you
(12:24):
want to write it, so that youneed to put some quotes of
yourself speaking, is a lot ofjournalists will use that media
release if they are going towrite about a book and actually
use that to write an articleabout it.
So you're trying to providethat information to make that
easier.
These should be on your websiteand easily accessible.
You don't want them hiddenbehind a paywall.
(12:45):
You don't want them.
You know where.
They have to download some sortof software to get to.
They should just be able toclick it and download it.
The best website, the bestadvice in terms of promoting
your book and also helping withsearch engine optimization and
now a new type of optimizationwhich is generative engine
(13:11):
optimization is that you shouldhave a book page for each of
your books.
So on your website you shouldactually have a dedicated page
just to your book and on there.
You should have all of theinformation about your book,
ideally have some question andanswers.
Have a word media kit thatjournalists can download and
(13:32):
copy from, but also just have iton your website that it's
available.
Have the purchase links andalso have graphics that they can
download.
Another important thing is tocreate universal purchase links,
so the one link that people canuse and they click on and then
that will take them to whateverretailer that they want to do.
(13:55):
Now.
You can do this even if you'renot an indie author retailer
that they want to do.
Now.
You can do this even if you'renot an indie author.
I did this for my traditionallypublished books using
Draft2Digital tools and createda book link and then uploaded
all of the different purchaselinks.
There's another one calledGenius Links that people also
use.
The Draft2Digital ones are forfree free, I believe.
(14:18):
The genius ones you have to pay.
The genius ones have moreoptions in terms of you can list
you know us, england, uk likethe different geographical
locations, but I I prefer thedrafted digital because I want
the free version and you want touse this in all your social
media promotion.
(14:38):
You don't want to be providingone retail platform for them to
go to.
You want to be providing thisone link that will take them to
whatever retail platform thatthey want to.
So, at the very least, you wantto send your media release to
your local newspaper and tomedia outlets and send hard copy
reviews to outlets.
So are there organizations thatyou are aligned with, that you
(15:02):
are a member of, that you canuse to promote your book, to do
giveaways, to get people toreview, to write some sort of an
article in their newsletter and, you know, get eyeballs on your
book and try and get someattention that way.
So now we're going to betalking about social media
marketing, and this is myfavourite type of marketing.
(15:23):
I really have gotten into socialmedia and I love creating
assets and graphics to promotemy book.
It's like my happy place, soit's really good to sort of.
You know, look at how can youcreate reels and quotes that
promote your book.
You want to have a three-secondhook, visuals and captions that
(15:43):
grab immediately.
Canva has audio that you canattach to music and you can also
buy royalty-free music fromdifferent outlets.
I've got Audio Hero, where I'vegot music that that I can use
for reels, so you can do thingslike where you do a quote of the
day from your book.
(16:04):
Um, create tropes, posts whereit's like you know the different
tropes that your book relatesto.
Um, you can create carousels,like five things I learned while
writing my book.
Um, I like looking at socialmedia and seeing different ideas
that people have and thencreating a graphic.
You know that is similar tothat and you know schedule these
(16:27):
regularly on your feed.
I use the social mediascheduler and for each book I
create six reels and I schedulethem every.
I think it turns out to beevery two months and so that way
they've just got this regularrotation.
Another important thing iscreate a hashtag for your book
(16:47):
and a hashtag for your seriesand use this in every post and
that way you're sort of creatingthat trail and then if anyone
clicks on the hashtag to yourbook, they'll see all these
other posts and if people arereviewing your book or if
they're posting about your book,they'll be able to use that
hashtag.
So make that visible on youractual graphics so that people
(17:09):
see that and sort of used asthat shortcut signature.
You can also do you books talkand Instagram ideas.
So if you like this popularbook, you'll love you know your
book, read a scene with me reelsor behind the scenes writing
process.
So, you know, do whatever, lookat your book and come up with
(17:32):
ideas for what might be a greatbook.
So for my historical bookthat's coming up, I've got some
about know real life things.
Um, I've got, you know, allthese interesting and fun um
graphics that I've created.
Um, like there's one that's umsega's advice to surviving in a
war zone, because I just wantedto sort of have fun with it and
(17:57):
but also bring to life thereality of what it's like.
Um, what I'm trying todemonstrate with this book,
which is survival under siege,survival in a war.
Also, use your goodreads.
Goodsreads is really importantin terms of your generative
engine optimization.
So that's basically.
You know all all the differentAI engines that are using that
(18:23):
people are using and that arefinding information about your
book and that they might berecommending your book to people
.
So Goodreads is one of themthat is really important.
So, connect your blog to yourGoodreads.
I did that and then you know Iwould just whatever I posted on
my blog would show up on myGoodreads and did that, and then
you know I would just whateverI posted on my blog would show
up on my Goodreads, and then Istarted having people commenting
on Goodreads about my posts andI was like, oh, I always forget
(18:46):
about that, but that is reallyimportant and that's another way
to connect with people.
There are also options to doquestion and answers on
Goodreads, and so it's aboutengaging with people.
There are groups of things onGoodreads.
I haven't really used thosemuch.
You can do competitions whereyou do a giveaway of your book
(19:11):
so that people add it to theirTV red pile, and I have done
that a few times.
I didn't find it you you knowreally great in terms of getting
reviews.
I've heard from some peoplethat it's better with the
paperback perhaps, but you knowit's something to think about.
So I'm going to talk about prepublicity and building the buzz
(19:33):
early.
How do you want to do that?
So you need advanced readers inorder to get early reviews.
So some ways that you can dothat is you can upload it on
netgalley.
Netgalley is a platform that isused by, you know, authors
indie authors, traditionallypublished authors where
different people go on and theyreview books, and it's highly
(19:57):
valued.
There is is a high fee for it.
If you are an indie author, youcan find cheaper options.
If you are a member of Allie,you can get a cheaper option
through some affiliate links.
You can put it on other thingslike book sirens and there's
other reviewing sites thatpeople can do.
You can also create your ownadvanced reader list.
(20:20):
I have a google form wherepeople sign up that they want to
review my books and then Icontact them and send them
copies of the book.
You can do a street team whereyou recruit super fans to hype
your book pre-launch and youoffer incentives for them to do
it.
(20:40):
Um, then it's also, you know,using newsletter, newsletter
teasers, where you're sharingsneak peeks, cover reveals and
early chapters.
Um, I've also used um, acompany, uh love book tours to
have bloggers basically having,you know, reviewing my book, and
(21:03):
that led to a lot of reviewsand a lot of sort of mentions on
social media posts.
I've decided that I'm justgoing to focus on NetGalley.
I found that the best bank formy buck, where it got me the
most reviews, and then thosereviews showed up on goodreads
and I'm using an affiliate linkthis time around where I will
(21:28):
get an email of the people whoreviewed it on goodreads and
I'll be able to send them anemail asking to review it on
amazon for me.
Um.
So when we're talking aboutlaunch week publicity, you need
to have that media release.
Blitz your email.
Send outs emails to bloggers ifyou're doing an event you know.
(21:51):
Organize a virtual launch party,collaborate with another author
to co-host bookshop readings orwriting festivals.
If you are an indie author andyou're wanting to organize
bookshop events, I recommendthat you have a bookshop that
you are, that's like your localbookshop, that you go to
regularly, that you get to knowpeople.
They will do it on consignment,which means they will buy
(22:16):
copies of the book for you at 40discount and then they will
sell them, and so that way youcan, you know, do that
collaboration, but the onus ison you to do those things.
So some other things that youcan do in terms of promoting
your book is you can do the paidpromotions with Amazon,
(22:36):
facebook, instagram, ads,bookbub, featured deals or ads.
And then there's also retailerpromotions with each of the
different retailers, and this iswhy, if you're an indie author,
the advice is that you godirect with Barnes, noble, with
Kobo, because they have internalpromotions that can help
(22:57):
support your book when you'relooking at creating content for
your book.
It's important to createevergreen content, so things
that relate to your book'sthemes and that way they will
always be relevant.
I create quotes of my book, Ido book reviews, and then I have
(23:19):
those on rotation constantlybecause whenever they pop up,
they're just a reminder ofpeople to people about my book
and what someone said about it,or a quote about it, and that's
evergreen.
You can also do, you know,podcast, guest appearances and
pinterest graphics.
I actually use a social mediascheduler and I post content on
(23:43):
all social media, and so I doreels to all of the platforms
that support reels and then I dographics posts to the other
platforms.
So some other things that youcan think about in terms of
marketing is, you know, doingpartnerships and collaborations,
cross-promote with authors inyour genre, bundle books for
(24:05):
giveaway or newsletter swaps.
So BookFunnel has many of theseopportunities that support you
in terms of doing those swapsand trying to create those
readers.
There are also opportunities tosubmit to awards and
competitions and use these.
You know, wins and finalistsspots in your promo.
(24:27):
You can, you know, do what Idoing, which is create a podcast
and a YouTube channel and shareyour journey and insights
related to your book andrepurpose your podcast content
into blog posts or short videos,and so there are actually apps
that do that for you.
So I use Snapcut, which cuts mylong-form videos into short
(24:50):
reels and then I schedule thoseto promote my podcast episodes.
But it also sort of promotes mewhere they just pop up on a
regular basis and there's allthe fun things that I really
like doing.
So, you know, merch and swagstickers, bookmarks, mugs, you
can do Patreon I you know Ihaven't really found that people
(25:16):
buy those things, um, but whenI did a book launch for my last
book, jesse's triumph, um, I hadmy team who were my sellers
wearing t-shirts um, that hadthe logo and, um, it just sort
of created that aesthetic.
And I'm going to do that againfor my next book launch, where I
will have T-shirts with my logoSega Tualak Mysteries and so
(25:40):
the people who are sort of myhelpers and selling my books
will be wearing those T-shirts,and so it will be great for
photos, but also good becausethey'll be recognisable in terms
of the people that are there to, you know, sell books and help
things, um.
So you know, I do a monthlynewsletter also, um, I bought
(26:00):
send fox and I found that I'vealways wanted to do that.
I really struggled with, youknow, sending something every
month, but now I really enjoy it.
I really sort of enjoyconnecting with my audience and
having that as part of a regularconversation that I have with
readers and I am creating allthis bonus content for my novels
(26:24):
so that people have to sign upto the newsletter to get the
bonus content and in that way,hopefully, that will be an
evergreen and ongoingopportunity for collecting
subscribers and people who arefollowing my writing journey and
waiting for the next book,especially because this is a
(26:45):
series, and so you know, it'sreally important to sort of
think about this in terms ofwhat's working.
So, you know, track the metricsif you are doing emails, if you
are doing paid advertising.
But you know, also remember tocelebrate the small wins, like
every review that we get from areader who enjoyed the book.
(27:06):
That is a huge win.
Like I get such a high whensomeone reads something that
I've written whether it's anarticle that I wrote or one of
my books and then they reach outor they've attended a workshop
and they reach out and connectwith me, like those things are
just gold, because you knowwe're sitting in our room the
rest of the time and then whenwe have that opportunity to
(27:29):
connect and we can hear fromsomeone that we've connected, it
means a lot.
The other thing that I wouldreally say is marketing and
writing is a marathon, not asprint, and so when we're
writing and we're publishing,each book that we publish is
(27:50):
another opportunity to marketand to connect, and there are
constantly ideas for what youcan do and new opportunities
about how you can share news ofyour book, and so I love keeping
up with all those trends andfinding out all these new and
different ways of connectingwith readers.
(28:10):
And there are some fabulousthings that indie authors in
particular do, where there areFacebook groups also that exist
that you can go in and you canpromote your books in.
You can also start your ownFacebook group where readers
come and join and have aconversation.
You know there are people whodo Patreon and then they offer
(28:32):
extra rewards and support andthey have people paying for that
.
So there are so many ideas andopportunities.
You just have to decide whatworks for you.
What is it, what sort of personare you and what are the things
that you work, but you also doneed to challenge yourself
(28:52):
sometimes and step outside ofyour comfort zone.
When I initially started postingand creating graphics about my
books, um, honestly, it was likethose dreams, you know, those
dreams that you have whereyou're naked and you're out in
society and people are lookingat you weird.
That's how it felt when I lookat those first graphics oh,
(29:16):
they're terrible, they are soterrible.
But now I've, you know, reallypracticed and developed an eye.
I love experimenting with ideasand fonts and images.
I buy photos from depositphotos, so stock-free,
(29:38):
royalty-free images that I usethen in my promotion.
Now there's all these excitingnew things that you can do with
AI, where you can actuallyanimate images that I just saw
recently that I was like, oh mygosh.
And then there's also software.
You can create things, and so Ithink you can see it here.
(30:02):
The things that I did for mySassy Saints series is I created
little collector cards of my um, of my characters, using AI,
and these are not commerciallysold because I don't think that,
you know, you should be sellingthings that you're creating
with AI.
Um, but there's something thatI offer, uh, with my book box,
(30:28):
where I offer, you know, extramerchandise and stuff for all
three copies of the book, and sothat's just something that you
know I provide as an extra bonus, something that I really enjoy
creating and having fun with andjust fun ideas.
There are people who also, youknow, pay people to create
character cards and stuff likethat, but there are also people
(30:51):
who are learning to useillustrating software or, you
know, ai software to do thosethings.
As Joanna Penn from theCreative Pen says, someone who I
really admire, I am, like her,ai positive and I like
experimenting and tryingdifferent things with ai to see
(31:14):
what I can create, what I can do, and so I'm in that space.
Some people might not be, butyou decide, um, what you want to
do for your journey.
So I hope this episode has beenhelpful for you.
In terms of marketing, I willprovide the metadata template on
(31:34):
my show notes.
You can download that and usethat when you are actually
preparing your book forpublication, and I wish you the
best of luck with your marketingfor your book.
Thank you for tuning in toAmra's Armchair Anecdotes.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to subscribe and
(31:57):
follow for more insights,stories and inspiration From my
armchair to yours.
Remember every story beginswith a single word.
Welcome to Amara's Armchair Anecdotes.
And today I'm talking about howto market your book.
So it's how to sell your bookwithout selling your soul.
So just some practical tipsabout you know how to go from
the book idea to long tail sales.
There are some tips here thatwill be helpful, whether you're
an indie author or whether youare traditionally published.
(00:26):
First, I'm going to start withsomething that's more relevant
to indie authors, which is whenyou are first preparing a book
to be published, the first thingthat you need to do is prepare
the metadata.
The first thing that you needto do is prepare the metadata,
(00:47):
so that is like the title, thedescriptions, the ISBN, all of
the things that you will need toupload your book onto retail
platforms.
So to do that, oh my gosh,welcome to amra's armchair
(01:11):
anecdotes.
And today I'm talking about howto market your book without
selling your soul.
So there will be tips here thatare relevant for indie authors
as well as traditionallypublished authors, and I'm just
sort of going to take youthrough all the things that you
need to think about beforepublication and then the launch
(01:31):
and post launch.
So first of all, I just want totalk about what is marketing.
So marketing is aboutconnecting your story with
readers who need it most.
So you think about it asstorytelling.
You're just telling a story ina different format and it's
something about you know don'ttry to be everywhere, be where
your readers are.
(01:52):
I found that definition reallyhelpful in terms of thinking
about it, about connecting withreaders and about sharing my
story and sharing news of mybook and sharing all the
different things that I've beendoing and that helped me to
figure out how to market and tonot view it as something, you
(02:14):
know, really daunting, but justif you focus on it being sharing
and joy, I find that it makesit easier and I found things
about it that I really lovedoing.
Before I start talking about theyou know big marketing, I
wanted to talk about metadata.
So this is more relevant forindie authors, and the metadata
(02:37):
is all of the information thatgoes into your book.
So it's the things that we see,like the title and the cover,
but it's also the things that wedon't see.
So when we're uploadinginformation about our books to
retailers, it's where wecategorize them.
It's the keywords that we listso that if people are searching
(03:00):
for a book and they use thosekeywords, they find our book,
and so I'm going to share on mywebsite and within my show notes
a template of a metadatatemplate.
So it's an Excel spreadsheetthat, when you are an indie
author, you basically use toprepare all your information
(03:22):
about the book before youpublish.
So you obviously need to havethe title, and then you have
three different descriptions.
You have a short description,which is your one sentence, a
medium description, which is afew sentences, and then your
full blurb.
Now you need all thesedifferent descriptions because
when you are entering yourmetadata on the different retail
(03:42):
platforms or when you aremarketing your book on social
media, you need the variety ofdescriptions that you can use.
Then you need to think aboutthe keywords that you're going
to use, and so for that, you buyRocket Publisher and you
research which category yourbook should be placed in and the
(04:04):
keywords that should be used.
And this spreadsheet that I'vegot is really helpful because
it's about putting all of thelinks that you need as you are
promoting your book, of thelinks that you need as you are
promoting your book.
So it's, you know, linking allof your sales pages, your book
funnel, landing page, reviews,etc.
(04:25):
And so I find this reallyinvaluable for preparing my book
for launch and then also forhaving the one place where I've
got everything, where I can justclick on things I can click on.
You know, if I'm looking forthe retail link, I want a nice
shortcut for that.
I've got everything listed andthat's the one thing that is
sort of invisible, that is inthe background, but that is
(04:48):
really important because if youset up your metadata correctly
and you fill out all of theinformation that is requested on
retail platforms and thedifferent platforms that we use
to get a book to publication,all of that links together and
all of that sort of workstogether to market your book,
because then if you have the oneISBN for your e-book and you
(05:13):
publish it on the six differentretail platforms, all of those
retail platforms will be linkedbecause you're using the one
ISBN.
So it's just something that'sreally important in terms of
preparing a book.
And the other reason that it'simportant to have that
spreadsheet is you want to copythings across.
You don't want to be typingthings in and possibly making
mistakes, and so it's aboutpreparing everything and also
(05:35):
making the publication processeasier and quicker.
So I will link that to the shownotes.
So when we're talking aboutmarketing, we're talking about
the core content.
So your first thing is yourmarketing book, which is the
blurb of your book.
So you're thinking about yourtitle.
(05:57):
Sorry, this is the firstmarketing book.
It must speak to the genre andevoke emotions.
You can test options with yournewsletter or social media
followers.
It's really important that it'snot too generic.
My first debut novel, the GoodDaughter, was published, and
then, very soon after that,karen Slaughter also published
(06:19):
the Good Daughter, which was acrime novel, and I had all these
people go.
I saw your book here, I sawyour book there.
It wasn't my book, it was KarenSlaughter's book, and since
then I've Googled and there's somany titles of the Good
Daughter.
Another thing is titles are notcopyright.
You can have the same title.
(06:39):
The only issue is you do notwant to have them in the same
genre and ideally not to bepublished too close together,
like my book was with karenslaughter's book, where then it
causes that confusion.
I would really recommend thatyou google the titles and check
retail platforms and see ifthere's a similar title, so that
(07:01):
you've got that unique feature.
And then the second thing that'sreally important is your blurb.
So the blurb is the back of thebook on a paperback.
It's the description thatpeople are looking at to think
about.
Is this the book that appealsto them?
So you need to include theemotional stakes and the reader
promise.
(07:21):
As I said earlier, you need tohave the various versions the
one sentence, the few sentences,the full blurb to use for all
your different metadata and foryour market copy, and there are
online tools that will help you.
So there's a tool with authormedia that I will link to in the
show notes that you can look at.
They have a blurb writing tool.
(07:44):
What I do is I look at books inmy genre.
I use them as a model, so Icopy the different blurbs.
When I was working on thislatest book, which is a
historical mystery novel, I wascopying different books in that
genre.
I was looking at how the blurbswere constructed.
I was then writing my blurbssort of using that as a model.
(08:04):
You can also use generative AIto help improve your blurb.
So when you sort of havesomething that you think is at a
good point, you can put itthrough chat, gpt and get it to
improve and give you sort ofdifferent options, and I find
that it really helps with thoseemotive words and just really
(08:25):
making those snappy sentencesjump.
The other part of marketingthat's really important is your
cover.
So when you are designing yourcover, it's really important
that you meet the genreexpectations.
Now some writers might thinkthat this is the time to stand
out and to do a different cover,and that's really not the thing
(08:48):
that you should be doing.
You need to research what ispopular in your genre, research
how those covers are designed,and you need to then create
something that meets those genreexpectations.
When you're thinking about thecover, I remember a lot of
people looking at it in terms ofthumbnails, and we do have
visual cues that tell us whatsort of a genre it is and what
(09:11):
they should expect, and so thatis part of short-circuiting that
quick decision-making processfor readers who are looking for
a book, and, at the end of theday, you don't want the wrong
reader who doesn't like yourbook or your genre to give you a
negative review.
So it's not about enticingpeople for the sake of enticing
it.
You want the readers who willenjoy your book.
(09:33):
You don't want people who are,you know, hate crime thrillers
or really crime thrillers,picking up your crime thriller
and being like, oh no, I thoughtthis was, you know, a romance.
Um, that will not help you.
Um.
So when I am looking at covers,I research and I create a
pinterest board and I collectall all these different covers
(09:55):
and I look at what are thesimilarities to use, make sure
it looks good on a thumbnail.
So you know your covers aregoing to be really small that
people will initially see, andyou can design your own covers
and you can use photos, but youneed to buy a royalty free image
from either deposit photos oranother service source.
(10:18):
You can use canva to createimages and use them to publish,
and it's covered in the termsand conditions, and they also
have templates that can reallyhelp you with that initial
design process to come up withyour cover.
Some fonts if you are usingfonts that are online, you need
to also make sure that theymight be copyright and you might
(10:39):
need to buy them and have thelicensing to use them.
So be careful with that too.
If you are an indie author, itmight be helpful to write a
contract for yourself as thedesigner and including that,
you've got the image licensingrights.
Every once in a while there are, you know, retail platforms who
request to see that you've gotthe image licensing rights.
Every once in a while there are, you know retail platforms who
request to see that you've gotit.
(11:01):
So if you were, for example,getting a designer to do it,
they would write up a contractand they would include in that
the licensing rights that theygot for that cover.
You can also get it generatedby you know a cover designer, or
you can buy pre-made covers.
There are some you know optionsthat are easy to buy.
(11:21):
It's just you can get themadjusted for the different
covers, different size covers.
You also need to pay extra.
So we've now got our metadata,we've got the title, we've got
the cover, we've got the blurband now we're looking at the
media release and the publicpromotion, publication promotion
(11:41):
.
So when you are doing a mediarelease, you want to write two
versions, one for general mediaand one for genre specific
outlets and you want to create apress kit and for this to be
available on your website.
So it needs to have an image,author, photo, bio and links,
and ideally what you want to dois reference that in your media
(12:02):
kit and not have journalists whomight be wanting to write about
your book, trying to contactyou to get an author photo,
trying to contact you to get acover of your book.
All of this information shouldideally be available to them,
because sometimes they havequick deadlines where they're
wanting to just get somethingdone quickly.
The other reason that you wantto have a media release and you
(12:24):
want to write it, so that youneed to put some quotes of
yourself speaking, is a lot ofjournalists will use that media
release if they are going towrite about a book and actually
use that to write an articleabout it.
So you're trying to providethat information to make that
easier.
These should be on your websiteand easily accessible.
You don't want them hiddenbehind a paywall.
(12:45):
You don't want them.
You know where.
They have to download some sortof software to get to.
They should just be able toclick it and download it.
The best website, the bestadvice in terms of promoting
your book and also helping withsearch engine optimization and
now a new type of optimizationwhich is generative engine
(13:11):
optimization is that you shouldhave a book page for each of
your books.
So on your website you shouldactually have a dedicated page
just to your book and on there.
You should have all of theinformation about your book,
ideally have some question andanswers.
Have a word media kit thatjournalists can download and
(13:32):
copy from, but also just have iton your website that it's
available.
Have the purchase links andalso have graphics that they can
download.
Another important thing is tocreate universal purchase links,
so the one link that people canuse and they click on and then
that will take them to whateverretailer that they want to do.
(13:55):
Now.
You can do this even if you'renot an indie author retailer
that they want to do.
Now.
You can do this even if you'renot an indie author.
I did this for my traditionallypublished books using
Draft2Digital tools and createda book link and then uploaded
all of the different purchaselinks.
There's another one calledGenius Links that people also
use.
The Draft2Digital ones are forfree free, I believe.
(14:18):
The genius ones you have to pay.
The genius ones have moreoptions in terms of you can list
you know us, england, uk likethe different geographical
locations, but I I prefer thedrafted digital because I want
the free version and you want touse this in all your social
media promotion.
(14:38):
You don't want to be providingone retail platform for them to
go to.
You want to be providing thisone link that will take them to
whatever retail platform thatthey want to.
So, at the very least, you wantto send your media release to
your local newspaper and tomedia outlets and send hard copy
reviews to outlets.
So are there organizations thatyou are aligned with, that you
(15:02):
are a member of, that you canuse to promote your book, to do
giveaways, to get people toreview, to write some sort of an
article in their newsletter and, you know, get eyeballs on your
book and try and get someattention that way.
So now we're going to betalking about social media
marketing, and this is myfavourite type of marketing.
(15:23):
I really have gotten into socialmedia and I love creating
assets and graphics to promotemy book.
It's like my happy place, soit's really good to sort of.
You know, look at how can youcreate reels and quotes that
promote your book.
You want to have a three-secondhook, visuals and captions that
(15:43):
grab immediately.
Canva has audio that you canattach to music and you can also
buy royalty-free music fromdifferent outlets.
I've got Audio Hero, where I'vegot music that that I can use
for reels, so you can do thingslike where you do a quote of the
day from your book.
(16:04):
Um, create tropes, posts whereit's like you know the different
tropes that your book relatesto.
Um, you can create carousels,like five things I learned while
writing my book.
Um, I like looking at socialmedia and seeing different ideas
that people have and thencreating a graphic.
You know that is similar tothat and you know schedule these
(16:27):
regularly on your feed.
I use the social mediascheduler and for each book I
create six reels and I schedulethem every.
I think it turns out to beevery two months and so that way
they've just got this regularrotation.
Another important thing iscreate a hashtag for your book
(16:47):
and a hashtag for your seriesand use this in every post and
that way you're sort of creatingthat trail and then if anyone
clicks on the hashtag to yourbook, they'll see all these
other posts and if people arereviewing your book or if
they're posting about your book,they'll be able to use that
hashtag.
So make that visible on youractual graphics so that people
(17:09):
see that and sort of used asthat shortcut signature.
You can also do you books talkand Instagram ideas.
So if you like this popularbook, you'll love you know your
book, read a scene with me reelsor behind the scenes writing
process.
So, you know, do whatever, lookat your book and come up with
(17:32):
ideas for what might be a greatbook.
So for my historical bookthat's coming up, I've got some
about know real life things.
Um, I've got, you know, allthese interesting and fun um
graphics that I've created.
Um, like there's one that's umsega's advice to surviving in a
war zone, because I just wantedto sort of have fun with it and
(17:57):
but also bring to life thereality of what it's like.
Um, what I'm trying todemonstrate with this book,
which is survival under siege,survival in a war.
Also, use your goodreads.
Goodsreads is really importantin terms of your generative
engine optimization.
So that's basically.
You know all all the differentAI engines that are using that
(18:23):
people are using and that arefinding information about your
book and that they might berecommending your book to people
.
So Goodreads is one of themthat is really important.
So, connect your blog to yourGoodreads.
I did that and then you know Iwould just whatever I posted on
my blog would show up on myGoodreads and did that, and then
you know I would just whateverI posted on my blog would show
up on my Goodreads, and then Istarted having people commenting
on Goodreads about my posts andI was like, oh, I always forget
(18:46):
about that, but that is reallyimportant and that's another way
to connect with people.
There are also options to doquestion and answers on
Goodreads, and so it's aboutengaging with people.
There are groups of things onGoodreads.
I haven't really used thosemuch.
You can do competitions whereyou do a giveaway of your book
(19:11):
so that people add it to theirTV red pile, and I have done
that a few times.
I didn't find it you you knowreally great in terms of getting
reviews.
I've heard from some peoplethat it's better with the
paperback perhaps, but you knowit's something to think about.
So I'm going to talk about prepublicity and building the buzz
(19:33):
early.
How do you want to do that?
So you need advanced readers inorder to get early reviews.
So some ways that you can dothat is you can upload it on
netgalley.
Netgalley is a platform that isused by, you know, authors
indie authors, traditionallypublished authors where
different people go on and theyreview books, and it's highly
(19:57):
valued.
There is is a high fee for it.
If you are an indie author, youcan find cheaper options.
If you are a member of Allie,you can get a cheaper option
through some affiliate links.
You can put it on other thingslike book sirens and there's
other reviewing sites thatpeople can do.
You can also create your ownadvanced reader list.
(20:20):
I have a google form wherepeople sign up that they want to
review my books and then Icontact them and send them
copies of the book.
You can do a street team whereyou recruit super fans to hype
your book pre-launch and youoffer incentives for them to do
it.
(20:40):
Um, then it's also, you know,using newsletter, newsletter
teasers, where you're sharingsneak peeks, cover reveals and
early chapters.
Um, I've also used um, acompany, uh love book tours to
have bloggers basically having,you know, reviewing my book, and
(21:03):
that led to a lot of reviewsand a lot of sort of mentions on
social media posts.
I've decided that I'm justgoing to focus on NetGalley.
I found that the best bank formy buck, where it got me the
most reviews, and then thosereviews showed up on goodreads
and I'm using an affiliate linkthis time around where I will
(21:28):
get an email of the people whoreviewed it on goodreads and
I'll be able to send them anemail asking to review it on
amazon for me.
Um.
So when we're talking aboutlaunch week publicity, you need
to have that media release.
Blitz your email.
Send outs emails to bloggers ifyou're doing an event you know.
(21:51):
Organize a virtual launch party,collaborate with another author
to co-host bookshop readings orwriting festivals.
If you are an indie author andyou're wanting to organize
bookshop events, I recommendthat you have a bookshop that
you are, that's like your localbookshop, that you go to
regularly, that you get to knowpeople.
They will do it on consignment,which means they will buy
(22:16):
copies of the book for you at 40discount and then they will
sell them, and so that way youcan, you know, do that
collaboration, but the onus ison you to do those things.
So some other things that youcan do in terms of promoting
your book is you can do the paidpromotions with Amazon,
(22:36):
facebook, instagram, ads,bookbub, featured deals or ads.
And then there's also retailerpromotions with each of the
different retailers, and this iswhy, if you're an indie author,
the advice is that you godirect with Barnes, noble, with
Kobo, because they have internalpromotions that can help
(22:57):
support your book when you'relooking at creating content for
your book.
It's important to createevergreen content, so things
that relate to your book'sthemes and that way they will
always be relevant.
I create quotes of my book, Ido book reviews, and then I have
(23:19):
those on rotation constantlybecause whenever they pop up,
they're just a reminder ofpeople to people about my book
and what someone said about it,or a quote about it, and that's
evergreen.
You can also do, you know,podcast, guest appearances and
pinterest graphics.
I actually use a social mediascheduler and I post content on
(23:43):
all social media, and so I doreels to all of the platforms
that support reels and then I dographics posts to the other
platforms.
So some other things that youcan think about in terms of
marketing is, you know, doingpartnerships and collaborations,
cross-promote with authors inyour genre, bundle books for
(24:05):
giveaway or newsletter swaps.
So BookFunnel has many of theseopportunities that support you
in terms of doing those swapsand trying to create those
readers.
There are also opportunities tosubmit to awards and
competitions and use these.
You know, wins and finalistsspots in your promo.
(24:27):
You can, you know, do what Idoing, which is create a podcast
and a YouTube channel and shareyour journey and insights
related to your book andrepurpose your podcast content
into blog posts or short videos,and so there are actually apps
that do that for you.
So I use Snapcut, which cuts mylong-form videos into short
(24:50):
reels and then I schedule thoseto promote my podcast episodes.
But it also sort of promotes mewhere they just pop up on a
regular basis and there's allthe fun things that I really
like doing.
So, you know, merch and swagstickers, bookmarks, mugs, you
can do Patreon I you know Ihaven't really found that people
(25:16):
buy those things, um, but whenI did a book launch for my last
book, jesse's triumph, um, I hadmy team who were my sellers
wearing t-shirts um, that hadthe logo and, um, it just sort
of created that aesthetic.
And I'm going to do that againfor my next book launch, where I
will have T-shirts with my logoSega Tualak Mysteries and so
(25:40):
the people who are sort of myhelpers and selling my books
will be wearing those T-shirts,and so it will be great for
photos, but also good becausethey'll be recognisable in terms
of the people that are there to, you know, sell books and help
things, um.
So you know, I do a monthlynewsletter also, um, I bought
(26:00):
send fox and I found that I'vealways wanted to do that.
I really struggled with, youknow, sending something every
month, but now I really enjoy it.
I really sort of enjoyconnecting with my audience and
having that as part of a regularconversation that I have with
readers and I am creating allthis bonus content for my novels
(26:24):
so that people have to sign upto the newsletter to get the
bonus content and in that way,hopefully, that will be an
evergreen and ongoingopportunity for collecting
subscribers and people who arefollowing my writing journey and
waiting for the next book,especially because this is a
(26:45):
series, and so you know, it'sreally important to sort of
think about this in terms ofwhat's working.
So, you know, track the metricsif you are doing emails, if you
are doing paid advertising.
But you know, also remember tocelebrate the small wins, like
every review that we get from areader who enjoyed the book.
(27:06):
That is a huge win.
Like I get such a high whensomeone reads something that
I've written whether it's anarticle that I wrote or one of
my books and then they reach outor they've attended a workshop
and they reach out and connectwith me, like those things are
just gold, because you knowwe're sitting in our room the
rest of the time and then whenwe have that opportunity to
(27:29):
connect and we can hear fromsomeone that we've connected, it
means a lot.
The other thing that I wouldreally say is marketing and
writing is a marathon, not asprint, and so when we're
writing and we're publishing,each book that we publish is
(27:50):
another opportunity to marketand to connect, and there are
constantly ideas for what youcan do and new opportunities
about how you can share news ofyour book, and so I love keeping
up with all those trends andfinding out all these new and
different ways of connectingwith readers.
(28:10):
And there are some fabulousthings that indie authors in
particular do, where there areFacebook groups also that exist
that you can go in and you canpromote your books in.
You can also start your ownFacebook group where readers
come and join and have aconversation.
You know there are people whodo Patreon and then they offer
(28:32):
extra rewards and support andthey have people paying for that
.
So there are so many ideas andopportunities.
You just have to decide whatworks for you.
What is it, what sort of personare you and what are the things
that you work, but you also doneed to challenge yourself
(28:52):
sometimes and step outside ofyour comfort zone.
When I initially started postingand creating graphics about my
books, um, honestly, it was likethose dreams, you know, those
dreams that you have whereyou're naked and you're out in
society and people are lookingat you weird.
That's how it felt when I lookat those first graphics oh,
(29:16):
they're terrible, they are soterrible.
But now I've, you know, reallypracticed and developed an eye.
I love experimenting with ideasand fonts and images.
I buy photos from depositphotos, so stock-free,
(29:38):
royalty-free images that I usethen in my promotion.
Now there's all these excitingnew things that you can do with
AI, where you can actuallyanimate images that I just saw
recently that I was like, oh mygosh.
And then there's also software.
You can create things, and so Ithink you can see it here.
(30:02):
The things that I did for mySassy Saints series is I created
little collector cards of my um, of my characters, using AI,
and these are not commerciallysold because I don't think that,
you know, you should be sellingthings that you're creating
with AI.
Um, but there's something thatI offer, uh, with my book box,
(30:28):
where I offer, you know, extramerchandise and stuff for all
three copies of the book, and sothat's just something that you
know I provide as an extra bonus, something that I really enjoy
creating and having fun with andjust fun ideas.
There are people who also, youknow, pay people to create
character cards and stuff likethat, but there are also people
(30:51):
who are learning to useillustrating software or, you
know, ai software to do thosethings.
As Joanna Penn from theCreative Pen says, someone who I
really admire, I am, like her,ai positive and I like
experimenting and tryingdifferent things with ai to see
(31:14):
what I can create, what I can do, and so I'm in that space.
Some people might not be, butyou decide, um, what you want to
do for your journey.
So I hope this episode has beenhelpful for you.
In terms of marketing, I willprovide the metadata template on
(31:34):
my show notes.
You can download that and usethat when you are actually
preparing your book forpublication, and I wish you the
best of luck with your marketingfor your book.
Thank you for tuning in toAmra's Armchair Anecdotes.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to subscribe and
(31:57):
follow for more insights,stories and inspiration From my
armchair to yours.
Remember every story beginswith a single word.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.