Marketing is the worst part of writing for me. I won’t lie when I published my first book I was very naive. Somehow I thought my book was magically going to sell itself. I guess I thought there was some free thing on Amazon that would push my book ahead of all the other shiny books out there. Alas no, it doesn’t work like that.
So I started this lovely blog and started reviewing books. Yes, I still review books. I am however, extremely busy with writing and will get back to it after the new year. The blog at least got my name out there. People know my name and face. They see that I’m an author.
Still nearly nada. So it was time to get serious. I revised my covers then my blurbs. One book was picked up by a small publisher. Yeah a sigh of relief. Bubkus! Ok let’s think again. I started scouring FB for author groups and other authors. I met several who were willing to help. I now have a marketing guru helping with my mailing list and building an ARC. I never new what an ARC was until about a month ago.
I know it sounds terrible. I probably should have been reading indie marketing guides instead of reviewing books. Now I understand. I have to learn as I go from here on out If I ever want to get any writing done again. Sorry but I work full time and mom the other full time and write part time.
Great so now I have basic components going that I should have had before I ever published book one. Hooray! I can move on to real advertising now. I’ve tried FB adds repeatedly with no success. So for the moment I’ve given up. Another author said they had success with their new carousel ads. I might give that a whirl later. I’ve already spent all day on marketing.
My next step was book signings. I called ten local bookstores and heard back from three. Barnes and Noble by far was the nicest and most helpful. THey are ordering my book and will arrange everything from there. My take away here, don’t be afraid to call a big box retailer if you know they can order your book. I also found a smaller shop that would let me do a reading and sell my indie books on consignment.
Today I was feeling dejected though after my small spike in sales sputtered again. I decided to look into Amazon ads. It’s something I’ve thought about doing a lot, but I was always afraid. They seemed confusing and expensive. Let me clarify they can be depending on which one you pick.
To get my feet wet I went with what I thought was the easiest to understand: a sponsored 
product ad on auto targeting. This means when someone selects a book like mine Amazon will pop up mine and suggest it to the reader. I pay by the click with a maximum length of time or maximum budget whichever comes first. I wanted to test it so I set a time limit but you don’t have to. I’ll let you know how it goes and if I try a different ad or settings.
This certainly isn’t the end all, be all, of marketing, just what I’ve tried so far; aside from giveaways on Amazon and Goodreads. Perhaps there are a few in my boat and you don’t feel so alone. Or, maybe you just had a good laugh. Either way, I hope some of it helped you along the way.
I’ve included the link for the article I read to get me going. I didn’t see the need to reinvent the wheel here especially since there is no way I can explain it better.
Complete Beginner’s Guide to Advertising on Amazon
If you have any questions or tips you’d like to share I’d love to hear them. Please feel free to share similar experiences as well.
R. Tran Books 