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Generating Book Sales: How to Convert Potential Readers into Buyers

by Kimberley Grabas

In Parts 1 and 2 of our series, we talked about how to target your ideal audience and how to connect with the people who want to read your work.

Now comes the part you’ve probably been waiting for—how to get that audience to actually buy your book.

For many folks, this is all they think about when they think “marketing”—how to get someone to pay you money for the thing you do or the product you have.

But this is Part 3 for a reason.

It’s actually the least important bit.

You see, if you’ve done things right in Parts 1 and 2, identifying and connecting with potential fans and followers, you’re already well on your way to having a paying customer base.

Remember what we said in Part 2 about continually providing value to your audience? (No? Go read that post again. I’ll wait.)

Yeah. That. That is the key to generating sales and making an income as an author—or as any sort of creative professional or entrepreneur.

Identify your audience. Provide them with real, legitimate value.

The rest will come.

How? Glad you asked! Let’s take a look. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog, Business of Writing Tagged With: book marketing, book sales, sales conversion

Audience Engagement: How to Establish a Genuine Connection with Your Readers

by Kimberley Grabas

Audience Engagement How to Establish a Genuine Connection with Your Readers | YourWriterPlatform.com

In part 1 of this book marketing series, we talked about how to find your ideal audience—what steps you can take to figure out who your dream reader is, where they hang out, and how you can reach out to them.

Hopefully by now you’ve had a chance to put a few of those tips into action, starting to reach out to potential new fans and attract them to your writing.

But there’s a difference between knowing where your audience hangs out, reaching out to them, and actually engaging with them.

Think of it this way: the people who put take-out menus in your mailbox know where you live, and they have reached out to you. But do you save and cherish those menus, relying on them for comfort or support, telling friends about them, and writing raving reviews about them online?

Probably not.

The menus reach you, but they don’t engage you. They don’t make you a fan.

The real secret to building a lasting author platform is to connect.

Let’s take a deep dive into how to make that happen. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing & Promotion Tagged With: audience engagement, book marketing, target audience

Finding Your Ideal Audience: A Step-by-Step Guide

by Kimberley Grabas

Finding Your Ideal Audience A Step-by-Step Guide | YourWriterPlatform.com

Readers of this site already know the biggest secret in publishing: writing your book is only the start.

It’s an amazing start—you’ve done something most people only dream about!—and it’s essential to creating a career as a writer, but it really is only the beginning.

Once you’ve written the book, you need to find readers for it. And as tough as the writing process may have been, figuring out how to attract, connect with, and convert potential readers into adoring fans can seem intimidating.

Take a deep breath.

We’re here to help.

Finding your ideal reader and turning them into a loyal fan isn’t as hard as you think. It takes some solid research, dedication, persistence, and a willingness to experiment, but once you get the hang of a few simple strategies, it’ll stop being a chore and become part of your daily routine as a working writer.

In part 1 of this book marketing series, we’ll explore how you can build your audience step-by-step, starting with figuring out who that ideal audience is in the first place!

Let’s get started. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing & Promotion Tagged With: book marketing, ideal audience, target market

Craft Your Self-Publishing Plan for Success: Tips From an Indie Author [A Case Study]

by Kimberley Grabas

Craft Your Self-Publishing Plan for Success Tips from an Indie Author | YourWriterPlatform.com

If you are like most aspiring authors, you may just want to write. However (like most authors), you’ll soon realize that when you decide to self-publish your work, you become the CEO of your own startup – the business of writing, producing, and publishing your own books. And to do so successfully, you need a plan. In this post, my friend and fellow author, Laini Giles, shares her self-publishing plan for success. 

It’s hard when you’re a writer and you have no idea what to do with your books, other than write them. The whole marketing business is a big mysterious deal. Why do some books seem to get a huge push and others just sit there?

After 176 rejections, I finally decided that I was going to self-publish my novel The Forgotten Flapper. But I had no idea what to do, so I created a plan.

So many self-published books I saw were badly done—badly written, typos, awful covers, and other amateurish characteristics that I didn’t want to emulate. If I was going to self-publish, I was going to kick ass at it. I was going to create my own new genre, and I was going to succeed at it.

My Goals:

  • I would self-publish at a high standard (professional editing and covers that are indistinguishable from professionally published books at big bookstores).
  • I would create a well-coordinated marketing plan.
  • I would establish a solid foundation for future books.
  • I would eventually earn a liveable income as a writer.

My Challenges:

  • That I was working in a relatively narrow genre.
  • That I was working with limited resources.
  • That I had one year to learn everything I needed to know.

I gave myself a year to learn everything I needed to know about self-publishing. But when it came to thinking about marketing, about 6 months out from the release day I’d picked, I knew I’d need to come up with a well-coordinated plan, and put it into play. Here’s what I did. Maybe it can help some of you! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog, Business of Writing Tagged With: author platform, book marketing, planning, self-publishing

Launch Higher: How to Get Book Reviews Before Your Launch Date

by Kimberley Grabas

Launch Higher_ How to Get Book Reviews Before Your Launch Date _ YourWriterPlatform.com

We all know that reviews sell stuff. After all, when’s the last time you took a chance on buying something online, sight unseen, without checking the reviews? You want to know what other people who’ve already bought it think so that you can be sure you’re making the right choice.

That’s called social proof—when seeing that other people like something encourages you to try it yourself. And social proof isn’t just useful when buying a phone or a new pair of shoes. It sells books, too!

But reviews can feel like a chicken-and-egg situation sometimes. You need reviews to sell books…but you need people to buy your book in order to read and review it!

What’s a new author to do?

Get reviews before the book even comes out, of course!

You can get reviews even before your book launches—and doing so can help you launch your book higher, faster, because that social proof helps to snowball your exposure and your sales.

Let’s take a look at a few ways to start getting reviews to flood in before your book launches! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing & Promotion Tagged With: author marketing, book marketing, book promotion, book reviews, free marketing for books, how to build book buzz, how to get book reviews, how to promote a book, how to sell more books

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