Category Archives: Marketing

Does an Author Really Need a Blog?

Marketing, ,

Does an Author Need a Blog Image

In the last post, I started a series asking what “things” an author really needs, such as a website, mailing list, Tumblr, Facebook, and so on. In this post, we’ll tackle the question of whether an author should have a blog.

You’ve probably read plenty of posts on this subject. It’s a pretty hot topic with authors. Some will say that authors always need a blog, and that it’s the most effective way to sell more books. Others will tell you that a blog isn’t at all necessary—and that it’s even detrimental to getting your books finished! With so many opinions, it can be a confusing question to ponder.

Little wonder, since the best answer I can give you is it depends. A blog can be a great thing, or it might not be so wonderful for you. Let’s look at some questions to help you decide if a blog is right for your author platform. Continue reading Does an Author Really Need a Blog? →

Does an Author Really Need a Website?

Marketing

Author Website image

Perhaps you’ve heard that you need a website to succeed as a self-published author. Or maybe you’ve wondered if it’s completely unnecessary—just have your book available on Amazon and you’ll be fine. Or you’ve possibly thought that you could just use a Facebook page as your website, not bothering to run a full-blown author site.

What’s an author to do? Let’s look at the question together. Continue reading Does an Author Really Need a Website? →

The Best of Fix My Story

Marketing,

Hey folks! I’m doing something a little bit different for this post. The past couple of weeks have been crazy for me and I haven’t been able to sit down and write an amazing post for you. I have some really great things in the works and I’m excited to share them with you, but I need to take the time to do proper research and get those posts as useful as I know they can be.

So! For this post, I’m going to do a round-up of the four best posts of Fix My Story. These are posts that you may have missed, posts that are especially popular (according to the blog stats), or posts that I think deserve another read for indie authors.

First, though, I wanted to let you know that I’ve updated the recent post How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book: Case Study to include a free downloadable template for doing your own pricing research. Special thanks to Eliza for commenting on the post and suggesting it!

And now, without further ado, here are the best four posts of Fix My Story! Continue reading The Best of Fix My Story →

Two Ideas for Authors on Facebook

Marketing, , , ,

Two Ideas for Facebook

For authors trying to use Facebook in their marketing efforts, it can seem overwhelming. That’s why I often advocate a step-by-step method: Learn just one Facebook “best practice” or attempt just one experiment at a time. With this approach, you’ll be able to master each technique and build your Facebook marketing prowess slowly over time, the same way you learned how to do almost anything. And so, for this article, I’m going to give you two ideas for using Facebook effectively as an author. One is just a theory for you to play with, while the other is a proven way to make your page more professional. Let’s jump right in. Continue reading Two Ideas for Authors on Facebook →

How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book: Case Study

Marketing, , ,

Choose the Right Price Case Study

A couple of weeks ago I finished up a series on choosing the right price for your book, looking at a number of different factors that you can use when setting your price. Today, I’d like to turn all of that theory into a more real-world example with a case study.

We’re going to be looking at a hypothetical science fiction novel. This novel can also be classified into the time travel sub-genre, and it’s about 350 pages long. We’ll also say that it’s been on Amazon for a little while now and has five reviews.

What I’m going to look at in this article is the techniques from the third part in the series on choosing your book’s price. Those are the process of gathering data about similar books and doing research on what is considered a fair price by your audience. Continue reading How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book: Case Study →

Four Don’ts (Plus One Do) for Authors on Facebook

Marketing, ,

Four Don'ts Cover Image

You’ve decided that to succeed as a self-published author, you’re going to need a Facebook page. Good for you! But now you might be a little bit confused about how it works and what you should do. Don’t worry! Here are four don’ts and one do that will help you use Facebook as an author.

Don’t Use Your Personal Profile

I really can’t believe how many authors I’ve seen using a personal Facebook profile as an author page. They change their name to include the word author and off they go. Unfortunately, there are a few things wrong with this approach. Continue reading Four Don’ts (Plus One Do) for Authors on Facebook →

How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 3

Marketing, , , , ,

How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 3

It’s time for more ideas for pricing your self-published book! In this third part in the series, I want to show you how to look at your market to find data that will help you choose a good price. This process can be a little bit time-consuming, but it’s very much worth the effort.

Look at Similar Books

When you’re bringing your book to market, it’s important to consider the expectations of the market based on existing books for sale. It’s highly unlikely that your book is something in a completely new category, which is to your advantage. Let’s look at how you can gather data from books similar to yours to help you decide how to price your own book. Continue reading How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 3 →

How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 2

Marketing, , , ,

How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 2

Welcome to the second part in this series on choosing the right price for your book. This time, we’re going to look at the concept of markup, specifically when it comes to pricing a paperback and leaving room in your price for sales. But first, let’s take a quick look at the concept of “pretty” pricing.

“Pretty” Pricing

“Pretty” pricing is the idea that certain prices look better to customers than others. You can obviously choose any price you want, but research has indicated that ending a price in .95 or .99 may psychologically influence customers to feel like they are getting a better deal. For that reason I will be rounding all prices in this post to the nearest .95. (Why not .99? Well, because this is “pretty” pricing and I think .95 is prettier.)

And with that out of the way, let’s look at how to choose a price for a paperback.

Continue reading How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 2 →

How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 1

Marketing, , , , ,

How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book part 1

Today I’m starting a new series on one of the biggest challenges we indie authors face. That challenge is pretty much the entire process of setting a price for a book. I know plenty of authors, including myself, who have spent days or weeks agonizing over which price to choose. And then once the price has been set, these same authors still wonder if they made the right decision.

Well, I believe that while choosing the right price is a difficult part of self-publishing, it’s not something we have to do blindly. And so over the course of the next several posts, I’m going to explore a number of strategies for pricing your book, plus I’ll give you some ideas that will help you choose a good price for your book without quite so much second-guessing.

Before we dive into all the nitty-gritty of pricing, I think I need to spend some time talking about typical author attitudes and self-worth.

The Two Typical Attitudes of Self-published Authors

When I talk to authors about their book’s pricing, I typically see a couple of attitudes. Let’s look at each one. Continue reading How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 1 →

Smaller Ponds: How to Use Categories to Sell More Books

Marketing, , , , ,

Smaller Ponds

It’s a problem most of us face as indie authors: We feel like we ought to be selling more books, but we’re not sure how. When the KDP Select Free the Countdown deal days are up for your book, how do you continue to get exposure while you wait for more? Or, how do you maximize the effectiveness of the jump up Amazon’s charts that comes from your KDP promotion?

Perhaps the answer to both of these questions lies in your book’s categories. You probably remember when you first added your book to KDP and went through the process of deciding which categories were the best fit for your book. But did you think about the marketing benefits?

Yes, I said marketing benefits of your KDP categories. See, some categories contain more books than others, and that’s where the strategy comes in. Continue reading Smaller Ponds: How to Use Categories to Sell More Books →