Have you ever wondered why some authors are more successful than others? Have you ever wanted to learn their secret sauce so you could apply it to your author brand and books?
It’s actually quite simple. They write good books and consistently market to their readers.
As an author, marketing is the last thing you want to do. But if you want to successfully connect with readers — you have to build your brand through consistent marketing.
Think about the products you buy, the books you read and the stores you frequent. Each product, book and/or store has invested time to market to you. They didn’t send out one tweet and call it a day. They didn’t post on Facebook occasionally. They made a plan and stuck with it.
They took time to reach their target audience by developing a consistent marketing strategy to connect with you. Their goal: turn you — and others like you — into a loyal fan.
Consider best-selling, Canadian author K.A. Tucker. She started self-publishing and building her fan base as a Y.A. author — all on her own. She actually published her first book at the age of six. (Okay, so she’s an overachiever; but that’s not the point.) K.A.’s proven success is what attracted a publisher to her work and she ended up accepting a contract for a four book series – The Ten Tiny Breath Series.
Every success story is different but they all have two things in common: they write good books and consistently market to readers.
“One of the challenges of being an indie author is that you have to constantly promote yourself because readers have so many choices,” said Russ Colchamiro, a successful sci-fi author. “Every day new books come into the market, and you have to stay in the market. There are only so many hours in the day. But you have to keep going, keep going, keep going, because you have to engage with fans.”
Following this (not-so-secret) formula, many authors have achieved success:
- H.M. Ward came on the scene in 2011 and has independently sold more than 4 million books since her debut.
- Barbara Freethy moved from traditional publishing to independent publishing when she turned her backlist into a self-publishing success story.
- James Redfield sold the first 100,000 copies of his book The Celestine Prophecy out of the truck of his car before accepting a book deal.
Each author’s story is different. Some authors work hard to build their brand and then decide to embrace the book deal when it comes. Other authors enjoy the autonomy and success they achieve on their own. But we all know that not ever book deal comes with full-time marketing support. So either way, if you’re going to make it as an author, you need to roll up your sleeves and learn how to market consistently.
Want to learn more? Register for our free Lunch & Learn Webinar — “Marketing: The Power of Consistency.”
Related Posts
