My Marketing Advice for Beginning Authors, syndicated from @KaylaCurry1
The following is syndicated from kaylacurry.com and is posted here with permission.
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| Cover links to Amazon.com |
Define your brand NOW. To do this, simply come up with a mission statement. What do you want your readers to think of when they think of you and your work? What do you want them to learn from you or have in common with you?
Now take your mission statement and make a one sentence tagline to define you and your work. Mine is: The magic of imagination is more powerful than any magic in a story.
Once you’ve done that, define 4 to 8 keywords you want your audience to think of when they think of you. Now use your mission statement, your tagline and your keywords in EVERYTHING you do. Website design, blog design, cover design, social media interaction, advertising, newsletters, and anything else. Before you post an image or put up a new blog post, ask yourself if it relates to your mission statement, tagline or keywords in some way. For example, if you choose “Passionate” as one of your keywords. You can post images that invoke that emotion or somehow show people how passionate you or your work are.
As for basic advice here is a list of stuff to make sure you are doing:
- Use the same username across all social media platforms. Also use the same profile picture. This helps people recognize you easier.
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| Cover links to Amazon.com |
- Start a blog and update your blog once a week. You can post about other authors, yourself or anything you think your readers maybe be interested in.
- Start an author facebook page and start gaining “Likes.” The best way to do this is to post funny, visually stunning, and interesting stuff. Make sure that everything you post solidifies your brand and/or tells people a little about who you are.
- For example, if you like watching Star Wars, post funny Star Wars stuff. Then, when your book comes out you can mix in posts about your work. Keep posting the other stuff, but now that you have formed a connection with your audience through your likes and dislikes, they are much more likely to support you and your work.
- Join triberr.com and become a member of someone’s tribe, or a few tribes. This helps expand the reach of your blog posts. It’s like a post exchange. You can share their stuff and they can share yours.
- If your blog is separate from your website, make sure they look similar by using the same images and colors and don’t forget to link them somehow so that people can easily find one from the other.
- Join in blog hops and exchange guest posts with other authors. This helps reach new audiences, and some of them are great for writing exercises.
Well, that is my advice. Take it or leave it. I’m not exactly an expert, but I’ve been at this for over a year now and I’m just now starting to realize what it takes to reach people. Always be on the lookout for new advice and trends and keep going. It’s a tough world out there, but if you persevere, you’ll make it some day.
