David Viergutz The independent publishing market is known for its ability to adapt to the market quickly, implementing the advice of various author circles to feed an audience of readers. Regardless of publishing strategy or medium, or how you prefer to market, publishing tactics and strategies are endlessly available. But what if the market is […]
Grace Snoke Writing your book was the hard part—or at least that’s what you might’ve thought. But now comes an even harder part: promoting it. Marketing can pose a challenge for any author, but nonfiction authors sometimes have a harder time reaching and connecting with their target audience than even fiction authors do. Some of […]
Marketing Lessons Children’s Book Authors Can Learn from the 2024 Olympic Games Laurel Decher France is making its final preparations for the Olympic Games next month. Stadiums have been erected around famous sites in Paris, including the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles, so that historic shots of winning athletes will have cultural icons […]
Upgrade Your Marketing with AI Initiatives Jenn Lessmann Last year, Indie Author Magazine focused an entire issue on AI, the ways authors could make use of new machine learning platforms, and some of the ethical concerns involved with the impact of artificial intelligence on the publishing industry. Since then, the opportunities and challenges have continued […]
Steve Higgs Free: what a wonderful word. Most of the time, when I sell a book, it costs me something. I advertise on Facebook, Amazon, and BookBub and pay to promote my books on subscription services such as Written Word Media and The Fussy Librarian. That costs me money, but that’s okay because I have […]
Marissa DeCuir When you write and publish a book, naturally, you want people to read it. The best way to get your book in front of readers is to promote it. “Publicity” is the umbrella term for the steps an author takes to promote their book. Publicity and marketing may include organizing author talks and […]
A Guide to Cover Revitalization Eryka Parker The terms of independent publishing are ever-evolving as authors constantly seek ways to expand their readership. To secure shelf space among competitive titles in the marketplace, authors can benefit from exploring ways to rejuvenate their backlist catalog in order to boost sales. Although we’re cautioned against judging a […]
Gill Fernley Launch parties aren’t just a fun way to celebrate your new book release; these events can also be a great way to gain new readers, grow your business, and boost your earnings. And they don’t always need a venue or complex setup. Authors can host virtual launch parties via a series of scheduled […]
Guest Author Russell Nohelty Examines the Transmedia Trend in the Indie Author World There’s genre hopping, and then there’s medium hopping. Depending on how you look at his career, Russell Nohelty has done both. As a USA Today bestselling author and the co-founder of Writer MBA and the Author Ecosystem archetypes, Nohelty has put his […]
How Authors Can Use Ream to Build a Subscription Business As indie authors increasingly move toward wide distribution and direct sales, subscription services may offer a way to expand marketing opportunities beyond ads and newsletters, as well as build a predictable source of revenue. Anne Janzer, author of Subscription Marketing: Strategies for Nurturing Customers in […]
From Bookshelf to Bookstore: Exploring Lulu.com’s Four Major Marketing Avenues In the intricate tapestry of self-publishing, indie authors are constantly searching for ways to better control their income and their relationship with their readers. Lulu.com stands out not merely as another publishing platform but as a comprehensive solution to the dilemma. The platform supports a […]
Since Amazon launched the earliest version of Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) in 2007, the business giant—which controls an estimated 50 percent or more of the online retail market in the US already—has maintained an unwavering influence over the self-publishing industry. Sixteen years later, Amazon boasts 85 percent of the book market share, with Apple Books […]
When Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson smashed Kickstarter records in March 2022—earning more than $41 million over the course of his campaign, almost half of that in the first seventy-two hours—he sparked a shift in the indie author world. Sanderson was not the first to discover the potential for crowdfunding as part of an author’s launch […]
Can Authors Leverage Generative AI for Their Social Media Strategy? Social media, in all its guises, is a fabulous way for authors to showcase their wares. We can promote our work and potentially attract a dedicated audience who will derive ongoing value from our writing and hopefully provide an income through future sales. However, for […]
How Well-Researched Keywords Influence Book Metadata Cracking the code of effective keyword use in book listings, book descriptions, and marketing can be intimidating. You need to be able to identify not only the language you believe describes your book but the language others may use to connect with it as well. Yet fine-tuning that language […]
Promoting your books can take any number of forms as you explore all the options available to readers. But if you’re looking for a way to attract a local audience to your story or meet readers at an in-person event, one option is to do an author reading. You get to read an excerpt of […]
Promo Newsletter Options for Every Indie Author David Viergutz Authors have long sought ways to send their work to the masses. Pay-per-click ads, social media, direct sales events—there are a multitude of options, all with unique purposes. The longstanding king of reaching readers has been through email, where one email blast can send your book […]
For the first couple of years after I became an indie author, I struggled to get sales. But when I changed my strategy to use paid promotional newsletters, my sales grew significantly. It took a big mindset change for me to offer my first-in-series for free, but it completely changed the trajectory of my author […]
More than nineteen years since it launched, Facebook is still the largest social media platform, with three billion users in January 2023, according to DataReportal (https://datareportal.com/essential-facebook-stats). But organic reach on Facebook Pages is declining as paid traffic takes over user’s feeds. According to Hootsuite, the average organic Facebook Page post now sees engagement from 0.07 […]
How to Structure Your Emails and Use Your Storytelling Powers to Sell More Books Our brains are wired for stories. And as an author, you are a natural storyteller, with the ability to craft compelling narratives and engage readers in a way that few others can. So why not use those same storytelling skills to […]
A quick glance in my crystal ball tells me you’re reading this in February, but—because of the crazy scheduling required to produce a magazine like Indie Author Magazine—I’m actually writing these words in November, having just returned from 20Books Vegas. While I was there, I spent some time chatting with Chelle Honiker, IAM’s illustrious publisher, […]
No doubt you will see plenty of them with Black Friday and the holiday shopping season underway. In recent years, businesses have begun offering deals and offers through promotional emails to connect with customers and get them spending more. And if you have ever signed up for a retailer’s emails in order to get a […]
What Authors Say Online Matters to Their Readers, So How Much Should You Be Sharing on Social Media? Being a writer never stops. If you’re not writing, you’re often thinking about it. If you’re not doing either, you’re likely to be looking at cover designs, formatting, talking to other authors—the list goes on. And that’s […]
Nicole Schroeder Nestled in her New England home, independent bookseller Kaitee Yaeko Tredway spends time each week arranging stacks of books and displaying them against a variety of backgrounds. She snaps several photos and writes out creative captions to pair with each, then decides when they’ll publish. Sometimes she makes an appearance in front of […]
Gill Fernley It’s back to school time for the kids, but they aren’t the only ones who’ll be in class. This month, we’re reviewing a few marketing basics and giving you some homework of your own. Lesson One: Make it the best book possible Hopefully, your book is written, edited, and polished to a high […]
Alice Briggs Since early 2021, indie authors have had the ability to create Amazon A+ Content to help promote their books. This bonus content on a book’s product page had already been available for traditional publishing houses for some time and had proven its merit—in 2015, during a ninety-day study of 134,000 products, Amazon found […]
Increasing your publishing profits through your backlist If you have published multiple books, then you may be working with two “lists.” Your frontlist is made up of newly published, fresh, exciting titles. Your backlist is books that have been out for a while that might be neglected by you and by readers. But gold is […]
Have you ever woken up at 3:00 a.m., sat upright in bed, and cried out, “Dagnabbit! I wish I could just sign up for more newsletters!” Or maybe the cause of your sleeplessness is more along the lines of refreshing your empty email inbox and wondering when authors were going to send you more content. […]
If you already swap chapters with author friends, you know what it’s like to have critique partners. But have you considered beta readers to deepen your storytelling or ARC [advanced reader copy] readers to create pre-release buzz about your amazing new book? First, let’s make sure we keep our expert readers straight. The difference between […]
Every author throughout history could likely recall a time they stared hopelessly at a blinking cursor or a pen hovering just above the page. And just as you know the importance of choosing the right words, you probably also know the struggle of finding them. Yet many times, only you, the author, seem to be […]
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