Book Marketing for Indie Authors

After an author writes a book, the natural next step is to start to figure out a strategy to market the book, right? Wrong! I'm sorry dear Author, but you really should have been thinking about this before or while you were creating your masterpiece. Why do I say this? Marketing your book should begin months before your release date, especially if you are an Indie Author. No one cares as much as you do about your baby. It is important to identify your target market, how you will reach them, and how you will keep them engaged long before your book hits Amazon. Marketing nowadays is almost completely word of mouth, either via social media or face-to-face. You want to create a buzz about you, your topic, and the release of your book in advance of the release date so that you already have the snowball rolling down the hill.
A few practical steps would be to create a website, regularly start posting to a blog (and make sure to label your posts so that people can find your topic), start a Facebook Author page, start Tweeting about your topic so that you can engage interested readers, and start telling your friends and colleagues about your upcoming book. People generally want to see their acquaintances succeed - unless they are the jealous type, and you shouldn't associate with those people anyway. Make sure you are spreading the news within your local writing community about your upcoming book, and have a media specialist craft a killer press release for you.
If you do just a few of these things,

Author Jerry Mathes II blogs about his experience with social media strategy

This blog post was written by an Idaho author, Jerry D. Mathes II. Jerry just released his newest book, "Ahead of the Flaming Front" through Caxton Press. Please check it out on Amazon here. 

Getting Tweaked And Finding Your Category by Author Jerry Mathes II

Who me?

Not but three days ago I didn’t know how to check Amazon’s rating system and then Social Media Advisor Christy Hovey alerted me that my memoir, Ahead of the Flaming Front: A Life on Fire was listed at #97 in like books. I was excited as all get out to be in the top 100. Christy had been retained by my publisher Caxton Press as a social media consultant to help me tweak my web presence and advise me how to increase book sales and increase my self-esteem.

So she asked me a battery of questions, and I gave her a battery of answers and only managed to say one awkward thing when I said, “I’d love for you to tweak me…I mean… ah…my sites.. tweak my sites I mean!” My daughter Sophia close by face-palmed and let out a long sigh signifying the word Dad. So cut to a morning not a couple of days later (yeah, this morning) I was excited to find:

#10 in Books > Professional & Technical > Civil Service > Firefighting & Prevention
#27 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Specific Groups > Adventurers & Explorers
#28 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Conservation

#10! Wow. I was shocked And top 30 in two other categories that were close to my heart.