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,
you will be way ahead of the curve, and your sales numbers will show it. You've poured out your heart and soul into crafting your book. Give it justice by creating a marketing strategy that will help you get your book into the hands of eager readers. There is nothing more satisfying than reading an Amazon review that says something like, "I happened upon this book on Pinterest and I am so glad that I did. I love this author. He will be one of my new favorites!"
Pie in the sky dreams? I think not. I just copied that review from one of my client's newly released books on Amazon. You can make it happen for you too if you decide now that you will invest the time that is necessary to receive the results that you want.