Book discovery for indie authors: a tutorial
It matters not at all how good your indie novel is if no one knows about it. Discovery is the hardest task of all, but there are ways ...
I mentioned in my post earlier this week that discovery is the hardest hill any indie author has to climb. If you sell on Amazon, as I do, other indies are no longer the only competition. The big publishers are using it as well and they have serious publicity budgets.
I long ago quit worrying about how many books Amazon offers, preferring to focus on my four and the two or three new ones that are in the pipeline behind them. But I have to think about the competition, and one of the podcasts/bloggers I've been following for several years is Novel Marketing, by Thomas Umstattd Jr.
When I lived in Florida and started almost every day with a walk along a creek, I made a point of listening to it every week, but since I moved to Washington, DC, and exercise in my apartment building's fitness center listening to French pop music and Economist podcasts, I find myself reading transcripts more often.
Today is no exception. This morning, as I paged through Feedly, I found Umstattd's most recent: “Networking for Authors: How To Build Relationships Without Being Awkward.” It's an interview with Steve Garraty, who lives in Tampa, just up I-75 from my old territory. I didn't know of him before the Umstattd interview, but he's about to publish a book about his path to success in spite of a cancer diagnosis and has deep experience in sales and motivation. I've never been a networker, so it was worth reading.
So — if you're struggling with book marketing, listen to Umstattd. His world is a little heavy on religion for my taste, but he doesn't push it. He's a really worthwhile source of marketing help.
Part-Time Parisian is not intended to be a post about my writing or anyone else's, although of course I hope to find some subscribers and readers. I'd rather have written about what might happen in Europe if we abandon Ukraine (Poland, anybody?) or why the German economy has lost its sizzle (answer: populist pressure aggravated by immigration, mainly of dark-skinned refugees).
Links:
Umstattd interview with Steve Garraty (See the links to related episodes at the bottom.)
AuthorMedia, Umstattd's home page
His book, release date March 11
The Eddie Grant Series, my novels of Paris and World War II, is HERE
Finding Pegasus is still on the Kindle Countdown Deal I told you about Monday. You can see it HERE. Your clicks and purchases bumped its sales ranking almost 100,000 places. It was a good way to restart my marketing after a sort-of sabbatical. Thank you.
John Pearce