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OK, so Roy (our friendly neighborhood publisher here at Books of the Dead) has told me to make this blog, the marketing blog, mine.  To do with it, as it were, what I will.  I’ve put some placeholder stuff up on the blog to this point.  Mostly interviews with BOTD authors that, while interesting and fun, haven’t really captured what I want to do with this site; namely, draw people to the site and sell 'em some books.

I got to thinking the other day about what I’ve done to help move my own BOTD book, the extremely well-reviewed (ahem) Little Deaths.  (2.99 for Kindle/ $11.99 for paperback at Amazon.  Also on Nook and at Smashwords.  Buy it.)  And it got me thinking what other authors are doing for their book.  Or not doing, as the case may be.  Because if you think that most publishers are swinging for the bleachers to move your specific title, even the big publishers, you are on illegal narcotics.

So, I thought I’d jot down a few things that I’ve learned about authors moving their own books.  Maybe some of this will help.  In Part Deux of this article, we’ll take a look at what readers can do in this new egalitarian book publishing world to help move their favorite books and need to come down from your ill-advised high.

But, since we’re here already and I am one, let’s start with them that brought us to this dance…the authors.  And for the sake of this publishing company, lets restrict our discussion to horror authors specifically.

Marketing 101

So, you finally moved from “I want to write a book” to “I’ve written a book.”  Great!  Congratulations!  You’ve officially moved farther along the writer path than 99% of everyone who says “I want to write a book.”  Now what?

Well, let’s jump ahead now and say that you’ve taken whatever difficult, agonizing, ego-crushing efforts necessary to find a publisher willing to publish your masterpiece.  Again, congrats!  You’ve moved farther ahead than 99.5 of everyone who says “I want to write a book.”

Now, I bet you’re planning on sitting back and waiting for the royalties to come rolling in while the gears of the publishing world grind your book out into the marketplace.

Hah…hehehe…oh my, let me catch my breath, and wipe the tears from the corners of my eyes. At this point, you may as well believe in the tooth fairy, William Shatner's hairline or the efficacy of trickle-down economics.

Let’s leave the world of fantasy for a bit and talk about reality.  Stone cold reality.  And the reality is that you are as much—or even more—responsible for the success or failure of your book than your publisher.  And that's not counting writing the very best book you can.

You’re now obliged to market it.

In effect, you’ve got to come out of the cloistered, solitary little world you inhabited as an author, pull on your big boy or big girl pants, and go out into the great, big, indifferent, uncaring world of the buying public and sell yourself.  Hard.  So, whaddaya need?

  

Author Site

First things first, in this brave new electronic world, do you have a website…a blog…a Facebook page?  You’ve got to have some kind of base from which to work your marketing magic, and in this age, it’s got to be on the interwebs.  Any of these three choices are fine, as long as you’re easy to find.  If your name is John Q. Frenulum and you’re a horror writer, your web address had better be www.johnqfrenulum.com or www.johnqfrenulumwriter.com or www.jqfrenulum.com.  Not www.vervetlover.com or www.airyfarts.com.  Similarly, if your e-mail address isn’t your name, but rather drwhofantatic@aol.com, change it to your name.  (And really who uses AOL anymore anyway?)

The point is you need a base and it needs to be easy to find.  Besides if your just getting started, you want your name out there everywhere, on everything you do.  It might sound silly, but everything you do should be working to generate name recognition, which is the key to the selling game.  Why would you want to generate awareness of your love for vervets instead of your name? (And besides, vervets carry diseases, man.)

Right!  Once that’s established, now what to put onto your author site?  Well, start with the basics.  A bio would be nice, an authorial picture or two might be good.  Just restrain yourself with pictures, though.  People coming to your site don’t want to see the drunken shots of your 32^nd birthday party at Hooters or your kid’s first doo-doo picture.  Keep it sweet and simple and to the point.

Next, how about some credits?  Some list of the stuff you’ve had published, where, when and how an interested reader might find them. Links, as always, would be helpful.  If you don't have these yet, don't sweat it.  Maybe a list of the stuff you have written and are circulating...you are circulating your stuff, right?

Links to other authors, writer’s sites that you like or other genre sites you enjoy would be good.  This is called a blog roll, and is way to point people who come to you site to other like-minded sites; it’s also a way to promote other sites that could be swayed to promote you similarly.

So, bio, pics, credits, blog roll…umm…oh yeah, content!  It’s not enough just to put up a static page with this stuff on it.  It’s not enough just to have a site up that doesn’t change.  People will come one, take a poke around, then perhaps come again a week later or so.  If nothing has changed, however, they probably won’t be back again.  Why bother?  

Add some content to your site; which means, of course, that you’ll have to actually write shit…often.  Regularly.  Right about what you’re up to, stuff you’ve read, other authors you like and why, or well, just about anything. 

Make it interesting, make it different every couple of days at least, and people will come to the site often. 

Then, of course, you can sell them.  If you’ve got pieces that are for sale at Amazon, be sure to include links to them.  If you’ve got a few things up at Amazon, create an Author Page.  It’s simple and provides an easy place for readers to go to find all your stuff.

OK, first step:  base of operations.  Check.  And now...

Next Up:  Social Media.  Yeah, I said it.

In the meantime, click the Bookstore link upper right, and get some great books!