I get asked a lot of marketing and publishing questions. Most are easy to answer. But a teeny tiny nanosqueak percentage of them make my eye twitch. The ‘answer on a plate’ types who think there’s a magical panacea-button that will shower them in glittery dollar bills from their millionth book sale.
Anyway. I’m leashing my rant because contrary to excessive sarcasm and perpetual moaning, there is nothing I love more than helping people, especially if that help leads to selling or publishing books. And you know what helps you sell books?
Forehead creasing, caffeine addictions, midnight dates, multiple RSI cures and a laptop for a BFF.
Okay, fine. There are a few other things that rise out of the sweaty exhausted writer ashes to help bring in the dollars:
- Understanding the market
- Studying marketing
- Studying copywriting
- Experimenting
- Being up to date with current trends
So here’s 6 tips to help you study the industry, learn the latest trends and strategies and pick up on the hottest new marketing tools.
ONE – POD-TASTIC
I listen to a bunch of podcasts. Anytime I’m in the car, at work, out walking, even cooking in the kitchen. Why? Because they’re current. They are recorded more or less the same week they air and the hosts tend to interview industry leading professionals. AND because they’re recorded and released so fast, the hosts report the latest news – from algorithm changes on social media and Amazon, to the most recent big chain bookstore closure, to the newest piece of software for authors. I can honestly say I’ve picked up an obscene number of tips and tricks from them.
Podcast Faves
Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing
TWO – AUTHOR EARNINGS REPORT
The author earnings report used to be a quarterly report from the infamous Data Guy. They paused those reports in the spring of last year after supercharging their analytics. Which now run in real time 24/7. They capture data on over a million top-selling titles a day, every day. If you sold a book (even just one) since April last year, they know about it.
Their data is now so accurate and so current that they’ve become industry leaders able to accurately (with hard data) describe the state of the industry, and it’s not as bad as you think.
I don’t know how frequently they will post reports now they are up and running again, but unless Data Guy wants to break my heart, I’m hoping it will be quarterly, in much the same way it used to be. Sign up for their updates. Or don’t. But that would be stupid. So sign up. And you can check out their latest report using their new hardcore data machine, here. I’ll be posting my thoughts on the report shortly.
THREE – SWIPE FILES
When it comes to marketing, one of the most important things you can do, is learn how to write awesome emails. If you don’t have a subscriber list, slap yourself with your keyboard and sort your life out. I’ve written some how-to posts on mailing lists here:
4 Mistakes To Avoid When Using MailChimp
7 Tips To Create Your Perfect Author Newsletter
But I also have a swipe file folder in my iCloud – every time I see someone selling something, whether it be a marketing tool, books, or otherwise, I sign up to their newsletters and drop their emails into my swipe file. Then when I have time, or I’m about to set up a series of my own marketing content, I analyze the copywriting in the swipe files:
- What subject lines do they use?
- What are the sentences that draw me in?
- How do they use grammar to keep the flow going?
- What’s the tone?
And on and on. I use the findings I gather from analyzing their words to help me write better copy for my own work.
Also – check out CopyHackers – I’ve learned a bunch from them.
FOUR – COPYWRITING BLURBS AND SYNOPSES
What’s copywriting?
Wiki says:
“Copywriting is the act of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. The product, called copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or group to take a particular action.”
In other words, it’s the blurbs, the taglines, click-bait headlines, and the catchphrases of the world.
Briefly, there are a million resources you can find online on headline writing – I’ve even written a post here, on writing clickable headlines.
Three things sell your books. Okay, fine, stop whining, there are lots of variables that help. But broadly, there are three key things that make a reader click that sexy buy button:
- Cover
- Blurb
- Reviews
And typically in that order too. Having a catchy blurb is as important as my morning coffee, which if you know me, is essentially an injection of oxygen. But blurb writing is the bitch of publishing. I don’t know many authors that enjoy penning them, mostly because we hav to sell our modest selves, and after writing 80,000 words of story, condensing it into a paragraph is like sticking needles in your eyes. No one wants that.
To make your blurbs awesome, you need to learn how to awesomize them *that’s 100% a word*
The obvious answer is to read a ton of blurbs, analyze them and file them away as lessons. I wrote a post about blurbs here, but there’s also a couple of books I recommend:
FIVE – WEBSITES AND BLOGS
There’s endless advice online. Not all of it is good. But there are a few websites that are both a goldmine of information as well as being on point for tactics, marketing, and industry information. Here’s just a handful of recommendations:
FIVE – BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
Marketing books tend to be split between tangible tactics and marketing strategy. You need a strategy in place for your marketing to keep you driving towards one resounding goal, whether that’s selling a million books, winning an award, or being a super fly niche queen and in your genre.
Marketing tactics are the things you do to achieve those goals. Here’s a selection of books I highly recommend:
How To Market A Book by Joanna Penn
Nobody Wants To Read Your Shit by Steven Pressfield
Let’s Get Digital by David Gaughran
Mastering Amazon Ads by Brian D. Meeks
SIX – PUBLISHER AND INDUSTRY SITES
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There are a ton of other things you can do – like joining Facebook groups, going to conferences, I went to the 20BooksTo50k conference in Runnymede this past weekend and I’m also going to the London Book Fair in April.
How do you guys learn to market better? Let me know in the comments.
If you liked this post, why not get even more awesome writing tips in the book 13 Steps To Evil – How to Craft Superbad Villains. Click this link and just tap the logo of your device or regular bookshop and it will take you to the right page. You can also get a FREE villains cheatsheet by joining my mailing list just click here.
Read Keepers, the first book in my Young Adult fantasy series now. Or to hear more about the release of the sequels as well as get regular CogMail updates you can do so here.
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Thanks for the tips dude!
You’re so welcome 🙂 I’m a total geek about marketing these days 😂 love learning about it 🙂
I know where to come when it’s my time!!!
I’ll always be here to support you 😍 it’s the least I can do xx
😍😍😍
My poor book has been abandoned on the marketing side of things while I focused on completing book 2 and drafting book 3. Your post has made me want to drop everything and start reaching readers again.
I think there is a VERY fine balance that needs striking. Most authors find better success at marketing when they have 3 or more books in a series. So in that respect you’re absolutely doing the right thing. But the balance is that you need an audience to market your books to – which really, one needs to grow while they write – but there’s only limited time in the day, and ultimately if you don’t have books there’s nothing to market anyway. So keep going 💖💖
I will, thank you.
Excellent! Thank you Sacha 🙂
You’re welcome, thank you for visiting Marje 😀
My pleasure. I’ve been meaning to ask you if you could feature me before my paperback release. I’m doing a blog tour middle of April would you be able to help me out with a post just before the launch?
Sure thing. I have a guest post policy here: https://sachablack.co.uk/about/guest-post-policy/ but just shout any ideas you have and I am sure we can figure something out for you <3 it would be an honour to host you.
Ah, that is so kind will be in touch. 🙂
Ah, that is so kind will be in touch Sacha. 🙂
Thanks, Sacha! This is a gem of a share. Bookmarked to revisit often! Have an awesome day. 🙂
Ahh you’re so welcome, thank you for visiting and I’m glad you found it useful.
I learn by watching you, Sacha! Ha ha. And a few other bloggers who just seem to do it well. Thanks for all the resources. Now I have to make time to read them and implement the ideas. That’s always the hardest part!
awww thank you – I don’t feel like I do it well!
You my dear, are a wealth of information. You are rocking authordom on so many levels! Thank you for these great tidbits. <3
aww thank you Debby. I really do appreciate it. I’m trying so hard to balance things. And I’m not always getting it right. I’ve had to pull back significantly from the blog world to get books done. But it’s working because I just last week handed in an application (which was agreed) to reduce my hours at work because I’m making enough to drop a couple days a month now – can’t tell you how much it means to me to be able to write in daylight!! Hope you’re well. I met Debby Lush this past weekend. <3
Yes, I read that on one of your FB posts. Yay for you!!!! In time you’ll be able to get rid of that day job altogether! 🙂 And so happy you got to me Deb. We had plans to meet up at the Bash last year. She is one of my oldest bloggest friends. She’s amazing! <3
No way. Well I hope that one day you can meet each other <3 <3 she was absolutely wonderful by the way.
Of course. I know how to pick my friends. LOL <3
Sacha, just reading this post saying you have achieved the point where you can now drop some hours due to making enough money on your books, just highlights again for me how anyone can achieve the same by putting in the work like yourself.
We’ve all different goals in life, but what you’ve shown to me from being a beginner -which if you recall I said that when we first connected I thought you were already an established author and hadn’t realised you were just ‘starting’ out being on the same course as me – and yet as I have followed your journey from publishing your first book to now being able to cut your work hours down through your books doing well, it has shown me that anything is possible for us ‘beginners’ it’s not impossible as long as you put the work in as the dedication is already there.
As I’ve said before also, there’s no doubt in my mind if you continue along the same journey, you will be in the same leagues as other famous authors.
Keep up the good -and hard work! – Sacha
Sharon X
Thanks Sharon, that’s a lovely thing to say, I really appreciate it 😀
You’re a star, Sacha, how did you know I’ve been wanting to follow some podcasts? <3 Are these on youtube? I'll have to check them out when I'm not at work.
This post is a goldmine, thank you so much for putting this together!
Hey Sarina, you’re totally welcome.
Some of them are on YouTube – the science fiction and fantasy one, Joanna Penn and Mark Dawsons – I’m not sure on the others but I suspect their websites would say 😀
this is so amazing, so generous of you i’m well, dribbly and excited and scared all at the same time. I can’t take it in, but I will and this is getting saved to absorb over time. Honestly, you are a star. Thank heavens you have all that free time, being single, childless, living on a trust fund and a recluse…
Just snorted coffee over my keyboard! you’re so hilarious our Geoffle. I’m going to try my best to share more and more of the marketing bits I do over the next few months. 😀