The experiences of our members are always a valuable resource here at GayAuthors.org, whether it is in reviewing, tips on writing or in this case, how to market your work. Thanks go out to Hosted Author Andrew_Q_Gordon (the artist formerly known as Quonus10) for this blog entry on what to do, and what NOT to do!

I imagine many of the writers on GA want to not only publish the work, but also sell their books as well. It's a realistic goal. Many have done it and more will.

When AnytaSunday and I sold (Un)Masked to Dreamspinner Press, she had already self-published a few titles. Some were free, others were $.99 or $1.99. I figured her name recognition would translate into buckets of sales for the professionally published book that was about to be released. Sometimes I can be so wrong.

I knew there was a need to 'get the word out' so I created a blog and a Facebook page and thought – well, now I'll just announce things and the sales will tumble in. It's stunning how wrong I can be at times. [A word of warning – if you use your author name as your profile, Facebook may delete it without any notice to you thereby wiping out everything there because it violates the terms and service agreement. In theory, only real people may have a FB Profile. Pen Names and the like are supposed to use their much less user friendly Author Page. It's happened before and will happen again, even if it's rare, so be aware of the issue.]

In the last year I've learned a few things that might be of use to others who are considering or want to be a published author. Marketing isn't so much about getting the word out about your new book as getting your name out there so when you do have a new book, people will be interested. The idea is you want fans/readers/followers who will read your announcements and be interested in your book. Sure you can buy banner ads, or put your book cover up on literary sites and hope it will catch someone's eye enough that they'll buy it, but real sales comes from somewhere else. [For today's discussion we can leave out what genre sells better than others and speak in more general terms.]

Perhaps the single best piece of advice I can give is, start early. Well before your book comes out, you should be marketing yourself as an author. You can and should be cultivate a fan base, create an interesting website/blog, engage readers on a daily basis, help promote other authors work so when your book comes out they'll return the favor and you can tap into their readers. All of these things and others take time to build up. If you do what I did and wait until your book is almost out, you'll be disappointed by the sales. Anecdotally, for (Un)Masked, there were four (4) presales before it was published. The Last Grand Master presold 8 copies. As of June 18^th, Purpose has presold 18. The difference is name recognition to some degree.

If you're still writing your book, now is the time to start your site, your blog, create a twitter account and join groups. Make nice with authors, re-tweet their posts, have them as a guest, review their books and post it on your site. All these things will help you build up good will that is generally returned when you're promoting your own work.

The second suggestion is find a way to get readers of your blog, FB, tweets, website, whatever, to sign up for email up dates. Wordpress has an easy tool on their site where you can put up a box where folks can add their email address and get email notifications. You should put this high on the page, on every page, so that anyone who visits your site/page will see it. Not everyone will join, but at least they don't have to hunt to find it if they want to. Here is an example from my site:

http://andrewqgordon.com/posts/

Once you've got your accounts and set up so people can sign up, you need to get eyeballs and you need people to keep coming back. While I'm certainly not authority on marketing – others have more experience and sell more books than I – I've noticed anecdotally that what works to get you followers and to a lesser degree what doesn't.

First the don’ts.

1) While this may seem counterintuitive, I'd say don't hype your book non-stop. If all you ever post, tweet, write about, is your book, people will tune you out. No one wants to sign up to get email alerts – or tweets for that matter – non-stop about your book. If you want examples of people who do this and want to see just how annoying it is, let me know and I'll send you some Twitter names to follow. It won't take long to see how off-putting it is.

2) This piece of advice came from seasoned author and the more I think about it the more I agree. Avoid negative posts – no "this review is stupid and so is the reviewer". No posts about your horrible medical condition, or financial problems. Don't talk about how you don't get how reviewers can be so mean, or if you can't say something nice, don't leave a comment. None of that.

The problem is people don't fan you to learn about your problems or to hear you talk trash about someone – or generic someones. They follow you and your characters. Readers escape into your stories. They don't want to know you have the same troubles and failings as they do. You and your characters are fictitious and they're fans of that fiction. Keep it that way. If you make friends with readers, sure share with them as you would any friend, but for the general public and on your blog – positive and up beat is the way to be.

The Do's

1) Give away free stuff. I don't just mean giving away a free copy of your book. That helps generate interest, but it doesn't keep people coming back. I mean consistent free fiction that they can come back to your site to read.

I was fortunate to be asked to join the Wednesday Briefs group. Cia, Nephylim and Renee Stevens all belong as well. The idea is that each Wednesday, you put out a short piece of fiction and fans who like it will sign up to get alerts. When your book comes out, they'll get that notice too and if they like you well enough, hopefully they'll buy your book. The benefit of a group is that we all help promote each other. Sure there is a lot of overlap as we probably share more readers than are unique. But even if only 20% of our followers are unique, if you have 20 people spreading the word, you can see that the reach grows exponentially.

Since I've joined the group and been posting regularly, the number of people who've signed up for email alerts from my blog has jumped considerably. That is the real goal. Anyone who is willing to type in their email address to get an alert from you is far more engaged than a follower on Twitter or a like on Facebook.

2) Be a good friend. Yes, it's a bit of work, but having others visit and making it friendly and inviting is a big deal. It's also an easy source of content and new eyeballs.

Having guest post – and doing it consistently and regularly is important. Each guest brings their readers/fans with them – not all but some. Many of those readers are new to you. Now they are not. You're also opening your readers to this new person. Again, some will know the author/guest, but some won't. It's a win/win for both.

One of the most clicked on posts I've had in the year my blog was up was recently when SJD Peterson visited. Her post is far and away the most viewed Author/guest post. She is also a full time author with a large following. She publicized the event and her followers came. Because I can see when people follow my site, I can tell I got quite a few new followers thanks to her visit.

Of course there are the usual marketing ideas – guest blogs, a blog hop, give aways, advertising, excerpts, etc. I don't mean to suggest these don't work or you should avoid them, not at all. They are all helpful and you should do these things. But in my mind the best way to sell a book is to make fans. People who know you and your work. Fans who will want to read your latest and greatest novel. It takes time, there is no magic shortcut, and it definitely will take time away from writing. But if you want to publish books, you need to do it.

This is why I say, to be successful, start early. Well before your book is going to come out – and a month or two is not early. Post often. People like free and if your good enough to get people to pay for your books, giving away free fiction is a valuable commodity. It's the same as getting a free book. Make friends with others by helping promote them and their work. A tweet here, a review, letting them come take over your blog for a day – all these help build up good will that 99.9% of authors will gladly repay in kind when you need it. And ban together with others to take advantage of scale. You need to get as many people as possible to see your work. The more who read it, the more who'll sign up for email alerts. That's the prize. Engaged fans who like you well enough that they'll let you email them alerts every day.
As I said, I'm no expert. I'm still feeling my way around, but if you have any questions, feel free to PM me on GA or email me directly – andrewqgordon@gmail.com.