Marketing is the lifeline to selling books. But how much is too much?

[Original post was written two years ago. A lot have changed since, but the basic is still useful. ]

Whether you’re traditionally published, self published, or somewhere in between, authors these days are primarily responsible for marketing their own books. So, we have to think in a savvy business sense about it. Look at it from all angles. I stumbled upon this blog’s post listed below my owns. There were several interesting sites listed. Some free and some paid. Perhaps the most expensive are Netgallery and BookBub. I’ve heard they are both difficult to get accepted.

I have read several posts where marketing can easily run as much $1,000-2,000 or more. I suggest looking at many things before hiring a marketing firm.

1. We all know it’s all about getting as many eyes on your book as possible, but keep in mind that neither paid promotions nor free marketing guarantee a set number of load downs or reviews. It’s all a-wait and-see chance we take. Marketing always is. So be sure you can afford to lose that amount before slapping down a huge payment.
2.  Remember it’s very easy to spend lot a hefty fee and not get much out of it or sometime, nothing at all out of it. We all see it all the time. The author spends a zillion and as soon as the promotion is over the ranking drops.
   
3.  Remember the same marking method doesn’t work for every book nor every genre. It’s going to perhaps several tries to truly learn which one works best for your genre.
   
4.  Marketing is like anything else, if you do exactly what everybody else is doing, then you most likely won’t rise about the crowd. Strike out on your own and do something different. I’m not saying don’t pay these services. That’s a decision each author or their publisher must make for themselves, but every service doesn’t work well for every book. Check out ones who do well with your genre. An effective way is to learn who has used it and has written a book in your genre. If you find someone who used them in your genre and they have no reviews, then more likely it is not the one for your book. The posts are easily to find. Just type in ‘book marketing’ and you come up with thousands of posts from other authors and the assorted services they have used.
5. I suggest testing the waters before spending a house mortgage payment on marketing. There are many free ones and cost efficient ones costing a lot less than a grand. I suggest try these first and getting your name out there before begging someone to let you spend a hefty fee.

(This is a reblog post below. Not one of my own. The words above are my own.) There are lots of recommended sites on this post. I can’t say I have used any of them so, I can’t say whether they are effective or not.

How I sold 1,000 books over the holidays #marketing #bestseller

How I sold 1,000 books over the holidays #marketing #bestseller

The link above show book marketing sites that are still functioning.