By Cami Walters-Nihipali
I’m dragging myself to home plate: October 13 . Why that date? It’s the release date for Mixed Plate Press’s new YA title The Stories Stars Tell. I’ve been running around the Marketing Diamond since January 2020 with the relaunch of four rebranded titles. This upcoming launch is book five this year, and the third marketing campaign. Truth be told, I’m tired, but it’s an incredible exhaustion filled with the pride of doing the best job I can do and a wealth of knowledge acquired along the journey. A year into three marketing launches (during a pandemic), I feel like I’ve learned a few things to share. Keep in mind, this advice is what I’ve gleaned researching, collating data, implementing strategies and collecting anecdotal data for myself. While this is geared toward Indie Authors who are looking to build a career (versus an indie hobbyist) rather than Traditional Authors whose marketing experience is different, I’m not sure the points are exclusive to either because we all have to market the work.
First Steps
The book is done. If you’re a traditional author (you’ve got your agent and have sold the book to a publisher) you can skip this next section unless of course you’re interested in the Indie Author experience.
Indie Authors: Without an income, the reality is it’s difficult to invest in any part of the publishing process, however, if you are creating a career from which you want to derive an income, you MUST invest in it like it is a business. With the idea of limited budget in place, I think there are three places an indie author would be wise to invest in their project.
Buy your ISBN. Bowker sells the US ISBN for about $30 each, or you can purchase them in blocks. I suggest buying the block of ISBNs if you are planning on publishing multiple books, because the overall cost per ISBN is reduced when purchased as a block. Additionally, if your plan is to publish multiple formats of the same title, you will need an ISBN for each format. Ebooks don’t require an ISBN but I recommend them in order to protect your work. Remember, whoever owns the ISBN owns and controls the book.
It’s important to think of your work like a product so you need to invest in offering the best product possible. Your product communicates your brand (YOU). Think of it this way: If Apple put out a subpar product, the company wouldn’t be positioned as the most profitable player in the tech industry. The product you are releasing is for a targeted consumer. [DON’T FORGET THIS POINT because it is important for your marketing.] As the owner/operator of your business, you must create and develop a product that communicates to your audience that every time they come back to your product their expectations will be met or exceeded. Therefore, hire someone to edit your work. While beta reading is a valuable tool in your creative process, remember beta reading isn’t editing. It is best to find someone who has experience editing, but it is crucial to know what kind of editing you’re needing. There are different kinds of editing: developmental editing, line editing, and copy editing. Developmental is an edit that supports content and story: character development, story arc, narrative flow, structure, and big picture marketability. Line editing is an examination of writing style and flow. Finally, copy editing is the edit for errors like usage, spelling and punctuation. Be sure to do your research and determine what you need before hiring an editor. A good editor is an invaluable resource who can take your work from good to great.
A MAJOR piece to your marketing campaign is the cover art, so unless you are a cover artist, hire a professional cover designer. While we can claim we don’t judge a book by its cover, we do. We judge everything by appearance. Why do stores spend time worried about display, or movie studios spend time on posters? Why is Instagram so popular? Human beings are visual, and will visually judge products to determine value and worth. An incredible cover that correlates with genre and category identity for your book is CRITICAL. Remember, do your research. Find an artist whose style and cost align with your budget and goals not only as an artist, but also as a business.
If you have any additional room in your budget, an added suggestion is to hire a professional to format the interior of your book as well. If you don’t know how to format the interior of your book, this is another area to consider hiring an expert. The interior is another facet to the whole of the reader’s experience.
It should go without saying, do your research. Know the industry standards for services and prices. Ask for references, work samples, membership affiliations, and process. Unfortunately, there are too many stories of charlatans in this business trying to make a quick buck on the dreamer, taking the money and running. DO YOUR RESEARCH.
Marketing Ideas and Timeline
Now that those three facets (with a fourth suggestion) are covered (because while they don’t seem like marketing tools, they are essential pieces of the marketing puzzle), we can look at the nitty gritty of marketing the book and its timeline.
First, it’s important to take the time to plan a marketing strategy. Here’s a download of a marketing plan template if you aren’t sure where to begin (it includes developing copy you’ll need, identifying your marketing goals, and setting up a timeline).
Target Audience: Identify who you are selling your book to. While you might be inclined to identify an age range, don’t do it. Pick an age. This doesn’t preclude other ages from being interested, it just supports you in designing the marketing strategy you will deploy. For example, I write YA. It’s crossover YA, for sure, but the marketing materials I would create for a 24 year old would be very different from the materials I would create for a 17 year old. That's why it is important to narrow the market to a specific age to support the mission and vision of your marketing strategy.
The Cover Reveal. Traditional Publishers work to reveal a book’s cover to readers around 9-15 months out from the publication date. This is purposeful. The average consumer needs at least 15 interactions with a product before they buy, so the earlier, the more visible that product becomes. For Indie Authors this timeline isn’t ideal for a variety of reasons (which I won’t get into here). I would suggest that once your story has reached the editing phase (meaning the basic premise and the book blurb are set) it’s time to hire your cover artist. While the cover is being designed, that provides you with time to work through those edits. If you have resources to extend this timeline, do it, but for the majority of indie authors trying to build their fanbase and maintain consistency of publication, time is a resource like cash. Consider revealing your cover between 3-5 months from publication, the further out from the release date, the more opportunity to extend the reach.
Reviews: Around 3-4 months from the release date, begin securing your reviewers. This can be done via services like Netgalley (which are pricey) or by developing relationships with Book Reviewers. There are lots of databases on the internet to help you determine where to find genre and category specific reviewers. Reach out, connect and ask (remember, cold asking is hit or miss. Asking reviewers works best if you’ve established a relationship, so I would begin that part of the process at least 9-12 months out). Have the cover and the blurb ready to share when you ask, and be sure to research what kinds of books they read. Get the ARC copies to reviewers 3-4 months from publication to allow them enough time to read. This gives them time and some reviewer services have time requirements that extend into 15 weeks prior to publication. Be sure to do your research.
Note: This question often arises: Should I pay for a review? Traditional Publishers will pay for a review from a service like Kirkus, and that is part of their marketing budget. My rule of thumb has been to pay for a review that is from a service like Kirkus, IndieReader or BookLife (Publisher Weekly), but I have not paid for other kinds of reviews (and won’t). Many book reviewers are book lovers who enjoy reading books, receiving an early copy that is in their favorite genre is often enough for them to be a part of the process. If they say “no thanks” be polite and move on to the next on your list.
Social Media Plan: Around 3 months from the publication date, set up a social media plan (though this doesn’t mean it’s the first I’ve spoken about the upcoming release. I started talking about The Stories Stars Tell with my followers and those subscribed to my author newsletter over a year before publication, so they’ve been on the journey with me from drafting through launch day). REMEMBER YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE. Create the materials you will need like Graphics and Quote Cards, new content to share, remembering to approach these through the lens of your target audience. Change the headers and banners, profile descriptions and the like to reflect the book and marketing materials.
Set a marketing focus for your timeline. When I set up June (four months from the release), I decided I didn’t want to inundate my audience with marketing materials only, so I created “writing stories” about where I was in my publishing process with The Stories Stars Tell with graphics that included the title, songs I was listening to, and other behind-the-scenes information. In July (I began teasing the cover) I shared broader themes to get my audience thinking about bigger ideas about the book. Themes like Friendship, Family, Growth, for example, guided my daily posting. Once the cover was revealed in August (10 weeks from publication) materials included the cover. I didn’t post it every day however, and instead began incorporating it into the materials which focused on a fun vehicle in the book (John Hughes films). The final four weeks approach to publication day, I posted quote cards and new content on the blog (though if you look at my Instagram there is a balance between marketing, my life, and new work). The last 10 days was a countdown to publication with daily content and posting of the cover each day.
The most important thing to remember when creating your social media plan is that you aren’t just trying to sell a product, YOU are the product, so you are developing a relationship with the people who follow you. Don’t just work to sell the book. Work to sell the experience.
Pre Order Incentive: The Pre Order Incentive is a way to generate buzz around the book. For Traditional Authors, the Pre Order is important in that it communicates with publishers the excitement about a book and informs budgetary choices moving forward. For the Indie Author, Pre Order buzz supports visibility on distribution sites like Amazon. To promote your title early, develop an incentive. This can be as simple as an early download of the first chapters (free for you), a thank you card sent with proof of purchase, or as complicated as the Pre Order incentive of Nic Stone, author of Dear Justyce and her publisher who paired her Pre Order with a social justice issue by providing copies of her books to teens in prisons (obviously a healthy budget behind this incentive). The idea remains the same: generate excitement, get people talking, and incentivize the Pre Order. Plan for 6-8 weeks from book release.
Other outlets: Goodness, prior to 2020, there were lots of venues to share your book and expertise like Book Fairs, Conferences, Bookstore signings, Schools, News outlets. Since 2020 and Covid-19 this has changed a lot, but there are still ways to creatively maneuver. Contact your local TV station “local life” programming, check with your local PBS station and radio spots, participate in podcasts and live IG feeds and Facebook Feeds. Get creative. Many of these options are planned in advance of a release but it depends on the outlet and venue. Plan for 6+ months.
Newsletter: Don’t wait on this! Begin building your newsletter following before you’re done with your book. This is the most important tool you have because the people who sign up for your newsletter are the ones who are most invested in your journey, the ones who will be your biggest champions, the ones most likely to buy your books. I collect these followers through my website, promote it through my social media, and offer a monthly newsletter with content that can’t be found anywhere else (or content subscribers receive first).
Final Thoughts
The best bit of advice I received over the last year has been that I’m not selling this single book, I am in the process of building a brand that has a relationship with the consumer (my reader). When thinking about my marketing strategy, I can’t just think about this single product (though as a product it is crucial to provide the BEST quality I can), but I need to think bigger picture and determine what is my long term goal and how does this immediate strategy fit into that? Got a question? Send them my way. If I can’t answer it, I’ll send you in a direction that might be able to help. In the meantime, here’s another blog from Ingram Spark written by Rick Lite that might offer additional insight into the marketing plan and timeline.