Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Marketing Scottish Contemporary Author

Posted by steven.alker on 10/6/2011 at 7:58 AM ET 500 Points
Hi everyone, nice to be back after a spell working on sorting out some of the rubbish forecasting in the European Bank of Settlements.

A friend of mine Andrew, McCallum Crawford (https://www.blogger.com/profile/10741474262548635774) is an author with one published hardback book. His genre is Scottish Contemporary Fiction - same as such legends as Alasdair Gray and James Kelman. His latest book is a collection of short stories called “The Next Stop Is Croy and other stories” and it’s a Kindle book on Amazon. (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Next-Stop-other-stories-ebook/dp/B005REWV5Q/ref=pd... )

I’d like to help him to market it more widely but there are so few published numbers concerning book sales or even on selling books and eBooks that it’s hard to get a handle on what works and what doesn’t. It’s not mainstream and it’s certainly not crime, thrillers, vampires or zombies! Good authors sell in the tens of thousands in that genre, if and only if they are marketed by a good agent and a publisher. To my mind, Andrew is good, but his publisher has few resources.

Without a marketing budget, the hard work is down to the author and of course, most authors write books, not marketing plans, hence my desire to help. The only experiences I have so far for Andrew are that when people stumble across his works, because the pricing is modest (£7.20 for his hardback, “Drive” and £2.42 for his Kindle Book of short stories) there are impulse purchases based on the Genre.

Next, when customers read a review, I think that they go to Amazon and make a greater percentage of purchases per visit – I’ve got this info from reader’s comments – there are no numbers to analyse. How can I get numbers to analyse? And how can I get more reviews published? More reviews = more visitors = more sales, but there are thousands of non-authors clamouring for a review and it’s hard to cut through the noise the create.

Lastly, when people read a published extract (https://spillinginkreview.com/issue-6/fiction/andrew-mccallum-crawford/ ) there is another splurge of visitors with an even higher chance of making a purchase. Apart from his blog, where else can he get the extract published and how can we drive people to read it? This method is self selecting – if the reader likes what they see, the price of £2.42 is low enough for them to risk buying the entire thing.

I’m doing this as you would say, Pro Bono or as I would say, for free. The works are worth it and so is the Author and in any case, it is one of my favourite areas of fiction.

Could anyone with any ideas which could assist with these questions please make their suggestions heard!

* How can I get readers to a more marketing driven discovery that the books exist?
* How can I get numbers to analyse?
* How can I get more reviews published?
* Where else can he get the extract published and how can we drive people to read it?

Many thanks for taking the time to read this and in anticipation of your answers.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 10/6/2011 at 9:29 AM Accepted
    I'd suggest by having Andrew update his page in Author Central (https://authorcentral.amazon.com/). That will get people who are interested in him to know him better. I noticed that he has 3 items for sale on Amazon - 1 has an up-to-date profile, 1 has no link to the author page, and the last one points to an empty author page (in the US, at least).

    Next, have him contact his fans (either by direct email or through his Facebook pages) - asking them to submit lots of reviews on Amazon for his work. The goal is twofold: more reviews = more social proof and hopefully also boost the database for "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" (assuming his books are selling).

    Locally, try to connect with local book clubs. Offer to have him visit the book club (after they've read his book). Have the book club share their "chosen book" online, add reviews, blog about it, etc.

    Can he co-market with other authors (review each others' books, create a shared collection of stories, etc.)?

    For reviews, again start locally. Can local book stores/clubs/student clubs submit reviews to their favorite book review site?

    (Aside: you may be interested in The Domino Project - https://www.thedominoproject.com/)
  • Posted by Gail@PUBLISIDE on 10/6/2011 at 10:05 AM Accepted
    Social media engagement has proven to be a great way for authors to interact and gain traction for their books. Do this locally, nationally and internationally, if your audience fits all three. Post creatively, informatively and with personality. Most importantly, communicate with potential readers. Readers love to buy books with whom they feel personal connections.
  • Posted on 10/7/2011 at 11:06 AM Accepted
    You can get listed on KindleBoards Book Bazaar (https://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/board,42.0.html). This is the biggest forum for Kindle lovers and authors, and you're free to promote your ebook once a week on the Book Bazaar - (provided it's all in one thread).

    Next, get listed on GoodReads.com, LibraryThing.com and Shelfari.com. Each of these sites allow authors to set up profiles. GoodReads even permits excerpts. There are also forums on all three sites where you should be able to promote the book.

    The Kindle Author blog features interviews and excerpts from Kindle authors (https://kindle-author.blogspot.com/).

    Have you published any press releases? I've significantly increased my ebook sales by regularly putting out press releases on SBWire.com (which gets picked up by Google News).

    What about book review websites? The Complete Review (https://www.complete-review.com/links/links.html) has a list of book review websites.

    Good luck!
  • Posted by steven.alker on 10/7/2011 at 12:10 PM Author
    Thanks for the replies - these are very useful suggestions - Andrew has been following this and has already taken up Jay's points concerning Amazon author listings. I tried to look for a link for “Drive” and it returned six titles, none of which were his. A search for Andrew “McCallum Crawford” produced few hits on the Amazon pages yesterday, but today, gave two paid for listings and further links to the books.

    From the existing reviews, they are quite esoteric! Writers publications on writers sites rather than readers sites – they say nice things, but from a marketing perspective, produce few impressions and even fewer comments. This material needs to be posted to sites where readers will actually visit and have links to allow them to browse and buy. That’s a big job as book sites seem to constitute a tangled web with no hierarchy so It looks like getting a review and perhaps an extract posted on them one by one. Job for fans perhaps?!

    Gail’s points are well taken – FaceBook’s book sites are mainly for mainstream genres such as crime, fantasy, thrillers etc but there must be scope for overspill. I’d guess that a percentage of their members of their readers actually read something other than those titles!

    Dahlia’s Kindle Bazaar idea is certainly worth following up as well. GoodReads as well is an excellent idea – I’m a member and through its invite pages have just asked all my FB friends to join me on it. Many have. I think that Andrew has joined as well and will then have an opportunity to ask his friends. If he can work up a presence there, it should also be possible to then ask friends to ask their friends – once people see the works, they are pretty enthusiastic and there is also the plus point that they are then close to an author whose star is rising. They aren’t going to get hurt by passing on the message.

    This is an excellent start so thanks again. One point I’ve been drawing a blank with are the numbers. Does anyone know of a resource which publishes new book and ebook sales figures and prices?
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 10/7/2011 at 1:51 PM Accepted
    A couple of sources for you, Steve:
    https://idpf.org/about-us/industry-statistics
    https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/financial-report...
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 10/8/2011 at 1:35 PM Accepted
    Dear Steve, (and Andrew),

    The first thing Andrew needs is his own domain—his own website. All of this "profile at Blogger.com" stuff has got to stop. If you breach their TOS any and all content you post on Blogspot is toast.

    Next up, Andrew you need a bio here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scottish_writers, a link or a presence here: https://www.culturalprofiles.net/scotland/Directories/Scotland_Cultural_Pro..., and a similar link or presence here: https://thecapitalscot.com/scotvariety/generalauthors.html

    You also need to be contributing and visible here: https://www.scottishwriterscentre.org.uk/, an d a hook up here: https://www.scotland.org/culture/writing-scotland/scottish-writers-series/

    Next up, you need a personal presence on Facebook. Here, you'll post short pieces of fiction and offer links to your Amazon pages. You'll also connect with readers and build a following. For every 10 likes you receive on your Facebook page you will give away (at no cost to you) a copy of your book.

    You might also want to post stories (with links to your site) on Hubpages and onto other free directory pages that all point back to your personal pages or to Amazon.

    You will also (on Amazon) do well to split ebooks into sections: literally chop them in half. Offer the fist half for just £0.99p, with the second half for £3.99. And even if you're going to carry on selling complete ebooks on Amazon, cut the price to £4.99 and consider selling physical books at cost—meaning zero profit, but greater exposure.

    Then you need to get your face, your books, your name, and your writing ON TELEVISION and ON RADIO! Here's a link to the commissioning department for BBC Scotland: https://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/aboutus/commissioning/

    If you have the ability to speak and to read your own material you can create a simple podcast that will give commissioning editors INSTANT CONTENT in the form of a podcast. Speaking of which, you need to be doing podcasts of your own material and distributing them here: https://www.podcastdirectory.com/ https://help.npr.org/npr/includes/customer/npr/custforms/contactus.aspx

    You also need your own Wikipedia page. Here's the page for Amanda Hocking, a writer who is making a lot of money out of her ebooks. If she can do this SO CAN YOU!
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Hocking

    Here's a New York Times article about Amanda https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/magazine/amanda-hocking-storyseller.html...

    I hope this helps. I'll post more as I think about it.

    Gary Bloomer
    Princeton, NJ, USA
  • Posted by steven.alker on 10/8/2011 at 6:13 PM Author
    It’s good to be able to report something in the form of early success. Trying out a few of the ideas suggested in conjunction with some blood, sweat and a few tears and of course some great tales, Andrew's short stories have gone up from nowhere to number 34 in Kindle's Short Story rankings since starting looking at selling them with more of an eye to visibility! A huge thanks to everyone for contributing ideas.

    Garry I'll get back to you on these new ideas, they are really useful but I need to go and think of having a lemonade or two just now! I agree that Andrew needs a proper Webspace for the reasons stated and half a dozen other reasons that come to mind.
  • Posted by steven.alker on 10/11/2011 at 9:52 AM Author
    We have now started to put in place many of your suggestions and as I said above, it is already showing results. It would appear to be the case that you have highlighted a few vital central resources where Andrew needs a presence and an up-to-date presence at that.

    He is now asking all his friends and later his readers to post reviews on different sites. To ensure coverage, It will probably be essential to maintain an ever expending list of places where reviews, extracts and notices can be posted and for him to monitor the feedback generated.

    A website would allow all this to be coordinated, so I'll put that idea to him when we next speak.

    Personally, this has been very interesting - I knew little about book marketing and got involved because I liked these stories and had got to know Andrew by chance on the web. I found it frustrating that he wasn't better known. It's great that I was able to come back here and get such useful and well directed advice. Thanks again and see you round again for some more of my answers to members questions!

    Steve Alker
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