Read and Review! Learning to market

Learning to edit with an eye toward publishing with a traditional publisher was an adventure. Whenever it got wearisome I took a timeout for a week, or two or three. It’s a process that can go on indefinitely and, I understand from my writers’ groups, sometimes does. In the case of Yoga for Detectives: Interconnected, I think the end result is a tighter, better book. I hope so.

Deciding to work with a professional book cover artist was a major decision. Since I write primarily for my own enjoyment, I’m reluctant to rack up a big bill. I paid for two beta readers when they had “sales” and charged a ridiculously small amount for their work – it’s a thankless, time-consuming endeavor and a good beta reader is worth her weight in gold! I vacillated about adding the expense of a book cover artist. Ultimately, I found someone from one of my writers’ groups and he (a) didn’t charge much and (b) had the patience of a saint.

Learning to format for the self-publishing process was a hugely satisfying endeavor. I paid a professional to do it the first time around after trying unsuccessfully to figure it out by myself – many hours of frustration. After spending money on two beta readers and a book cover artist, I decided to bite the bullet and make the effort again to format the book myself. This means two kinds of formatting; one for the paperback book and one for the Kindle version. This time it went amazingly smoothly and I felt like a real computer wizard.

I didn’t invest any energy or money in marketing my first book and, guess what?, not very many people read it. How could they? Hardly anyone knew it existed. The few who miraculously found it seemed to like it…a lot! But there were only about 40 of them, not counting friends and relatives. Deciding to make the effort to remedy that, I began learning about marketing and yesterday started putting into action one of the strategies suggested. One woman even purchased both my first and second book so she could start at the beginning!

One of the primary methods of making potential readers aware of my book’s existence is getting people to review it. Hmmm. How can the book receive reviews if no one knows it exists? First I purchased a book review targeter app and sent out a few hundred emails to people who reviewed books similar to mine. Within a day I received responses from more than a dozen who are happy to read and review the book. I also received kind words and encouragement.

There’s something called “verified purchase” attached to reviews of people who read a purchased copy of the book. People seem to put more stock in these reviews. Reasonable, I suppose. So the next step is to solicit people to purchase the book on a certain date and then lower the price to 99 cents on that day.

That’s where you come in! I would be thrilled if you would purchase the Kindle version of my book on Friday, November 1st, (I’ll post a reminder), to receive the reduced price and then write a review – preferably once you’ve read the book, but I’m not picky.

It’s a journey.