First Book Blues: Marketing Plan of Action for New Writers with No Budget

 I wrote a book - yay :)

See, here I am in my happy place - Flow - covered in cats, alone with the words and worlds in my head. I had just finished the first draft of my first novel, which is why rainbows were popping out of my a**.

That elusive, always out-of-reach, much longed-for, dreamed-of, but surely impossible pie in the sky.

I did it by being very disciplined.

Boring, I know, but it turns out to be that awesome sauce we're all looking for.

I wrote 500 words a day, which is entirely doable -- no matter how busy or uninspired you are. This was a revelation that I had during one of my Flow sessions actually (thank you Izzy for being my Partner in Epiphany), that I needed to 'bring Discipline into my Creative Process', rather than waiting for that magical inspiration to strike.

Big Ah-Ha Moment: you can't really tell how the writer was feeling by the words on the page.

We all idealize the creative flow and yearn for it and celebrate it, but...

Just get the words on the page!

No excuses.

Then I edited it -- not so much fun but certainly eye-opening. A great way to learn how to be a better writer is to write and then get it edited. All your little habits and issues are there, large as life. Not particularly comfortable, but all the good stuff actually happens outside of our comfort zones.

(NOTE TO SELF)

Then I published it.

Easy as pie these days.
KDP holds your hand through the whole thing.
I recommend Canva for cover design. 
Brilliant, easy to use and FREE!!!!

And then...well...nothing....

I was so nervous to put my first book out there. So afraid of critique and rejection. Little did I realize that without a SERIOUS amount of marketing, no one even knows it's there.

I am safely obscured behind a pseudonym, but that also means my nom de plume has no platform on social media or anywhere else for that matter. As someone on the incredibly helpful writer's group 20 Books to 50K pointed out, it all actually went exactly to plan. I set it up so that nobody would know about it.

So my original dread fear of rejection morphed into a fear that no one would ever read my, admittedly not very good (but whose first book is?!), first novel.

This has been my marketing game plan with zero budget:

1. Online Presence: 

If you're Social Media averse, sorry, but there's no getting around it, your pen name needs a Facebook profile.

There are LOADS of very active book groups -- pick your genre, find your readers and fellow writers. There's a fat book launch party going on every moment of every day. 
They offer so much free advice and resources that it makes the time worth it.
They can actually save you a lot of time, because they've been there done that. 

You need an author page on Amazon, BookBub and Good Reads at the very least.

Set up an Author website, I love wix.com (free and easy and pretty) specifically to collect subscribers, which brings me to point 2.

2. Giveaways to build up an E-mail List: 

Instafreebie - my first group giveaway started yesterday and immediately two people downloaded the free 10% permitted by Kindle Unlimited (basically the "look inside" bit on the Amazon site) and hopefully they'll be tempted to check out the rest, but either way my email list went from zero to two. Baby steps!

The only problem is you're only allowed one promotion per 90 day cycle through Kindle Unlimited (which seems to be the best bet for new authors). And you can't run your book at 99cents until it's been up for 30 days, so I may miss some potential readers from this giveaway, but I have loads more giveaways lined up.

Book Cave - another wonderful FREE group giveaway tool, this is so that writers can help build one another's lists. Writers are so kind and supportive. Thanks guys! 

There are others like Freebooksy, but they ain't free old chum.

If you're new and not sure why you need an email list at all, my many hours of binge listening The Creative Penn podcast (Do it! and please support my guru and yours Joanna Penn on Patreon, I was really shocked to see how few do when really the woman is a gold mine of information with a huge following. If I can afford $1/month, so can you!) and researching around the clock has revealed that it's still THE most effective marketing tool at a writer's disposal.

3. Garner Reviews:

How the hell do you get reviews?!
Turns out most writers send out ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) to Beta Readers.
Who knew?! Apparently everyone.

Here's a service that will give you a free review, but it might take some time:
https://readersfavorite.com

I am working my way through this very lengthy list of Book Bloggers and their stringent requirements re: genre/formatting/etc etc (these folks are powerful y'all, at least in bookish circles).

So far I've heard back from three of them -- one was quite cutting, but I was grateful for the feedback, the other wants to interview me (who me?!) and the third went and bought my book to review it! MIRACLES DO HAPPEN!

4. Play the Amazon Categories Game:

I followed this article's advice and immediately I was ranked very highly (with ZERO sales) in the weird and wonderful categories I ferreted out, so it might be worth it if you want "Best Seller" status which can drive sales.

5. Write your Next Book:

I won't lie - points 1 - 4 are time-consuming and can be demoralizing.
But do not let the marketing kill your fervor for writing that next book. 
I have Book 2 up for pre-order already and am holding myself accountable to get those words on the page, in fact I've upped that daily word count.
My plan is to then get Book 1 on perma-free (Amazon price matches so if you can get it free somewhere else, even your own author website, they'll have it free) as a reader magnet to buy Book 2 and in the not too distant future Book 3.

Phew.
Back to writing then!


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