Tuesday Tips: Selling Books

I admit that I do not know nearly enough about the marketing end of being an Indie Published Author. I do know that the best marketing, Number 1, above all, advice is: Write a book that doesn't suck. The Number 2 rule probably is: Find the right Audience.

Let's presume you have already written your book, found your audience and placed it in the right categories on Amazon.

Now What?

There are four things that are the key to getting people to invest the time to read your story. Oddly the price is less important that I initially believed. It's a small matter weather it's $0.99 or $2.99 or $4.99. You need to convince the reader to invest the TIME in your book.

There is only so much more time until I die and I will never be able to read all the books I want to read by the time I'm dead!

Here's how you persuade readers to spend their time:

• The Title 
• The Cover
• The Blurb
• The Preview

When I realized that I did this for the books I read, it became clear to me how important these items are for a reader trying to decide to invest the time in your book.

The Title

I have said this over and over. Your title should be unique. It should be easy to find with an Amazon search. Please be especially careful about cross genre confusion. My first novel was originally titled FALLING. Prior to publishing I was smart enough to do an Amazon search for it and found hundreds of Romance novels titled the same. So STILL FALLING was born.

The Cover

You must have a kick ass cover that is eye catching, professional, contains the genre and tease. Remember that getting your book to the right audience is paramount. A great Scifi/Action/Adventure could be hated by a reader that thought they were buying a romance. The Cover is the first hook. The thumbnail is the part that brings in the reader.

The Blurb

You must spend serious time planning and writing your blurb. It must be well written, and set the stage for an exciting or romantic or scary story. It hooks the reader in farther. It confirms that this is the kind of story they are looking to spend time with.

The Preview

You only get one chance usually to make the first impression. I always read the preview. It has to hook me. It has to set the tone, light the fuse, set the bombs timer going, it has to make the reader afraid to not buy the book for fear of not knowing what will happen.

Make sure to take the time and focus on all of these. I know I suck at blurbs. I always get help with my blurbs.

--These are not ALL you need to do. But these are the foundation that needs to be in place when your audience arrives.