February's Children's Author Group featured our guest, Crime Writer David Gatward who gave us the benefit of his experience.
Thank you author David Gatward who gave an inspiring talk to the PYA Children's Author Group in February by Zoom. Thanks also to John Clewarth for inviting David.
David self publishes his work and makes monthly sales that would be envied by many in the group. The lessons for me from the talk were:
It was clear that David is a driven man and I think everyone was wowed by what he's achieved. It has certainly put a rocket up me!
David sent us some notes after the session and they're reproduced below.
Notes for indie authors
If you want to be really strategic about writing before you write your book: Write to market – Easier to market a book if it is targeted at a specific market rather than a mish/mash of genres. Obviously this is personal choice but if you want the biggest chance of earning, then doing research into the genre/subgenre you want to write in will pay off. What are common tropes? What are the best-selling books in the genre/subgenre do? Etc. This doesn’t mean you have to target the biggest audience. Targeting a niche audience can be very successful as long as you write what they want to read. (e.g. romance is a huge, highly competitive market so drilling down a bit into subgenres and writing something that those audiences love could be the best way to go).
Have your book edited and proofed
This goes without saying, doesn’t need any further explanation. Employ professionals and you’ll get a professional job. Don’t just ask your mate to do it …
Blurb
Make sure your blurb is catchy and appropriate – this will probably require some research because people who can write novels, can’t necessarily write short, snappy copy (especially not about their own books, which they may know too well). Look at top 100 in your genre and read their blurb, ask for feedback on relevant author Facebook groups – a neutral observer will be able to tell you if your blurb is enticing and makes them want to find out more about your book (and if not, why not). It’s something that writers often overlook or misjudge (e.g. it’s not about giving a synopsis of what your book’s about, it’s about creating suspense, intrigue, curiosity that makes potential readers want to find out more). Bryan Cohen (who runs the Author Ad School for indie authors) has written a book on writing blurbs. How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis: A Step-by-Step System for Enticing New Readers, Selling More Fiction, and Making Your Books Sound Good. I haven’t read this though but he and his team know a lot about writing blurbs.
Covers
Make sure you have a professional looking cover: Don’t do your own cover unless you are REALLY good at Photoshop/graphic design. You can usually spot a homemade cover from a mile off and they don’t look good. Back in the early days of self publishing, readers may have been drawn by homespun covers as it indicated something different from trad published books. That doesn’t work nowadays. You only have a couple of seconds to attract a reader’s attention. They are scrolling through Amazon and you only have a very short space of time to grab their attention. And you have to do this with a professional-looking cover that fits in with your genre. You don’t have to spend hundreds of £s to do this. There are websites out there that do very cost-effective covers e.g. getcovers.com, you can get an ebook cover for as little as $10, ebook and print cover for as little as $20 (there are varying price packages with different service levels). Or 100covers.com, their packages start from $100. If you have more money to spend, then you can look at more specialist design agencies e.g. www.derangeddoctordesign.com There are lots of agencies and freelance designers out there, so makes sense to do your research, ask for recommendations in online forums etc. You can also look inside the front covers of best-selling books in your genre and see if the author has credited the designer/artist and contact them. But make sure you do this good time and don’t leave to the last minute as most agencies and designers will have lead times.
BUT you do have to do research on your covers – your cover has to fit seamlessly into your genre. It has to look like all the others in the top 100. This is because readers judge books by their covers. They want to know that your book tells the kind of story they want to read. So if it looks like the stuff they like, they are more likely to click on it. This means you have to look at the following factors that are most common in the top 100 books in your genre:
What images are used, how big are they (what 5-age of the cover do they take up)
What are the dominant colours used in the images
Type, colour and size of font (for the title and the author name)
Where is the title positioned?
Where is the author name positioned?
When looking at the top 100 in your genre on Amazon, drill down into your specific subgenre. You can use the menu in Amazon or just Google the relevant e.g. ‘best seller paranormal werewolves shifter romance amazon uk’. When looking at top 100 make sure you discount any non-relevant books e.g. Amazon crime fiction in the US used to contain loads of dark mafia romance books (lots of broody, bare-chested males draped in scantily clad women), which isn’t what you want on a crime fiction book. Being as accurate as possible helps – e.g. drill down to police procedurals, tradition detective stories, scandi noir, cosy culinary etc. whatever genre fits your book best.
The more information you can provide a book cover designer with, the easier the design process will be (with fewer revisions necessary).
Join good online forums – there are lots of Facebook groups for authors. Lots of them are free. They are great places to post cover and blurb drafts and ask for feedback. Be open to constructive criticism – try not to be offended if your blurb or cover is critiqued.
Advertising:
Amazon and Facebook ads are the most common platforms for advertising. Both can be very effective if done right. I would recommend doing some research here as they can be a bit overwhelming and confusing. There are various courses and books out there that teach indie authors how to navigate Amazon and Facebook ads. Mark Dawson’s Self Publishing courses are probably among the best known? They’re fairly all encompassing and cover most aspects of writing and self publishing. It is costly, though. I haven’t done much of his stuff so can’t say much either way, but could be interesting for people to look at.
Amazon ads
The Author Ad School’s Selling for Authors course is another well-known course. It is also a paid-for course that covers most aspects of marketing and advertising a book via amazon (does not cover Facebook ads). They run a free 5-day Author Ad Challenge on Facebook several times a year. It’s a good free introduction to Amazon ads and guides you to creating your first amazon ads. Also something that they might want to check out. The next one will be in January (search for The 5-Day Author Ad Profit Challenge on Facebook and join the group). The instructor, Bryan Cohen has also written a book: Self-Publishing with Amazon Ads: The Author's Guide to Lower Costs, Higher Royalties, and Greater Peace of Mind. I haven’t read this though.
Facebook ads
For those on a limited budget, a good, no-nonsense book on how to set up and run your first Facebook Ads is: Help! My Facebook Ads Suck: Second Edition by Mall and Jil Cooper. £7.99 Kindle and £8.99 paperback. It’s an easy-to-follow, step-by-step book, and I found it very useful. I’d suggest getting the paperback as it’s easier to flick backwards and forwards through while setting up ads. Mal and Jil also run a facebook page called The Writing Wives Ads & Marketing Group (search in FB) and have a regular live chat called Lunch with Mal where Mal talks about Facebook ads and trends in FB advertising. They also run a free 5-Day Facebook Ads Challenge Group periodically in the year, but I’m not sure when the next is (search 5-Day Facebook Ads Challenge Group in Facebook)
One thing to note is that whereas it can be a challenge to get amazon to spend your budget on ads but Facebook will burn through your money in no time at all. So be careful there. Always set yourself a budget you can afford and keep an eye on ad performance and how much you’re spending. Some people find that one platform works better for them than another. E.g. Facebook didn’t seem to be having a big impact on sales, so I stopped the ads there.
It definitely helps to take a strategic approach here – testing different types of ads for x amount of time, stopping ones that don’t work and spending more on ads that do work… it pays to be strategic and analytical here (something that I am not!)
General rule of thumb = only run ads to your first in series (if you write a series). You can run time-limited campaigns to new releases, but you want to funnel
Newsletters:
It’s generally regarded as good practice to send out regular newsletters to your readers. This is because it gives you a direct means of communicating with your ‘superfans’. Even if you have an active author Facebook page where you engage with fans, if your account get blocked by Facebook, or if anything should happen to Facebook, then you lose access to these people. A mailing list is yours and yours alone.
There are lots of different email providers out there, but as far as I know, Mailerlite is the best one (it’s not perfect, but better than a lot of others). There is a free version (without customer support) that you can use until you reach a certain number of subscribers. Once you exceed 1000 subscribers, you have to switch to a paid-for account.
To get people to sign up for your newsletter, you will need a cookie, e.g. a free short story related to your book (or the world in which your books are set). There are lots of different things you can offer here. A useful resource for creating newsletters is the book Newsletter Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert by Tammi L. Labrecque. It’s another no-nonsense, easy-to-follow guide on all things newslettery. She has also done a follow-up called: Newsletter Ninja 2: If You Give a Reader a Cookie: Supercharge Your Author Mailing List With the Perfect Reader Magnet, which I found useful. She also runs a Facebook page called Newsletter Ninja: Author Think Tank, where you can post questions.
General comments:
You can spend A LOT of money on really in-depth courses that will teach you every aspect of self publishing from planning a book for a specific genre to marketing it to readers. But if you’re on a budget, there are also plenty of free resources out there. Lots and lots of podcasts, for example Dave Chesson at kidlepreneur.com., The Self Publishing Show Podcast with Mark Dawson, Sell More Books Show with Bryan Cohen and H. Claire Taylor. Free courses and resources (5-day challenges on Facebook). I would suggest that people looks at the low-cost of free stuff before spending £100s or even £1000s on courses. There is so much you can learn from other authors and industry experts for free.
Useful resources for indie authors
This is by no means a definitive list. These resources may not even be the best options out there for your genre but they are all resources I have either used myself or heard good things about from other authors and industry experts.
Blurbs
Book: How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis: A Step-by-Step System for Enticing New Readers, Selling More Fiction, and Making Your Books Sound Good by Bryan Cohen
Cover design
Low cost options:
Advertising
Amazon ads and self publishing in general
Free:
The 5-Day Author Ad Profit Challenge on Facebook run by Bryan Cohen (the next course starts in January)
Paid-for: https://selling-for-authors.teachable.com/p/amazon-ads-made-easy (Bryan Cohen)
Facebook ads
Book: Help! My Facebook Ads Suck: Second Edition by Mall and Jil Cooper.
Facebook groups:
The Writing Wives Ads & Marketing Group
5-Day Facebook Ads Challenge Group
Amazon and Facebook ads (and all aspects of self publishing)
Mark Dawson’s Self-Publishing Formula
https://selfpublishingformula.com/
Newsletters:
Free email service provider:
Book: Newsletter Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert by Tammi L. Labrecque
Book: Newsletter Ninja 2: If You Give a Reader a Cookie: Supercharge Your Author Mailing List With the Perfect Reader Magnet
Facebook group: Newsletter Ninja: Author Think Tank
Self publishing in general:
Dave Chesson – not read much of his stuff but he’s highly respected in the indie author community and offers a lot of free resources (and a podcast) on his website. Worth checking out.
https://kindlepreneur.com/
Podcasts:
The Book Marketing Show with Dave Chesson
The Self Publishing Show Podcast with Mark Dawson
SELL MORE BOOKS SHOW with Bryan Cohen and H. Claire Taylor
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