[dadforfive]

Hi Gang,

I need some advice from the forum.

I self published my first middle grade novella (The Pickle Jar) last September.  Sold about 120 print copies and 6 ebooks, with no marketing.  The second book in the series (The Wallet) is being edited and I plan to publish in April.

Looking for marketing ideas. Thinking about:

--Making the first book free
--Buying an add on The Fussy Librarian or similar service.  Not sure how middle grade books do with this approach.

Thanks, Dadforfive

 

[drewavera]

that's a good question. I have one kid's book out and not a lot going on with it (under a pen name). I have another in work and want to make sure I market it better than the first one. Your paperback sales are pretty impressive though. Did you do a signing or something?

 

[dadforfive]

Did a talk at elementary school and got a surprisingly strong response.

Not sure that making the first book free will have much impact, but I am going to give it a try.  Maybe middle grade is more print oriented.

 

[Sever Bronny]

Hmm. I have some loosey-goosey suggestions. Ignore as you please

• Build buzz by sending advance review copies to bloggers, whom you'll want to instruct to post 3 star or less reviews two weeks after release. Alternately, pay for a blog review tour. Set all this up a month or so in advance.
• Stagger your promotions, paid or unpaid
• Day of release, turn on a facebook / bing / ADwords / Twitter paid promo campaign. Ideally you'll have already learned the framework, your budget etc.
• If you have a mailing list, send an email morning of release. Give them the book for 99 cents for 24 hours
• Paperback giveaway on Goodreads (anytime)
• Hit your facebook friends a few days or so after launch, when the book has a bit of traction / reviews
• Blog post separate day
• Twitter announcement (separate day)
• Reddit iama in appropriate forum (separate day)
• Get interviewed by bloggers who have your ideal book-buying audience. Study how to do it successfully. (separate day)

There's a whole bunch more but I'm short on time here. I have a link in my signature too that may or may not help (which I've been meaning to update).

Goal is to have at least one sale a day after launch. Of course, if any of the following are weak, none of the above will do much: cover, blurb, keywords, first line, first paragraph, and especially and obviously, your writing. If you suspect weakness in one of those areas, post it publicly for critique.

Good luck, my friend

 

[jimwoodswrites]

I also love the staggered approach so your marketing campaign is not just on "one big day".

Consider doing some guest posts, interviews on blogs and even podcasts. If you have an audiobook, there is great carry through with the podcast market.

Also, be sure to put your book up on Goodreads--that is really easy to forget. And perhaps the most important step is to engage (not spam) the many, many Kindle Facebook groups. There are also many review swap groups which might be worthwhile--just depends on who you run into there.

 

[dadforfive]

Thanks for the input!

I checked out Sever's link...great information.