I hate marketing, I'm clueless, and I need help!

[Johnny1975]

After much lying on my sofa day after day trying to think of some way of making money online, I finally decided to write an ebook for kindle. I finished my first book in May, and just recently I finished my second one.

My sales are terrible. The first book has had about 10 sales so far (I haven't had one in about 5 weeks), and my second one got a sale while I was publishing it, which was a nice surprise but I haven't had any since. I got my first cheque from Amazon a few days ago, for £1.23, and when I cash it I'm going to put the coins in a bag and keep them forever, as a reminder that I can make money doing something that I enjoy.

But I suck at marketing. My idea of marketing is spamming forums. I wish I could get away with doing that because that's all I know. I know it's not right but when I see all those people chatting I just want to shout about my books. I just want to get in the faces of thousands of people and see what happens.

To clarify : I don't do it, but I want to.

But I want to know how to really market my books (or anything else that I might do in future) properly and effectively. I detest social media, and the idea of shmoozing with people and forming "relationships" (yeah, right) with them, and then casually mentioning a book, then crossing my fingers hoping that they'll show an interest, makes me sick. What a load of wasted energy. It takes so much brain work to write a book, and the last thing I want to do is waste my life chatting, tweeting, and whatever else. I just want to do what I do best, then rinse and repeat. I'm not a marketer. My hat goes off to those who love that stuff and have what it takes, but it's just not me.

On the one hand, we now live in a world where anyone can use free tools and services to produce something and put it somewhere for sale. There are no gatekeepers any more. But on the other hand, it means that everyone now has to be a jack of all trades. I can't do it. I would have to become someone else. I can't.

Everything about marketing, everything I come across, every method, technique, it just makes me think ugh. There's no way I'm the only person who feels this way.

But I'm not a lazy person. I'm willing to put effort into implementing some way of marketing that doesn't make me want to rip my hair out.

So my question, is, is there anything I can do?

 

[ethical PR]

What research did you carry out to identify there was a market for your books and who did you identify as being key target audiences for your books.

Assuming you have already identified your market and you don't want to market them yourself then pay a marketing expert with an understanding of your marketplace to do it for you.

 

[Johnny1975]

What research did you carry out to identify there was a market for your books and who did you identify as being key target audiences for your books.

Assuming you have already identified your market and you don't want to market them yourself then pay a marketing expert with an understanding of your marketplace to do it for you.

Well one book is about dating and the other is about how to deal with anxiety. Both are popular niches. There are loads of books on both on Amazon.

When I first read you saying pay someone to do it, I thought no way, that would cost an arm and a leg. But just a few minutes ago I thought, why not hire someone in the Philippines to do 1 X 40 hour week of marketing for my two books. Just one week of marketing.

Is this a good idea? Would anyone do a 1 week job?

 

[StevePoster]

Marketing is a large field and it is not just promotions just to get conversions and this competitive field requires investment such as analysis, strategies, experiments, creative ideas, etc. This will be your best asset to target your potential clients and conversions of sales. It is not easy and it will take long but worth it due to its long duration of time.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

I'm guessing this is a wind up.

 

[Lucie@MightyOak]

Well one book is about dating and the other is about how to deal with anxiety. Both are popular niches. There are loads of books on both on Amazon.

When I first read you saying pay someone to do it, I thought no way, that would cost an arm and a leg. But just a few minutes ago I thought, why not hire someone in the Philippines to do 1 X 40 hour week of marketing for my two books. Just one week of marketing.

Is this a good idea? Would anyone do a 1 week job?

Both very marketable and NO someone in the Philippines is not a good idea and NO one week of marketing would not work.

 

[Johnny1975]

Both very marketable and NO someone in the Philippines is not a good idea and NO one week of marketing would not work.

Told you I was clueless. What would work? I mean, for someone whose strengths are not in marketing?

 

[Lucie@MightyOak]

Told you I was clueless. What would work? I mean, for someone whose strengths are not in marketing?

The dreaded social media - set up a page for the book and also you as an author.

Get the books in front of the media; bloggers, magazines and newspapers for reviews/recommendations.

Write articles around sections of the book and again, get these out to the media for printing with links back to the books.

There are a lot of other things that you can do as well - these are just for starters.

Unfortunately schmoozing is also part of it

 

[Ideaswise]

I do admire anyone who takes the time and effort to write books, but the truth is that nowadays it's very hard to get any significant sales. A statistic I heard recently was that 96% of authors sell fewer than 50 copies. And as you say yourself, there are already loads of books on Amazon on the subjects you write about.

If you want to stick with it though, I would say go to forums on dating/anxiety and start posting there (useful information, not just plugs for your books) - that way you can start building up your reputation.

 

[Johnny1975]

I do admire anyone who takes the time and effort to write books, but the truth is that nowadays it's very hard to get any significant sales. A statistic I heard recently was that 96% of authors sell fewer than 50 copies. And as you say yourself, there are already loads of books on Amazon on the subjects you write about.

If you want to stick with it though, I would say go to forums on dating/anxiety and start posting there (useful information, not just plugs for your books) - that way you can start building up your reputation.

Sure, I could do that. But I'm a bit of a bull when it comes to posting on forums in relation to anything that I want to promote. I just charge right in, I have no patience. It makes me look and feel bad. I'd rather do something that I could keep up consistently without being tempted to scream "buy my damn book!"

Tell me what you think of this. I had this epiphany yesterday. It occurred to me that people don't like being interrupted or distracted. Even if you go on a forum that is completely relevant to your topic / niche, and even if it's a laid back forum where the admin let you promote whatever you like, and even if you do it in a nice, subtle way, I think people will still for the most part ignore you. And I think the reason is that if someone is on a forum, they're there to chat, or lurk. that's it. You could wave the most amazing product in their face and they won't care. At that moment in time, they're there to chat, or lurk. Anything that takes them away from that is a nuisance. Same with blogs. They're there to read, and maybe comment. Nothing else.

When I had this realisation, at first I thought, oh come on, that's crazy, why can't people just be more open. And then I remembered that a while back, I was in the supermarket, and I saw a guy giving fliers for double glazing. My instinct was to walk past in mild annoyance, but then I remembered that my mum needed new windows, so I went back and took a flier. But I could have just as easily not remembered. The point is, I was in shopping mode, not picking up flier mode. So I get it. I think he was in the wrong place.

Even though I have had few sales on amazon, at least I've had some. Which makes me think that the 3 places where people are receptive are :

* In an environment where the whole point is to possibly buy something (amazon, ebay, etc)
* Within a product that the person has already received (whether paid or free)
* Your own, dedicated site, where it's all about selling your product. No distractions

If I was to post the text from the book description of one of my books right now, here, and put a link, I bet no one would buy it even if it was the perfect book for them. Because this is a place for chatting, not buying. No one is in buying mode.

Am I getting close to some kind of truth, or am I going in the wrong direction?

 

[Ruler Analytics]

The first and best thing you can do is fire up a site of your own with an integrated blog to sell yourself and your ebook(s). Make the site as compelling as you can, collect email addresses for maybe a lesser ebook that eventually leads into the one for sale in some way, and then use the blog to write related content with prominent points within and around the post to push your ebook.

You need to put in a lot of time, but it will pay off if you stick with it. The reason most people fail online is because they give up too soon. Have you seen that picture with a man digging for diamonds, which are right behind the wall? That's what this online gig is like. Keep at it.

Hope that helps!

 

[Johnny1975]

The first and best thing you can do is fire up a site of your own with an integrated blog to sell yourself and your ebook(s). Make the site as compelling as you can, collect email addresses for maybe a lesser ebook that eventually leads into the one for sale in some way, and then use the blog to write related content with prominent points within and around the post to push your ebook.

You need to put in a lot of time, but it will pay off if you stick with it. The reason most people fail online is because they give up too soon. Have you seen that picture with a man digging for diamonds, which are right behind the wall? That's what this online gig is like. Keep at it.

Hope that helps!

Funny you should say that. I created a blog yesterday. The thing is I don't want to spend loads of time blogging, I'd rather take some shortcuts. So I had the idea of making my blog a multi author blog. That way I wouldn't have to actually write anything myself (except to promote a new book). My idea is to mention the blog at the end of my book, and tell the reader that they can use it as their own blog, along with others. That way I can have my readers stick around, create content for me, and if they take enough pride in their writing, maybe promote the blog too. So, my book would promote the blog to people who have already shown an interest in the topic, and the blog would promote future books.

 

[Ideaswise]

To follow up on your point about the guy with fliers in the supermarket, he wasn't in the wrong place was he? You reconsidered, went back and took a leaflet. Like RA said, stick with it.

 

[Ruler Analytics]

Funny you should say that. I created a blog yesterday. The thing is I don't want to spend loads of time blogging, I'd rather take some shortcuts. So I had the idea of making my blog a multi author blog. That way I wouldn't have to actually write anything myself (except to promote a new book). My idea is to mention the blog at the end of my book, and tell the reader that they can use it as their own blog, along with others. That way I can have my readers stick around, create content for me, and if they take enough pride in their writing, maybe promote the blog too. So, my book would promote the blog to people who have already shown an interest in the topic, and the blog would promote future books.

Just so you know, there is no such thing as shortcuts online.

Good luck nevertheless, I hope you get where you want to be!

 

[ethical PR]

If you don't want to put time into and don't have the expertise - as I have already mentioned pay a marketing expert to do it for you and make sure you give them an decent budget for online advertising. Of course if you don't have a decent product no amount of expertise or budget will shift it.

 

[Johnny1975]

To follow up on your point about the guy with fliers in the supermarket, he wasn't in the wrong place was he? You reconsidered, went back and took a leaflet. Like RA said, stick with it.

Yes, I did go back and take a flier. But that's only because by chance I remembered that I (my mum) was in the market for double glazing. If I had been distracted for a few seconds, I would have walked on and on and then forgotten completely. It was just sheer luck that I remembered while still being a few feet away from him.

If you don't want to put time into and don't have the expertise - as I have already mentioned pay a marketing expert to do it for you and make sure you give them an decent budget for online advertising. Of course if you don't have a decent product no amount of expertise or budget will shift it.

If I told you my income, you'd laugh. I simply can't do that. I'd be willing to pay someone a bit of money to do something if it would help, but I've realised that it's not going to work that way.

It's not that I'm unwilling to do any marketing, but it just seems to me that whenever I try to find some way of doing it, it always boils down to spending loads of time "engaging" with people and I'm sorry to say but it's not appealing to me. Hats off to those who have what it takes and who thrive off that stuff, but for me it would be like forcing a cat to bark. My strengths lie in creating things, not talking about them. I'm not a natural hustler. It's strange to say that because I've done telesales and I really got into the role and quite enjoyed it. But it's not for me. I don't mind writing blurbs like sales pages or book descriptions on amazon, but going on facebook and having conversations and posting updates on god knows what, the thought just makes me want to fall asleep.

Right now I'm watching a video series by Eben Pagan on marketing, and I'm going to see if my brain can come up with some way of doing marketing which I can get on board with. So my challenge isn't to avoid marketing altogether (unless some miraculous way of doing so comes along), my aim is to find a reasonable middle ground, something that I can get on with and not feel too compromised.

 

[RealEcon]

To make money with KDP, you have to become popular. But you dont necessarily have to do all the external stuff to become popular. Amazon does pretty good at promoting, if you are in a high traffic niche. But if your books dont connect with people on a deep emotional level, or give amazing advice. People will not be interested in reading another book from you when amazon sends them an email recommending your next book.

So the best thing is to find a deep niche, that you can write passionately about. Write 3 books. Then slowly drip publish them over 3 weeks or 3 months. While you write the next book of the series. Once you have a box set of 5 or six books, then people that buy one of your books and really like it, will just go all in, and buy the box set.

Always, go to the most popular related books in your niche after visiting your amazon page, because people will then see your book listed at the bottom of the popular books as: "people that viewed this book also viewed..." and they will be shown your book there.

I really think you have to get away from multiple niches like dating and anxiety, and focus on one thing that people will really like. Then just crank out more of the same. You wont make much for the first few months, but you will start to see the snow ball effect happen as you get more and more similar books published. Plus, you will start to see interesting correlations with the data from analytics, and be able to formulate better strategies from that data. With two books from different niches you arent going to get much useful data to go off of.

 

[mediaguy35]

I created a blog yesterday. The thing is I don't want to spend loads of time blogging

Well, that was a waste of time and money then. You want promotion, yet aren't prepared to put in the effort. A blog is a great idea for you - you are already in the 'publishing game' - a few hundred posts wont injure you - honest!

A personal/biz website is also a great idea eg: you the author and your fab books - get the idea?....... But you need a book publisher and agent, probably a good idea, at least speak to a professional, they will know if what you have is worth a paper back/getting into print/distribution.

 

[Annoying Donkey]

It's not that I'm unwilling to do any marketing, but it just seems to me that whenever I try to find some way of doing it, it always boils down to spending loads of time "engaging" with people and I'm sorry to say but it's not appealing to me.

If David DeAngelo/Eben Pagan did a favourable review of your book on his blog or to his list, do you think you might get a few more sales...?

 

[Drwebsitesuk]

If you want to stick with it though, I would say go to forums on dating/anxiety and start posting there (useful information, not just plugs for your books) - that way you can start building up your reputation.

 

[JonnyMP]

Marketing your Kindle ebook is a little different than advertising a regular product. You can't just spam links online and expect sales. You need to get good reviews from people who have actually read your book. And, you can do this by offering a copy of the book to bloggers for review. That will help you greatly with your promotion efforts. There are many places online that will let you list your Kindle ebook link for free or where you can create an author profile to let others know about the Kindle ebooks you have published. You will want to take advantage of all these places.

 

[Johnny1975]

I've done a squeeze page for my anxiety book. Here it is :
> link removed please don't drop links or ask for reviews >

Yes I know I need a domain name but for now I just want to make sure it's a good squeeze page. Originally it was a lot longer because I was using the exact text of my amazon description for the book. but today I stripped it right down.

Is it any good?

 

[singhabhishek251]

I do not think that you can do everything by own and you must take someone's help for the marketing. This is very rare that someone can write a book and sell by their own marketing skills for that you need to write a very good book and give it for free to some visitors at--least some page and they will buy full if they like or first 500 downloads for free. I mean you need to come with some idea for attracting the people and then may be by word of mouth publicity it will pickup.

 

[JonnyMP]

I do not think that you can do everything by own and you must take someone's help for the marketing. This is very rare that someone can write a book and sell by their own marketing skills for that you need to write a very good book and give it for free to some visitors at--least some page and they will buy full if they like or first 500 downloads for free. I mean you need to come with some idea for attracting the people and then may be by word of mouth publicity it will pickup.

These days, the writer has to wear many hats; first as content creator and then promoter. If you're not the hardest driving force behind your ebook, then no one else will be. Even if you outsource promotion, you should still be out there, talking your book up on book forums and related niche forums and asking for feedback from anyone that will offer it. All these efforts accumulate and after awhile you have the ball rolling on your promotion.