Why The Business Side of Writing Matters by Amy Brantley

We may not like the reality, but writing the book is only the first step in a writing career. Please welcome my guest today, Amy Brantley, who is not only an author but has an awesome business for helping authors on the business end; A Girl and her E-books.  She's offering a gift to one commenter and some great deals as well. Read on.......

Imagine if a company created an awesome product but never advertised – just placed it on store shelves and hoped people would buy it. It could be the greatest product ever invented, but without proper marketing customers aren't going to know about it. The same holds true for books, maybe even more so because each book is competing with literally millions of other books. Waiting around and hoping for someone to find your book isn't the way to go.

As a fellow author, I understand the need to stay focused on writing. You want to meet those deadlines and getting in Amazon's good graces requires publishing a new book every two months. Unfortunately, if you don't focus on the business side of writing, you may never see the numbers you're hoping for.

What is the business side of writing exactly? Think of your books as the product and yourself as the brand. As an author, you want to create an image for yourself and connect with readers (AKA buyers). This can be done through social media networks, newsletters, conferences, etc. As for your product (books), you want to market them in much of the same way. You want to make sure they are shared in front of your target audience. This can be done through social media campaigns, ads, guest blog posts, book tours, and much, much more.

The reason is matters so much to pay attention to both writing and marketing is simple. Without marketing, you're waiting for someone to stumble across your book. When you market your book to a targeted audience, you have a much better chance at getting discovered. If you have a strong social media presence, you also have the chance for those readers to become fans who are on the lookout for the next book.

What can you do to get started? The following are some of the easiest ways to start marketing your brand and your products:

1.    Open and starting using Twitter and Facebook accounts. Make sure you have a Facebook page rather than just a Facebook account. Second, make absolutely sure that you post about more than just your book. It's a real turn off for a reader to find a Facebook page or Twitter account that is nothing but posts about where to buy a book. Post about things that you're doing, what you're reading, and topics your target audience would find interesting.

2.    Dust off your newsletter. You should strive to send out a newsletter at least once a month, but no more than once a week. A newsletter is again a great place to interact with your readers. You want to give them something they can't get elsewhere. Maybe it's a sneak peek at your next book, a favorite recipe, a character interview, etc. Just give them something so they keep opening each edition of your newsletter.

3.    Create graphic ads to use around the internet. Graphic ads are really appealing. A graphic ad can include your book cover and a tag line from your book. However, if you're creating an ad to use in the Facebook ad program, you want to only add your cover art to the graphic on top of another background image. Too much text will cause the ad to be rejected. Graphic ads can be used in Twitter, in Facebook feeds, in newsletters, on book blogs, and several other places.

4.     Make time for marketing. You make time to get your word count in each day. You may time to go over that first draft. Why not make time to market your books? A bit of time each day can go a long way to boosting the success of your brand and products.

5.     Hire an assistant. Publishing a book every two months is not easy. In fact, it takes a lot of work and a lot of words each day. This is the main reason marketing slides to the side. The good news is there is help available. Hiring an author assistant allows you to handle the business side of writing without giving up any time that you could be writing.

Marketing your books in today's world is more important than ever. Thousands of books are published each day and, without a strong marketing plan, your book can easily get lost. The good news is there are easy things you can do to market your books and yourself.

As a fellow author, I understand these needs and run a company called Book Promos by A Girl and Her eBooks. My company offers everything from basic services like sharing your book to working as an author assistant. There's no job too big or too small.

If you contact me and mention this article, I'll take 20% off your order. Comment below and you'll automatically be chosen to win a full promo pack.

For readers of this blog, I'm also offering a special where you can get the following for only $300! (20% discount cannot be used on this offer).

You'll get: 

Tweets 2x per day

30 Facebook posts per month

$50 credit each month to use on whatever services you need

Seperately, this is a value of $1680. As a bundle, it's usually $600. For LA's blog readers, it's only $300! (LA: this is a year's worth of promo!!)

Find Amy: 

agirlandherebooks@outlook.com

http://www.cheapbookpromos.com/

Even if you don't use my services, I do hope you'll think more seriously about the importance of marketing yourself and your books. Yes, it does take work, but it's time well spent. 

~Amy