#YAIndiePath Series: Blog vs Vlog (4)

In other words, feeling analog in our digital world. 

I mentioned before that marketing is a beast that is always changing and evolving. We’ve gone from text based social media like Twitter and blogs, to more image heavy and visual posts like Instagram and Tumblr, to straight up videos like YouTube and TikTok. 

Did you notice how I didn’t include Facebook in any of those categories? That’s because Facebook has adapted to be more image friendly and to now have Reels like TikTok. Instagram has also updated to allow for the more popular video posts. You even see the SnapChat influence with Stories. 

Well, as Facebook has adapted, so must we. As writers, we want to use our words to market. It’s more natural than videos. Perfect example: This blog, which has zero video content so far. 

Why do I still blog instead of vlog? Like I said, words are more natural than videos. As marketing director for a small press, I was the one in our YouTube videos. It was uncomfortable then, and I wasn’t even talking about myself or my books. (It’s also significantly harder to put videos together with four kids running around this tiny apartment.)

But I get the feeling that I’m going to have to get over myself and my aversion to being on camera really soon. Why? Because marketing means adapting to what’s working. BookTok and Bookstagram are testaments to what marketing looks like in our increasingly digital age. 

Will I still blog? Absolutely. You’ll have to pry my blog from my cold dead fingers for me to give up the comfort of putting words to paper. 

Want to keep up with how I’m doing on TikTok? Follow me and see if I can make awkward on camera appealing. 

#YAIndiePath Series: Newsletters are the Worst (3)

I’m going to be completely honest here: I hate newsletters. I’m guilty of not reading them, and I really don’t like writing them. Or sending them. For some reason, newsletters feel like those credit card or coupon mailers you get. You don’t remember signing up for them or giving your information to someone, and yet you now have this piece of spam in your mailbox trying to sell you on something.

Unfortunately for me, they still look to be a must-have marketing tool for authors from all walks. I recently put one together and posted about it on social media (thank you to my six subscribers, including my husband). I also sent out my first newsletter, wrapping up my blog posts for the previous month and posting two cross promotions and a newsletter swap, all from StoryOrigin. 

Newsletter swaps seem to be all the rage right now, but the jury is still out on whether or not I had any success with mine. There are also a lot of great Facebook groups dedicated to newsletter swaps for authors. Those groups are definitely active. I’m not going to get into much else with swaps until I have more experience with them, but stay tuned for that.

If you’re like me and feel like marketing is starting to get daunting with all that you have to do, my advice is to look for your strengths and focus on those. I’m good at social media and blogging (well, I’m not bad), but I don’t like newsletters. So I only send out one newsletter per month and I keep the format simple. I start with a brief greeting and any news. I highlight one blog post from the month, give previews of a few others from different categories, and post banners with links and brief explanations of cross promos I’m involved in. I have an author highlight, showcasing a book or series with a graphic and inviting readers to subscribe to their newsletter. And then at the bottom, I have a graphic of the Heirs of War series to remind subscribers about my books. This makes it easy to update and easy to read. Subscribers know what to expect from my newsletter. 

Not sure what I mean? Subscribe to my newsletter to see. 

#YAIndiePath Series: Kindle Unlimited (#2)

My last post was about finding the free shit first. Well, one free option is setting your books up for Kindle Unlimited. There’s a lot more to KU than making your book available to subscribers (like Kindle Countdown deals), but I haven’t explored those options.

Many authors dream of being able to throw their book out into the universe and have it become a success. I once went to a panel where one of the authors talked about how they hate marketing and would live in a cave and simply throw out books as they wrote them if they could. A decade into my publishing journey and somehow also feeling like Day One, I get that sentiment fullstop. 

Why do I bring this up? Because there’s a misconception about KU being the ultimate tool to get you tons of sales. Does it help? Sure. Is it possible to put your books on KU and do no other marketing and still become a success? No. Point me to an author who did literally nothing to market their books in any way who became a success just be tossing their books on KU. 

But… is it worth a try? Absolutely. Because it does put your book in a catalog that potential readers might see. My books aren’t on the first few pages of my category in KU, but I still have someone out there 100 pages in. Or a few people more than 20 pages in. Getting one more reader is definitely a win in my book, especially for something as low effort as submitting my books to Kindle Unlimited. 

The downside is that you do have to be exclusive to Amazon with your ebooks. You will have to weigh the pros and cons of that decision yourself, but keep in mind that KU isn’t permanent. You can have your books removed after the KU period is up. 

As for my experience, I can say it's decent for as little advertising as I've done. Since I put my books on KU in May, I've had over 2500 page reads and only done social media marketing. Very little of it, if I'm being completely honest. (I've posted in a few groups on Facebook, commented on like two Tik Tok things with my book info, and posted a few Instagrams. When I say very little, I really mean it.) But I'm still seeing movement on my KU pages read. That's a couple more bucks I've made and a couple more people who've read my books. For low effort, no cost, and not much follow up, that's a what I call a win. 

#YAIndiePath Series: Find the Free Shit (#1)

Not even joking. Not everyone has the budget to immediately start putting money into marketing. I definitely do not.

The first thing I’m doing is looking for all the free promos I can. For me, this means reviewers first. This is a Book Marketing 101 tip you will read in just about every marketing article you read: Reviews sell books. 

Reviewers sell more books. Why? Because most of them aren’t simply dropping a review on Amazon or Goodreads. They are sharing on their blogs and their social media. They’re spreading the word, which is a lot less complicated than trying to figure out how reviews impact Amazon algorithms to get your book visible. 

I found a list on Reedsy of book reviewers and looked at every single site that accepts Indie authors. I submitted to every site that was still accepting submissions and listed YA or fantasy as genres they accept. Of the 248 review sites listed, 207 are listed as accepting Indie Authors. Of that list, I submitted to 29.

And heard back from five. Four said yes. (I do appreciate the one who replied back with a decline though - not every book is going to be a reviewer's cup of tea and taking the time to give a response was very thoughtful given how many requests reviewers get.)

Four out of 29 is still awesome, in my book. Then why did I put it like that? Because of one simple phrase: Return of Investment. ROI is something you’ll see me use a lot in these posts. 

“But Mara, all these sites you submitted to are free. How does Return of Investment apply?”

Just because you don’t spend money, that doesn’t mean there is no investment on your part. You’re still investing your time and maybe even your emotions in everything you do with your books. You have to measure the value of your time and emotions against the successes. It took me weeks to comb through this lost, submitting as I go. I’m not pinning my hopes on getting positive responses, so there’s not much of an emotional investment for me. At this stage in my writing career, I am happy with my 6 newsletter subscribers and two purchases on Amazon. Anything else is just a bonus. 

It did take up a lot of time, but I’m good with that because I had four positive responses. That means four new people either agreeing to promote my book or read it. With my expectations, that’s a win. If you’re setting your hopes on becoming a best seller overnight, this will probably be a source of discouragement for you. (To that end, I beg you to reframe your thinking so that you can stick to this journey for the long haul)

Now one thing I will say is proving to not be worth the time or clogging of my Facebook feed is review groups. Maybe I’m not in the right ones, but I see a lot of posts by authors and not a lot of engagement from reviewers. I’m not going to list the ones I’ve tried because the intention is good, but I’m just not seeing the delivery on any of the posts. 

I’m not running a promotion with a timeline right now, so these promos/reviews don’t have deadlines. I can’t tell you if I will see more sales because of them until they get around to mine (and it was a “no pressure” review request, so that could be two years from now and that’s cool). But I do know that one more review or post about my book is probably not going to hurt my sales and I did it all with no money. 

Introducing the #YAIndiePath Series

In case you missed it, I’m a young adult indie author. What does that mean? It means I’m not traditionally published. It also means I’m part of an ever-growing community of authors who have chosen to take full control of their books by publishing on their own instead of getting agents and going through publishing houses. Some people might also call us crazy, which might be a valid assessment at times. 

I’m not here to tell you which path is right for you. I’m here to take you through my journey as I try to grow my sales while balancing budget, family, and time for writing more. I’ve noticed in my research for marketing that there aren’t any guides particularly targeting YA authors. Why is this important? Because the tactics used for one genre might not work as well for the next.

I’ve actually been a marketing director for a small press in my previous publishing life. I love books, and I love pimping out books, but this was probably one of the most frustrating roles I’ve ever had (even though our team was amazing and I love and adore them!). Why? Because marketing is a beast. Not only that, but it’s a beast that just keeps changing and growing. 

This change is definitely evident as I step back into the publishing world for the first time in years. When I first released Heirs of War, blog tours, Twitter, and Facebook parties were all the rage. Now? Blog tours are still a thing (maybe?), and Tik Tok is the place for authors to be, with Instagram seemingly a runner up. 

Naturally, I dove into research to find out what’s working. I literally just downloaded Tik Tok, so I don’t think I’m going to instantly figure out how to navigate it and gain a million followers overnight. So Tik Tok is on the back burner for now. But what else is there? How do I get my book out there? 

I have no idea, but this blog journey is here to hopefully answer that question and help other YA indie authors figure out what to do or what not to do.