paid advertising
The (3) Essential Parts of a Book Launch Postmortem
In the world of Project Management, a postmortem is a special meeting where the project 
team reconvenes after everything is complete. We talk through what went right on the project and the parts we’ve all tried to forget. It’s a “lessons learned” session; a review so we’ll all actually learn those lessons and (hopefully) not make the same mistakes on the next project. It’s easy for these meetings to become finger-pointing sessions, but a good project manager will work to make the meeting a “safe zone.” A place where results can be assessed honestly.
A book launch is, in itself, a project. A short-term undertaking with start and finish dates. So I love the idea of holding my own private postmortem for each book launch. As I work to make each launch more successful than the last, I can focus on areas that yield strong results and ditch the efforts that were a waste. Also, this gives me a good pulse on how book marketing is evolving.
So let’s take a look at the (3) essential parts of a good postmortem, and I’ll use my recent launch as an example. Read the rest of this entry »
Three Proven Strategies for Marketing a New Fiction Book Release
I’ve been quiet on this blog over the past few months, as my life has taken a turn for the busy! With two new book releases and the birth of my third daughter, prioritizing has become a necessity.
But I’ve also taken the opportunity to spend focused time learning from some of the top teachers in the world of book marketing – experts like Mark Dawson (of Facebook Ads for Authors fame), Tim Grahl (teaches a fantastic course called Launch a Bestseller), and Nick Stephenson (Your First 10,000 Readers).
I applied many of the approaches I learned to my latest release (The Lady and the Mountain Call), and released the book with over 3,700 preorders. While not enough to reach the NY Times Bestseller list, these did give the book a nice kick-start as my baby entered the world. This was book 5 in my Mountain Dreams Series, and was available for preorder purchase on all the major sales platforms for just under 90 days (the most allowed by Amazon).
When I sat down to hold my launch post-mortem, the results were quite interesting! Over the next few weeks, I’ll share my data and observations about how each of my strategies worked, with the numbers to support each. Not sure what a post-mortem is? We’ll talk about that, too!
So stay tuned!
But before then, let me share a quick overview of the three main strategies that have proven successful for marketing a new fiction release.
5 Steps to Market a New Book Release
One of the questions I receive most often is from authors is, “How do I promote my new book?”
Whether it be your debut release or book #5 (or #105) marketing a new release can often be daunting.
But it doesn’t have to be!
Through the months of June, July, and August, I blogged a marketing workshop here, where I shared all the different marketing options available to authors. And there are a lot of opportunities! But the list can be intimidating, so let me break it down into critical steps for a new release. Read the rest of this entry »
Facebook Ads Demystified
Updated April, 2017
We’ve discussed before how Facebook Ads have become one of my “go-to” marketing tools. I get a lot of furrowed brows when I say that, so today let’s take a moment to walk through the ad set-up – especially the crucial pieces to make sure the ad:
- is seen by your target market and
- gives you the highest possible ROI (return on your investment).
First, let me outline a few of the particular advantages of Facebook advertising: Read the rest of this entry »
My Book Marketing “Ah-ha!”
I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from this blog as I taught a twelve-week marketing seminar on the ACFW-SC chapter blog. (You can see the posts HERE Just click on the June, July, and August posts).
But now I’m excited to get back to regular posts with you!
During my time away, I discovered a critical equation for strong, steady book sales, and now I’d love to share it with you! Read the rest of this entry »
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