LJ Sellers: Author of provocative mysteries & thrillers » marketing

The Digital Revolution

LJ Sellers — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:32:26 +0000

“Ninety percent of your sales will come from word-of-mouth or digital promotion by 2011.” I read this striking prediction in late 2009 and made a note of it. I think it’s already true for upcoming novelists like me. The second part of the original post was even more important: How do you change what you’re doing today to be ready for that?

I believe I’ve already made these necessary changes by:

expanding my online presence (Twitter, Facebook, CrimeSpace)
beefing up my digital mailing list by running contests (Vertical Response)
networking directly with readers on the sites where they hang out (Goodreads, LibraryThing, Kindle Forums, MobileRead)

But is it enough? What else should I be doing? What are you doing to prepare for this significant change?

Branding Basics

LJ Sellers — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:08:27 +0000

Novelists are learning to be marketers. We Twitter, and blog, and send out e-newsletters. But branding is a little elusive. It goes hand in hand with platform, a concept that’s also a little squishy for novelists. Still, the branding basics can be tweaked and put to use for book promotion. Here are the fundamentals, which I made note of long ago.

Have enough passion about your brand/product that you appear alarming. (This one’s easy for me.)
Know more about your topic/product/genre than 98% of the population. (I interview experts and do research for every novel. I also read everything I can about the publishing industry and crime fiction, in particular.)
Choose an attribute somewhere between extraordinary and outright offensive. Stand out! (I’ve latched on to the words provocative and mystery/suspense to describe my stories. I could do more of this though.)
Treat your brand as if it were normal, not just a publicity stunt. (Yep. It’s who I am. Everywhere I post, I’m always L.J. Sellers. )
Work yourself silly at branding for nine months to  three years. Don’t quit during a lull. Only the tenacious survive. (I’m coming up on three years of 70-hour weeks and I see it paying off. Finally!)
Sell something while you’re establishing your brand. Even if you think it’s not working, stick with it and keep  selling. (I’ve been selling all along and recently added three books to my portfolio.)

Writers: Do you use branding tactics in your promotional approach?
Readers: Do your favorite authors have clear brands (or characters or themes?) Is that what attracts you?

Email Newsletter Services

LJ Sellers — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:02:10 +0000

I did some research yesterday into the top five providers of email newsletter/contact services. They all offer design and list management tools, a sign-up function for your website, and usually a free trial. The pricing doesn’t vary much, but there are important differences in services. Three offer a pay-as-you-go option for people like me with small lists who plan to use the service infrequently, and only two offer RSS services. Here’s a brief guide:

Vertical Response

monthly plan or pay as you go
PAYG: .015 per email for lists under 1000 ($7.50 for 500)
monthly: $10 per month for 500 or less
discounts on monthly plans if you buy 6 or 12 months at a time
free trial (first 100 emails free)
tracking, segmentation, and ROI reporting
free customer support
offers surveys and direct-mail postcards

Constant Contact

monthly plan only, no pay as you go
monthly plan: $15 for 500 or fewer
free 60-day trial
lots of customer support/phone, e-mail, library, videos
reporting details (who opened, what links clicked)
direct download from Microsoft outlook

iContact

$9.95 month for 500 or fewer
15-day free trial
RSS features for blogs
offers survey services/features
offers lots of e-mail marketing information

Vista Print

$14.99 a month for 500 or fewer
also offers per-mail options (.03 per-email for 500 or fewer)
one-month free trial
reporting tools
set-up limited to Internet Explorer or FireFox browsers
can be integrated with Vista Print website (if you have one)

Mail Chimp

monthly plan or pay as you go
monthly plan: $10 for 500 or fewer
PAYG: .03 per email for small batches (uses a prepaid credit system)
RSS to email list
no call center phone support
offers Mail Chimp Expert, service that will do all the work for you
lots of marketing tools: segmentation, analytics (many of which I don’t understand)

I’ve decided to go with Vertical Response because I need a pay-as-you-go option for once or twice a year mailings. Vista Print offers that option, but it’s more expensive, and Mail Chimp (with little customer support) is not for beginners like me. If you know what you’re doing and need RSS feeds, then Mail Chimp is probably a great option. Vertical Response also had direct-mail post cards, which I might use someday, and also has a good reputation in the writing community.

What service do you use? Are you happy with it? Any advice for a newbie?