At last your book has been published. This is the day you have been waiting for. Your book is on Amazon and is available to all. The ‘Look Inside’ button invites the reader to view the first chapter. Do you take a look? I think that most authors would say a resounding, ‘no.’ We have spent so much time editing, reading, re-reading, reading the book backwards, listening to it, re-reading it, having it proofread, getting friends to read it, amending it, re-reading it, editing it and then re-reading our books that we are unable to even read the first line of our published book. We are afraid that we will see something that will make the fifty paperbacks we have just ordered unsellable. Instead, we take a deep breath and keep our fingers crossed, hoping that the book will sell and our dreams and hopes will be realised. Does this sound familiar?

I am a hybrid (self-published and traditionally published) author and have written twelve diverse books. Writing a book is exhilarating, takes us off to another dimension and feeds our souls. Exposing our creations to the world can be a most wonderful experience or it can be soul destroying. We can quite easily become emotional wrecks. Authors are passionate people and want to share their writing with the world. The hope is that we can inform, enlighten and brighten the day of those that love to read. This is why we keep writing. We want to make people happy with our creations.

Natasha Murray – an author that likes to think outside of the box

Some people say that it is impossible for self-published authors to sell books. This is not the case. A well written book will sell if it appeals to the public.

I have been told that I am an analytical thinker. It is true. I do go for long walks and think through complex problems or plan twists for my story-line, trying to find a simple but an inspirational solution. I have come to the following conclusion. In order to make sales, then authors do need to promote their books or get a company like Booksgosocial.com to do this for them. But, yes, there is a ‘but.’ A book is only worth promoting or spending money on ads, if the following has been achieved. This is not rocket science!

 1.   Write a great crowd-pleasing book – 70,000 to 80,000 word novels with plenty of twists, action and with a surprise at the end of nearly every chapter; to keep the pages turning, are what readers are looking for. Look online and see which genres are in Amazon’s top 100. If you write your next book in a trending genre, then you are on the right track.

Authors like to write from their hearts and this sometimes means that they are writing for a niche market and will get very few sales. If you write a crowd-pleasing book then your back list or future works will sell a lot better if your popular genre book takes off. I usually write niche market science fiction novels for children and teenagers (do teenagers read?) but because of the lack of sales, I have now chosen to write popular romantic suspense novels and have really enjoyed writing in this genre. If you write non-fiction then the subject matter should be suitable for a mass audience. ‘How To’ books are popular. Again if you look at Amazon’s top 100 then you will be able to see which non-fiction books are trending at the moment.

2.  Think up a simple Title – something that the reader won’t forget. There are titles out there that make me smile. For example, this is not actually a book but there are many like this. ‘My Mother’s Sister’s Friend’s Neighbour’s Child’ You know what I am getting at!

3.  Write a 250-word description/blurb for your book that draws the reader in. – The first line of the description needs to be dramatic. For my new romantic suspense novel, I wrote ‘After Ivy Brown is found dead in a silent pool, Jules Bridgewater and Seth Hearn, from two rival farming families, must find a way to stay together. Their lives may depend on it!’ The second line of the description could be a five star review you have received. Then the remaining paragraph should be a short outline of the story that doesn’t give the plot away. Many authors find this difficult to do but help is out there to create a description.

4.  Create an eye catching cover – Have a look at the covers of the latest books on Amazon for the genre you have chosen to write a book in and create a similar cover. Currently, thriller covers tend to have someone running off into the distance with the scenery tunnelling away from them. Psychological thrillers usually have a person wearing red clothing. Chick lit novels have cute, girly pastel covers with swirly lettering. Your cover needs to look professional and stand out when it is thumbnail size.

A lot of covers produced these days are simple and use limited colours. Lettering should be bold and stand out. Below is the cover of 58 Farm End that I have created and some book covers I found on Amazon that draw your eye to them. My cover is a work in progress and just needs a little review quote or two to complete it. If you are unable to create a similar cover then get a professional to help you. I know you are not supposed to judge a book by its cover. An author may not but our readers do.

5.  When your manuscript is complete – get Word or an App to read a paragraph at a time to you. You will then be able to hear if you have repeated or missed a word. Then copy and paste the paragraph into a grammar checker online. I use Scribens to see if I have missed any commas or have a typo. Your book needs to flow and be error free. When you are ready to publish, you need to have your work professionally proofread.

6.   Send a pdf copy of your manuscript out to your friends or to beta readers – to see what they think of your book. Friends are more willing to read your book if it is similar to what they read. I promise you, friends will tell you the brutal truth about your book. Some beta readers will read your book for free if you read theirs. When you get your feedback then you will be able to fix any issues and not get beaten up by troll reviewers if you publish it too early.

7.  Prepare your book for publishing. Make sure your books are placed in categories that are not too general. For example, my science fiction book 3004, is currently listed under First Contact, Colonisation and Metaphysical Science Fiction and is doing well as a free book on Amazon:

Customer reviews: 4.2 out of 5 stars 8 customer ratings
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #3,386 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#30 in First Contact Science Fiction eBooks
#13 in Colonisation Science Fiction eBooks
#18 in Metaphysical Science Fiction eBooks

So where do you go from here? Have you completed the steps above? How do you promote a book, write, look after your family, work, exercise, have a life and sleep soundly at night?

There is more to being an author than just writing. There is the promotion side of things. The words promotion and marketing fill many authors with dread and despair. Most authors prefer to keep a low profile and are uncomfortable about getting out there and singing from the roof tops about their marvellous creations. Me included! Book promotion/marketing is shrouded in a blanket of confusion and mystery. It really is not that complicated.

There are millions of great books on Amazon that have been published and then abandoned by their owners because of the lack of sales. Slowly they slide down the ranking system until they are forgotten. It is a shame as there are some brilliant books out there. Even traditionally published authors have to do a fair amount of promotion themselves to get their books noticed. Book promotion is a necessary evil. But, yes, another but. A book is only worth promoting if you have received more than fifty reviews for it on Amazon. Unfortunately, book reviews are notoriously hard to get. Your friends can not give you reviews as Amazon may remove them if they discover you are friends on Facebook. Look out for my next blog, where I will cover How to get book reviews without turning grey!

On my website www.nmurray.moonfruit.com I run a blog about my book promotion and marketing journey. I write the odd article but most of my posts are interviews with authors from across the world. This is one way an author can help another author get some web presence. I always include the author’s name and book in the title and share the posts on social media. These posts bring visitors to my website, and authors get a little publicity. It is a win, win situation.

One of the interview questions I ask is How do you market your books and do your promotion methods work? It seems that most authors do not have a marketing plan. Most say they try a little of this and a little of that and have high hopes of success. Authors just want to write and did not sign up to be marketeers. Have a look through all the interesting author interviews. You will see some amazing authors and their books but no clear marketing plans http://www.nmurray.moonfruit.com/blog/4553650515

Selling books is tricky but if you have achieved the above seven steps, then there is a very good chance that with a canny marketing plan, you should be able to sell your popular genre books easily. When I say should, there is still an element of luck involved. A writer gets many curve balls thrown at them. If you haven’t got the time and energy but have an advertising budget, then companies like Booksgosocial.com can help you. If you have time and empty pockets, then a simple marketing plan can be put in place.

During lockdown I have written two romantic suspense novels, 58 Farm End and the sequel Julia’s Baby (a popular genre) and I have achieved the seven steps above. If you would like to see how I plan to publish these books and run a marketing campaign then check out this Booksgosocial.com blog posts or contact me at nmurray3004@gmail.com and I will add you to my mailing list. I won’t spam you I promise. I will only send you an email when I have some interesting book related release date news, want to give you something or have written another blog post for Booksgosocial.com

I hope you found this article useful and wish you well. I am always happy to answer any of your questions.

Natasha Murray Founder of the UK Southern Book Show
Author of 3004, 3006, Jack Solar’s Journals, Chanctonbury
A Flea in the Paw, the Milly’s Magic Quilt series and
Buy this Book and Help Save the World
www.nmurray.moonfruit.com