Marketing is like Precisian Ops

Yep, it's true, and I'm finding this out more and more as I look into marketing my new book "On a Foreign Field". There is a serious amount of planning and timing you have to do to make your marketing campaign go off without a hitch, and even then, just like in a battle, it could still go wrong, and probably will. Right now I feel just like a general with my map and little soldiers, marking my attack plan and going over it with all my lieutenants. Marketing is a very important thing to self-published authors--it will sound the success of your sales. Of course, the success of your book itself is all up to your own writing and who happens to read it. Not everyone is going to like a book, and that's just the way it is.

As an example of what one might go through during marketing, let me tell you a bit about what I'm planning on for my campaign of "On a Foreign Field":

(1) Most importantly--obviously--is publishing the book in the first place. This is the easy part. I have the proof copy, and now all that needs to be done is myself and a fellow writer are going to go through it again and after we make sure all the edits are done, I will re-submit my manuscript, and if all looks well, then I will be able to successfully publish my book!

(2) Then comes the 'fun' bit. I am also planning on publishing it in a Kindle format, and since this is something I have not done before, it might take a little longer. Then I'm going to do a free promotion for it to generate interest and maybe get some nice people to review it =) There is no better incentive than free items for people to try something.

(3) After that, I am setting up a virtual book tour, where I will be appearing on blogs around the web and doing interviews and guest posts and all that fun stuff. I need to set this up with one of the sites that does this, and in doing so, I will have to make sure everything else that I need to run at the same time is in place. Get those soldiers into position!!

(4) While the blog tour is on, I am planning to do a giveaway on Goodreads for several copies of my book so that everyone who sees the tour will have a chance of winning a free copy (and maybe some other fun things specific to the tour itself). This also means that I have to make an add on Goodreads to gain even more interest while the giveaway is running. Again, nothing is better than free things to garner interest!

Hopefully, if all goes well, one might be able to sell enough copies to gain back the price of the campaign. It's not like self-published authors can tax the common folk for the king's ransom, nor even rob the rich to feed the poor. We're all alone in this, but if you do your marketing and promoting right, than you may just reach the success you wish for! The most important part is not giving up.

So I wish the best of luck to any other writers who are campaigning and I hope to see you around. If anyone has any other tips for me or other writers, put them in the comments below!

Slainte, Hazel