I love writing but not so much marketing.  Up until recently, all my marketing efforts had been at the local level:  Book signings, talking to local bookstores, talking with local groups.  As a result, I have sold more paperback books than e-books.  And while I’ve had an author website for a while, It was stagnant and didn’t really draw any traffic.

I recognized that e-book sales are a larger market, but I didn’t want to put too much time and money (mostly money) into online marketing until I had a series.  I read in several places that an indie author needs multiple books to pull in readers, so I worked on more books and did little online marketing.  My plan was and still is, to market my series.

With The Eastern Factor being released the last week in January, The Kingdom of Haven trilogy is complete, and I am working on my online marketing.  One thing I’ve learned in the last few month of devising my strategy is that there is a lot of information out there, but no one way to success—definitely no guaranteed way to succeed.

So here is my strategy:

• Goodreads Book Giveaways:
  • I gave away 5 signed copies of The Order of the Wolf, book 1 in The Kingdom of Haven series on Goodreads.  The giveaway went from Aug 6 to Sept 31.  I had 601 people sign up for the giveaway.  I’ve received 1 Goodreads review (4 stars) and had 230 people add the book to their “to-read” status.
  • I am currently giving away 5 signed copies of Stenson Blues, book 2 in The Kingdom of Haven series on Goodreads. So far, 146 people have signed up for the giveaway and 62 people have added the book to their “to-read” status. The giveaway is going until 12/31.  Check it out:  https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/264552-stenson-blues
• AskDavid.com Book Promotion Site—I joined AskDavid ($15/6 months). I can post as many books as I want and they have it on their site and tweet it out to their 58,000 twitter followers.  I posted the first two books.  So far, no reviews, but the initial tweet was re-tweeted a few times for each book.  I also received 25 tweets to their followers at my discretion.  I am saving them for when my blog tour is coming out.
• Instafreebie:
  • Setup The Order of the Wolf as a free e-book giveaway in exchange for joining my mailing list. Instafreebie sends the new members to my Mailchimp account.  I’ve added about 60 members in two months.  You can find it here:  https://www.instafreebie.com/free/xbVUD
  • Setup Stenson Blues as a free e-book for members of my mailing list who received my first monthly newsletter(for December).
  • Plan to set up The Eastern Factor here for sending out ARC review copies.
• Mailchimp:
  • Gathering email list through Instafreebie and my Facebook page.
  • Setup a monthly newsletter for my subscribers. (First one went out last week).
  • Stats on the first newsletter: 43.8% open rate, 12.5% click rate, 1 unsubscribed.
• Facebook/Blog/Amazon
  • My blog is linked to my Facebook author page. Between the two, I get a few views and likes, but not anything huge.  There is a definite upward trend on followers (Yes, I’m calling it a trend if my mom starts following my Facebook author page).  Facebook keeps sending me messages to boost my posts, but I haven’t stepped into that yet.
  • I have started following some great authors (you know who you are), and have learned quite a bit through the blog.
  • You can find me on my Amazon author’s page as well: amazon.com/author/freddiesilva
• Website
  • My current website is still fairly static, but I have it linked to my blog and have put more effort into keeping it updated. Happily, my website comes up on the first page (now) if you Google me.
  • I have a new web domain (www.wolfjape.com) and website coming, but it isn’t quite ready yet. It will be hosted on WordPress, so my blog won’t be separate anymore and you won’t see any more annoying adds.
• PW Booklife—Joined Publishers Weekly Booklife which is set up for Indie authors. You can send your book in for consideration for review (no cost).  I submitted both books for review.  Book 1 was rejected but I’m still waiting to hear on book 2.  I didn’t have high hopes of getting a review here but figured it was worth a try.
• Sage’s Blog Tour/Book Blast
  • I am in the process of setting up a blog tour for the series. It should be starting around the second week in January.
  • This series blog tour will be followed up by a book blast for the release of The Eastern Factor the last week of January.

It has been busy, but I’m excited to be finally getting the ball rolling on the marketing.  I’m not going to say it’s been fun, but it has definitely been a challenge.  Hopefully, it will get easier with the next book as I figure out what works.