I’m excited to share with you my thoughts and lessons on promo art and radio silence.
I can’t believe it’s June already y’all. It’s too soon.
Could’ve swore that yesterday was the middle of May.
Oh well. Guess that’s what happens when ya got tons of stuff to do and little time to do it.
This month’s discussion topic is PERFECT because you and I are going to be talking about promotional art / graphics and radio silence.
Radio Silence? What’s that?
Oh, it’s my term that I like to use when I drop off the end of the social media world. Meaning my account goes silent on specific days or during certain hours of the day.
The first time I did that stunt it totally freaked out all of my friends because I did not tell them that I was going to do it. Yet, after I did it then I kind of set a schedule to keep on doing it on specific days or times.
I’m not saying that social media is bad… it’s something that having too much of can lead to grief.
But, first, Promo Graphics…
You and I are going to discuss promotional art / graphics during the next two Mondays of this month.
You’ll learn about the tools that other authors use and why you’d want to do your own graphics too.
So, let’s kick off this month with an enthusiactic “HURRAY FOR JUNE” then get ready to learn about graphics and the importance of life balance.
Wow, it’s been a while since yours truly has written anything for Burning Embers.
To be honest I needed a break and I thank JQM for handling things while I was on hiatus.
So, what’s brought me back to the typewriter? What’s got me all fired up?
I’ll tell ya 😉
Apple has launched Apple Books for Authors! Woohoo!
It has a lot of cool things that make me want to do a series exclusive to Apple Books only and stop putting all my eggs into the KDP basket.
Why is Apple Books good? Well, as you know KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) has been dominating the indie publishing sphere since 2015 and frankly it’s gotten a bit too tight in restrictions for many authors.
The glory golden days of KDP are gone and over with and thus you either play by the might Zon’s rules or you get booted. Once you get booted you didn’t have many options…
Well, there is Draft2Digital but still KDP was the go to spot for your average reader in the mindset to buy and not peruse.
With Apple Books on the scene making it super easy for authors to publish on their platform I bet there’s going to be a huge change in the market. Will it be for good? Only time will tell.
The game changer
So, what’s got me absolutely crazy about Apple Books and why should you even bat an eye at it?
Take a gander at these wonderful options my fellow author friend:
Apple Books
Kindle Direct Publishing
70% royalties on every book, regardless of price
✔️
❌
No file delivery fees
✔️
❌
No limitations on offering free books to customers
I thought so too and is super inticing for me to ditch KDP all together. However, keep in mind that Apple Books does not have a program like Kindle Unlimited.
Nor do I know if you can do print books through them or get free ISBNs (yes in some countries like the USA you have to pay for your ISBN numbers) through Apple Books.
Overall, I would have to say that this is a huge step up for Apple and I hoping this gives KDP a run for their money. A little competition helps keep things fair and we indie authors have been needing this for a while now.
What are you thoughts on Apple Books? Are you excited to give it a shot? Let me know.
Paid marketing. It’s the bane of all authors who are first starting out.
Why? Because you have to pay for it.
Not like free advertising / marketing on social media or via word of mouth (through friends, family & customers.)
Also, if you’re like me then your paid marketing purse is rather small. But that’s okay.
You can still do paid advertising with a small budget. It takes a bit of planning but eventually you can make that purse grow.
I’m like you learning all the ropes and frankly you probably are doing the same thing I did about a year ago.
What’s that? Taking all the profits and not diverting some of it into an advertising fund.
How to plan your paid marketing budget
After reading tons of marketing and advertising books the following rings true in each tome:
Set aside a small portion of your earnings to re-invest into your advertising
As your sales grow so does your marketing budget
The bigger the budget then the more advertising that you can do for your books
Makes sense, right? It totally does…
So, the question is… why the friggin heck does no one do it?
Okay… okay… maybe YOU did it but have you re-evaluated how much you’re putting into the fund?
Did you know that as your profits grow you should also grow the amount that you set aside to advertise? Yes, if you haven’t done it you need to do it.
What’s a good portion to set aside?
Good question.
It depends. Can you spare like 50% of your profits to go back into the marketing fund?
Don’t gawk. Seriously, don’t. It’s not gonna help if you stand there and gawk.
In the beginning you may have to set aside more to amass your advertising powers a lot sooner.
Certainly, when you have the ability to do more ads or run ads in areas that have more eyeballs of potential rabid fans then you’ll get into the black faster.
So, as your profits grow you can choose to reduce the amount or keep it at 50% until the marketing budget gets to your desired target.
Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking they made it big without paid advertisement.
Even if they did they paid it out in blood, sweat, tears and time. Nothing is free. You exchange money or time to get things done.
Now, why should you do paid marketing?
Well, one you have limited time (unless you have a time machine or a Dr. Who tardis… mine broke)
You can select the audience that sees your advertisement
More potential fans will see your ad and will eventually buy your stuff or become more familiar with your name <-more on this in a few moments
Not subjected as much to your ad getting buried in the social media feeds
Are you worried that showing your ad to your customer several times might anger them?
Yep. Same here. Though, did you know that it’s a technique used since 1885?
No? Well, believe it.
Why? Because my friend advertisers STILL use this technique to this very day.
Check out Thomas Smith’s guide called Successful Advertising in 1885
The first time people look at any given ad, they don’t even see it. The second time, they don’t notice it. The third time, they are aware that it is there. The fourth time, they have a fleeting sense that they’ve seen it somewhere before. The fifth time, they actually read the ad. The sixth time they thumb their nose at it. The seventh time, they start to get a little irritated with it. The eighth time, they start to think, “Here’s that confounded ad again.” The ninth time, they start to wonder if they’re missing out on something. The tenth time, they ask their friends and neighbors if they’ve tried it. The eleventh time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads. The twelfth time, they start to think that it must be a good product. The thirteenth time, they start to feel the product has value. The fourteenth time, they start to remember wanting a product exactly like this for a long time. The fifteenth time, they start to yearn for it because they can’t afford to buy it. The sixteenth time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future. The seventeenth time, they make a note to buy the product. The eighteenth time, they curse their poverty for not allowing them to buy this terrific product. The nineteenth time, they count their money very carefully. The twentieth time prospects see the ad, they buy what is offering.
Marketing madness is the theme for the month of March.
What kind of marketing madness will we be talking about?
Hmmm. Good question.
My answer to you would be free vs paid strategies which would involve social all the way to paid advertisement.
Knowing that your budget for advertising might be rather slim we can discuss ways of fattening up that purse so that you can get a better advantage in the market.
Sure, there are plenty of free ways to advertise your book but that’s only half the battle.
Now a days you need to use paid advertising to ensure your books don’t get sunk into the unknown.
In my opinion… needing to pay to get your book noticed sucks. However, if you want to get unstuck then you need to heavily consider setting up a paid advertising plan.
OMG! But there are so many platforms… which one is right for me??
Yeah, I hear ya…
Let me let you in on a secret.
You’ll want to focus your advertising dollars where your ideal audience hangs out the most.
So, don’t spend those dollars on all the platforms. Instead choose one and stick to it.
For instance…
If you know your audience spends the majority of their time on Facebook then your dollars are well spent there.
I know, I know… what if your audience splits their time between Instagram and Facebook? Then go with Instagram… or at least that’s what I would do…
We’ll talk more on setting advertising budget next week as well as a glimpse at BookBub, Goodreads and a few other sites to promote your book.
For now, go ahead and make a list of places and sites that your audience may or may not hang out. It’ll help when we do the planning next week.
