There are a lot of book blogs and mailing list services out there--Bookbub, Ereadernewstoday, Pixel Of Ink, Bookblast, and Kindle Books & Tips just to name a few. So does the self publishing world really need another one? Yes...yours.
I know what you're thinking. What good does it do to create a new book blog in a marketed that's already saturated with hundreds of Kindle related blogs? It's easy really. Most of those blogs feature Kindle books of all genres. One day they'll feature a romance book, the next a thriller. But with the noted exceptions of Bookbub, Bookblast, and Book Gorilla, very few of these blogs focus on specific genres.
Just say you write Zombie books, or Sports Romance, or Time Travel Science Fiction. Odds are you aren't going to find a blog or service devoted to your specific genre. Even if you write general horror, sci fi, or romance, it's still hard to find a blog that focuses solely on what you write. And that void is exactly how you can stand out.
For example, in the last week I started a new Twitter feed--@dystopianebooks. The feed is devoted just to Dystopian ebooks--which is also a genre I happen to write in. Every day, I pick two or three dystopian books off of Amazon and feature the authors and their books on it. I always @ mention the authors, followed by a # of your genre, then provide a link to their book so they know I've spotlighted their work.
Why do I do this? First, because I like to help out other authors (case in point, this blog). Second, it helps me build an audience in my general category. The only people that are going to follow a Dystopian Ebook Twitter feed are going to be those interested in apocalyptic type stories. And the more authors I feature, the bigger my audience gets. In the future I'm going to be rolling out a Dystopian ebook blog and Facebook fan page to further the reach. In the meantime I also have a Dystopian ebook mailing list sign up link in my Twitter profile. This is all to build up the largest dystopian fanbase I can. Then once every couple of weeks or so I can use that audience to promote my own books.
It's a great give and take. For three and a half weeks a month, I'm promoting other authors within my genre. Then the rest of the month, I'm using that following to help my own books. The general principle is that readers will more likely join a feed or blog devoted to a topic they like rather than take a chance on an author they don't know.
The best part is, this doesn't take up much time. After the initial set up, you can pick two or three books a day, then just cross post them to Twitter, Facebook, and your blog. The whole process takes less than fifteen minutes a day. The payoff is more than worth it though.
And this idea can be adapted no more what genre you write in. Odds are, you'll be one of the few fantasy blogs, or steampunk feeds, or historical fiction fan pages around. The key is not to get discouraged right away. Just remember, you're building an audience for the long term. But once that audience is established, you can use them for each of your new releases. So get blogging and tweeting. #success
No comments:
Post a Comment