I talk daily with hopeful Australian authors starting their self-publishing project. Every day the same big questions with the same issues stand up like mountains. As authors push toward the finish-line after years of hard work, there are questions about editing, design and print.
But the real ‘Mount Kosciusko’, or better ‘Mount Everest’, is a question that is seldom asked, the question – how will my book come to be read?
Readership is all about visibility and access. This means an author’s book must first be visible or known. Then readers must have an easy way of getting the book.
I can sum up these two factors in one simple salient term – marketing.
Marketing is both art and science. Unfortunately our industry is plagued with gimmick-laden marketing packages that cost too much and deliver too little. This is why Green Hill doesn’t offer marketing packages. They simply don’t work.
Each author and more specifically each book needs a fully customised marketing plan. That’s why expensive cookie-cutter packages that include junk like book-stubs, posters, library email blasts, press releases and the mother of them all: “worldwide distribution” can make my blood boil.
Even worse many authors are misled to think that if the marketing package is expensive it will get their book known and read. Nothing can be further from the truth. Most features in our competitor’s marketing packages take the click of a mouse online and are ineffective.
Green Hill doesn’t offer “marketing packages”. But we can be engaged on an hourly rate to customise a marketing plan that has the very best chance of success.
My advice is to always start with the fundamentals and then build. Don’t commit to a big marketing package with a big price tag. The first things to do are:
- Get an ISBN
- Get professional book design
Add in good content and there’s your foundation upon which to build readership and sales.
Interested in publishing your book but unsure where to start or what is even involved? Tell us about your project and we will post you a copy of our:
The Little Book of
Big Publishing Tips.
In just a quick 8,000 words, this little book will equip you with the knowledge you need to successfully publish your book.
The Little Book of Big Publishing tips goes into the essentials of self-publishing a book, outlining the business and financial side of publishing, legal issues, design, editing, sales and marketing. There's even a section on how to identify a vanity-publishing scam.
