Sometimes it helps to hear from someone who has traveled the same road that you are on. What mistakes did they make? What road blocks did they encounter? And most importantly, how did they over come to ultimately be successful?
I’ve previously mentioned Nanowrimo, a non-profit organization that promotes writing by setting a goal (50,000 words in 30 days) and offering a complete support network to encourage would be writers to become authors. The annual writing frenzy takes place in November and as another Nano experience comes to an end, I looked into some of those participants who have gone on to publish their works.
Sarra Cannon jumped out at me first because she has attracted a sizable audience, 100,000 readers and also self-published her novels. Sarra has published 20 young adult, college age and adult fiction just since 2010!
Sarra offers some great advice about how she acquired her initial audience in an article entitled Sarra Cannon: The 6 Self-Publishing Tips That Nabbed Her 100,000 Readers:
- I published books back-to-back very quickly (two months apart, thanks to NaNoWriMo!). The faster you can get content out there, the faster your books will find an audience. A lot of newly self-published writers spend too much time stressing out about social media and marketing; those are always good, but writing and publishing more books is hands down the best marketing tool an indie author has.
- I hired a professional cover artist to completely redesign my covers. The new covers were well branded so that they were eye-catching and easily recognized as a set.
- I started submitting my novels to book bloggers for review.
Sarra talks a lot about the power of having books in a series and as I study her own website and lists of books I discovered a few important things:
- She creates a series with a set of characters that readers connect with and then she quickly continues the story with new books. On her website she also mentions the next book that is coming out, helping to create a level of anticipation with readers.
- She takes a portion of a series, the first three in a series of eight, with more on the way, and packages them at a reduced e-book rate to help readers become engaged.
- She creates smaller e-books that are almost like a bi-monthly series, publishing a new series of chapters every two weeks. – This idea is just brilliant!
Finally, she offers some great self-published advice for authors looking to grow the number of readers:
- Study Amazon like it’s your job. There is a wealth of information waiting to be discovered in the Kindle store. Are you writing science fiction? Find the best-seller lists for science fiction and study the covers, the content, the prices. What works? What doesn’t? Do readers in your genre prefer series or stand-alones? Don’t copy anyone, but be smart about what readers expect.
- Connect with like-minded authors. Most indie authors are extremely helpful and willing to share their knowledge.
- Write, write, write! Get your you-know-what in the chair and write more books: write the books of your heart and don’t let stress steal your joy.
She is also very active and personal on her Facebook page. Every Wednesday she offers a contest to help encourage participation. This week visitors to her page need to leave a comment about their favorite Thanksgiving tradition. The winner receives a Google Play gift card.
I spent a little time scrolling through her page to see what she talks about and it is a great learning tool. She updates readers on her whereabouts, shares current writing projects and lets readers know a little more about her – not only she is a mother to a little boy named Andrew but she loves Hello Kitty. She is approachable, relatable and authentic.
However, perhaps the best treasure I uncovered on her Facebook page was a Writing Meter.
Here readers can see just how the next book in a series is coming! Brilliant.
Bottom line: Taking a little time to study a writer in your genre to see how they market, how their website is laid out, cover designs, and publishing history is a great way to grab ideas for your own writing, publishing and marketing strategy. Sarra Cannon is just one example of how a self-published author is finding readers and ultimately sales.