 If you’ve made it through the lengthy process of writing a book, the process of selling it to an audience can seem daunting. If you’re unsure where to start with marketing your book to the masses and securing sales, our team at Rowanvale are here to help. This post will guide you through some essential steps (and top tips!) to make sure that your book is marketed as successfully as possible.
Rowanvale also has our own mailing list where we offer free advice on the various stages of your writing journey. If you’d like to join, please email publishingadvice@rowanvalebooks.com requesting to join the list.
By following these steps, marketing your book will be much easier to navigate and sales will be far more likely. For more information about our own Marketing and Aftercare services, click here or give us a call at 02921 280 895.
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 There are a variety of publishing outlets for indie authors, each with their own unique features. Our guide to self-publishing options will help you to understand the different types of companies, introduce some of the big names and determine what company best suits your publishing needs. Types of Self-Publishers Before you start looking at the benefits of individual companies, it’s important to understand which type of self-publishing would work best for you. There are two main types of self-publishing companies:
Options for Aggregator Publishers Rowanvale - Our own services at Rowanvale are, of course, a top contender for self-publishers! Whether you’re hoping to publish in paperback, hardback or eBook, our publishing packages here at Rowanvale are guaranteed to help you through any difficulties you may encounter within the self-publishing process. Every one of our publishing packages comes complete with proofreading and editing services as well as the option for illustration, cover design and formatting help tailored to the needs of your book. We also cover all bases in terms of distribution, including an option to publish through Amazon KDP, complete with Amazon analysis and assistance to help your book stand out on the platform. This way, we can help you decide which platforms are best suited to your preferences and needs as an author. With so many services offered under one price, we really are the full package! Lulu – One of the oldest self-publishing platforms, Lulu gives you the opportunity to publish a range of book types to online retail outlets if you have an ISBN. Lulu offers a commission of 80% royalties for print books and 90% for eBooks, a slightly higher rate than average. However, its other services come at an additional cost to the price of publication, some of which may not be particularly affordable. Here at Rowanvale, we can support you with publication via Lulu with our stand-alone services of cover design, proofreading and copy-editing, which will often be offered by us at cheaper than Lulu’s prices. IngramSpark – IngramSpark can publish books in hardcover as well as online and offers an average 40% commission, 45% if you opt out of publishing to Amazon. They also offer affordable advertising opportunities and reports of your online sales, as well as access to their free book-building tool to help you design your book cover and layout online. Despite this, the costs of setting up and making revisions to your book via IngramSpark can prove more expensive than other options that let you make the same changes for free. Conveniently, we also use IngramSpark as one of our distributors, so you can reap the benefits of their platform even when publishing through Rowanvale! PublishDrive – PublishDrive offers direct distribution to many popular online stores such as iBooks, KDP and Google Books. What makes PublishDrive unique is that, unlike other companies who take a percentage of your royalties, you keep 100% of the royalties from your sales with PublishDrive if you pay their monthly subscription rate, which differs depending on the number of books you plan to publish with them. For their standard rate, you would be paying £14.56 per month to keep your royalties, a fee that is likely only worth it if you make a significant amount of royalties in the first place.  Popular Online Retailers
Amazon KDP – With Amazon being the largest retailer of books online and 42% of its books being self-published, KDP is a great choice of retailer to get a wide reach for your book. With initial royalty rates of 35% for books under $2.99 and 70% for books priced between $2.99 and $9.99, joining the KDP Selects program will also offer you higher royalties and a wider range of features on the platform. However, it is worth noting that joining KDP Selects enrols you in an exclusive partnership with Amazon for 90 days, meaning that you will be unable to publish your book on any other platforms for this time. Rowanvale can help you publish via KDP with our KDP Publishing Package. iBooks – The second largest eBook retailer following Amazon, iBooks offers 70% royalties and the unique ability to price your book separately in different countries based on the price of comparable books. It is worth noting that you must have a Mac device to be able to publish on iBooks and your books must be published in ePub format, which is not compatible with most other self-publishing platforms. Google Play Books – With a readership of over 3 billion in more than 75 countries, releasing your book through the Google store gives it the potential to reach a huge audience at an average 70% royalty rate. However, similarly to Apple, your book must be published in the unpopular ePub format, and you are unable to temporarily take down your book from the Play Store, only being able to deactivate it completely. With the help of this guide, self-publishing should seem like a clearer process and you should have a better idea of which route will best suit your needs. For information about our publishing services, visit our publication services page. Even if choosing to publish via another platform, why not try one of our stand-alone services to help the process? Check out the help we offer both pre and post publication.  So, you’ve written your book, you’ve chosen the perfect cover design, you’ve edited it to within an inch of its life, you’ve put it up for sale, and its well on its way to the bestseller lists. What now? Your job isn’t over yet. In the age of social media, engaging with your customers after their purchase is more important than ever before. As an author, you should be working to create a positive brand around yourself and your books, and nowadays building a brand is all about creating a community and engaging with your customers. Below are some of the steps you can take to engage with your readers long after their purchase.
Work on your author website One of the first things you need to have in order to create your brand and engage with readers is an author website. You need to make sure this is professional, accessible and informative. When your readers search for you online, you want them to find a website that tells them everything they need to know. Key pages that your website should include are an about the author page, a catalogue of your work with links to buy, and a contact page. These sections mean that readers can learn about who you are, what books you’ve written, and they can get in touch with any further questions! For some brilliant examples of author websites, take a look at Shannon Condon’s website here and John Pahl’s website here. Set up an email newsletter Using your professional new website, you can encourage readers to sign up to an email newsletter. This is a great way to stay in touch with readers after their purchase. Via your newsletter you can update readers on your latest releases and even give them sneak previews of your unpublished masterpieces. This is another great way of letting your readers get to know you, so that they can get insight into the mind behind their new favourite book. One of the key challenges to consider when creating an email newsletter is the frequency with which you release updates. You want to find a happy medium between sending too few, which can lead to readers forgetting about your work, and avoiding pestering customers with too frequent news. Campaignmonitor.com suggests that you should send an update no more than twice a week but at least once a month. Get on social media In 2021, anyone looking to gain loyal customers needs to develop a presence on social media. Through your social media channels, not only can you let your readers get to know you, but you can get to know your readers. Interactions online are all about conversations. Unlike a website or newsletter, social media allows your readers to reply to your thoughts. In this way, social media allows authors to build a community with their readers simply by talking to them. We understand that creating a social media presence can be intimidating at first, especially for beginners, so we’ve created simple guides to creating your own Bookstagram or Booktok. Through analytics tools on these accounts, you will also be able to build up a stronger idea of your main readership demographics, so that you can tailor your content more effectively to your readers in future. Get personal Readers are more likely to engage with an author if they feel as if they can get to know them as a person, and readers who engage with an author are more likely to buy their books in future. Use your brand-new social media presence to let your readers into your life. Now, privacy is important, and you shouldn’t be telling your customers every little detail. However, a few small facts that allow readers to get a sense of who you are as a person may pique their interest in you and your writing. Maybe you have an addiction to eating hobnobs while you write? Maybe you have a dog or cat who likes to attack your laptop while you’re working? Tell your readers all about it! An effective way of getting a little bit more personal with your readers is running a Q&A session. This will allow them to ask what they really want to know about you and your work. If any of our ideas about marketing have caught your eye, feel free to check out our Marketing and Aftercare service, which can be found here. Alternatively, if you’re interested in any of our other services, our collection of packages can be found here. Can’t find what you're after? Not to worry! Feel free to contact us at info@rowanvalebooks.com or call us on 029 2128 0200, where we are more than happy to answer any other questions.  Social media marketing can feel overwhelming and confusing. In our digitally saturated world, it seems everything revolves around the latest trends, and TikTok is the current eye of this whirlwind. But it doesn’t have to be as daunting and bone-chillingly intimidating as you think! Here, we’ve amassed twelve straightforward tips on using BookTok to your advantage, and fingers crossed, using this knowledge to increase your book sales.
 It’s no secret that the digital book market is growing. Electronic book sales have skyrocketed during the pandemic, with a 23% increase from 2019 alone. By neglecting this platform, you could be losing a wide selection of new readers. In this blog, we’ll cover some of the simple ways you can improve your audiobook sales by utilising digital book platforms.
Make a cover specific for your audiobook You need to consider your audiobooks as separate to eBooks or paperback books; audiobooks attract a completely different audience. According to a study conducted by the Publishers' Association, people who normally listen to audiobooks tend not to buy physical. Because of this, you should consider creating a separate cover. This will allow the reader to immediately identify your book in a specific category or genre. If you’re not sure what your book cover should look like, consider scrolling through Audible and searching for a variety of your favourite books. Examine the colours and images used – what stands out? If you’re struggling, we offer a book cover design service where our talented designers will make your book unique. You can see some of our work on our Book Store. Hire a narrator When it comes to audiobooks, people are often as fond of the narrator as much as the book series itself. Hiring a well-established narrator whose books are listened to by many people can potentially drive a lot of new listeners to your book. This could mean reaching an audience that might not (at first) be attracted to your book. It could also encourage people to return to buy your next book (if you’re curating a series). Well-known narrators might be more expensive, but they have their advantages for new authors. Upload some extracts on social media There are many techniques to promote your book on social media, and a variety of platforms you can use to do this. You might consider creating your own YouTube channel and uploading samples of your audiobook – this is particularly useful to offer readers small snippets of your work or even a trailer to generate interest. A lot of Rowanvale’s own authors do this and have amassed large followings on sites like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Even if your social media platform isn’t directly related to books, you could drive traffic to these sites by creating small videos and then embedding them on your channel. To do this, we recommend using Headliner. This is a free online tool that allows you to create short videos with a waveform of your audio played over an image. Set up an Audible author page An Audible author page is your window to shine on Audible. Because of this, it’s important to create an up-to-date page so listeners can connect with you. Make sure your profile is well-edited (it doesn’t look good to have typos in your bio when you’re publishing work!), there is a nice picture of you, and you have included all the links to your social media where your fans can follow you and your work. This page should also list all your books that will be promoted specifically to Audible users. Link your audiobook to other editions It is important that you link your audiobook to other editions published on Amazon when they become available. An easy way to do this is to use the Amazon Audible Matchmaker service where you can find the corresponding audiobook by simply scanning the eBook edition. Another way to consider is to generate a QR code – there are several sites online that allow you to do this for free – and then attach it to the first page of your book, whether it is the print or digital version. QR codes are easily scanned using a phone camera and will immediately take the user to the landing page of your audiobook.  Despite its current popularity, Young Adult fiction hasn’t always been the household name it is today. In fact, it’s only over the last couple of decades that Young Adult, or YA, novels have truly made their impact in the world of literature.
Typically defined as a category written for those between the ages of 12 and 18, Young Adult fiction has expanded beyond tweens and teens, reaching adult readers on a daily basis. But what is it that draws readers to this genre, and how can you implement this in your work as an author?
As an author, while your novel may be dealing with intense themes, it’s important to allow your readers that glimmer of hope as you draw your novel to a close. Life is difficult, but tomorrow is a new day. This is a theme you must ensure to incorporate as the protagonist prepares to face their final hurdle and overcome the challenges that lie ahead. |
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