The Problems with eBook Marketing

Understanding the amount of money you would need to traditionally market your eBook is vital to your success. Obviously, as an indie author you are not going to have a ton of cash, a marketing budget or any other sort of "traditional" modes available. So when people tell you to "market" your book on your own, essentially creating your own viral campaign, what are they actually tell you?

As an indie author, I've found some things to be less helpful than others...

First of all, getting a Twitter account is a fine first step. You may actually attract some readers. It's not likely though. If all you are doing is posting adverts for your book, people will usually just mute you and then there goes any sort of retweetability. So, if you're going to have a Twitter, don't be boring and single-minded. Your Twitter is all about promoting yourself as an interesting person, and thereby making it seem that your book may also be interesting.

Getting a blog/website/whatever account seems like a logical second step. This is one such step that you're reading right now. It's only effective if it talks about things other than your writing. Again, very few people are going to want to pick up a book you've written if you just post pictures of your cover and excerpts. They want reviews, interviews, color, pictures, entertainment, and maybe a small plug for your book at the end. It's not a great way to get readers, it's just a good way of communicating with them once you have some.

The third thing that any blog or successful author will tell you is that reviews are key. Getting eyes on your book and getting people to recommend it on Amazon, or give it reviews on their blogs or wherever is the real goal. It's better to have 50 good reviews than to have 300 reviews and only 5 of them are 5 stars. You need to select your reviewers carefully and don't try to bribe them! You can't "pay" for reviews (beyond a free copy of the book usually) so that they remain unbiased. Well, you try getting some random stranger to review your book without buying some sort of "package". I haven't found one yet. I'm sure they exist, but it's just rare to find that one honest, independent reviewer that has free time and would love to read your special little offering. Pro-tip: Don't ask anyone in your family to review it on Amazon either. If they live in the same house, have ever been shipped to or have any connection that Amazon can see, they will reject the review based on the fact that you might "profit" from their review. Even if they purchase a copy of your book at full price, their review will be rejected. True story, happened to my first and only review.

By now, if you're like me, you're getting a bit desperate. You are starting to look around at the people you follow and see that they all have thousands of followers. You wonder if it would be easier to just buy advertising on your own... maybe buy some followers... maybe invest in some paid interview/blog tour/bookplugging service things... after all, that's what most people kind of think has to happen to get some lift off. You can't tell people how amazing your book is if no one is even aware you wrote one. I honestly can't tell you if these methods work because I'm broke and I've never tried any of them. I have been just going along, minding my own business, refusing to spend a single penny. I wrote a book because I had to, and I don't think that I should have to spend money to get people to read it. If someone hears about it, that's fine. I'm obviously not going to get rich and retire early, but at least I'll know that any sales I get are strictly because someone liked my work.

Marketing an eBook is really an uphill battle, especially if you don't want to invest in the "traditional" methods of advertising that are available to indie authors. I know a lot of people will say that you have to put money in, you have to be willing to show you believe in the product before people will give it a chance. My argument is that I believed in it enough to put it up on Amazon, and I'll do anything I can for free to promote the heck out of it. I just don't think anyone else should get rich off my effort in the process.

Just my two cents.