Welcome back to another Open Book Blog Hop!

Today’s topic is: Most of us (or maybe all of us) struggle with marketing. What are your top 3 marketing tips?

And remember to visit my fellow writers to see what they have come up with. You can find their works here!

This one is brutal for me because marketing is the bane of my life. I don’t know where to start with it. It’s a wide-ranging terrifying minefield for me. I am not a marketing guru, with limited time and funds to invest in marketing. As a book reviewer, I have come to learn the importance of reviews in terms of visibility. And yet it seems so difficult to actually attract any on Amazon. I’ve had a fair few people tell me they enjoyed my book, but many don’t actually leave a review. I get that, I don’t review most of my purchases, but it’s something I’m aware of now I am on the other side of the fence.

Then there are adverts. I’ve had some authors tell me that Facebook ads are the way to go. I’ve had others tell me that Amazon ads are the better option. I’ve also had some tell me that neither is worth much. And herein lies an issue for me. I don’t have a bottomless budget to spend on marketing and adverts. To spend money on ads that may or may not work is a big gamble.

Self-promotion is tricky as I suffer from imposter syndrome. I often feel I have no right to be here, calling myself an author and asking people to part with their hard-earned to buy something that I do as a hobby, something I enjoy. The one thing I do know about self-promotion is not to constantly sell. If every post you make says “here’s my book – buy it!” Firstly, it will piss people off, and they’ll become blind to these posts. And eventually all of your posts. Secondly, very quickly you will exhaust the potential customers available to you anyway.

Other options include networking opportunities and book fairs as good ways to connect and meet possible customers. Podcasts are also a great way to get your story out there. I just need to find some to hopefully guest on. I’m also planning to work on some new, creative ways to promote my book without being sell, sell, sell.

With all that said – if you have read my book please do consider leaving me a review on Amazon and/or GoodReads, and if you have a copy of it, I’d love it if you could send me a picture of the book (with you, your pet, or just in a cool setting) that I can use in some promo materials I want to make, I’d be forever grateful!