Any self-published author is going to need to address marketing at some point or another. But frequently you pay (a large sum) with stars in your eyes, hoping your book or materials will be thrown into the masses and gobbled up. If that happened, your marketing money would be well-spent and its returns should be much greater than what you paid.
But, in the days of the Internet, even large businesses throw away a lot of money on advertising. How do we better target people who would be interested in our stuff?
First and foremost, you need to have an excellent product to make a lot of money. Yes, you can have a mediocre (or awful product) and an expensive advertising and sell a lot. But this usually causes problems that can destroy your entire brand (think Edsel- the car people still make jokes about).
Why does modern advertising flop? Consider Google Ad-Words. I used to have Ads on my blog, but I have been removed from the program and instead of appealing the decision, I simply removed ad content. I want to make money by writing, not by selling someone else's product. I question how any blogger could make money off of Ad-Words to begin with. Google Ads work by paying bloggers for clicks. The problem in this day and age is that (1) adults are not the only ones using the Internet and kids might click ads for no reason or accidentally; (2) despite all the spyware, ads are still not easily targeted to people.
Now, my kids use the internet. I can't tell you how many times an advertisement for heart medicine, cars, and even horrible shows come up on my daughter's YouTube when she is watching a video clearly targeting pre-schoolers. She even screamed in terror when one appeared. The ultimate was a guy running for congress or some government position- this ad ran about five minutes. She was angry. I was angry. I am certain not going to vote for him... but wait, I can't. I don't even live in the same state.
As a freelancer, I have to do research for my employers. This means that all the spyware tracks me and gives me targeted ads on my research. I have no intention of buying any of the garbage Ad-words and similar spyware throws at me, but there it is- and someone is paying for it based on the cookies in my browser.
How do you market your well-written book? Well, one thing I tried was book conventions. I still believe in this as a great way to market, but frankly, I spent over $1000 getting all our books to be "featured" in one with free ads for them on the organizer's website and blah blah blah. What did I get? Maybe a few sales (read less than $100), but also I got spammed. My inbox filled up with more offers from every Joe, Luke, and Mary begging me to pay them to market my book. This was definitely a bad return for the money.
Why would I try this again? Well, first, I would only do it by renting a booth and being there in person. I could then walk around and talk to people. People could interact with me. Still, I don't know if that would work well. The people who attend these events are other people like me (and some big name publishers) who all want their books to be seen. Or they want you to pay them to market your book. However, there are several conventions in my area and I am thinking about getting a booth there. Conventions targeting you topic might be the best bet for self-publishing, but I will let you know when I retire from freelancing and can focus on my books.
Goodreads is a good platform for building a base if you join some relevant groups. But again, you have to have a quality product and you don't want to send it to everyone. If you wrote a kids book, why would someone interested in thrillers want it? I feel the pain of others who want to break into the writing arena in modern times. It used to be publishing companies took a big chunk of your paycheck to develop a marketing plan for you. Now whether you self-publish or traditionally publish you are expected to have your own online presence and marketing plan in place before you actually produce a book.
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