Marketing Makes the Book at Flights of Foundry
One of the panels I spoke on at Flights of Foundry was titled “Marketing Makes the Book.” I shared this panel with a couple of other small press publishers, and we talked about what has and has not worked for us when selling our books.
One of the topics that came up was, of course, social media, which is an extra difficult topic currently, with the ongoing instability of Twitter and people leaving in droves. It’s been one of the best marketing platforms for DefCon One Publishing, so we’ve been loathe to let it go, and the other publishers felt similarly. So while we encouraged people to use social media if it worked for them, it might not always be as useful for marketing books.
Other topics we addressed were encouraging people to leave reviews for the books they purchase from a small press (or from anywhere, honestly–authors love reviews). We also talked about the idea of promoting the back catalog of books, not just the newest books you’re publishing. When you’re just starting out, it makes sense to focus on the newest book you have because it might be the only book you have. But once you start building up a number of books, it’s valuable to promote the older books because they’re already written and can still bring in income!
This panel should eventually be available to watch, and I’ll be sure to post again when it is!
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