Now that my novel Incite Insight is available to buy/order from all major retailers, I have started the long hard slog of trying to reach a sales target that I and my publisher have in our heads.
To this end we have organised a book launch in Readings Bookshop (Hawthorn) for the first week of February (see the Readings website for information).
Here are some photos of me with a couple of readers getting their copy to read before the launch.
I know some of you are interested in the marketing side of books, especially for those considering self-publishing, so here is some further information on promotion:
Other promotional things that are happening include a marketing campaign on Amazon for the e-book (at one point recently the book made the top 40 bestsellers list) and a spot in Ingram’s catalogue (Ingram are the distributors of the book). These are more about building awareness rather than generating actual sales, but hopefully we’ll get a few that way as well.
In modern publishing, the publisher does some promotion, but a lot of the onus falls on the writer, particularly as a new author. So in this vein, in the next two months I’m likely to run a session for the Monash Writers Group about the publishing process from a writer’s perspective and talk to a book reading group at my workplace. I’m also trying to get on a panel at an upcoming book festival. All of which will be used as marketing opportunities. The aim is to introduce my work (and name) to new groups of readers. This may only result in a handful of sales and take a lot of work, but every little bit helps. At this point in my career the focus is on building brand awareness – ie get people to know me as an author as opposed to my day job (being a teacher).
Will it pay off? We’ll have to wait and see…
Robert New 