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Taking It to the Mainstream

Once your book is released, how can you reach readers? Getting noticed by the mainstream audience isn't easy, and can be costly. No longer can we rely on social media sites to do the job. Facebook has cracked down on posts which include links, which means if you do post about your book, many of your friends won't even see it. Belonging to a Facebook group devoted to books appears to be a good solution, but don't be surprised if you notice the other members are also authors. Yes, authors do love to read, yet what about readers who aren't authors? Where are they hiding?

Here are some suggestions to ferret some of them out. Yes, an exchange of money is involved, but almost everything seems to fit that description these days. Perhaps one of my suggestions will work for you.
  • Place an ad in a newspaper. You'll be charged by the size of the ad and what length of time you want it to run. The charge may also depend on whether or not it's running in a metropolitan paper. Local newspapers may not reach as many people, but usually cost less. If you want something to really stand out, you can pay big money for a sticker to go on the front page, or you can buy a glossy sheet which will certainly get noticed. If you're offering an e-book, you might want to consider running an ad in the electronic edition of the newspaper for an audience which already enjoys electronic reading.
  • Consider running a spoken ad at a radio station. The rate will depend on whether it's a popular station or locally owned. The length of time the ad will run, as well as how many days, will also factor in on the price. You can specify whether you wish to read the ad yourself and record it for the station, or have someone from the station do the honors.
The above advertising methods don't require stringent approval, except with regard to spelling and newspaper standards. I'm still debating about whether or not to try one. The next method is iffy, but usually if you allow enough time, and offer a professional product, you might get chosen.

  • You can pay an online advertising site, such as BookBub to get your book noticed. The genre will determine the rate per day. For example, if your book is free, contemporary romance is now going for $365.00, but a cozy mystery could cost you $460.00. If the contemporary romance is reduced to $1.00, you'll pay $730.00 to advertise there, and cozy mysteries reduced to $1.00 are going for $920.00 to advertise. And, the cost goes up, if your book is listed higher. The upside is, I did reach 47,000 downloads when I used them to advertise Killer Career.  

  • For $25.00 you can get an online ad from Ereader News Today, which doesn't reach as many readers, but is still a big help. My freebie thriller, Two Wrongs, got 3,702 downloads, when I recently used Ereader News Today to advertise. If you'd like a copy, it's still free on Amazon and other venues.
Since both the above book advertising sites are extremely popular, you'll need to get your request in as far ahead as possible, preferably a month, although two weeks might work. Other qualifications will also apply, which are at the site's discretion. Your book could be great, but if a similar book has already been scheduled for the time requested, your book might still get rejected.

Once you've snagged some readers, you'll want them to come back for more, so make sure to put out an appealing, professional, and error-free product. Otherwise, all the advertising in the world won't snag return readers.

Have you tried any of the methods I've mentioned?


Experience the diversity and versatility of Morgan Mandel. Romantic Comedies: Her Handyman, its sequel, A Perfect Angelstandalone reality show romance; Girl of My Dreams.  Thriller: Forever Young: Blessing or Curse,its sequel: the Blessing or Curse CollectionRomantic suspense: Killer CareerMystery:Two Wrongs. Short  and Sweet   Romance: Christmas   Carol
Christian Women's Fiction: Hailey's Chance: Will Baby Make 3? Twitter:@MorganMandel Websites: Morgan Mandel.Com    Morgan Does Chick Lit.Com.

Comments

  1. I once considered advertising at the local movie theater and time it with the release of a YA movie of a similar nature. Until I found out how much it costs! They run it for a month on all screens and was several thousand dollars. You could also put up a table event at a movie theater if your book is similar to a released movie. I don't know how many copies you would sell, but just leaving information out for people to pick up and take with would be good exposure. I think it was around $700. I wanted to have my goddess girl models dressed up and at the table. They were local high school students, but they were too shy to do it.

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    1. I chuckled when I read this Diana. I, too, considered the movie ads and quickly discarded that idea along with my empty popcorn bag. LOL

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    2. I thought about movie advertising as well, but never tried it.

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    3. I never thought of that, but I haven't thought of a lot of things.

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  2. I have tried ENT and various other email outlets with some good results. Have wanted to try radio (or even some late-night or small station tv ads). Have NOT had good luck with FB ads, or with Google, Bing or even Goodreads ads.

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    1. I've been afraid to do a Facebook ad, because then more personal information and a card number would be in their records. They have too much already.

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  3. ENT has worked well for me. BookBub is a tough nut to crack; they reject over 80% of the applicants. Fussy Librarian is reasonably priced, although you don't get the same impact. However, most of these sites are advertising bargain books which means you'll need to mess around with pricing. BookBub requires a minimum of a 50% drop in price, and most subscribers to all these sites are looking for freebies. They can help with visibility, but as with all of these bargain and freebie sites, I have to wonder how long it will take (if ever) for people to read the book and then buy the next one --which is ultimately the goal.

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    1. And it's so expensive to advertise these days. It used to be less, but then Amazon changed their affiliate policy about freebies, which made the advertising sites scramble for ways to make up that money lost.

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    2. BookBub told several of my fellow writers that if the book weren't priced at $.99, they wouldn't take it. I'm glad my publisher won't do a $.99 deal. Costs us almost more than tolerable.

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    3. Sad how authors are being taken advantage of.

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    4. My daily BookBub emails show books over 99 cents -- they have to be at least a 50% reduction over the regular price. I see $1.99 and even $2.99 sale prices

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  4. Interesting Morgan ... Homey may open the vault and pry out a couple of dusty Doubloons to try one of the these ... if he gets any results, he will let the faithful at BRP know.

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    1. Yes, share any results you get. Either way I'm interested. I can either be jealous or feel good I'm not the only struggling author.

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  5. Interesting information. Thanks for sharing. I've never done any of them, but might try the online ebook one.

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  6. I've tried them all. I used to get BookBub ads all the time, but they've gotten greedy. I just put in for another one and fully expect a rejection. ENT is second best but it's not as good as it used to be. Free books and Kindle Unlimited has been a double-edged sword. Readers get to read your books, but they're really not paying for them. For those of us with KDP Select, the new borrow rates per page is making me more money than my actual sales, so a bright spot there.

    It's tough these days, and sometimes I wonder why I'm spending all my time writing when I could be cleaning my house. Wait...what?

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