The highs and lows of indie marketing 

Written By Stefanie Parks

(and what I’ve learned so far)

I published my first book in November of last year. Job done, crack the champagne and sit back whilst the sales take care of themselves. Yeah, nah. Turns out I was a little naïve in this area. 

The small publishing house I’m with, provided a dedicated, six-week marketing budget which was a great start but after a couple of interviews and articles I was on my own. And, wow is that a lonely space when you know nothing! My learning curve was a steep one. 

I started by using a scattergun type approach where I’d fling various posts across multiple platforms hoping that something would stick. I used trending hashtags and wasted a lot of time trying to gather ‘followers’ who weren’t really interested in my genre or book. I stepped into the world of booktok and bookstagram and was overwhelmed by the sheer amount and variety of content. How did people come up with all these amazing ideas!? For the first month I felt like a fish out of water. I was scared to post anything, worried about making mistakes and I felt like a complete imposter. I found the whole experience exhausting, unsatisfying and demotivating.

In amongst all the initial chaos there were some positive moments though. I discovered authors who were well into their marketing journeys and were sharing their knowledge for free. This helped bring some clarity and structure to my attempts. I also found other local authors and creatives that were experiencing similar challenges. Together we collaborated on posts, swapped stories and generally supported one another. As my clumsy marketing skills became slightly more refined, I started to connect with people who genuinely wanted to get involved with the genre and content I was promoting. Slowly the engagement started to grow, the highs began to outweigh the lows and book sales began to increase. 

The highs:

  • Genuine engagement from people. The photos, the questions, the tags and the comments, I enjoy reading them all!

  • Connecting with other writers

  • Hearing how my writing impacted someone positively

  • Honest reviews from awesome people who take the time to do this

The lows:

  • Hearing and seeing myself on video (is that what I really sound/look like!?)

  • Asking followers a public question and watching the tumbleweed roll by

  • Promoting myself as a writer and then spotting spelling mistakes in my posts

  • Getting excited over a message only to discover it’s a scam (again)

Five months on and I’m still very much a marketing novice but I’m also a little less scared of making a mistake, a little more focused in my approach and I’ve learned a few things along the way:

Do:

  • Market on a couple of social media platforms that you feel comfortable with. I was initially on every platform available but I hated X and despised my time on LinkedIn so eventually I shut them down and decided to stick with the platforms I preferred. 

  • Know exactly who your target audience are, then develop posts for them. 

  • Post about your writing but also share a little of yourself and your values. Let the readers in. 

  • Purchase a web domain (looks professional) and start building your email list. Statistically, the email list is still the superior means of selling books in comparison to every other platform. 

  • Learn from others. There are heaps of successful writers out there who have helpfully shared their expertise, often for free. Take the time to check it out (I’ve shared some of my favourites below).

Don’t:

  • Try to appeal to everyone. My book has themes of magic, friendship and butterflies – this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and that’s ok. 

  • Advertise your product in every post. This gets old fast.

  • Post without engaging. Social media algorithms are smart and they don’t like this. Spend a little time on the platforms you’re using and engage with others as well as posting your own content.


Resources:

I discovered some fantastic free resources developed by authors who have already been on this journey and have kindly shared their learning. I can definitely recommend the following:

Stefanie Parks https://sparkswriting.com
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