Hi! Today I want to go a bit in-depth on marketing as a self-published author. I went to school for marketing and it has helped me tremendously with my writing career, but I do realize that this is something authors really struggle with. I plan to start a series on my blog all about marketing but for today I thought I’d start with something simple; the 4 P’s of marketing and how they relate to your self-publishing career.
Product- This one seems pretty straight forward. The product is your book but it goes even deeper than that. Your product is your cover, your blurb, your genre, and your writing style. You are going to have a hard time marketing if you don’t have a good overall product. Covers are HUGE in indie publishing and you want to make sure you have a high quality cover because this is the first thing a reader is going to see.
Price-This is my favorite P to talk about because how you price your book determines who shows up to buy your book. A book that is priced at $0.99 and is available on Kindle Unlimited attracts a different fan-base than a book that is priced at $6.99 and is available on all platforms. Decide on a target market and that’s going to determine how you price your book.
Placement- I’m going to translate this to distribution. How are people going to get your books? Are you exclusive to Kindle Unlimited? Are you wide? Do you want to be in book stores? Libraries? This is all part of your marketing.
Promotion: This is what most people think when they think about marketing. Some examples of promotion is Facebook Ads, Amazon Ads, Goodreads Giveaways, Social Media, Newsletter emails, etc. Basically it’s how you are getting your product in front of your target market.
These are the basic 4 P’s of marketing. As I’ve mentioned I will continue to go into depth on marketing as a indie author but I think it’s good to talk about the basic’s first.
K.D Clark Publishing 