Recently, I joined a free webinar hosted by Beth Barany and C.S. Lakin. The topic was: Targeting Genre for Big Sales. I found their information very interesting. A good point they had was: what can work for one author (marketing, etc.) won’t necessarily work for all authors. You have to try and find what works best for you.
Makes sense, people are different. They write differently, and interest different people. So what will work for one person won’t guarantee others will make the big bucks too. But I agree, there is a minimum, a standard, that all authors should ensure they have: quality (book is edited, formatted, etc.), professionalism, and integrity.
The webinar provided a lot of insight, but the main points were to target specific genres (sub-genres), and use descriptions and keywords to increase your book(s) discoverability. Now this makes sense because if you just list your book as a general genre like romance, there is a lot of competition there compared to different sub-genres with less books in them.
I’m very grateful for this webinar, and the time and effort both Beth Barany and C.S. Lakin put into running this. As a first time author, this information was invaluable. So, for others like me, it helped to bring us up to speed about this, and also introduce us to the extra help you could get with Beth and Susanne (example: services and online courses which you can find on their websites).
And when I say bring us up to speed, I mean, this isn’t new information. I stumbled onto an article by Eliza Green on September 7th, 2013 that was provided by the Alliance of Independent Authors. Here is the link to the website. It goes over the same idea as the webinar, but if authors are still finding this useful, then I’m glad they take time to share their experience, knowledge, and willingness to delve into the topic with more detail.
Now, I will return to my mountain of new information. My email is packed, I have a bazillion bookmarks to go through, info videos to watch, and it looks like there will be no end to it. It may sound like I’m complaining, but I’m excited to learn! I just keep chipping away at it bit by bit, in hopes to keep up, and offset all the new additions.
I heard an interesting quote recently. Something like: Those who move mountains do it stone by stone. Right now, I can relate to that 100%.
