Building an Audience

How does a first time writer, self-publishing, build an audience? My answer is – ‘I don’t have any idea!!!’

In the past, I suppose one would print a ton of books, load them in his or her car and drive them around to book stores, hoping to talk to the local owner/buyer and convince them to stock the writer’s brilliant tome. Then, beg them to host a book signing, print up some posters and try and attract a crowd. Once there, after sitting through a grueling 6-7 hours while a few curious shoppers read the back cover of the book and engage in vague small talk, the writer packs up all of his unsold books (all of them?) and goes on to the next book store.

Nowadays, the internet is better equipped for this. Mainly, there are no upfront printing costs. The mystery still exists – how do you build an audience.

This will be a mystery that I hope to unravel as I set sail my first novel, The Road of Fathers. I will document what works and what doesn’t work.

To begin with, I have opened a Twitter and Instagram page specifically for the book. I have added a Facebook page to my personal page and also a blog page. (full disclosure, this blog entry is part of that marketing strategy!)

Now the process begins. Each and every day I try to post a blog entry that is linked to my FB and Twitter. Since my novel is a fantasy novel, I have tried to gather visuals (sketches, paintings, etc) that convey the feeling, and upload to my Tyrian Fellhawk Instagram. On top of that I constantly follow people on Twitter and Instagram, knowing they will most likely follow me back. Then there is the liking and retweeting of like-minded information – mostly comic book news and new author tweets.

Finally, I have sent out 30 preview copies of my novel a month in advance of its publishing date. I have requested that the reviewers write an honest review and upload it the day that my novel goes live. Ideally, when The Road of Fathers is suddenly available, there are twenty or so reviews already there.

These are the beginnings of my ‘marketing plan’ and I will continue reporting to what works and what doesn’t work.

Exciting!