Rob's Experience in Marketing Books you write

Pets and the afterlife

Recently several friends have come to me asking about self-publishing books that they or someone they know have written or want to write. For self-publishers, I would recommend Createspace.com (NOW Amazon as of 2019). That's where I went, and I'm happy with them- in addition to print on demand in paperback,  they also connect you through Kindle.

MARKETING IS THE HARDEST PART-
   I've written 7 books  (as of 2020) and am self-published on Kindle and in paperback through Amazon. They are books about my paranormal experiences as a medium and ghost investigator.

   I've found that maintaining a weekly blog and offering something new at least once a week keeps an audience interested. (It's hard to do this for fiction, but easier for non-fiction because people can relate to your experiences and vice-versa).

SOCIAL MEDIA AND VIDEOS - 
I have made a couple of videos, but haven't found them that effective, other than introducing you and what your books are about. - I've found the most success in connecting to people or potential interviewers on Twitter. It enables you to connect with similar interests and direct messaging works best (include a tiny url to your blog).

  Facebook, on the other hand doesn't work well for businesses or self-published authors, but you should do  it. Out of 5,000 subscribers, I'm lucky if 100 to 200 people see a post because Facebook wants you to pay to promote posts, and being self -published, there's no budget. It's not really nice to small businesses when people "like" their pages, so go with Twitter.

  Instagram doesn't provide a lot of marketing - but every little bit helps. Pinterest allows you to make memes and post them to get people to your blog or books.

PERSONAL APPEARANCES - Find libraries to talk at, contact reading groups, social groups, etc. Being in the paranormal field I've done a lot of talks to Paranormal groups and conferences. I've also contacted a lot of groups through Twitter to do radio interviews. Blogspot radio has a LOT of radio programs in a variety of genres.

Contact Magazines

Join a group

MARKETING PACKAGE- Write a press release about your book to inspire people to read it (could be from the back of the book jacket), have a headshot photo and a short biography.; Provide a short PDF of the first 10-20 pages as a promo copy, and have a copy of the cover to send people. **THEN find out emails for local TV stations and newspapers and email them**

Best of luck. Writing the books are a lot easier than marketing them! 

Rob Gutro's books:  Pets and the Afterlife, Pets and the Afterlife 2, Lessons Learned from Talking to the Dead,   Ghosts and Spirits, Kindred Spirits: How a Medium Befriended a Spirit; Ghosts of England on a Medium's Vacation; Case Files of Inspired Ghost Tracking.  ALL ON AMAZON 

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