Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Writer Wednesday: Making Smarter Choices


No, I'm not talking about things like what you eat or how often you exercise. I'm talking about marketing yourself. 2017 did not start off on the right foot for me. I didn't make the best choices as far as marketing my YA title, Fading Into the Shadows. What I did was follow my marketing efforts for my previous release. My previous release went really well. The problem is that my previous release was an Ashelyn Drake new adult romance. That's quite a difference from a Kelly Hashway young adult paranormal.

You can go ahead and ask, "What were you thinking?" I asked the same thing of myself. You can't market a YA paranormal the same way you market an NA romance. You just can't. I mean, you can try, but you will fail. So from now on, I plan to spend 2017 analyzing the best ways to market for specific age groups and genres. No more being lazy and repeating what I've done in the past with the hope that it will work again. Most of us hate marketing, but we shouldn't make it that much harder by not putting in the time and research to figure out what works best for each book.

How about you? Are you looking closely at how you promote and market yourself?

*If you have a question you'd like me to answer from the other side of the editor's desk, feel free to leave it in the comments and I'll schedule it for a future post.

18 comments:

  1. I'm going to market my NA/adult pen name this year to start to build a platform. Up until now I haven't marketed that work, but w/plans for two new releases this year, I figured I could at least start by promoting the book I already have out. It's been so long since I had to start a platform. It's a lot of work! I'd love to know what you did for that NA romance :)

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    1. You are the second person today to ask me how to market to specific age groups, so I'll tackle this in next week's Writer Wednesday, Kai.

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  2. Wise advice. Right now I'm not thinking of marketing myself. I really need to get back to finishing up final read throughs and adjustments, but at the moment I'm dealing with legal proceedings against someone who's caused me no end of headaches and stress.

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    1. Oh no! I hope everything goes well with the legal proceedings.

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  3. This is a great point. When my Christmas novella for adults came out in December, this truth hit me. I realized I couldn't do the same things for it that I'd done for my YA titles. Different readership, different marketing preferences!

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    1. Yes! It's so different. I do think adult is easier to market because we can communicate directly with our target audience on social media. That really helps.

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  4. Yeah, it's all about reaching out to your specific market, eh? Well, first it's about finding the energy/motivation to actually do some marketing. =) *sigh* I need a clone.

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  5. Successful marketing is it's own nasty beast, especially with so much competition. How do you get eyes on your books? I don't know anymore, so I'd love to read how to market to specific age groups.

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    1. I need a guide to this as well, Karen. Someone should write that book.

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  6. I can see how different genres might market differently, but I'm not sure about age groups. What is the difference between Young Adult and New Adult? I've probably read it somewhere, but it never stuck.

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    1. New Adult features college age kids trying to find their place in the world completely separate from the security of their parents. NA tends to have sex, where YA may or may not. You can't market these two age groups the same way because YA is for 12 and up. A twelve-year-old should not be reading NA. No way! LOL

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  7. You know what I think it is? I think we're not marketing educated enough because there are so many different ways to promote books! It's absolutely crazy. I've literally gotten sick to my stomach a few times, while I was reading this way to market MG or that way to go about YA. #sigh I have a headache just writing this comment because it makes me think about how much I don't know.

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    1. I completely understand. It's not easy. At all. Though getting awards is a great way to market, and you're doing well there. :)

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  8. It would be interesting to know what you find out about how to market to different genres.

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    1. I may need to post on this in the future, but I need to research some more first.

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  9. Some people are professional marketers. This is what they do, and all they do, for a living. I marvel at writers, painters, and designers-- who master this in addition to their real work, which is to make a product people want.

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