Saturday 22 December 2012

My publishing strategy for 2013 - Questions I will ask myself

2013 is approaching fast for us all, and I am now thinking over the last year of my indie journey and what I want to keep the same and what I want to change. So here is my strategy for next year, or part of it. The questions are also what DD Scott of WG2E fame has asked herself on the blog, and I have nicked them from her.  Here goes:

1. Am I happy? Am I still enjoying the Indie publishing journey? The answer is a resounding yes. I love having the control of writing and publishing what I want and not have anyone else say that it won't fit any genres or it's too short to publish. I also like the immediacy of indie publishing, instead of spending time sending out ms after ms to agent after agent and then if you are accepted (it's a big if these days) then having to wait months and months for it to be published and out there for the readers. With indie publishing of ebooks, once you have got your ms ready and formatted then it is full steam ahead and you can download it onto the relevant websites eg Amazon, Kobo and Smashwords. Smashwords only takes an hour or so for it to be up there, Kobo and Amazon a day or two. Much faster than trad publishing. So, I am sticking to epublishing for now.

2. Is my Indie epublishing goal still the same? No. I wanted to reach as many readers as I can but it seems that my adult romance ebooks aren't selling as much as my YA ones. So my new goal is to find a new audience for those ebooks. Which leads me to the next question.

3. What strategies have advanced the goal and what haven't? Well, one strategy that I feel has advanced my goal by getting my name known is being involved with the Writers' Guide to Epublishing blog and the new street team. Another strategy that has worked, I only did the other day and that was promoting and selling my books at a library Xmas fayre. So I want to do more of those. The strategy I feel that has let me down is visiting local libaries and giving them postcards and posters advertising my ebooks and stories. I don't think I have got any sales from this, so won't be doing much of that next year.

So that is my 2013 strategy so far, which I have written down in my little black book for my business plan. Next time I will blog with more questions to ask myself about this,

What new strategies have you decided to do next year to help your goal in writing? Let me know.

2 comments:

Nell Dixon said...

Sounds like you're off to a great start, Julie. Something to consider though is that although you may not see the posters, cards etc bringing a direct relation to sales they do enhance awareness of you as a brand and can lead to opportunities eg invitations to talk to groups, meet readers etc.

Julie Day said...

Never thought of that, Nell. But instead of ordering them I am going to try to make my own and work on my brand that way.