Where, Oh Where Shall I Market?

Well, I did it. I've uploaded my novel to KDP and made it available for pre-order. The whole paperback creation thing is just too complicated for me to deal with right now, so I've tabled that. Weirdly, there seems to be a method to formatting a novel for paperback, which really makes my head hurt. Some "expert" advises using Atticus, which of course is not free. And here I thought paper and ink type were confusing enough. Shoot, do I really want to go down this road? (Apparently I'll also need a template for my cover.)

Paperback aside, now I need to figure out how to market the ebook. I'm quite confident that none of the big promotion sites feature full-price books, and why would I want to discount a brand new release? I'm tired of the penny-ante shit. This novel is damn good and I would like to make some money from it, rather than beg people to download a free or ninety-nine-cent copy.

I pretty much know what I won't do; it's what I can do that's a problem. I won't do Voracious Readers Only and give away hundreds of free copies. I never got one single review from my only previous ARC offering with them. I can't do BookBub because it specializes in discounted books. Written Word Media is offering a women's fiction giveaway for March, but what would that get me? Again, it's a giveaway, and I couldn't care less about gaining newsletter subscribers.

Speaking of newsletters, my subscribers really aren't into my work. That's why I stopped sending newsletters a while ago. I can certainly send one this month; it doesn't cost me anything, but I don't know if it's worth the humiliation.

Yep, I could do a LibraryThing giveaway, which was never successful in the past. I could advertise for ARC readers on Goodreads, except that's a trap. I got my worst reviews from Goodreads ARC readers, because they're a nasty lot (overall). 

I don't really know that I want ARC readers anyway. I want to sell! I can certainly check out some of the smaller book promo sites to find out if they offer full-price books, and I can finally watch David Gaughran's Facebook ad video all the way through. I don't want to, but I can.

Someone on Reddit swore by Book Funnel, but I'm not into swaps with other authors, and I haven't a clue whether the site has any other services that would help me. That person said he also lists his full-price books there, but who actually goes to a place like Book Funnel to find books?

There's a place I stumbled upon in Reddit that (I guess) advertises on social media, for a price, but it says nothing about pre-orders, so I might check it out when my book goes live.

In truth, there's not a hell of a lot I can do before the book is published, which is probably a good thing. It gives me time to figure things out.

I have exactly two fans of my work, one of whom I contacted via email to find out if she's interested in reading an advance copy. The other is a BookBub member, but there is no way to contact her. That's the extent of my reader contacts.

Social media is a waste of my time. Promoting a book on social media only gets you tons of people wanting to sell their services. 

So far, all I have done is slap up a blog post on Goodreads (which no one will read) and emailed one fan. I could write something on my abandoned Substack account, I suppose. I'm really stuck. 

I've always said that writing the blurb was the hardest part, but I take that back. Marketing is almost impossible.