Advertising and Marketing by a Self-Publishing Writer - Reposted

Prologue

It is a reposting of an article which I have written and posted on my Author Page. It is an answer to set of questions which I have come across on different platforms. It is an opinion.

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There are many apprehensions and dilemmas on the saleability of books with which a self-publishing writer wrestle. They are the cause of forming such questions.

1.  Will the book sell?

2. How will one sell the book?

3. How will the writer advertise his book? How much has to be spent on such activities?

Let me begin with a display of the report of my sales which had taken place in the last thirty days up to November 23, 2019.

Allow me to present my analysis on display. I am not a statistician (I envy them, and I do not know much about statistics). I direct your attention to the arrows in the display.

The arrows are aimed at three countries, namely India, America and Germany. These were countries where my books were bought. I substantiate it by adding that I am from India and write with an Indian audience in mind.

Look at the titles which were sold. They are five.

To achieve the figure for sale for November 2019, I have adopted following means. 

1. I regularly posted on the multiple blogs on the titles. I  have published four books in the last sixty days. The posts on them provided information on the release of the titles. One of the titles is an older one. It is a well-received title by now. I keep on writing about the subject matter in that book on my blogs.

2. I have availed the services of Amazon Advertising. I have started ad-campaign in the category of sponsored items.

3. I have developed three pages on specific titles on Facebook. I posted separately on each page.

4. I post the information on my timeline on Facebook.

5. I have availed the Free download campaign of Amazon only for two days. I did not promote this campaign.

6. I have not availed the Google Advertising. I find it cumbersome. I have not developed faith in their results.

For achieving the above results, I have not made any special efforts. I have incurred a cost of nearly ₹ 200.

Apart from the above-mentioned sale, there was sale in Kindle Unlimited also. The collection from KNEP is never much. It has remained less than ₹ 100 per month for the last twenty-four months. However, I believe if the books were read in that programme, it was a result of the marketing and advertising pointed out earlier.

In brief, to promote my books, I have used the following three methods.

1. Blogging

2. Facebook

3. Amazon Advertisement

My Impression

For me, the fascinating thing is that my titles are sold across the borders. The copy sold as a paperback. Some months back, and that was in July, another paperback was bought in Japan. The books were sold in America and Canada. I do not find any possibility of a sale for reprints within India. The main reason is that the prices become too high because of the customs charges and courier expenses. In Europe and America, it is generally less than 10 Dollars or Euros. Secondly, the paperbacks are manufactured on those continents, and they have simpler customs regimes. Apart from that, the ebooks have been sold on Amazon.com, and that could include a more prominent geographical region. All this had been achieved with the help of marketing and advertising methods mentioned earlier.

I hope that this analysis may have answered the question with which this article has begun. To be specific, I state that the book sells if you adopt some substantiating marketing and advertising methods.

In the case of writing posts on the blog, it should not hold any writer for making such an effort. The writing is the actual nature of the writer. The writer may write his book. The writing of a post on a blog is also an act of writing. It compliments his actual activity. Therefore, writing a post on a blog is not a wasteful activity. If one writes, then only a reader will get a chance to read. I must bring in a recent survey from MRUC, which states that the readership of printed news media is increasing. Their readers are there.

Now the issue of selling of the books. I believe that who is bogged down by apprehensions of the possibility of finding a buyer is the victim of their thinking. They have to grow out of binding of their region. They have learned about a peculiar process of impression development in mind while living a particular society. They have to expand beyond their social limits. There may be intelligent and successful people in a social system which force you to follow a set course of success. You learn that you have developed this mindset in a particular ecosystem. You have to burst out the chains of their ecosystem and set yourself free. BREAK Free. Then only you can frame the right questions.

The evaluation based on the actual profit made is a reliable criterion. Even I want to earn a lot of money. Who does not? But, for a Self-publishing, you have to check the questions which you frame. Become aware of the process which formed that question. After that, you must learn to learn. Yes, learn to learn. Do that on your own. Therefore, the principle is to learn on your own. It requires a different type of formation process. You have first to learn, that to be scientific, it does not mean that you get the reports of the scientific associations. They are good. But, your dependency on the reports only for the results is not okay. Being scientific does not mean to collect a large quantity of data. That is one of the methods. But you must learn another way of a scientific approach, and that is experienced by doing an activity. That will change the diction and form of a question.


Catalogue of the Books written by Sumir Sharma

A Hybrid Volume of Essays on Modern India Historiography (Hindi Edition)

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यह पुस्तक Essays on The Modern India Historiography का ही एक रूप है| इस में English में लिखे matter का प्रति पैराग्राफ पर विचार सामग्री का हिंदी रूप भी दिया गया है|

इस पुस्तक को द्विभाषी पुस्तक कहा है| यह कोई विलक्षण यां अटपटी कृति नहीं है| Gita Press Gorakhpur के द्वारा प्रकाशित संत तुलसी दास की लिखी रामचरित्र मानस में संत तुलसी ही भाषा का हिंदी रूप हर चौपाई के बाद दिया गया है| उस के वाचन करता न केवल संत वाणी में परन्तु हिंदी में भी करते और भजते हैं| सभी श्रधालुयों को अगर संत जी की बोली समझ नहीं आती पर वह हिंदी में लिखी वाणी से राम गुणगान का सौभाग्य प्राप्त करते हैं| इसी प्रकार ऐसी कई प्रशस्तियाँ हैं जो एक ही बात को एक ही जगह पर दो अलग भाषाओं में प्रसारित करती हैं|

नवीन शिक्षा पश्चिमी दर्शन और साहित्य से प्रभावित है| उस में दिए गये विषय पश्चिमी साहित्य में उपलब्ध रहते हैं| हिंदी भाषी विद्यार्थी गूढ़ और अव्यक्त सिधान्तों को विदेशी भाषा में समझने से चूक जाते हैं| किसी स्तर पर उन्हें अंग्रजी में व्यक्त भावों को उसी भाषा में ही निपटना पड़ता है जहाँ वह खुद को ठगा सा पाते हैं| अगर एक ही बात उन्हें अंग्रेज़ी और हिंदी में पढ़ने को मिल जाय तो वह विश्वास से हर प्रश्न को निपटते हैं|

इस हाइब्रिड वॉल्यूम की रचना इसी योजना और विचार से की गई है| वैसे इस का अंग्रजी रूप और हिंदी रूप अपने अलग रूपों में भी उपलब्ध है जिस के link images नीचे दिए गए हैं|

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आप से यह निवेदन है की आप इस प्रकार की रचना पर अपने विचार अवश्य प्रगट करें जिस आप comment section में लिख सकते हैं|

Read the Preview Here. 



Catalogue of Books by Sumir Sharma

आधुनिक भारत हिस्टोरियोग्राफी पर निबंध संग्रह

अगस्त 25, 2019, को Essays on Modern India पत्रक में यह सन्देश प्रकाशित हुया था कि उस में चर्चित पुस्तक का हिंदी प्ररूप जल्द ही प्रकाशित किया जायेगा| उसी सन्देश की बात को सत्य करते हुए यहाँ उस हिंदी में लिखी पुस्तक की प्रकाशित होने की सूचना प्रसारित की गई है|

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आधुनिक भारत हिस्टोरियोग्राफी पर निबंध संग्रह पुस्तक Essays on Modern India पुस्तक का हिंदी प्ररूप है| इस में पांच अध्याय हैं जो कि इस प्रकार हैं|

1. अध्याय 1: आधुनिक भारत की ऐतिहासिकता - एक परिचय

2. अध्याय 2: आधुनिक भारत के साम्राज्यवादी इतिहासकार

3. अध्याय 3: आधुनिक भारत के राष्ट्रवादी इतिहासकार

4. अध्याय 4: आधुनिक भारत के मार्क्सवादी इतिहासकार

5. अध्याय 5: भारत में उपनिवेशवाद पर इतिहास लेखन

6. ग्रंथ सूची

इस पुस्तक को Kindle Create के नवीनतम रूप Version 1.33.3.0 पर सम्पादित किया गया है| इस पुस्तक की पाण्डुलिपि को UTF – 8 में Google Input tools से लिखा गया है| यह उम्मीद की जाती है कि छात्रों एवं अन्य पाठकों को Kindle eBook के सभी softwares पर पढ़ने में आसानी होगी|

पाठकों से निवेदन है कि पुस्तक पर टिप्पणी amazon की site पर पुस्तक के पृष्ठ पर दर्ज करें|

Catalogue of the Books writtenby Sumir Sharma

The Reason For Not Posting Any New Post For Long on this Blog

I have not stopped reading.

I have not stopped writing.

I have not remained away from this blog. I had watched it regularly.

I have not stopped blogging.

I have read new books during the period of absence from this blog. I consider reading and writing complementary to each other. I have written a post on my Author Platform on this aspect.

When I read a book, I always write on it in my diaries. It is another thing that after migrating to the Kindle reader, I have been writing in the note section of the Kindle. However, that cannot be called writing. I write private notes on whatsoever I read. It is a rule, but sometimes, I do not maintain my practice. However, I have observed that making small notes on Kindle is also a way of writing. The act of writing annotations is one part of writing and growth of understanding. Many self-improvement writers have suggested the methods of creating tags while reading. It is a practice which is followed by highly placed executives, lawyers, journalists, judges, scientists and others. In short, I am still writing. I have not posted any article for long on this blog. But I read and write during this period. I have already revealed in the previous paragraph that I have written on my other blog, which is titled "Author Page of Sumir Sharma". No doubt, I have started a new blog, and it is one of the reasons that I have remained away from this blog.

I want to reiterate one thing. I have remained sincere to my basic norm and ethic. I read, and I wrote. I would like to emphasis one aspect on this norm of reading and writing as one thing having two inseparable sites. There was a paradigm shift during this period. Let me share it here.

I have reviewed many books on self-improvement on this blog. Among many readers, there is a doubt about the efficacy and utility of such titles. It is a different issue. I would instead like to move to the point which I desire to make here. While living the course of synchronizing reading and writing, I have already emerged as a self-publishing author. A self-publishing author has to perform multiple tasks on his own even if he or she takes up the help of the supporting expertise of others. Borrowing a message of an editor, who herself is a self-publishing authoress, I found that such authors have to perform a work of a CEO of a company. They have to attend to the work of production, which is their first role, then, they do the publishing, then the marketing and the finance involved in all these activities and finally no doubt, the actual profit made out of all that.

On being emerging as a self-publishing author, the content of my reading also underwent a shift. I collected and read books on writing methods, writing skills, marketing of the books and related issue. During the course of such a reading activity, I would like to mention the titles of Derek Doepker who wrote “Why Authors Fail – 17 Mistakes Self-published Authors Make That Sabotage Their Success And How to Fix Them”; “Writing A Book A Week”, by Alex Foster, “How I Sold 80,000 Books, Book Marketing for Authors” by Alinka Rutkowska and many other related books and supporting self-improvements. I have not written any review on them. However, the reading of those books had left deep scratches on my brain, which influenced my vision of raising myself as a self-publishing author. There were many suggestions, a bundle of information, tonnes of data and different facts. I was able to appreciate many things written in those books.

 I believe I am not capable or grown enough to value some of the suggestions. Some of the advice, I think are not practicable for me in India where I live. However, a quantum of impact was there. I developed an understanding that as a writer, I must connect to readers through different media apart from the contents of my book. The aspiration of writing a perfect novel which entraps the attention of the whole world is an idea which is a delusion. If one can write a book, that thing is in itself an excellent thing to do. If the book is read even by a half a dozen readers who are not known to you, then you are a success. On Amazon and through Kindle, your book is at least open by the members of Kindle Unlimited. Even if, that happens, then as a writer, you are a success.

From the churning of words done by other authors on marketing, I picked the suggestion of connecting to readers apart from your book. There are numerous methods which are being suggested. Blogging is one of that. One of the tips is to develop an Author Page or Author Platform. If it is the message in the suggestion, and if I have understood it rightly, then It was what I did in-between.  I created two blogs instead. They are as follows.

1.       Author Page of SumirSharma.

2.       A Platform of Golden Kit toSelf-Publish the Writings in Hindi.

The blog Author Page is a general blog. Herein, the author talks to the reader about the topics relating to writing, writing skills, the methods of writing and related issue.

The Platform of Golden Kit is for a specific book of the author. In the blog, the author discusses the content of the book and issues related to the activity.

During these developments, I have derived some conclusions. They may interest many.

I have learned that the Self-Improvement books are not an inferior form of literature as some readers and discussions on this genre suggest. The style of Self-Improvement books in the genre of Non-fictional literature is a substantial cerebral activity. It relates to your present-day life. It provides solutions to the issues and problems which are real.

The second observation is that blogging is not a redundant thing. Twitter, Facebook, Youtube are the present-day buzz word. They have created a lot of commotion and blogging is sidelined in the din which has been raised. The activity has an intrinsic strength which would ensure its continuity. It is a meaningful activity which has its value. Too many people have ridden the waves of the cyber sea and raising a noise of their underdeveloped brains. Thumping the keypad with thumbs are far less productive than using all the fingers on the keyboard. The input methods may change, but the discourse which can be given through blogging is far ahead than the rest of the mediums. Even on Youtube, an over voice is needed. A stream of visuals may not be liked for long.

As far as the writers and readers are concerned, blogging can be an excellent platform to interact.

All such thoughts, readings, writings and activities are the reason behind my absence from this blog. I am here, and I will continue to post on this blog.

Catalogue of the Books by Sumir Sharma