This is the first in a two-part series by Alexandra Butcher. Part two is here.
Indie authors are given an almost overwhelming amount of advice about promoting and marketing their book, a great deal of which is contradictory.
It has to be said there is NO single path to take which works for every author. One person may find a good deal of success with one way, and the next finds that it simply does not work.
One of the most controversial ways is to offer a book for free. Amazon’s KDP Select Programme allows self-published authors to do just this. In return for exclusivity to Amazon, an author can offer his or her book for five days free promotion in every ninety day term. The theory being readers will take a chance on a free book by an unknown or little known author which they may not otherwise consider.
With a few rare exceptions, genre fiction is generally dismissed – even disdained – by “serious” authors and critical reviewers alike. Fantasy book sales are miniscule compared literary fiction; even the other genres outsell it. If you want to get rich, you’re better off writing “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” than “Bonds of Sisterhood.”