As I stated in the last blog entry, the week of release is vitally important. This week is your best chance to reach the New York Times Bestseller List, and other important lists that will be seen by thousands of people. You need to work hard this whole week, but it can't be the start of the work. This will be the time to follow up all the work you've been doing for the past six months. Remind everyone who's been showing interest that the book is now out. Post anywhere you can that all the clips you've been showing are connected to a book that just released. Basically, get all those people who have been on the fence about whether or not to purchase to take the leap and buy it already.
Also, this is very important, Amazon and Barnes & Noble to not allow reviews to be posted until the book is released. So go to all those folks who said they'd post a review to do it now. This is vital as it determines how far up in the list you'll be. I have books still on Amazon that, when you type in the exact title, are not the first to come up. (Instead it's other books that don't have the exact title, but have more reviews.) Even bad reviews help you reach the top of the list, so have them post it immediately.
I did all of these things. I took time off from work to reach out to everyone. I was even on a true crime podcast the week of release. Still, I had dismal results. On retrospect, I believe the reason was because the entire six months I was dependent upon news organizations to spread the word. Of course I did a number of things as well, informing people in groups that the book was releasing, and putting up an ad on Goodreads and on Facebook. But ultimately nonfiction depends heavily on readers hearing about the story from people they trust. This is usually the news media, such as the radio, NPR, television, etc. The fact that I was largely ignored by them hurt my chances greatly.
This has explained to me why that other author said fiction is easier to promote when you're self-published; you have more control over reaching your niche. You do need to make them trust your writing style and storytelling abilities, but they're not so stuck on reading and listening to traditional sources that they won't give you a chance.
However, all hope is not lost for non-fiction. The week before release, I was flown out to Salt Lake City to speak to an Italian-American department at a university. Many of the students got extra credit if they went to listen to my talk. Others in the university who was what the subject was about came out to see what it was all about. Since that time I've also found other venues with the same sort of niche; genealogy groups, other universities, old west and crime museums, etc.
I thought that bookstores would be interested in this, but again, I was largely ignored. Most surprising were the bookstores in San Francisco, who claim to pride themselves on supporting independent artists. I guess that doesn't include independent authors, as most authors they have listed are from major publishers. (So, they don't want you going to the big company called Barnes & Noble or Amazon, but they themselves will only deal with big publishers. Great.)
However, these niche locations are far more interested. I am now scheduling those events, and each time I go, I see the people's eyes get wide, and they take their books home to tell everyone about it. I always notice my sales go up after these.
So that's about it. I know I didn't cover it in anywhere near as much detail as I intended, and there's for more that would be helpful, but too much for me to think of and include in the blog. So the best thing for me to do is leave it as it is, and let anyone reading this ask me questions.
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