# Fan base before marketing?



## ScarletM.Sinclaire (Apr 11, 2018)

I'm not ready for marketing my book yet. My book is almost finished, but I was wondering, how do I start a follower base for my book? 

I am an unknown author, and I do plan on publishing on Amazon and I know its basically a horse race to get my book "in front" everyone. I want to do this the smart way, and get a following base (The earlier, the better imo). But how do I go about doing this? Do I just start a random blog for months (or years) and be like "Oh btw, I have a book I published, check it out" blah blah blah. 

I understand that a follower base takes time, which is why I'm not publishing for at least another year (especially since the book isn't finished yet).

My question is what are some other ways to start a fan base? Or what have you done personally, that turned your book into a success?


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## Bayview (Apr 11, 2018)

If there's anything harder than getting attention for an author with a brand new book, it's getting attention for an author WITHOUT a brand new book.

If you enjoy blogging and are the sort of writer who will effortlessly entertain and draw a following, then, great, blog away. But think about how many other authors are out there trying the same thing. The competition for eyes on blogs is probably at least as intense as the competition for eyes on novels.

Honestly, what's worked best for me in terms of getting readers has been working with publishers. If you've absolutely decided against that approach, I'd say you could benefit from building relationships with reviewers and bloggers so that when your book is ready they'll review it and/or let you borrow their spaces, their audiences, to talk about your book. A lot of bloggers are hungry for guest content, so that shouldn't be too hard for you to arrange. Reviewers can be trickier, since they have to do a fair bit of work to produce their reviews and they may not want to do that for a random stranger, but if you've established a pattern of posting responses to their reviews they'll be more likely to cooperate. Even something as simple as "This book sounds fantastic - I'm going to check it out. Thanks for reviewing it." can get your name into their heads.

Obviously you'll want to pick reviewers and bloggers whose audience is similar to the audience your book will appeal to.

Why spend a lot of time and effort building your own followers when you can just borrow someone else's?


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## Ralph Rotten (Apr 11, 2018)

How do you attract attention to a book you have not yet written?
answer; put it on presale and point your marketing at that.

The downside is that if you miss your deadline, Amazon will block you from using the presale feature for a year. 


Also 
Create a twitter account
Join every online public forum that even distantly relates to your book's content or demographic...and shamelessly self promote yourself.
Get a facebook account (and keep it professional--no politics)
Send press releases to local papers, inquire about submitting for reviews.
just a few things...


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## Ralph Rotten (Apr 12, 2018)

I emphasize the shameless part. Marketing is not for the meek.


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## ScarletM.Sinclaire (Apr 13, 2018)

Thank you guys so much for the responses. I'll get a start on twitter. I do have a fb account already set up with my pen name, Scarlet M. Sinclaire. I'll need to go back into it and start joining it. 

Time do join a bunch of zodiac/horoscope related groups!


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## Ralph Rotten (Apr 14, 2018)

Not just topic related forums, but demographic related. If your book is horoscopes then go to places populated by hippies and fortune tellers (just kidding.) You know your reader, where do the kinda people who read your kind of book hang out online?


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## moderan (Apr 17, 2018)

Community involvement. If you operate in a niche or identifiable genre, you can get the fans interested by getting them into the process. For example, we're running an art contest for the second Test Patterns anthology. We're also crowdfunding, with the book as a reward for contributions above a certain dollar amount, and doing interviews, etc., in tandem with our 'name' authors, on blogs and podcasts.


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## ScarletM.Sinclaire (Apr 20, 2018)

moderan said:


> Community involvement. If you operate in a niche or identifiable genre, you can get the fans interested by getting them into the process. For example, we're running an art contest for the second Test patterns anthology. We're also crowdfunding, with the book as a reward for contributions above a certain dollar amount, and doing interviews, etc., in tandem with our 'name' authors, on blogs and podcasts.



Wow, this is actually a great idea. Unique too, as I've never heard of something like this being done. Hold contests, use the book as a reward. That's actually really great. I hope everything went well with that btw.


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## ScarletM.Sinclaire (Apr 20, 2018)

Ralph Rotten said:


> Not just topic related forums, but demographic related. If your book is horoscopes then go to places populated by hippies and fortune tellers (just kidding.) You know your reader, where do the kinda people who read your kind of book hang out online?




This made me laugh. But mostly it would be facebook or twitter. I've already started the process with a facebook account using my pen name , Scarlet M. Sinclaire. Taking things slowly as I finish writing my book (almost done btw, HOORAH!). So once I do the full edits, I'll start the marketing process.


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## Ralph Rotten (Apr 26, 2018)

ScarletM.Sinclaire said:


> This made me laugh. But mostly it would be facebook or twitter. I've already started the process with a facebook account using my pen name , Scarlet M. Sinclaire. Taking things slowly as I finish writing my book (almost done btw, HOORAH!). So once I do the full edits, I'll start the marketing process.




Facebook n twitter are just the opening salvos. Online there are thousands of forums just like this one...except for different topics. There are discussion forums for guns and camping and writing and model building and anything that humans can find an interest in. Go to these places, become a member in good standing (as opposed to the slackers who sign up, post one shameless self-promotion, then never come back), and sell your book. Figure out what kind of hobbies or interests your readers would have, and go out and sell in these forums. It is slow work, but it helps in many ways (remember that google spiders everything that gets posted online so eventually it will build you a web presence.)


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## moderan (Apr 27, 2018)

ScarletM.Sinclaire said:


> Wow, this is actually a great idea. Unique too, as I've never heard of something like this being done. Hold contests, use the book as a reward. That's actually really great. I hope everything went well with that btw.


Worked well enough the first time. The art contest is a ton of fun. We have more contests scheduled. Weird fiction is a highly competitive field these days, and one needs creativity to even tread water.


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## Ralph Rotten (Apr 27, 2018)

BTW: Here is the link to the Google page where you can have your site spidered by their search engine.  Essentially if you don't feel like waiting for the google engine to find your posted content on its own, you can throw a URL into this page and have your page spidered immediately.

Good page to book mark for people handling their own marketing.

https://www.google.com/webmasters/t...m676-RYx6n3zxuTxW1y85F9yRr5sQApPEfwMw40&pli=1


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## ScarletM.Sinclaire (May 2, 2018)

Ralph Rotten said:


> BTW: Here is the link to the Google page where you can have your site spidered by their search engine.  Essentially if you don't feel like waiting for the google engine to find your posted content on its own, you can throw a URL into this page and have your page spidered immediately.
> 
> Good page to book mark for people handling their own marketing.
> 
> https://www.google.com/webmasters/t...m676-RYx6n3zxuTxW1y85F9yRr5sQApPEfwMw40&pli=1




THANK YOU!!!


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## bangers (May 29, 2018)

ScarletM.Sinclaire said:


> I'm not ready for marketing my book yet. My book is almost finished, but I was wondering, how do I start a follower base for my book?
> 
> I am an unknown author, and I do plan on publishing on Amazon and I know its basically a horse race to get my book "in front" everyone. I want to do this the smart way, and get a following base (The earlier, the better imo). But how do I go about doing this? Do I just start a random blog for months (or years) and be like "Oh btw, I have a book I published, check it out" blah blah blah.
> 
> ...



I would have to say that it depends on the genre of book you are writing. Since I don't know that, I would have to suggest using social media. You can start a YouTube channel and talk with people on topics related to your book. I would suggest not mentioning the book at the beginning of your journey. Wait until you have at least 100k followers. While doing so, you can also write a blog and promote it on your channel, plus tweet & post on Instagram. I think that for one year you will be able to grow your platforms and be able to successfully promote your book. You might find this useful since it discusses tips on growing your social media following. ;-) Btw what area are you focusing on and what is the idea behind the book?


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## Pete_C (May 30, 2018)

bangers said:


> I would have to say that it depends on the genre of book you are writing. Since I don't know that, I would have to suggest using social media. You can start a YouTube channel and talk with people on topics related to your book. I would suggest not mentioning the book at the beginning of your journey. Wait until you have at least 100k followers. While doing so, you can also write a blog and promote it on your channel, plus tweet & post on Instagram. I think that for one year you will be able to grow your platforms and be able to successfully promote your book. You might find this useful since it discusses tips on growing your social media following. ;-) Btw what area are you focusing on and what is the idea behind the book?



I think many people would never get around to doing anything if they waited for a minimum of 100k followers!

The reality is that general social media activity will be pointless if you are looking for a specific number of followers. Most writers would benefit significantly more from 500 followers that are likely to buy a book in the given genre, and then go on to recommend it to others, than 100,000 general people. 

People who read generally talk about books with other people who read. That 500 could seed a growing market. 

Don't sweat numbers of followers; that's just vanity. Get good followers and you start to build an audience.


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## Ralph Rotten (Jun 2, 2018)

Something to consider about twitter is that out of 100,000 followers, 92,000 are relatively inactive or not active at all.  They are people who joined, played with it, maybe even used it heavily, but in the end they lost interest, moved to another app, got married, moved on, and their account sits there collecting virtual dust.  

Most people spend a few years on a platform, but eventually they move to something else.


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## LARivers (Sep 2, 2018)

When building a base you need to do a couple of things. 

1. Be social - on and offline. People support relatable people. Not everyone is who you’re looking for, so who is it you need to know. Support them, comment, celebrate their wins, say happy birthday, basically get out there and make friends.

2. Document your process starting yesterday. One author I know posted his word count everyday he was writing his first draft and made “taco goals”, humor was his vehicle of building a supporting base. Use your personal strengths, highlight more of the positive aspects vs the struggle. 10/1 is good ratio.

3. If you have a character with a unique voice let them do the talking in social medua. Laurie R King did that highly effectively with her Mary R Russell character and was super fun to interact wuth on MySpace/Twitter.

4. BRAG - be excited


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