by Dan Walsh, @DanWalshAuthor

Something happened in the last few weeks that made me decide to talk about Book Promos and Marketing in my column this month. Not a fun subject for most writers. Me included. When my first novel came out in 2009 and for the next 5 years (and 11 more books), I was essentially a “kept man.” I had the good fortune to be published by a major Christian publisher who pretty much did all the marketing and publicity work for me.

They spent thousands of dollars promoting each of my books and had a devoted Marketing and Publicity team. Other than responding to a variety of promotional events they set up, I did very little to market my own books.

And I didn’t spend a dime of my own money.

ALL of that changed at the end of 2014, when I made the leap to launch out as an indie author. That’s when I released my first indie suspense novel (When Night Comes). Against the advice of many of my author friends, my first indie book “broke rank” with my brand (Nicholas-Sparks-type novels).  WNC was more a suspense novel with a romantic thread included. They also said, if I did this, I should write under another name. I didn’t want to do that, either.

The short version of what’s happened since is…it was a GREAT move for me (becoming an indie). I’ve actually made more money the last 3 years than my best years with my publisher and have had more fun as a writer. I’ve been able to write and release a total of 8 new novels (4 more in the Suspense genre, 3 in the Inspirational genre I’m more known for). I’m able to write ALL the books I’ve wanted, the way I’ve wanted to write them, and have had complete creative control (even over the covers and titles).

But I’m not going to lie. It’s a TON more work for me than my days as a Kept Man. I’m having to do ALL the promo and marketing work myself. I spend at least 1/3 of my time on this. And then there’s the cost.

I have to spend a good deal of money on marketing and book promotions. This is what I want to talk about this month. The willingness to spend money. The reason I bring this up is, I often read on social media posts from other indie authors who clearly struggle with the idea of spending any serious amount of money promoting their books. And they also complain about how few copies of their books are being sold every month.

There’s a solid connection between these two things.

I spend hundreds of dollars almost every month on marketing. Beyond the cost itself, I often do promos that wind up giving 1 of my novels away for FREE. That’s right. Free. I’m literally giving away thousands of copies of my books in these promos. What sense does that make? Spending hundreds of dollars and getting nothing for it (because I’m offering the book for Free).

Turns out, it not only makes perfect sense, I can safely say…if I DIDN’T do this and on a regular basis, I wouldn’t generate enough sales to even think about writing books fulltime. Because when you spend money on solid marketing ideas, you get ALL that money back PLUS a TON MORE. Money you wouldn’t have ever earned apart from these pricey promotions.

And giving books away (assuming it’s a seriously good read), results in reaching THOUSANDS of new readers who might not have picked up a copy of your book any other way. But now that they’ve read it and loved it, they are looking for (and finding) links to several of my other books in the BACK PAGES of the promo book. And now they’re happy to pay the regular price for these other books, because they’ve found a new author whose books they love.

OJBECT LESSON: A few weeks ago, I ran one of these pricey promotions on my novel, The Deepest Waters. Its sales had kinda flatlined for months. It was a really good book (won a Carol Award) and had over 500 Amazon reviews (4.7 Star avg). But it was just sitting there, week after week, doing almost nothing.

Since running the promo, tens of thousands of readers have started reading it. I made 10 times the cost of the promotion back in sales and Kindle Unlimited page reads. And several hundred of those new readers have left BRAND NEW REVIEWS (mostly 5 Stars). Enough for The Deepest Waters to break the 800-Mark and increase its average to 4.8 Stars.

The book didn’t suddenly become a better book. It’s the same book it was a few weeks ago when hardly anyone was reading it. Now? Thousands of readers have read it, loved it, and best of all, are buying many of my other novels…at regular price.

It really is true what they say…It Takes Money to Make Money.

If These Walls Could Talk

(This is a “Sequel Series” to the Jack Turner Suspense Series – picks right up after Book 4) In Book 1 of the new Joe Boyd Suspense Series, Lt. Joe Boyd and his partner Hank Jensen have been tasked with creating a brand new Cold Case Squad for the Culpepper Police Department. Hoping to garner some much-needed positive publicity, their captain asks them to solve a string of unsolved murders from the 1980’s. Before they get far, Joe is interrupted with an alarming request from his good friend, Professor Jack Turner. Jack and Rachel believe they have stumbled upon evidence of a horrific crime dating back to the early 60’s, when their lake front house was built. Now it looks like Joe’s first case—instead of creating good publicity—might expose a terrible scandal involving a prominent Culpepper family’s ugly secret, one they’ve managed to keep hidden for over 50 years.