P.J. Murphy's Writer Site

After a flurry of activity around April and May around the launch of Six Steps, I’ve been a bit quiet. The truth is, I needed a break. The combined roles of writing, publishing and marketing a book are demanding, and that’s before taking into account my family responsibilities and, oh yes, my paid job! Besides, there’s only so many times I can respond to the question ‘How do you manage to fit it all in?’ when I honestly don’t have a clue how I fit it all in!

But I owe you an update. What has been happening???

Well, largely it has been marketing activity. A bit of work on the third Trent Argent novel, and a bit more on my Bond/Groundhog Day crossover, Beach of Spies, but mainly marketing. I’ll try to make this post interesting by not going into all the details and including links to articles and videos you can enjoy (or not) at your leisure.

I was organised enough to put together a marketing plan, which sounds grand, but was actually just a Word document with a few bullet points on it. Here were the main components:

Mailing list promotion

• BookBub New Release for Less – the gold standard in terms of generating sales, as far as I’m concerned. But a little pricy to get on their mailing list.
• I also promoted through JustKindle Books, Best Book Monkey and Fussy Librarian, with less effect.

Articles / Written interviews

• I worked with a marketer, who contacted a few different publications to take pieces from me. They didn’t seem to have a huge impact in terms of sales, but my web presence is growing, mwahahahaha!
• Writing.ie – ‘Writing Satire in Crazy Times’ . Hopefully I don’t need to explain what is crazy about the times.
• Authority Magazine – ‘How to Write a Book that Sparks a Movement’ – because I’m a mover and shaker, ahem.

Events

• Indie Author Book Festival – Check out a post about the experience here.
• Interview with World Radio Switzerland – This wasn’t actually an event, but it was big for me! Listen here to hear me assure listeners that I am not a dodgy businessman.
• I also did a launch event open to the public in Geneva open to the public, and a lunchtime event at work for colleagues. I read extracts, answered questions, signed copies of my book and generally acted important. Lesson for if you want to use this for promotion: get people to confirm you can use their image! Rookie mistake!

Other

• I also promoted using Facebook and Amazon ads. With both of these (as with marketing in general), I feel you have to make a big investment before you have the critical mass to make an impact. I wasn’t quite ready to invest the big bucks yet, but I think this resulted in a few sales, nevertheless
• And finally, as the book is set in Geneva, I managed to get the local Payot bookshop to take copies. I’ve missed a trick in not taking a cringeworthy selfie of me holding the book yet, but keep an eye on my Facebook page, and you’ll probably see one there sooner or later.

Phew, it’s made me feel tired just listing all this!

In terms of results, I generated the most sales through Bookbub and personal networks (thanks, Camille, my cheerleader!), as well as readers who were already following me as an author.

After all that effort, I’ve reached the conclusion that my experimental phase of marketing is over. In future, I’ll be tackling it in a coordinated way, building on what works well. But first, I need another book.

Back to my spies on the beach…

Thanks for reading!