Promotion and Marketing- What's the Difference?
A Romantic Affair
Can you breathe it?
The dust flitting on the breeze from the cover being lifted.
The ink saturating a yellowing parchment.
The glue holds a faint trace of long dried chemicals.
Can you feel it?
The weight of the paper stacked in order.
The anticipation of insight into another world.
The sheer roaring power of knowledge in the written words.
Can you sense it?
The great escape.
The grand adventure.
The exquisite love affair.
Book life.
Read life.
Write life.
-Ophelia Kee
Dear Reader,
If writing is fun, editing is a chore, and publishing is a step-by-step process, marketing is the daunting part of self-publishing. I promised not to lie about my author’s walk or withhold any of the things I’ve learned while I take this journey, so I won’t start now. Marketing is a scary monster hiding under the bed and in the closet. He hangs out in the basement beneath the floorboards and behind that locked door in the attic I don’t have. It’s dangerous and difficult to conquer.
Marketing is likely the bane of existence for any self publisher. I'll take 6 month’s worth of edits over pulling my hair out about blurbs and taglines, long-tailed keywords and search engine optimization. I swear some of this metadata stuff sounds like words a two-year-old made up because they had difficulty saying something they hadn’t heard often. They make as much sense to me as well.
If there’s a magic wand to create selling ad copy and perfect book covers, I might consider a deal with Rumplestiltskin or some other mad djinn type. There might be some promising AI technology out there. Maybe it will be worth an investment. The jury is still in deliberation on that subject.
If you want to know something about the books, the publishing, or the marketing, ask. I like to be bothered. Writing is all about style. Publishing is a step-by-step process that varies only slightly depending on which platform you’re using. I've learned some things about the marketing monster I seek to slay, but I admit my dismal defeat at murdering the slavering beast.
Promotion is something I do all the time on social media, in the blog and in the books. I use this term to indicate things I’ve done for free to help my books gain an audience. To me, book promotion needs to happen on some level every single day. For example, I post my mockups with blurbs to TikTok and turn them into short videos. Then I post them on other social media sites.
For those who disagree with posting book ads with links and blurbs, that is your right, but I would like to note that it’s impossible for anyone to find my stories if they don’t even have my name to enter into a search engine or supply to the clerk behind the counter of their local bookstore or library. And even for companies whose products have worldwide name recognition, advertising is still part of selling their products. Google one and see if I’m right.
I’m currently on the following social media platforms. Please connect with me on any of these platforms. I do like being bothered about the books.
Email Ophelia Kee,
Follow Draoithe on Facebook,
Follow Ophelia Kee on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, TikTok,
Subscribe to the Ophelia Kee channel on YouTube,
Follow Ophelia Kee on Author Central at Amazon.
For those who want to know, I have occasionally run paid ads on Facebook, and on Amazon. But the learning curve is steep and I don’t have money to burn to learn, nor do I have the time to do something an AI bot should do for me. (I'm looking into it.)
I auto-list my books on Twitter and other sites with some help from Ebooklingo and Selfpublist.
I refer to paid promotions as marketing and so far I’m trash at it as I mentioned with the paid social media ads. I’ve run a few other paid promotional offers like paid newsletters with limited results, but mostly, it’s just me promoting away for free, hoping if you like steamy urban fantasy and paranormal romance, that you’ll give the Draoithe Saga a serious consideration.
I firmly believe after having published exclusive and wide over the last 5 years that the only way an indie author can expect to earn a living wage (50K+ take home profit, so you can afford to replace all the things lost when one has no employer and still pay utilities and eat) is to do three things well. 1) Create great stories, preferably in a series and genre that has a large audience, 2) Publish at least 20 titles, so readers have a large enough backlist to continue reading while you write more stories, (This is for slow writers like me, if you write faster, you might not need so many to start. The size of your bookshelf matters!), and 3) Learn and implement successful story marketing techniques. This is where I’m currently stuck.
Reviews
Like all authors, I’d love it if readers were kind and left reviews when they read. Reviews are super helpful to both authors and other readers. They help tremendously as a promotional tool.
So I’ll shamelessly ask when you read, please be kind and write your review. I promise. Many authors read them and will appreciate you. I often do shout-outs to people who review my books on my blog. Thank you to all the readers who’ve been kind enough to lend that free support.
Shameless Self Promotion
The very best promotion I’ve ever run was the truth. Like any fiction, some of the Draoithe Saga stories may appeal to you. Others might not. I’m the same way.
Many times readers have picked up the first free book, then read through the entire saga before I can even get finished publishing it. That made me feel good. That meant some people truly enjoyed the stories. So if you like adult style fantasy, Draoithe is worth the look.
Check it out. You won’t have wasted your money. The Thread is FREE everywhere and a few other titles can be read for FREE on my Payhip site. If you decide to continue reading, the saga unfolds for a lot of grand fantasy romantic encounters and adventures.
Steamy Urban Fantasy Paranormal Romance 18+ HEA! NC! Fated Mates Part of the Draoithe Saga
***Warning: Adult Themes, Fantasy Violence, and/or Explicit Sexual Situations. Intended for a Mature Audience.
Steamy hot, wickedly delicious urban fantasy stories set in a dream to live for. It became a retreat and a sanctuary for immortals and gifted humans as Luke and Eli discovered love, magic, and danger.
They find friends helping dragons, shifters, vampires, wizards, and stranger beings from the nine realms of the dream overcome their problems with different magic and skills which aids in protecting the sanctuary that is Draoithe.
Those who come to Draoithe add to the balance and aid in the fight to restore balance to the dream. It’s fantasy world-building on a grand scale woven together with multifaceted magical characters to create a tapestry of thrilling stories all interconnected in the Draoithe Saga.
Won’t you choose a story and join them?
Suggested Read Order
for the Draoithe Saga
by the Author
Kingdom Rising Miniseries
Grey Dragons Miniseries
Mor Tuath Miniseries
Dread Allies Tales *Spin-off Miniseries
Eyrie Iolair Tales *Spin-off Miniseries
Lyons Gate Tales *Spin-off Miniseries
Apocalypse Averted *Spin-off Miniseries
Draoithe Extra Tales
Tantalu *Prequel
Synner And Sainte *Forbye
Behind the Scenes of the Dream
Please look for other tales by Ophelia Kee.
Welcome to the dream…
Allow me to invite you to grab a good drink, curl up in a good seat, choose a book from the Saga, and escape into the dream while you meet the men and women who call it home. A place where myths, legends, and fairytales walk unmolested among the strange and wonderful, where the balance is often found in a life mate, and where the magic from the past lives again!
If this is your first trip to the dream, please accept my offer of The Thread as a gift to help you begin your journey. If you like it and sign up for the Newsletter, there is currently a free video book, Unlikely Kings, available with more freebies and goodies coming soon. Thank you for visiting and once again, Welcome to the dream…
So how did that infomercial sound? I hope you enjoyed it. I grandly hope one day I'll have enough time and loose change I can hire a book marketer. In between that unlikely event and my current situation, I'll continue plugging away on my 2023 Focus on TikTok and YouTube. I hope you will join me on those platforms.
Be Careful!
Happy Reading,
Ophelia Kee
Want More?
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Watch book trailers and vlogs: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2YG0meqbI_dfhxcLiX3CMg or https://payhip.com/OpheliaKee/blog/exclusives-from-the-dream
Collect exclusives, free reads, and ebooks:
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Payhip https://payhip.com/OpheliaKee or https://opheliakee.com
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Wanna Read?
https://payhip.com/OpheliaKee/blog/wanna-read
Want your own character art?
WeDesign Studio by https://twitter.com/GogaRose_
Have a Question? Suggestion? Comment? Need to speak, learn, or read about my books, writing, publishing, or marketing? I love to be bothered, inspired, and entertained by the world of books. Drop by and say, Hello!
Email the author at opheliakee69@gmail.com
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Donations are accepted at KO-FI. Help me get a BookFunnel Subscription to deliver the books. Thank you for your support! Sincerely, -OK
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