Creating Buzz
Terry Odell
In my last post, I talked about how the cover for Deadly Ambitions came to be. I mentioned in a response to a commenter, that with the book in the hands of my editor and an extended period before the book will go live, I need to put on my dreaded marketing hat and come up with ways to generate some buzz.
Unless you can afford to hire a publicist, I don’t think it matters whether you’re indie or traditionally published—you’re still going to have to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Publishers don’t fork over the big bucks for most of their authors.
If you’re working with social media platforms, you’re going to want visuals, be they ads, memes, or whatever you call them. I’m not a graphics designer, so I rely on other programs.
I’ve found two resources that have helped me: Mockup Shots and Canva. (I do have paid accounts at both.) I know a lot of authors use Brush instead of Canva, but I found it too limiting since I create images for a lot more than book promo (like for my blog, newsletter, and TKZ).
Mockup Shots is very easy to use to generate images featuring your book. You plug in your cover, and it creates a huge number of choices. These are just a few.
You pick the ones you like and download them. Here are a few I picked.
Next, I take the mockups, and any images of my own I might want to use, and upload them to Canva. From here, it’s a lot of playing around with all the options and tools they offer.
My go-to design template is their landscape Facebook size, but you can choose your own dimensions. From there, it’s a matter of dragging the image(s) onto the template, and adjusting the size using the “handles” for lack of what I’m sure is a more correct term.
Next, I add the text. I have several tag lines so my projects won’t all be the same. I also have snippets of text from the manuscript. Canva gives you the opportunity to choose fonts, size, color, outline, shadows … more features than I need.
Another handy feature is the transparency adjustment. I tend to use this for my backgrounds so my text is more conspicuous. There’s also a position feature, so you can move your additions forward and backward. You go to the ‘text’ on the left sidebar and play around from there.
Another thing I like about Canva is they have people who will help you. I’ve used them. A lot!
Once I’ve finished, I download the file as a jpg (best for sharing). Rinse, repeat.
Here’s what I’ve come up with so far.
I’m not fond of the marketing side of publishing as an indie, but at least playing around with these sorts of images is something I enjoy. Now, it’s a matter of deciding how to put them to best use. Suggestions welcome!
Oh, and before I forget. I’ve set Deadly Ambitions up as a preorder. The ‘go live’ date is January 14th, so I have plenty of time to work on honing my marketing skills.
What marketing/promotion tools do you use? Likes? Dislikes?
New! Find me at Substack with Writings and Wanderings
Peace in Mapleton doesn’t last. Police Chief Gordon Hepler is already juggling a bitter ex-mayoral candidate who refuses to accept election results and a new council member determined to cut police department’s funding.
Meanwhile, Angie’s long-delayed diner remodel uncovers an old journal, sparking her curiosity about the girl who wrote it. But as she digs for answers, is she uncovering more than she bargained for?
Now Gordon must untangle political maneuvering, personal grudges, and hidden agendas before danger closes in on the people he loves most.
Deadly Ambitions delivers small-town intrigue, political tension, and page-turning suspense rooted in both history and today’s ambitions.
Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”