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Writer's pictureMelissa Koberlein

EPISODE 10, Season 2 – Book Marketing with author, Tricia Barr

Updated: Jun 17, 2020


In episode 10, Melissa welcomes Tricia Barr to the show to talk about book marketing. Listen in...EPISODE 10 - BOOK MARKETING.


Welcome to the Indie Chicks show! I’m your host, Melissa Koberlein. I’m an author and professor of publishing. If you’re just tuning in for the first time, let me tell you about the show. Indie Chicks celebrates and supports independent women in publishing. We’re a place for writers at all stages of the publishing process. So, whether you’re on the traditional route to publication or self-publishing, you’ve come to the right place for advice. Each week, I invite a guest host to join me for a hot topic in publishing or a book review.

This week I’m joined by Tricia Barr. Tricia has always loved writing. Even as a young child, she dazzled her teachers with her sappy short love stories. The one thing she loved more than reading and writing about romance and adventure was to actually live it and travel, so she pursued a degree in Anthropology, hoping to one day work in Egypt as an archaeologist. She graduated from the University of Arizona in 2011 and looked hard for a job in her field for two years until she realized that her degree would just never give me the life she wanted. So she decided to follow her first passion, writing. Now, she has exactly the life she wants. She travels whenever she wants with her wonderful husband, Eric, and has thrilling, passion-filled adventures that she writes about and share with the world, and hopefully influence young future writers. She’s also a brilliant book marketing and advertising strategist!


Welcome Tricia...


Tricia and I met at the Tucson Festival of Books in 2018. Tricia will also be a feature author at the Indie Chicks booth in 2019. I reviewed one of Tricia's steamy books, Devilish in season one of Indie Chicks. Tricia loves marketing. Did I just say that? I did. She loves it and knows her stuff. I couldn't be more excited to have her on the show.


Here's the Q&A from the episode:


Tell us about your journey as an indie author.


I wrote my first book, Ignite, in 2013 and was convinced that the only way it would ever sell is if it got traditionally published. So I spent a year trying to get a publisher to accept it, and one did--Damnation Press. Well, they lived up to their name because as soon as I signed with them, Caloric was damned to not sell. They screwed up so much and the book just failed as result. I stayed with them for two years until they reprinted my book and mispelled my name. At that point, I had it and I demanded to have my rights returned.


Although it took me a long time to build and perfect, my formula is pretty simple. The most important thing to a successful launch is making sure the book gets 20% more sales each day for at least 5 days straight. On day 1, I only share the book with my newsletter and facebook fans. Then on day 2, I schedule one or two small promos. Day 3, 3 medium-sized promos, Day 4, 4 big promos, and day 5, 5-7 HUGE promos. This ensures that the book gets in front of more people each day and will likely sell more each day. I used to spend loads on facebook ads each day of launch, but I’ve learned that facebook ads just don’t convert well for my genre.ook adspend each day for five days. I used his technique with the launch of The Vampire Secret, and that book hit the top 1000 on Amazon the first week! I have critiqued and altered my methods since then, and honestly, I could fill a whole book with all that I’ve learned in the past few months, but I’m quite happy with the journey I’ve had.


My latest campaign has been trying to hit the USA Today Bestseller list with a single title--not a boxed set. I created a shared world with 4 other authors called Shifter Academy about a school for shifters, and we decided that our debut book we should all write together so readers can fall in love with all of us rather than just one. The book turned out amazing and the preorder is going better than I expected. I believe we’ll make the list, but it really is a lot of work, and money, to get 5000 sales in 3 months!


What’s your formula for a successful launch of a book or series?


Although it took me a long time to build and perfect, my formula is pretty simple. The most important thing to a successful launch is making sure the book gets 20% more sales each day for at least 5 days straight. On day 1, I only share the book with my newsletter and facebook fans. Then on day 2, I schedule one or two small promos. Day 3, 3 medium sized promos, Day 4, 4 big promos, and day 5, 5-7 HUGE promos. This ensures that the book gets in front of more people each day and will likely sell more each day. I used to spend loads on facebook ads each day of launch, but I’ve learned that facebook ads just don’t convert well for my genre.


Tips about marketing?


Keep trying new things. If something fails over and over, you need to change something. Take a new class or learn from successful authors, but make sure those authors are in your genre because what works for romance doesn’t necessarily work for fantasy.


Favorite sites for advertising your books?


I love OTOH (On the Other Hand) Books! Especially their Book Club Boost option, I always sell at least 100 books in one day when I do that. Of course ENT (eReader News Today) and Bargain Booksy are great too, but everyone knows them.


AND....here was my Tip of the Week: Reserve a website with your name, if you haven’t already. GoDaddy is a good site for this.


I thanked Tricia for coming on the show. This is where you can find her:

Website: www.tricia-barr.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorTriciaBarr


Also, Here's a link to Tricia's newest release, Shifted. She's SUPER excited about it! Also, here's the engaging website, Shifter Academy. Check that out too!


Rule #1: Never go out after dark. Rule #2: Never go into large bodies of water. Rule #3: Stay off of social media.

Myreen didn’t think breaking one rule, just once, would lead to the death of her mother. And she

never expected to learn she was a mermaid shifter, or that her mother was killed by vampires.

Whisked away in the middle of the night for her own safety, Myreen finds herself in a secret school for shifters. With rumors swirling, mean girls circling, and two incredibly attractive guys tugging her in separate directions, Myreen will need to untangle the web of secrets surrounding her if she ever wants to find out why her mother was murdered.

But as she dives deeper into the mystery, she discovers a truth about herself that no one saw coming—a truth that will change the fate of the shifter world forever.


On my next podcast, book reviewer, Lexi Rute will be joining me for an indie book review. I will also have another Tip of the Week.


Don’t forget where to find me! Find my podcast at indiechicks.net or follow me on Spotify or subscribe to Indie Chicks on iTunes. Please rate me! You can follow me on Twitter @Indie_Chicks or Facebook.com/TheIndieChicks or @TheIndieChicks.


So, remember, we’re all part of a publishing community, be kind and review your fellow authors’ books! Thanks for listening!


And…


Indie Chicks out.

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