May 2020 Meeting Recap: Marketing in the Pandemic Age

The May panel addressed Marketing During the Pandemic Age.

Jeffrey Briggs and Alice Boatwright

Jeffrey Briggs, writer and journalist, answered the question: What Happens When You Ask? He shared his experience as an independent author learning how to overcome his inherent shyness to actively sell his first mystery, Out of the Cold Dark Sea. He explained how he used the “brag and beg” approach – you brag about your book and beg someone to buy it. He reviewed the different types of marketing tools he employed, everything from presenting at book clubs, promoting the idea of a personally signed book as a great gift, reaching out to bookstores and libraries, and giving a presentation at the Seattle Boat Show.

Alice Boatwright, past president of our Puget Sound chapter, has an outstanding record of sales for her award-winning Ellie Kent mysteries. She talked about the platform-building and marketing she did for the first in the series, Under an English Heaven. She shared handouts illustrating differences in sales between eBooks and paperbacks and showed the impact of a second book on sales. She also talked about the effectiveness of specific promotional efforts, including Book Bub, Amazon Kindle Daily and Monthly Deals, and other platform-building tools.