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      Amanda Luedeke

      Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

      October 31, 2013

      Thursdays with Amanda: Using Google to Find Your Readership

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      Amanda Luedeke is a zombie literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform and eating brains. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her cravings for human flesh and wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

      This weekend, we’re having our annual MacGregor Literary marketing seminar, where we invite our authors to come out to Chicago (this year, we opened it up to the general public, as well!), set up camp in a hotel conference room, and talk nothing but marketing for an entire day.  For an industry comprised primarily of introverts, I’d say the word “exhausting” barely begins to cover how this event makes authors feel. And yet we’ll see fifty-plus authors who have dusted off their luggage, said goodbye to the comfort of their pajama-friendly workspaces, and braced themselves for a barrage of smalltalk and awkwardness…all because they realize the single truth that can make, break, or change an author’s career:

      Careers are built on great sales numbers. They aren’t built on awards or fan mail or an extensive publishing history. They aren’t built on publishing with the biggest houses and befriending the most top-selling authors and contracting multiple books in a year.

      They’re built on the number of copies sold. And the only way an author can ensure that they have truly done all they can to get those numbers is to promote, promote, promote.

      It is as this point–when the book begins to earn money for the publisher–that it is no longer seen as a risk, but instead, an investment. A wonderful, magical investment for which the publisher will do anything to keep.

      And so, we’ll be spending a weekend, going over this essential part of the puzzle. My contribution this year is to talk about using Google to actually FIND your target audience. Essentially, I’ll be walking authors through the process of PURSING readers, as opposed to the typical strategy of throwing content out there (whether through Facebook, Twitter, or ads), and hoping it lands. My talk will consist of three things:

      1. Identifying niche readerships that are unique to YOUR book

      2. Discovering where these groups congregate online

      3. Engaging the groups in conversation, possible giveaways, and other strategies that will get them excited and buzzing.

      Sound interesting? I’ve offered this as a continuing class at a number of conferences, and I’ve even had instances in which I’ve condensed it into a single workshop. I’ve thought about writing about it on this blog, but I’m afraid that since it’s so individualized, there won’t be enough room for back-and-forth (I really like to ensure that attendees come out of my class with their niche audiences and search terms ready to go!).

      So, I’m asking you…if I offered this as a webinar (or something similar), would it interest you?

      PLEASE let me know!

       

       

       

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