Welcome to the first of my Marketing Mondays posts, where I’ll be sharing marketing tips, interviews, and guest posts on the occasional Monday. My first post is a guest interview with romance author Annie Seaton, who has just released a helpful book for authors: Promotional Tips & Tricks for Aspiring Writers in a Digital Landscape.

Welcome, Annie!

1. Did you read any books or do any research or courses to help you learn about marketing, or did you learn things as you went along?

The same as I write, I am a seat of the pants marketer. Everything I have implemented, I learned as I went along. Self research and self taught.

2. Do you think it’s possible for time-poor authors to still market their books effectively? What would you consider they focus on most to make the best use of their time?

You’ve hit the nail on the head there, Juliet. Finding a balance between promotion and writing is hard enough, without the complication of career or other commitments. That being said, I think a structured schedule that allocates even a small portion of promo time…regularly or daily will allow time-poor authors to market effectively.

3. How can authors strike a balance between promoting their books and writing their books?

That’s the $64 dollar question. No matter how much time we allocate to promotion, we must always keep in mind, the very best advertising strategy is always your next book. Therefore it is essential that the balance leans in favour of writing.

4. Do you think it’s important for authors to be on twitter and/or Facebook every day?

I am an avid FB user, and I am yet to be convinced that twitter has the exposure of Facebook. But yes, whichever one you commit to as part of your promo strategy, you must be on there every day.

5. In your experience, what do you think has had the greatest impact on your book sales?

Establishing my brand in the lead up to publication. I blogged and Facebooked and saturated the market with Holiday Affair in the three months led in before publication.

6. Knowing what you know now, if you could go back and do anything differently when you first started writing seriously, what would it be?

No, I am happy with the way my promotional activities have succeeded. I wouldn’t change anything. If there was anything, perhaps I would have started an author page on Facebook a little earlier.

7. Is it normal for most book sales to die down after a few months, or do you think with consistent and effective marketing strategies authors can keep their sales at successful levels?

Holiday Affair stayed on the best seller Amazon lists for one year and I believe it was the constant promotion and saturation that allowed it to stay there.

8. Can you tell us about your new marketing book, and how writers can benefit from it?

As I experienced success with sales over the past year, many friends and colleagues asked me for the secret of my success. A couple told me I should write a book…and finally convinced me to write it down. It was intended for aspiring authors to show them my simple journey on a budget which still resulted in spectacular sales (I have sold over 25,000 copies of Holiday Affair in less than one year.) I have had many emails and reviews from established authors who have said they, too, got ideas from my outline.

Thanks for sharing your tips with us today, Annie.

>>To check out Annie’s book, Promotional Tips & Tricks for Aspiring Writers in a Digital Landscape, visit the Amazon book page.

You can also visit Annie online at her website, twitter, and facebook.

…Stay tuned for more ‘Marketing Monday’ posts coming soon. To be notified of new posts, remember to subscribe to the blog via email in the top right corner. 🙂