We’ve all been there, right?

We want to write good books with unforgettable characters and immersive plots. We want to publish a book worthy of the bestseller list. To that end, we take classes, go to writer’s groups, have our work edited and beta tested to within an inch of its word count. We format and create/purchase a cover and upload.

And then we hit publish.

And then…

Crickets.

Because it isn’t enough to write a great book. It has to have that magical component, visibility.

Without visibility, we might as well be standing in the forest, yelling into the empty wind. We must raise our books’ visibility, or we aren’t going to sell enough to cover the editing. And if we can’t do that, we may not be able to afford to write for very long.

So, what to do? In thinking it over, I quickly came to the conclusion that no one thing was going to flip the switch for me. So, I decided to do a number of things.

This month, I took part in Bryan Cohen’s 5-Day Amazon Ad Challenge. It was a good course and I learned a lot. Unfortunately, it hasn’t (so far) translated into much in the way of dollars and cents. That doesn’t mean it was a waste of time. Going forward, I’ll continue to implement much of what I learned.

I’ve started a street team group on FB and I’m working on increasing it. Here I’ll ask members to share my posts on launches and sales. I’ll also offer ARCs in exchange for honest reviews, preferably on Amazon, but also on GoodReads and Bookbub.

I’m looking at other ad venues, such as Bookbub, Fussy Librarian and Book Rebel (just heard of that last one, still investigating, so this is not a recommendation, yet.) I’ve done this kind of thing before, with mixed results, but I’m willing to give it another shot. Other people are claiming sales, so it can’t hurt (much) to try. I’m especially interested in Bookbub, since there are a couple of ways to play, and my following there has grown since the last time I tried it.

I’m standardizing my social media posting routine using a content calendar to make it faster, more consistent and easier to complete in a minimal amount of time. Sociamonials has been a great tool for this and I’ll continue using it.

I’m working toward a more consistent posting schedule both in my blogs and newsletter. Also, I’m using my reader blog as material for my newsletter via links. I’ve created a profile on Story Origin and I’m using it as well as Book Funnel to grow my NL list.

Will any of this work? I don’t know. But these tactics have worked for others and there is no reason I know of that they should not also work for me. The key, unifying element here – the thing I need to do that I wasn’t doing before – is consistency.

What are you doing consistently to raise your profile and increase the visibility of your books?