Our guest today is G.P. Ching a short fiction writer turned novelist and co-founder of DarkSide Publishing, an indie author cooperative. Her young adult series, The Soulkeepers, has garnered rave reviews and hit multiple bestseller lists.  She lives in Illinois with her husband and two children. Visit her at www.gpching.com or www.DarkSidePublishing.com.

If you are a new or pre-published author, you might want to sit down for this. What I’m about to say may come as a shock, but you need to hear it and you need to believe it.

The best writers don’t sell the most books.

Notice that I didn’t qualify that statement with traditional or indie. No matter how you’ve been published, the barriers to sell are the same.

Price – Readers are sensitive to price, especially in regard to ebooks.

Awareness – Readers who don’t know about your book won’t buy your book.

Convenience -Readers need to know an easy way to find and obtain your book quickly.

Trust-Readers are hesitant to try a new author because they don’t yet trust they’ll like the writing.

Successful authors know how to eliminate their readers’ barriers to buy.

Indie authors are intimately aware of these barriers. In order to sell any number of books they need to create a relevant social networking presence, price their book competitively, form relationships for marketing purposes, and find advertising venues that are effective for reaching their target market. Because of the world we live in, traditionally published authors can no longer rely on their publishing houses to do those things for them. And in some cases, being traditionally published ties the author’s hands when it comes to adjusting price, artwork, and/or strategy.

What does this mean for you and the manuscript you are cradling like a newborn baby in your arms? Here are five ways to get in touch with your market now, no matter how you plan to publish.

1. Know thy Market: Do you know your book’s market? Many new authors think their book will appeal to everyone. Even if you truly believe your book is the Statue of Liberty of literature, for your own sanity, choose a demographic that you feel is the best fit for your work. Decide whom you want to target and begin branding your on-line presence for that group of people. For example, if you are trying to reach teens, a blog with the color scheme of a nursing home might not be effective. However, that color scheme might be quite welcoming to those interested in an Amish romance.

2. Talk to People: Find a group of authors you can trust to discuss marketing. I’m not talking about a critique group. You want a network of folks who can help you find creative ways to promote your book to your market. My partners at DarkSide Publishing spend countless hours discussing this topic. If you are able to join a cooperative like mine, I highly recommend it, but a less formal group would do as well.

3. Think Social: Become an expert at social networking before your book is ever published. Twitter, Goodreads, and Facebook are not optional, and it’s not enough to have a profile. Get out there and form real relationships with people who might be interested in your book. Book bloggers and reviewers are obvious, but how about people who might be interested in the topic? Have you written a romance featuring a country music star? Why not get to know some female country music fans?

4. Pay It Forward: Helping other authors meet their goals will not take away from your success. If anything, it will add to it. Helping other people reach the market you’re interested in is a highly effective way of learning what works and what doesn’t. If you’re not actively promoting your own book, try to find a way to keep your promotional muscle strong with someone else’s book.

5. Build Trust: Have a plan for how you will get your first reviews and what you will do with them. How will you make sure that every one of your followers and your target market sees your fabulous reviews? Okay, so they’ll be on the back of your book and in the reviews section of on-line retailers, but that scenario implies that the reader is already looking at your book. Ask yourself how you can filter your specific market to the reviews you want to promote.

6. Buckle Down: Accept that building your brand is a marathon, not a sprint. Get to work on that next book while you’re waiting for efforts to pay off on your first. And remember, what worked yesterday might not work tomorrow. Regularly review your approach and adjust when necessary.

The purpose of doing these things is to learn what barriers are most important to your specific market and start addressing those barriers before your book hits the physical or digital shelves. Of course, if your writing is brilliant, it certainly helps the effectiveness of any strategy. But don’t expect the writing to sell your books. For most people, it just doesn’t happen that way.