Honing In on the Best Marketing Approach
Well, self-publishing continues to be a fun and exciting journey! The last month has had some highs and lows, but on the whole it has been amazing.
I hate to contradict myself, but I’ve learned a lot about what seems to be working marketing-wise and what hasn’t generated any results. So, below is a follow-up to my earlier post about marketing and publishing channels.
1. Distribution
My initial strategy to go for wide distribution didn’t pan out how I hoped. In theory, the more places a book is available, the more it will sell. Right?
Well, despite having the book available on B&N, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes, all of those platforms combined only moved four copies. Four copies in seven weeks is pretty dismal. Amazon, by contrast, is at 160+. Since book one is all about building a foundation for the series, I have it available for lending on Amazon. However, since the book is wide distribution and therefore not enrolled in KDP Select, I’m missing out on any potential revenue from those borrows.
Aside from being the largest online bookseller, I think I got more sales through Amazon for one simple reason: site navigation. Trying to run searches or filter results on most other sites in a nightmare. Amazon has so many layers and categories built into their catalog that some potential readers are almost certain to stumble upon your book eventually. “What about Google Play?” you may ask. Yes, Google Play is optimized for searching—it will search through book descriptions, and even the book content itself, which Amazon does not. However, when browsing by category, only Top Sellers show up. It was pretty disheartening to see that my book would ONLY ever appear if it came up in a keyword search. It makes it next to impossible for a new author to be discovered when only bestsellers make the page for each genre—and there’s no “see all” option.
That’s a long-winded way of saying I’ll be going Amazon exclusive. For a while, at least.
2. Marketing Channels
I continue to cast a wide net for marketing. Potential readers could be anywhere. I have posts up on several sites that offer a free promotional areas, such as Craigslist, Goodreads, and Indies Unlimited. I’ve also invested in some paid marketing, with mixed results.
2.1. Goodreads Paid Promotion
I decided to throw $10 at Goodreads and see what would happen. Of the 16,000+ combined views on the four ads in the campaign, there have been six click-throughs. I have not noticed any correlation to the clicks and the sales. Therefore, for now, I’m putting Goodreads advertising in a category for decent awareness-building and name recognition exposure, but it’s not a great way to generate sales. I will say, though, that money is only debited from the campaign fund for each click, so those ads will continue to run for quite some time. Doing it over, I would have started with $5.
2.2. AwesomeGang Paid Promotion
AwesomeGang offers both paid and free promotions. I did not notice any increase in sales the days surrounding the promotion. Doing it over, I would have done the free option. I stayed on the mailing list for a few weeks, and it seemed like the books were often of a more romance/erotica nature, so maybe space opera just wasn’t the right fit for the mailing list and others would garner different results. So, for a free marketing option, I’d say go for it, but skip the paid upgrade.
2.3. Pretty-Hot
Similar to AwesomeGang, there are free and paid promotions. The paid promotion came with some website featured placement time, so I went for it. Again, no discernible sales difference around those promotion days. Doing it over, I’d go for the free option. As with anything else, if it’s free marketing, may as well keep it as part of the overall campaign.
2.4. EReader News Today
Here’s where things got interesting. I signed up for EReader News Today when I came across it in my search for all things related to self-published book promotions. I wasn’t familiar with the site and its potential reach. In fact, when I saw that my book was accepted for May 19, I had completely forgotten about it and the $20 by the time the date rolled around. So, needless to say, I was shocked when I had more than triple my usual daily sales volume by the time it was 10am. By the end of the day, I had sold 46 copies and reached #6,292 in the Paid Kindle Store. For some, that’s nothing. But for me as a first-time author, it was huge. I didn’t quite break even on the money spent versus sales revenue, but the potential sales conversions to Book 2 in the series was well worth it. And, no copies were returned!
2.5. The Fussy Librarian
This site used to be free, but alas it is no more. However, the science fiction list has more than 100,000 subscribers, so a $16 investment has the potential to pay off well. The ad will be running on June 26th, so we’ll see what happens.
3. Getting Reviews
Trying to get books reviews is exhausting. For several weeks, I spent my evenings combing through lists of bloggers and sending out review requests. I also went through all of the Top 1000 reviewers on Amazon and wrote those who might be interested in my book. Between those two approaches, I only had about a 10 to 20 percent response rate, so it’s a lot of work for little payoff. However, every review counts. From what I’ve heard and read, the magic number to hit on Amazon is 50 reviews. I’m at 23 right now, so almost halfway there! I’m hoping more readers will start to post, as well.
4. Willingness to Adapt
When I released “Architects of Destiny,” I thought it was perfect. Well, of course, it wasn’t. After I had a few reviews, I noticed some common themes. So, I made some minor revisions. Nothing major that I’d say would warrant a re-read, but little refinements to polish the presentation. Some love the book, some think it’s okay, and others detest it. That’s how it goes with these things. But, some people DO love it—far more than those who hate it—so I’m standing by my work and not doing a complete overhaul to please the dissenting minority. That said, there’s always room for improvement, and I’ll continue to make those little revisions when I think there's opportunity to enhance the reader experience.
I’m glad I can so easily make those adjustments and have a new version live within hours. For that reason, I’m electing to hold off on offering a paperback version of the book until those little final tweaks are in place.
5. Closing Thoughts
Marketing a book is never-ending. And, in some ways, the book itself can continue to evolve. Self-publishing offers the unique opportunity for continuous improvement while maintaining creative control, and I’m thrilled I went that route. As I continue to learn, I will share my thoughts and hopefully help others in the way I was guided when I first started out.
I hate to contradict myself, but I’ve learned a lot about what seems to be working marketing-wise and what hasn’t generated any results. So, below is a follow-up to my earlier post about marketing and publishing channels.
1. Distribution
My initial strategy to go for wide distribution didn’t pan out how I hoped. In theory, the more places a book is available, the more it will sell. Right?
Well, despite having the book available on B&N, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes, all of those platforms combined only moved four copies. Four copies in seven weeks is pretty dismal. Amazon, by contrast, is at 160+. Since book one is all about building a foundation for the series, I have it available for lending on Amazon. However, since the book is wide distribution and therefore not enrolled in KDP Select, I’m missing out on any potential revenue from those borrows.
Aside from being the largest online bookseller, I think I got more sales through Amazon for one simple reason: site navigation. Trying to run searches or filter results on most other sites in a nightmare. Amazon has so many layers and categories built into their catalog that some potential readers are almost certain to stumble upon your book eventually. “What about Google Play?” you may ask. Yes, Google Play is optimized for searching—it will search through book descriptions, and even the book content itself, which Amazon does not. However, when browsing by category, only Top Sellers show up. It was pretty disheartening to see that my book would ONLY ever appear if it came up in a keyword search. It makes it next to impossible for a new author to be discovered when only bestsellers make the page for each genre—and there’s no “see all” option.
That’s a long-winded way of saying I’ll be going Amazon exclusive. For a while, at least.
2. Marketing Channels
I continue to cast a wide net for marketing. Potential readers could be anywhere. I have posts up on several sites that offer a free promotional areas, such as Craigslist, Goodreads, and Indies Unlimited. I’ve also invested in some paid marketing, with mixed results.
2.1. Goodreads Paid Promotion
I decided to throw $10 at Goodreads and see what would happen. Of the 16,000+ combined views on the four ads in the campaign, there have been six click-throughs. I have not noticed any correlation to the clicks and the sales. Therefore, for now, I’m putting Goodreads advertising in a category for decent awareness-building and name recognition exposure, but it’s not a great way to generate sales. I will say, though, that money is only debited from the campaign fund for each click, so those ads will continue to run for quite some time. Doing it over, I would have started with $5.
2.2. AwesomeGang Paid Promotion
AwesomeGang offers both paid and free promotions. I did not notice any increase in sales the days surrounding the promotion. Doing it over, I would have done the free option. I stayed on the mailing list for a few weeks, and it seemed like the books were often of a more romance/erotica nature, so maybe space opera just wasn’t the right fit for the mailing list and others would garner different results. So, for a free marketing option, I’d say go for it, but skip the paid upgrade.
2.3. Pretty-Hot
Similar to AwesomeGang, there are free and paid promotions. The paid promotion came with some website featured placement time, so I went for it. Again, no discernible sales difference around those promotion days. Doing it over, I’d go for the free option. As with anything else, if it’s free marketing, may as well keep it as part of the overall campaign.
2.4. EReader News Today
Here’s where things got interesting. I signed up for EReader News Today when I came across it in my search for all things related to self-published book promotions. I wasn’t familiar with the site and its potential reach. In fact, when I saw that my book was accepted for May 19, I had completely forgotten about it and the $20 by the time the date rolled around. So, needless to say, I was shocked when I had more than triple my usual daily sales volume by the time it was 10am. By the end of the day, I had sold 46 copies and reached #6,292 in the Paid Kindle Store. For some, that’s nothing. But for me as a first-time author, it was huge. I didn’t quite break even on the money spent versus sales revenue, but the potential sales conversions to Book 2 in the series was well worth it. And, no copies were returned!
2.5. The Fussy Librarian
This site used to be free, but alas it is no more. However, the science fiction list has more than 100,000 subscribers, so a $16 investment has the potential to pay off well. The ad will be running on June 26th, so we’ll see what happens.
3. Getting Reviews
Trying to get books reviews is exhausting. For several weeks, I spent my evenings combing through lists of bloggers and sending out review requests. I also went through all of the Top 1000 reviewers on Amazon and wrote those who might be interested in my book. Between those two approaches, I only had about a 10 to 20 percent response rate, so it’s a lot of work for little payoff. However, every review counts. From what I’ve heard and read, the magic number to hit on Amazon is 50 reviews. I’m at 23 right now, so almost halfway there! I’m hoping more readers will start to post, as well.
4. Willingness to Adapt
When I released “Architects of Destiny,” I thought it was perfect. Well, of course, it wasn’t. After I had a few reviews, I noticed some common themes. So, I made some minor revisions. Nothing major that I’d say would warrant a re-read, but little refinements to polish the presentation. Some love the book, some think it’s okay, and others detest it. That’s how it goes with these things. But, some people DO love it—far more than those who hate it—so I’m standing by my work and not doing a complete overhaul to please the dissenting minority. That said, there’s always room for improvement, and I’ll continue to make those little revisions when I think there's opportunity to enhance the reader experience.
I’m glad I can so easily make those adjustments and have a new version live within hours. For that reason, I’m electing to hold off on offering a paperback version of the book until those little final tweaks are in place.
5. Closing Thoughts
Marketing a book is never-ending. And, in some ways, the book itself can continue to evolve. Self-publishing offers the unique opportunity for continuous improvement while maintaining creative control, and I’m thrilled I went that route. As I continue to learn, I will share my thoughts and hopefully help others in the way I was guided when I first started out.
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