World, Writing, Wealth discussion

Some indies/selfies stick to free promos and are satisfied with modest sales, but a small profit, others - drive the sales through paid promos, assume some loss in hope to recoup it afterwards. Of course, doing nothing at all is also an option.
Each approach has its own pros and cons probably. Which one's for you?

I'll take either but experience shows freebies no longer work and neither do promos judging by recent campaigns. I'm currently doing local giveaways to colleagues and associates and have picked up a couple of additional sales. i.e. give first part as gift then talk about others.

Been doing Goodreads and Amazon ad campaigns - complete waste of time in terms of sales.

I don't do "free" because when I tried it before it was a waste of time. I do do discounted promos, and they all lose money, but they do get my name out there. If you do nothing, you seem to get nothing, but if you space the promos, you get some further sales out of the promo zone. Oddly enough, when I do a promo, I often see few sales of the discounted book, but increased sales in the non-discounted ones. I don't understand, but I'll take the sales.

I use paid advertising for free promotions. I've found that spending time submitting to the free sites is often a waste of time. Even when featured, there is little result. Many sites that had better results and free submissions when I first published in 2016 are no longer free, or are no longer functioning sites. Even with paid submissions, it takes time to find out which sites might be worth it, which sites aren't, and which ones are outright scams.

I generally schedule a book promotion to last 1 day every 3 weeks, so I think it's important to make each promo count as much as possible. That's why I pay for guaranteed features. I would rather know my book is getting as much attention as possible during that one day promotion than leaving it up to chance with free submissions.

As someone who averages 0-1 book sales I'll take the reachable and doable 10 small profit all day long.

I use social media and free or discounted sales from time to time but not paid promotions. Advertising seldom recoups the cost and, although I want my books read, I will not pay for the privilege.

I agree with you three Victor.

*there

And what's your approach?

In 2010, after sending a letter of inquiry, including an overview of my novel's storyline, to 7 traditional publishers, I rceived very polite rejection letters from 5 of them and a request for a copy of my manuscript from the remaining 2 Within a month, those 2 returned the manuscript with a polite rejection letter attached.

After researching and carefully considering all of the non-traditional publishing options, I decided to utilize the services of a pay-for-services publisher, often referred to by some as a Vanity Press.

After pointing out the areas within my manuscript which required improvement, I was offered the names and background data of several copy-editors, content editors, graphic design artists, and layout design artists from which to choose.

After making my choices and working with each for eleven months, my manuscript was deemed ready for publishing. I chose 4 formats: Paperback book - ebook - audio book on CD - audio download. (I was allowed to choose 1 of 3 professional narrators for the audio formats.)

My novel was released internationally on Aug. 9, 2011. The publisher produced all 4 formats and marketed the book through literary magazines & websites, book stores, newspapers, and radio. Copies were provided to commercial vendors on-consignment. Unsold units would be returned.

The novel was commercially available from Aug. 9, 2011 through Dec. 31, 2016 when the publisher filed for bankruptcy and went out of business; perhaps from signing too many authors like myself.

During its availability, my novel sold a total of only 1,029 units (485 paperback - 480 ebook - 36 audio book on CD - 28 audio downloads). Royalties paid to me totalled $2,358.34, after taxes.

Total costs charged by the publisher to me for all of the above-mentioned services was $3,985.50. Though, I am sure some authors would disagree, I pesonally felt that the bottom-line loss of $1,627.16 was well worth the services provided, the learning experiences and the fact that 1,029 readers were willing to purchase a copy of my work.

The profit on the sale of 10 books would not only be negligible, but it also means your books is only getting into the hands of 10 people. That's ten potential words-of-mouth, ten potential online reviews.
Having said that, I think authors have to calculate the potential return on dollars spent. Always look for ways to promote that cost nothing - local media (local newspapers, radio, blogs) may be willing to do an interview. Local libraries may be willing to book you for a talk/signing. Team up with other local writers and see if the library, community center, arts organization will book you for a panel discussion. Don't just use social media platforms to promote; engage in book and writing related topics and then introduce your promotion when it's applicable. Offer your free author copies (you should get 10 or so) to a local book club and then offer them an in-person Q&A about the book.

My aim is to try to make a profit. I know I am in the wrong place to manage some of the obvious cheap promotional tricks, and I also know my novels probably only would be of interest to a small minority so I just do what I can.

One problem I have seen is there is now a small industry of entities with a website saying that, for a fee, they will promote your books. Their income comes from fees so it is irrelevant to them whether anything comes out of it, and I suspect that it has degenerated to the point where their promotion would be lucky if it led to a couple of sales. We all know there are so many books out there, but it is less well-known that there are also a huge number of websites "promoting" and I do not think anyone interested in reading my books would be bothered with trawling through all those websites.

Funny, I am currently reconsidering my publishing options for present and future works.

This thread is great, and helps me realize that I might be reconsidering in the right ways.

Strange, yet awesome timing to run across this discussion. I have to admit, I could have easily written a similar post as the one written by Deanne Devine.

Deanne wrote: "As an introvert, there's no way I could do a big promotion! It's taking all the nerve I have just write this post! I'm super happy to let my books do what they do, and when that occasional $.80 shows up in the bank, I celebrate. By myself."


I believe, however, that it might be time for me to take my publishing journey in a new direction...