Christian Speculative Fiction discussion

I'm an indie author who publishes through KDP, but I haven't exactly been super successful. Over the past few months I've come to realize that books (usually) don't sell by themselves, but need a lot of marketing, so I've been trying to be more proactive in promoting my work.

However, despite my experimenting, efforts, and a lot of money spent, sales are still sluggish, and I'm trying to pinpoint why. I could shell out over a hundred dollars to hire a professional marketing analyst for a one-hour consultation... but before I commit to that, I wanted to see if my fellow authors have any ideas.

Here's the rundown of my current situation:

I have a professional author Facebook page that I'm very active on. It's my only social media presence, but I personally only ever use Facebook, I'm not a big social media person, and I have no desire to try to juggle multiple social media platforms. I try to make up for that by being active and engaging on the one place you can find me professionally on social media.

I've tried advertising on Facebook and Amazon, with modest results (more from FB than Amazon). My budget hasn't been the biggest, so I'm wondering if just upping my budget will see an increase in sales/downloads.

All of my books are on Kindle Unlimited. I have earned some revenue from that, but not as much as I would like.

Is there just something about my books - either the content or the presentation - that is unappealing to prospective readers? My editors rave about my work (you can see my proofreader's anonymous reviews on all of my books on Amazon), and one of them is a professional story consultant and screenwriter while the other is extremely picky about her fiction. So I feel like the content must at least be pretty good quality. And frankly, I've read plenty of books that sold like crazy, that I thought really needed a lot more work before they went to print. My latest novel is available for free through this Friday, if you want to take a look at it and let me know if I'm doing anything wrong.

So maybe the problem is the presentation? Are the covers unappealing? (Learning this would make me sad because I worked hard on them, but if they're the main issue with my books not selling, then obviously I need to do better.) Did I not do a good enough job making the books sound interesting in the blurbs?

Is the lack of reviews affecting sales? I'm sure I don't have to tell you how difficult it is to get reviews, and how exciting it is to get a new review, even if it's not brimming with praise. If this is the case, how can I gain more reviews honestly and organically?

My story editor mentioned that I might want to try increasing my reader base. I've been trying to do this by running a lot of free book promotions, so people can get introduced to my work at no cost. But this hasn't really seemed to lead to an increase in either sales or engagement with my Facebook page. Only a handful of people who follow my page are people I don't know personally.

Should I be marketing to a different audience? I've been mainly targeting emerging adults, but maybe that isn't the optimum market for my work?

What marketing techniques have worked for you? Is there something I'm missing or not taking full advantage of?

Thanks for your thoughts!

I'm not a marketing expert, but I know something spoken out of Tina Radcliffe's own mouth: promote on Instagram. Instagram is where all the young people buying books and the bookstagrammers and all those people are gathering. Facebook is losing potency as a book advertising site.
When on Instagram, advertise, advertise, advertise! Look at what people like Shannon Messenger, whose books are bound to be worse than yours but has a ton of fans, do. Look into the psychology of it. Maybe she posts something every day to always be reminding you that she's there. Maybe she's always sending teasers about the next book. Whatever big Instagram authors do, do that!
On the subject of covers, what my marketing-genius dad is always telling me about is the thumbnail. If you can't tell what your cover looks like when it's in thumbnail format, it just ain't gonna sell! To improve, try higher contrast between forefronts and background, human faces (they sell a lot), and BE CAREFUL of your title font! We only need to look at Bound by Earth in a thumbnail format to see how things can go horribly wrong with title placement!
And if we're talking about editing, well, I myself am an up-and coming editor! I've only done one job for a complete stranger so far (which they highly appreciated) and I'm halfway through another, and I would gladly edit your next book free of charge. I'm at the point in my career where all I'm trying to do is build 5-star ratings, so no fees necessary. Contact me if that appeals to you!
Here's the book with a terrible thumbnail, by the way. Click the link and take a step back. Tell me, what does the title immediately appear to say?
Bound by Earth

Thanks for your input!

(I apologize if I sound a bit terse; it's been a rough morning.) Thanks for giving me the lowdown on Instagram. I've really been resisting using Instagram either in my personal life or professionally, but it sounds like I may have to take a more serious look at it. I have difficulty with the learning curve associated with new social media websites (I barely feel like I have a handle on Facebook), and as a writer with a lot of textual information to present, I find myself feeling overwhelmed and frustrated by Instagram's image-based format. I prefer composing text posts over trying to find or create fancy graphics. I know my story editor has been trying to use Instagram more lately, so I'll ask her for her input as well. (I do want to mention that when I run Facebook ads, I also set them to run on Instagram, so I am doing a little Instagram advertising.)

That's a good point about the thumbnails. Are there any of my book covers that particularly stand out to you as needing work? I'm not sure I have the capacity right now to create an entirely new cover from scratch (especially since I'm starting another manuscript soon), but I'd be open to tweaking an existing cover a bit for the time being. (Although I do want to mention that both of my editors love my covers.)

I hope eventually I can find the right intersection between what's turning a profit and how I enjoy presenting my books.

I wish you the best in your editing career! It sounds like you've done good work so far. I would love to have you take a look at my next manuscript. I'm going to start writing it next week, and it might be a few months before I have anything to show you, but I will definitely keep you in mind when it comes time for the editing process. Thank you for your offer!

Glad I can help!

So, you won't be happy about this, but I looked at your covers, and there are some less-than-perfect aspects to them. Before you read the rest of this comment, take a look at the Amazon Kindle Bestsellers List and see if you can spot the differences between your covers and the bestsellers' covers.

Let's start with the text on the cover. The font, first and foremost, is pretty small. The bestsellers' font, as I'm sure you noticed, is large and bold most of the time, which makes it a LOT easier to see. It's usually in high contrast to the background too. Some authors don't put the title in bold and contrast, but rather their names, but that's at the point where they have enough of a following that people just buy their books regardless of the title, just because their famous name is on there.

And remember that the font style tells the readers what sort of book this is! I read a YA once, expecting it to be a fantasy, but it turned out to be a Japanese contemporary.

Next, the art style. I saw in your Amazon author bio that the books are YA. Unfortunately, while I do like the art style, there's nothing about that style that can be identified as a book in the YA genre. The YA art, though subject to change, is usually pretty weird, with some sort of artistic neo-modernist design, an item or person in a certain filter with CGI effects, or that strange vector-art style that YA romances use a lot. And while you may not think that a new cover would represent your book as well, at this point, all you need is sales. The newer republished covers can come later.

The lesson here is this: look at the bestsellers and imitate their design (font size, objects, etc.) because that's what sells.

I appreciate your input and the time you took to give me such an in-depth response!

I did a lot of thinking over the weekend, and I've come to the conclusion that I'd like to abandon trying to market my books as YA. Although teenagers enjoy my novels, I'm simply not willing to do what it takes to make my books look like they fit in to the YA genre and what's currently trending.

I've also decided to back off from marketing in general. I'm tired of desperately trying to get people to pay attention to my books; it's taxing on me and hasn't seemed to affect sales much. The people who do like my books like them a lot, so I'm satisfied with that. I'm making enough money in my other job that I don't have to worry about book sales.

Thanks again for your help!

Thanks T.K., for starting the ball rolling with this question. I have similar concerns. The comments about Instagram promotion and book cover presentation will also help me!

Julie wrote: "Thanks T.K., for starting the ball rolling with this question. I have similar concerns. The comments about Instagram promotion and book cover presentation will also help me!"

I'm glad this thread helped you out!

I've had a little more experience with this topic over the past few months, and I think I've gained a few more insights.

I've found that it's important to find your audience. If you are writing for a very specific audience (for example, teens who like modern fantasy), it's very easy to tailor your marketing to fit that audience. On the other hand, if you don't write for a specific audience or your work is a little more difficult to define, marketing is going to be trickier. I have this challenge because my novels tend to be genre-blenders (science fantasy, steampunk epic fantasy, steampunk-fantasy-supernatural-Western-alternate-history, etc.), and I purposely don't put an age label on them because I've created my own genre called "family fiction" that is designed to be enjoyed by all ages.

So I've found more enjoyment and success in shifting the focus of my marketing a bit. I don't try to attract readers by attempting to convince them that my books will give them more of the same of a certain genre/age range they enjoy. I just promote my books as a good read for anyone who is interested in the subject matter. That's what's helped me to find enthusiastic readers.

I've also found great value in networking with other professionals who have an enthusiasm for my work. I was blessed to get in contact with an audiobook narrator who loved the book I sent him to see if he would want to narrate it, and now I'm part of his "team" of authors and I'm involved in various events and promotional activities of theirs that help bring more exposure to my own work. It's been very fulfilling and invigorating, and helps me to feel like my writing has value, if these other professionals think so highly of it and want me in their inner professional circle.

I hope these items help you as well! Marketing for me has been a little unconventional, but it's been a very insightful journey.