Indie Authors & Books discussion

I have heard that 250 copies is average. It's been a week, and I'm up to 36. I am SURE that 20 of them were friends and family. I have about 400 Facebook friends, and some friends shared. I have an e-mail list of 100 friends, and some of them forwarded. I have tried those "promotion" thingy's and had my book put into lots of e-mail boxes. But mine is "niche". Choose "African-American fiction" or "Contemporary Fiction" or "Women's Fiction" or "Short Stories"... but it's not thriller/horror/romance/mystery. And I'm pretty sure it's going to be the only one I write. It took me 15 years to write all of those stories. They don't just roll off my fingers.

I have chosen not to spend money on "Secrets of Selling 10,000 books". I have chosen not to spend money on BookBub, and BookSirens rejected me. I tried Pubby.co and got ONE review. (Five stars). I tried Book Bongo and Bargain Booksy and It's WriteOn, and BookRaid. And sold 11 books. Next week I try Bookgoodies, Free&Discounted Books, and Booksprout. I have posted a description of my book in 30 groups on GoodReads, and there are about 20 people who have my story on their "plan to read" list. I have 5 reviews, all 4 and 5 star, and I need 10 in order to try The Fussy Librarian and eBookSoda. There are 15 people who are doing ARC/Beta reads for me, and I'm hoping to have more reviews by the 11th.

I have chosen not to pay Kirkus for an editorial review. They are pricey. Someone tell me if they are worth it.

I have fixed my 10 categories in Amazon. I'm down in the thousands. No where near best seller. I did not pay for Book Rocket. I have done TONS of keywords.

I have an Author Website and a press release coming out next week. I hope to have a second press release going to black media companies around the 19th. Google is optimized by SEO. Frankly, if this doesn't do it, I give up.

What works, people????

For what it's worth, there are 2000 new books on Amazon every single day. :( Somehow that comforts me, because I realize what it is we are each up against.

You can usually sell a few copies by discounting. For example, when I discount my e-books to 99 cents, and promote them in all the newsletters (this costs a few hundred dollars), I sell fifty or 100 copies. When I make the books free and put them in all the newsletters, again at a cost of hundreds of dollars, I see thousands of downloads (because they are free and I'm telling people about the sale.)

But at full price, even with ads (amazon, bookbub, etc) I sell maybe a copy per week. All of it is at a financial loss. Then again, we're in a huge marketplace.

From what I can tell, certain genres sell much better than others and series can help readers buy through, but it's rare to see a single book from a self published author sell well.

Trade publishers get the buzz out early and push the books they think will sell. The fact that they are pushing books so hard tells you how important that is. But we don't have that kind of budget.

Good luck.

I'm going to try 99 cents for the next month. We'll see how I do. Thanks for the encouragement and tips.