It's been awhile since I've written a blog post so I thought I would share what's been happening with my book and writing life in general. It seems blogs and reading them are so time-consuming anymore with all the other social media one has to keep up with.
On Memorial Day, I gave my book away, THE BEND, for free. One day. 1,000 readers took me up on my offer. Much more than I expected but I did it as a promotion. The next day my Amazon rating was much lower, Then I sold the highest number of books on Tuesday. My page reads also increased significantly. All in all, the promotion did what I had hoped it would do--create more interest in my book. A few weeks ago, I did a Panera gift card giveaway and to enter the person only had to follow my Amazon page. I gained over 1400 followers who will be notified when my next book comes out next year.
All this promotion work isn't easy. But it is necessary or my book will never get out there. Posting a book on Amazon guarantees no sales at all. It's work. Hard work. I miss just writing but so far I have made more money doing the self-publishing route than I did in three years with a publisher.
I am also deep in checking out all these book promotion sites such as BookBub --but there are smaller more affordable ones I am using first. I have one set up for next Sunday for $15 and a free one the same day. I am using Amazon's promotions and will offer a reduced price on my book in August or Sept and combine it with one of these promo sites.
I consider this year with THE BEND the time to learn about book marketing to prepare for my next novel. Maybe I'll be better at it when I release the next one. Also doing work with setting up an audio version which can be done through Amazon as well. Got to take a deep breath to dive into that one as there is a learning curve there too.
Finally, I am editing with my CP's help my next book for the second time around. A chapter a week.
And my son-in-law wondered if I was bored at home all day. Not A Chance.
6 comments:
Terri, I really appreciate you sharing your wisdom about what you're learning and I hope your book does really, really well!
Do you promote on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Instagram, Pinterest--or are you focusing your activities on Amazon and Goodreads alone? You don't blog (very) often, so it must be that you think there's not a lot of point to promoting on the blog. Where do you find lists of these promo sites that you're talking about?
Do you think The Mulligan would've done better if you had done as much promotion on it? (Or did you?)
With so many Christian Fiction publishers biting the dust, not to mention Family Christian bookstores going bankrupt, it seems like self-publication is by default morphing into the only way to be published.
You go, girl!
I know how hard this is for you--you always hated the promotional side to writing. But you're doing it! And doing it well! The next book will be much easier. The third will be a breeze. Keep on keepin' on.
Once again, you give me encouragement. I am way at the bottom of the spectrum. Now that I have a website and a Facebook page, I don't really know what to do with them next. Am working at getting my blog going again. Gave away over 100 books at an April church conference. Everyday I check my website, and every day it tells me that I don't have any orders yet. Next task, I think, is to get into an ebook on Amazon. Whew! Every day is a steep learning curve, and some days I feel quite mentally exhausted. However, my brain is writing my next book. Need to get at it, I guess.
Good for you Terri! I can understand the missing writing part too. As artists, writers, we want to create and the marketing can feel like it takes over the creating part sometimes. Do you have a hard copy of your book too? I've been wondering if the face to face time at book fairs, writers workshops, readings are good place to market too. Just reflecting the other day that most of my journal sales have been from friends and friends of friends who are buying up my new journals to give to others and none are on social media! Figuring out where to place time and efforts can be the hardest part, I find!
It sounds like you're taking matters into your own hands and I'm using mine to applaud you. If I read it right and you actually did say that your Amazon rating went down the day after promotion, do you know why?
If I'm not mistaken, Elizabeth Craig mostly self-pubs and she is quite successful at it. Woot!!!
Veery nice blog you have here
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