Writing « Robin Writes

Last week, I gave you a list of possible sites to market your book, and now, as promised, I’m going to tell you what happened:

I submitted REDUCED to Kindle Books and Tips and was told that my book would be blasted at 9:00 a.m. on Friday; it was. It went live on their blog at 2:00 p.m. The email and the blog had a list of half a dozen books, and mine was near the bottom; the higher-paid featured book was on top, of course.

My cost: $25

My sales, twenty-four hours after the blog went live and twenty-nine hours after the email was sent: 50.

That’s a pretty big jump, and yes, I’m happy about that! I may well do it again, but I want to try a couple other sites first, just to get some perspective. But I’m not going to go crazy with this; I’ll do another one next month.

I also, starting in November 2014, hired Breakthrough Promotions. They are a publicists out of Texas, and they have quite a few media connections. They offer different packages, depending on your needs, and my contract with them runs six months, through April 2015.

I’ve had three online features, plus five radio interviews—two in California, and one each in NY, Virginia, and Orlando; I have one more scheduled, to date, in March.

As for sales, my December sales from 2013 to 2014 doubled, and my January sales—not counting the most recent promotion above, tripled.

So, yes, I think this is worth it. For me. It might not be for you. That’s something only you can decide, based on your book(s), your career, and your finances. Some authors thrive on media appearances, some would rather hide in a closet—but the only way to sell books is to get yourself, and your books, out there. And sometimes that means spending a little cash.

Since there was so much interest last week, I’m expanding the topic of marketing and adding some information that a fellow author sent me.

He has had an incredible uptick in sales since using some of these sites, and, as a service to all of you, I decided to test a couple of them myself, to see if it was merely a fluke, or perhaps you might want to give it a whirl too.

All of these sites involved paid promotion—and some of you will say you can’t afford it. That may well be true, but like any business, you have to spend a bit to make money. Let’s start with looking at some figures:

On one of these sites, the first one I’m testing, the cost is $25. The email blast/blog/RSS goes to 700,000 people; the cost is about .00004 per view. That’s pretty darn cheap.

Of course, not everyone will actually read it, some won’t be interested in my book, and some will forget. Some readers may even not order it for weeks or months. But, since my Kindle version is priced at .99, I’ll earn about .50 per copy sold—if I sell 50 books, I break even.

My author friend’s book did much, much better. We shall see. And I’ll update you next week!

If I sell fewer than 50 books, that’s still however many books in the hands of readers who will talk about it, maybe review it. I’m still selling, and I’m still getting promotional value.

And one more thing—a number of sales in a short period also usually results in additional sales even after the promotion. Now, no one can guarantee this, but it’s often proven to be the case.

Here are the sites he recommends, after a year of research and documentation:

Some of these have had better results than other, of course, and it’s going to depend on the author, the book, the genre, and so forth. But this list is a good start for everyone, I think.

As I said, I’m testing them—the first promo I’m doing is on January 30 with Kindle Books & Tips—and I’ll let you know how it works out!