Tag: marketing strategies

I’m Promoting My Book — Where’s My Sales Spike?

book sales graph-841606_960_720 (003)If you’re a regular reader of IU, you know that writing a book is only part of the recipe for success. You’ve taken all the advice about punctuation, plot, characters, and story arc to heart, you’ve written the best book you could, gotten first-class editing, paid for an eye-catching cover and now your book is up on the web just waiting for the orders to roll in.

But they’re not.

Okay… you’ve sent out an announcement to your email list, you’ve posted on Facebook and Instagram, tweeted on Twitter, touted your book on LinkedIn. You’ve sent press releases to the local media and to any distant locations that might be interested (i.e. the setting for your book, your old home town, etc.).

Still no sales spike. What’s up with that? Continue reading “I’m Promoting My Book — Where’s My Sales Spike?”

When Author Events Don’t Work out as Planned

k. rowe booth at comic conOkay, this isn’t supposed to be a downer of a post. But, it’s something writers might have to face. It happened to me March 21-24 this year. Some of you may remember that every year for the last three years I’ve had a booth at our local comic con. This year was no exception. I share a booth with my artist friend and we have a lot of fun.

Last year was a dream come true. Our sales were huge! We each made more than enough to cover our portion of the booth fee for the next year (something of a benchmark we’ve come up with). And this year we were expecting the same. Except, that’s not what happened. Continue reading “When Author Events Don’t Work out as Planned”

Slow Thriller* Writers and Free Books

(*It’s the rate of writing that’s slow, not the pace of the fiction…)

confusing author issues question-mark-1872665_960_720Back in 2012 I tried enrolling a novel of mine in KDP Select, or whatever it was called back then. I booked five FREE days, and was surprised when the book got thousands of downloads, hitting the number one free download ranking in both the US and UK Amazon stores. In the month that followed, thanks to the generous Amazon algorithms at the time, I sold several thousand full-priced copies of the book.

It was about then that I got a mail from a company called BookBub, explaining that they had promoted the title for FREE, without me knowing. That’s how BB started, targeting mainly indie authors as a means of showing how effective BB advertising could be.

I remember saying on Indies Unlimited back then that however beneficial a FREE run on Amazon might be, I didn’t think I’d ever pay to advertise the fact. Pay to give stuff away? I mean, who’d do that? Continue reading “Slow Thriller* Writers and Free Books”

What My House Taught Me About Selling Books

IMG_8907Sometimes the obvious smacks you in the face. I hate it when that happens. But sometimes, lessons are learned where you least expect them. And surely enough, determining a house-selling strategy made me realize I had to change my philosophies when it came to selling my books.

My house is unique and custom-built. It’s in the wilderness, yet convenient to Spokane. It’s considered “green,” yet it’s not rustic. It’s luxurious, but it’s not outrageously expensive. When it went on the market, I knew it wouldn’t sell to anyone in the immediate area. It’s not for them. It’s perfect for city folk tired of the rat race. It’s for wildlife photographers and naturalists and outdoorsmen and retiring business executives and celebrities looking for complete privacy. It’s for a diverse, yet specialized, demographic.

After nearly a year on the market, there’d only been one showing. Why? Because putting a house up on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service), Zillow, and Trulia is like putting a book up on Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble – and expecting that to be enough. Continue reading “What My House Taught Me About Selling Books”