Tag: Marketing

Self Publishing the Talk of Frankfurt Book Fair

Frankfurt, Germany, Frankfurt Book FairThe Frankfurt Book Fair wrapped up last week, touted as the biggest marketplace in publishing. Well, 300,000 attendees must not be wrong! Perhaps the biggest surprise of the conference was the greater role of self-publishing among the traditional publishing giants.

In fact, an editor from Publishers Weekly proclaimed, “The self publishing discussion is the only conversation we need to be having today.”

Here are some of the important discussion points that culminated with a two-hour panel conversation on self-publishing. Continue reading “Self Publishing the Talk of Frankfurt Book Fair”

What is Teen Read Week, and How Can We Make the Most of It?

I had never heard of Teen Read Week before the lovely K. S. Brooks pointed it out to me. We have similar things in New Zealand, but on a much smaller scale. I once spoke at a local library during an event like this and it was awesome to chat with a bunch of teens about stories to do with their age group. They really got into it and asked the best questions.

As a reader, you’re always more likely to buy an authors book if you’ve had personal contact with them. Teen Read Week just might be your chance.

So – what is Teen Read Week? Continue reading “What is Teen Read Week, and How Can We Make the Most of It?”

How to Stop Selling Books Immediately

July 2013 was one of the slowest sales months I’ve had. I didn’t sell very many books last month. In fact, when the final numbers are tallied, it may turn out to be my worst month ever. There are excuses, I mean reasons, and I’ll get to those, but let me whine, I mean pontificate just a little while longer.

When I’m asked how many books I sell I like to say that I sell books every single day, and up until July that was almost always true. But, during the past month I had two days where the numbers on my sales reports did not change. Now, I realize I’ve been a very lucky guy and there are authors who haven’t been as fortunate as I have, but I’ve kinda gotten used to a certain consistency, and last month it just wasn’t there. For two days my sales dashboard remained dormant and no one downloaded any of my three books. As my author friends know, this also affects your rankings on Amazon. With each hour of non-sales, my rankings got farther and farther away from the coveted top 100, 1,000, 10,000 spots. My usual ranking for my most popular book, My Temporary Life, is in the 10,000 to 40,000 range but I watched as it fell all the way to the 80,000 mark. Fortunately, it didn’t last, and the numbers started increasing after the short delay, and my rankings climbed back up. Continue reading “How to Stop Selling Books Immediately”

Rapid Fire Releases

As a reader, I really don’t like having to wait for a continuing book in a series, especially if it’s a year or so. I get frustrated for two reasons: one – I’m usually desperate to know what’s going to happen and I can’t find out. And two – by the time the second book does come out, I’ve totally forgotten what’s happened in the first. I either have to re-read the first book or I just give up on the series altogether. More often than not, I chose the latter.

One of the beautiful things about being an indie author is that I get to choose when and how I will produce my work. For the two reasons above, I decided that I would go for rapid-fire releases for The Elements Trilogy. I didn’t want readers to have to wait and I thought it would be an intelligent marketing strategy. I made the commitment to release the books June, July and August of 2013, saving up my big marketing campaign for September. I decided it was a wise move to save up the marketing budget of three books and throw it all into one big trilogy campaign. Hopefully my plan will work. Continue reading “Rapid Fire Releases”