Category: Advertising & Marketing

Utilising Goodreads for book promotion

2 Comments

On many of the forums that I participate in, I repeatedly hear that Goodreads is a great place for book promotion. I’ve never really used Goodreads much before, mostly because I’m normally so busy writing that I don’t read many books. I’m a slow reader. I’m intent on reading every word rather than skimming through pages, to the point that if I feel I’ve missed something, I’ll re-read a paragraph. Thus, I don’t get through many books at all and therefore can’t participate in many of the discussion’s within Goodread’s boards.

Many people seem to warn against simply spamming Goodreads with book links, or risk facing a rebellion of readers and a multitude of one star reviews. I completely agree with this. I’d far prefer to not participate at all, than to simply dip in and out, posting book links all over the place. Communities such as forums and Goodreads are about communicating and being part of the group, and so I feel that you should never look to simply advertise. You get far more out of a community by actively engaging with people, than by being the annoyance who self-promotes and gives nothing back.

Herein lies my issue with Goodreads though because, whilst it seems to be highly populated, I HATE its interface. It’s forum interface must be one of the most horrible things I’ve ever come across, and I find it very hard to want to participate in groups. Not only is finding active discussions near impossible, but trying to keep updated with everything that is going on can be quite hard.

In the next month I’m going to persevere with Goodreads and see if I can get to grips with its horrible UI. If this challenge can be overcome, I’m sure I might be able to find some friends, readers, and even sell a few books. I’ll keep you updated on my findings. In the meantime, if anyone has any helpful pointers, I’d be more than happy to hear them.

A Break from Advertising

1 Comment

When writing a book for the first time, you think that THAT is the hard part. However, when you hit that ‘publish’ button, whether it’s on Smashwords, Amazon or the various other places available for self-publishing, you discover that it’s only then that the hard work begins.

Unfortunately, most books simply don’t sell themselves. There needs to be time and effort into promoting, building a fan base, surfing forums (and by this I mean actively engaging in the community and not simply spamming book links) and getting your book and author name known. It’s a hard process. And, it takes a lot of time.

Having read on many forums and blogs that touting a single novel is often a waste of time because though you’ll get sales on one book, there’s no back catalogue for fans to then purchase, I’ve decided to cut back on advertising. Book sales are slow, but having done no real promoting in two weeks, I’m still getting the odd sale here and there. Meanwhile, the extra time means I can plough myself into writing the next Inside Evil  book which, incidentally, is coming on rather well.

I think taking a break is probably a healthy option, and stops the advertising wheel from taking over your life. And, if I can put my energies into writing and publishing more work, it can only be a good step to take.

MYO – a new publishing resource

7 Comments

There are a number of ways for indie writers to publish, including utilising Amazon, Smashwords and Barnes and Noble’s own self publishing kit, PubIt. Another small but growing resource is Make Your Offer (MYO) which offers a sales space to sell and barter for Ebooks.

The premise is quite good. Setting a price point on a book can be quite hard, especially if you only have a small number of titles out and can’t readily create a loss leader to encourage sales on other works. MYO allows the option for users to bid on your book, offering people the chance to read your sample and then make an offer on what they’ll pay for the title. You can specify a minimum approved bid and set the system to auto accept. Or, you can opt out of the bidding system and sell at a set price.

This is a growing community with currently less than 100 books available and a small number of members. But, everything has to start off small. The developers of MYO are constantly striving to make improvements which could see MYO continue to grow exponentially in the future. You can’t expect huge sales here, but you can expect a book community ready to make purchases and offer feedback.

I’m interested in how this website will work out, and for a first time novelist like me, who’s work got lost in the black hole of Amazon’s Kindle rankings almost immediately, the ability to have Inside Evil remaining visible for an extended period of time is welcomed. I’ll report back on how sales go, but any new way of selling and promoting Ebooks is surely of great use to the indie community.

A New Page

Leave a comment

Self-publishing is hard work and it’s very easy to get immediately disheartened when your novel is not a breakout success and you don’t sell 1,000 copies every day. The more I read on forums, the more I realise that many authors trying to break into the market have long periods without sales. This is especially true if you only have a single novel and no ready-made user base to sell to. Combine that with no reviews or ratings, and your novel is floating, adrift from it’s readers. Some selling on Amazon call it the ‘beige wall of shame’, and you’ll know exactly what I mean if you’ve become a sales junkie and keep hitting that refresh button in your Amazon bookshelf tab.

In attempt to try and dispel some of the myths surrounding self publishing sales, I’ve created a new sales tab which will show you exactly how many sales I’m making on various platforms. OK, this may be seriously embarrassing for me, especially if my sales continue at their current level – NIL. But, it’ll be a nice guide for myself and hopefully other newbies to look at. It is with hope that one day I can look back upon this and see that the whole self publishing business was worthwhile. There’s a fun and refreshing thread over at Kindle Boards where many authors not selling 10,000 a month can celebrate their two sales a week. Always makes nice reading when the paranoid gremlins start taking hold.

On a side note, whilst sales just haven’t really occurred, I’m not yet too bothered. From what I’m reading, March can be a quiet month and many newer writers on Amazon are seeing lagging sales too. Combine that with the fact that Inside Evil is still ‘pending review’ on Smashwords, and I truly haven’t got enough exposure to be selling books yet. Onwards and upwards, and lets hope that my sales data doesn’t continue to be horrendously low.

The Free Ebook

Leave a comment

When it comes to self publishing, the price point can be key. It seems to be generally regarded that $2.99 is a good price for a novel, offering value to readers whilst providing authors with a reasonable royalty. After you’ve written several novels in a series, you might like to drop the first book to just .99cents or even make it free, providing huge incentive for readers to explore your characters and get hooked on a series which ultimately leads them to buy later books. However, as a first time publisher, when you only have a single sole novel for sale, this is not possible.

Over at the fantastic blog by Lindsay Buroker, I was reading about advertising strategies, and the possibility of offering a free ebook. It’s a great plan if, as I’ve mentioned, you already have several books out. If you’re making your first forays into self publishing like me, it’s a bit of a non-starter. However, something has to be done to get that trickle of initial sales, and having a freebie is definitely attractive.

Momentarily touched upon in Lindsay’s blog was the prospect of writing a short story or novella as a way of leading readers to your main title. This could then be offered for free and would, hopefully, encourage fans of this short work to check out your debut book. It got me thinking…how could this be done?

I have many areas within Inside Evil that I could explore in a short story. Could I write and offer them for free? Yes. Would I want to? No, and here’s why. To write a short story on an aspect of a debut novel means that you effectively give spoilers to readers. I want people to discover and learn about my characters through their read of Inside Evil, not already know who they are at the outset. Writing about peripheral characters could be a possibility, but this means that when they appear in your main novel, their character is of no surprise. In fact, readers may be waiting for their appearance and thus many elements of storytelling are removed. For example, your lead character may be about to discover someone they’ve never met  who has surprising or hidden secrets. But, if a reader has already downloaded the free ebook, none of the emerging details are a surprise in the slightest.

It results in a circumstance where you either have to give so much away in a short story that reader enjoyment is spoiled, or you create a dull read with little excitement which will definitely not engage anyone enough so as to make your main work an attractive purchase. As a result, I truly feel that free ebooks should be left for first titles in an extensive series. But then, you’re brought back to the initial question, how do I attract readers when I have just one novel?

I don’t know the answer yet, and though offering free ebooks should be seriously considered at some point, it’s not for the first time self publisher. If you’ve had any luck with offering free ebooks let me know. Did you write several books before making the first in the series free? Or was it a side story to attract readers to your debut title? The hunt for answers continues…..

The First Book Sale

2 Comments

I’ve just done a small leap of excited joy. I got it. That elusive first book sale. I’m over the moon!

I’d never thought about self publishing before. That was, until I read the article with Amanda Hocking on The Guardian website which outlined her supreme success at making it as an e-author. Suddenly, an entire new world came into focus and I realised that the novels which had been languishing in my computer files could actually become something. Yes, they’d need some work, some hard hours and many edits to get them to a stage where I’d be happy to publish them. But, I could publish them, me, myself. I could put them online for everyone to see and reap the rewards and disappointments as they came.

So, in earnest, I set out to complete Inside Evil. A couple of months later and several extreme edits and rewrites, I uploaded to Amazon in less than a huge fanfare. In fact, I’ve been so secretive about my works that I haven’t shared it on Twitter or Facebook…surely a HUGE marketing faux pas. It’s not my fear of being rejected as such, but the fear of friends and family having to go through the motions of pretending to love my work whilst secretly hiding their true feelings. That’s what I truly fear. Releasing works which those who I love actually think are not worth the paper that they’re written on yet cannot say such things to my face. I can cope with strangers hating my work and criticising. From loved ones; that’s a whole other ballgame.

Having done NOTHING in the way of research into self publishing and marketing, I’m brand new at this whole venture. My sister bought the first copy of the book, but, to my delight, I’ve just signed into my account and almost a week to the hour after first uploading, I’ve my first sale. I’ve really done nothing in the way of marketing, other than setting up this blog and though one tiny, little, insignificant sale may seem like nothing, I’m overjoyed.

I’m now an author. I’ve published, I’ve sold. What an incredible feeling. And now I have to strive to continue this feeling for the upwards struggle!

Shelfari; A Worthwhile Resource?

5 Comments

If you publish with Amazon, which is highly advisable if you’re trying to reach the Kindle market, then they take great pains to mention Shelfari as an extra resource. Like Goodreads, this book group community offers a place to create libraries of your favourite books, rate and add details about novels, and meet with other readers. But I’m wondering, is it any good?

I’m not well versed in Goodreads and as Inside Evil doesn’t yet have an ISBN, I haven’t had the chance to discover whether this community can help build a book’s profile. Amazon’s Shelfari offers to be a promising tool, particularly because Amazon state that the extras which are tagged onto digital books in Shelfari can be made available to readers. This ultimately means that readers can access a custom built library of characters, book themes, places etc to either supplement a book that they’ve read or offer an added attraction to buy. But, does it actually work??

Like Goodreads, you need to build up followers and friends, so launching a book into Shelfari offers little initial help because your work falls in front of no one. If you’ve been using the site for a while, then it could promise a few sales as you’ll already have friends and followers. I’m also unsure as to whether this is actually a thriving community of readers, or a place which offers a few days of novelty before users drift away. Could the same be said for Goodreads? I’m not sure.

I’m determined to continue with Shelfari for a while, adding some character biographies and book extras to see whether any sales can be created. Once I get my ISBN I’ll also give Goodreads a shot and compare the two.

Do you use either website? Have you found it helpful as either a reader or a writer, or both? Let me know and we’ll see whether we can determine if each resource is worth the time and effort.