Last week, I discussed the writing side of why your book isn’t happening. (Click here if you haven’t read it yet!) Whether you spend all your time talking about how you want to write your book instead of actually writing it or you are like and finding the time to write is the challenge, I offer a couple strategies to help you that have helped me.
This week I am focusing on marketing. Let me tell you now that I am not a marketing expert. I am far from it. This post is going to be more about steps that I am taking to be better and what I hope they will do in the coming months.
As you know, I took time away from my writing. That included my marketing. I released Three Finger Jack just a month after my brother’s death. And I did literally no marketing for it. And guess what. It didn’t sell. You’re shocked, I know.
At the time, I didn’t care. Now, it stings a little. I should have not released it until I was in a better mindset. But I thought, and so did everyone else who helps me with this journey, that by releasing it, I would be happy.
Never release a book to make yourself happy. You just make yourself crazy.
A month later, I released my first romance novel. I was doing a little better at this point and because I did my cover myself and I switched editors to my wonderful friend Chelsi who is trying to start her own freelance editing business; I had money for marketing. (If you need an editor and you want her information, please send me an email!)
I invested in both Amazon Ads and Facebook Ads. Facebook ads killed it! I actually made my money back on Facebook ads. Not like enough money to brag about, but enough to feel like I was on the right path. Plus, I liked how easy it was to set up my audience on Facebook. If you want me to do a post about what I did, leave a comment below.
Amazon was a different story. I lost a ton of money on my Amazon ads. Why? I wasn’t careful in what tags I used for my books and it came back to bit me. I had a ton of clicks. But only a few sales. Not worth my money. Again, lesson learned. If you use Amazon, make sure you have the appropriate tags and are monitering your clicks and sales.
I have also been trying various newsletter services. So far, I have not had any good returns on investments but I have had sales. I will do a longer post in the future about which services I used, liked and if I saw any return. But I’ve only had a couple newsletters go out and I want to make sure this strategy is worth your time. So, let me spend my money and you can benefit later.
I spread out the newsletters to make sure I don’t have any cross over sales. If one newsletter works better than another, this is the only way I can know for sure.
I’m doing this experiment with my first novel, The Haunting of Locker 31. (If you haven’t bought it yet, click here to pick up a copy!) If it works well, I will add into the rotation Three Finger Jack.
A final step I am taking is investing time and energy into classes on marketing. I avoided the specific term “book” marketing, and I found free classes through HubSpot Academy. I just finished my first class, and I learned some very valuable information that I am implementing. (Did you notice the linking in this post?)
The most important take away is this. It will take time. Nothing good ever happens over night. I just need to practice a little patience, dig in, and give this venture time to blossom.
Deidre Bjorson 