B.E. Sanderson's Blog, page 26

July is Sales Month

I went a little nuts yesterday morning.  Starting tomorrow, July 4th, at least one of my books will be on sale every day through the 29th in both the US and the UK.  (As long as Amazon doesn't brainfart.)

Here's how it shakes down:

July 4th - 10th - Project Hermes
July 10th - 16th - Blink of an I
July 16th - 22nd - Sleeping Ugly
July 23rd - 29th - Accidental Death and Natural Causes

All of them will be 99c/99p on their respective dates.  I'll let you know if I manage to secure advertising for any of them.  With the sale for PH coming so soon, there definitely will not be an ad for that one.  The others?  We'll see. 

I do know I'll be doing my damndest to generate sales in other ways.  As unobtrusively as possible.  And, of course, as inexpensively as possible.  Which means I'll be busting my hump on FB.  A little twitter (which I hate, but it's there and I'm using it). 

Not sure what'll be happening next month.  Probably another Once Upon a Djinn sale.  Maybe Unequal.  We'll see.  I can't think about August right now.  Gah, next month is August?! 

Okay, back to the grind.  What have you got going on this month? 

Budget Quandary

Budget-wise, I'm not sure how other writers do this self-publishing thing.  Obviously, they are selling more books than I am, so their budgets have more padding than mine.  But is it only that?  Or do they have a second job to help fund this venture? 

I've pared my budget down to the barest of bones.  I do most everything myself.  The only exceptions are certain covers (because I do not have the skill for paranormal covers like my artist does) and the editing (because unless you are an exceptionally objective person, it's hard to edit your own books to the level they need to be for publishing).

The quandary I find myself in at the present point is: spend my limited resources on marketing or save it up until I have enough money to pay the editor?  (I've already paid the cover artist for the next two Sleeping Ugly covers.)  These past few months, I've been paying for ads. 

Without ads, my sales would be totally ghost town and crickets. 

On the other hand, if I don't put out new books, my sales will continue to dwindle as I reach market saturation. 

Blerg.

I've thought about getting a second job - especially since I don't seem to be doing much on the first job lately - but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to work outside the house after all these years.  Most places would allow me to be as flexible as I need to be. 

And I can't make myself take any more money out of the house budget to fund this.  Every time I think about how much money I've spent vs how little money I've made... the guilt... it burns.

For now, I'll keep marketing and hope something breaks.  (Hopefully, this writerly dry-spell breaks along with it.)

How to do decide where to spend your publishing monies?  Or is that not a problem for you?

A Little Bit of Pixie Dust

I was sitting here last night, looking at the numbers for last week's sale and trying to figure out how to boost sales for next month.  And I was all like "I haven't done a sale for Project Hermes in a while.  I'll just set up an ad with..."

Which was when it occurred to me that PH doesn't have enough reviews to set up ads with almost anyone I'd like to advertise with. 

Which brings me back around to wondering how to get reviews without paying for them or begging for them. 

A while back, I took the 'please review my book' verbiage out of the ends of all my books and replaced it with 'please buy the next book'.  Figuring if readers only had enough time to do one thing, it was better to have them buy something than write something nice.

And that worked.  Kinda.

Now, please understand that I had the 'review' wording at the ends of my books for a long time and it didn't seem to help much, so I didn't think taking it out would hurt much.  Right now, I'm not sure if it did hurt.  All I know is that I haven't seen a new review for any of my books in a while.

I know my regulars here have reviewed as much as they are able.  And thanks to each one of them for doing so.  I just wish a higher percentage of my readers would do the same.  I'm not asking for a book report.  All I really need is some stars and a few honest and positive words.  "I enjoyed this" would be a nice thing to say.  (Although, I'm not sure if Amazon has the word minimum thing or not these days.  I've left some really short reviews, but I could be wrong.)

Anyway, if you're here and you're a reader, please understand that a lot of things hinge of the number of reviews a book has - advertising, sales, whether Amazon pushes your book or ignores it, etc.  Writers need your help.  I need your help.  We all need your help - especially indie writers who don't have a publisher behind us helping get reviews. 

So, if you would be so kind, take a moment out of your day to help a writer out by leaving an honest review for a book you've read and enjoyed.  It'll be like a little bit of pixie dust sprinkled over our day.  Trust me.

An Expletive-Laden Rant

Yesterday, a newsletter arrived in my inbox.  And I'll admit, I did what I usually do with newsletters - I skimmed through it.  But I read enough to seriously harsh my day.

I won't say whose newsletter it was.  You probably got a copy in your inbox, too.  Cuz it's by someone who's like 'in the know' and junk. 

And what did it say?  Well, basically, it said that if you don't already have things like reviews and buzz and bling and stuff, that you shouldn't bother marketing.  Not just an encouragement to avoid it, but an out-and-out 'don't do this at all' thing.  You won't get anywhere anyway, so why bother?

Probably the last thing I needed to read yesterday.  Like the last... thing... I needed.

Like all of this shit isn't hard enough.  Like I'm not already hitting my head on a rock every damn day while still trying to stay positive.  Some fancy pants shithead is gonna drop a boatload of negativity in my inbox?

Well, you know what?  Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.

Yeah, getting sales is fucking hard.  But at least I'm trying.  I sold 27 books off my marketing efforts last week.  That's 27 books I wouldn't have sold if I hadn't paid for marketing.  The ad paid for itself and made me a little scratch over and above that.  That's a win in my ledger.

So, who the fuck does he think he is telling struggling authors not to bother marketing their goddamn books?  I mean, where does he get off pushing that kind of crap on unsuspecting, and perhaps close to giving up, authors?  Asshole.  Somewhere out there, there could be a low-list author getting ready to slit their proverbial wrists because they were already at the end of their rope and he lit it on fire. 

Maybe he thought he was saving some of us the heartache by discouraging us and thereby saving us from failure?  Well, don't do us any favors, bud.  It's hard and we know it, but we don't need you rubbing our faces in it.  I had a couple therapists and a social worker (for brain injury therapy) once upon a time who tried to save me from the chance of failure.  I fired them all and hired new ones.  If I'd listened to them, I'd be selling plants at a nursery right now.  Feh.

Or is it that we struggling wee authors might maybe be taking a tiny little piece out of his precious pie?  Up yours.  Take your money and your sales and leave us the fuck alone.  We aren't hurting anyone.  I can pretty much guarantee we aren't taking marketing space that would've gone to you.  So, stifle yourself.

All I want is to sell books without some numbnuts trying to step on my throat.  Without the bestseller telling his readers that any book priced at $2.99 or less has to be crap.  Without a boatload of bestsellers trying to shut big-bad Amazon down.  Without this jerkstick telling me to quit advertising until I'm 'worthy' of it. 

Yeah, marketing a book with few reviews is an uphill battle through fire ant nests covered battery acid.  I don't need someone standing in the paradise zone eating bon-bons and stabbing at me with pointy sticks, as well.

So, I spent most of yesterday afternoon depressed as hell.  And then I wrote this post.  Now, I'm just pissed.  Maybe some good came out of that stupid newsletter after all and the fire that's been mere embers will finally flare into a conflagration. 

It doesn't matter.  He's dead to me.  Onward and upward, folks.  And don't let anyone tell you not to do what you think is working for you.  Market the hell out of your books if you think it's doing some good.  Keep writing.  Keep publishing.  Keep moving forward, however you get the job done.

And remember, every book you sell is one more person who is reading your work.  I got 27 new opportunities this past week.  Yay.

Profanity in Fiction? Hell, Yeah.

The other day I was getting ready to leave a review on Amazon when another review caught my eye.  It was a one-star and it went kinda like this:  'Littered with profanity.  I won't read any author who isn't intelligent enough to write without profanity.'

My first thought was 'well, honey, you read this one'.

My second thought was 'aren't you precious?'

My third thought?  'Who in their right mind read the blurb for this book and thought there would be no profanity?'

I mean, it was a suspense with a gritty, take no shit from anyone, hardass main character - which was pretty obvious from the blurb.  He had to deal with lowlifes and gangbangers and scum.  And she (I assume it was a she) thought there would be no swearing?  Oh, for pity's sake.

Personally, I didn't notice an overly large amount of profanity in the book.  It didn't stand out to me.  Which is how you should have swearing in your work.  It should flow naturally.  If you're throwing naughty words into your work for effect, it won't flow right and readers can tell. 

And if you're writing about life and reality and bad things happening, your work should probably have profanity.  Because, let's face it, people swear.  A lot. 

Of course, it should fit with the book you're writing.  I mean, if your book is set in Amish country and the characters are Amish, then profanity wouldn't fit.  Derp.  And if you're writing a fantasy or SF or something, you may have to make up swearwords to fit the world.  (DJ Salisbury - our very own Deb - does a most excellent job of this in her fantasy world.) 

Thinking about it now, the person who left that review probably read two pages, found an f-bomb, and got up on her high horse.  Wrote a one-star review to show how virtuous she was and went about her day patting herself on the back for her good works.  Bleh.

I hope she doesn't pick up my books.  Especially Sleeping Ugly - which is probably the most profanity-laced of my books.  But yeah, there's profanity in most of them.  Naturally.

Facebook and Marketing

Recently, Facebook gifted us with the ability to pretty-up our Page and Group posts with bold and italics and bullet points or numbering and some other extraneous stuffs.  Which is all well and good, but... and it's a big but for me... when you copy and paste text, it tosses in weird spaces and line breaks.  And if you try to fix it, it makes it worse.


Frankly, it's a pain in the ass. And as we all know, making something that's already kind of a pain in the ass more of a pain in the ass tends to make one not want to do it anymore.

But I have to do it.  Hitting the FB Groups the morning after an ad, when the ad generated sales have boosted my rankings, is a must.  I need to take advantage of that better ranking - 17425 overall and 371 genre - to possibly gain some extra sales and maybe get some people to download the book for Kindle Unlimited so I can have residual page reads later.  Plus, selling the day after an ad helps keep those rankings from dropping too quickly which leads to better sales.  It's a circle thing.

Today's marketing image is:

Speaking of images, check out this useful post over at Elizabeth Spann Craig's blog - The Importance of Images in Social Media.

Now, if only the social media... ahem, FB... was cooperating.  ;o)

Anyway, good luck out there with your marketing efforts.  Any questions, let me know.

Edited to Add: When you post in a FB Group, you should see something like this now:

If you hover over the 'paragraph marks' symbol, you get the opportunity to change the format to Header1, Header2, bullets or numbering, and embedded quotes.  If you select text, it gives you the opportunity to Bold or Italics the selected type.  I think this is only in Group posts, but I'm not sure. 

SCIU Sale

All three of the books in the Serial Crimes Investigation Unit series are on sale starting today and running through 11:59p PST (US) or GMT (UK).  99c/99p each.

Buy one or buy them all. 

The SCIU series US
The SCIU series UK

Dying Embers US
Dying Embers UK

Fertile Ground US
Fertile Ground UK

Early Grave US
Early Grave UK

All of them are also available through the Kindle Unlimited program, so that's over a thousand pages of suspense for free with your subscription.  Jus' sayin'.

If you haven't read any of them, they're stand alone novels with the SCIU organization tying them together, and a bit of information from Dying Embers in Fertile Ground and Early Grave (and a bit from Fertile Ground in Early Grave).  But yeah, new main characters, new plots, fresh faces with a bit of the old, familiar mixed in. 

They were a ton of fun to write and from what I've heard, they're a ton of fun to read, too.  If you haven't read them, now's the budget-friendly time to give them a whirl.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

And I know it's horribly teasing of me to talk about it, especially when I'm in a writing dry spell, but I do have plans for a fourth book.  Maybe next year?  I have the plot - someone is killing the criminals the SCIU went after who got off on technicalities - but no title yet.  Stick with me, folks.  I ain't done yet.

Eating an Elephant

Saturday morning, I was reading an article over at the Mad Genius Club blog wherein the author was discussing re-evaluating what he's doing, and in such, going over whether this writing thing is a business, a hobby, or just a pastime.  (It's a good article.  Go read it.  I'll wait.)


I had hoped reading the article would light a fire under my ass, but in reality, all it did was depress me.  Especially when I read about all the things he's currently working on.

What am I working on?  I have the notebook full of edit notes sitting on the stool next to my desk, where it's been sitting for the past few weeks.  And every time I look at it, I feel guilty and depressed about it, but I can't make myself pick the damn thing up and get to work. 

I got this awesome idea the other day for a new book.  Can't seem to work on that either. 

And I probably should be writing Cinder Ugly.  Or the fourth SCIU book.  Or the third Dennis Haggarty book.  Umm...

Then there's the point in the article where he talks about 1000 super fans.  I guess it's a thing.  I have two super fans.  :waves at them:  And he talks about how we should be connecting with them.  Umm... Hi.  I can't even bring myself to invite people to like my pages on Facebook.  Cuz, like I don't want to bother anyone.  Connecting with people other than hoping they find me here or there is really hard.  Like run away and hide hard.

When I was in sales, it was way easier.  You need a widget, I have a widget.  I make an appointment to talk to you about using my widget instead of the dozen other widgets out there.  You buy my widget because it's the best widget at the best price with the best lead time.  Or you don't.  And I move on to the next company that needs widgets. 

Translating that into book sales?  Not so much.  Oh, I still have awesome widgets at competitive pricing.  But everybody's got a widget to sell and trying to get my widget in front of buyers... Yeah, I've already gone over that before.  Or to borrow a line from an Andy Grammer song "I'm supposed to cut through all this noise with my little voice."

Everything feels so overwhelming right now.  Maybe I should look at it like eating an elephant.  You know how you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.

Creating Marketing Materials

I read an interesting newsletter article this week on creating marketing materials.  It was specifically geared toward materials for that venue, but it got me to thinking.  And creating.

Starting next Wednesday, the SCIU books are on sale.  Taking ideas from the article, I came up with this:
I think it still needs some tweaking.  The white 'Bringing Killers to Justice One Book at a Time' on the gray background might have been on the no-no list.  When I made it, it looked pretty good, but seeing it now, it's kind of hard to read at this size.  Might need to outline those words like I did with the SCIU words.

Still, I think it carries the message I wanted and it's not too busy (which was another of the marketing no-nos).  You can tell that's a prison fence, right?  Yeah, not all the villains in the series make it to behind the fence, but I was trying to find one image to convey a theme for all three books and nothing says 'justice' like a prison. 

I found the fence picture at Morguefile.  Then grayed out the image because a pretty blue sky wasn't right and the colors would've distracted from the covers.  I think.  And I tweaked the brightness and contrast to come up with a sufficiently gloomy feel.

Then I added the covers and wording, moving things around and trying different fonts and tweaking everything until I came up with what you see above.

Anyway, creating marketing materials is a learning curve.  I hope this image works.  The proof is in the pudding.

So, yeah, the article said to make the image clear as to its purpose.  Prison fence... Got it.  And to not make it too busy so it doesn't distract from its purpose.  Three covers, minimal wording... Check.  And to make it easily read.  Umm, I'll work on that.  Clear, concise, intent on its purpose... check, check, check?

Now, the question for you all is: If you saw this, would you be inclined to explore the series further with the intent to buy?  Because that's really what all of this is about.  If you can't achieve that with your marketing materials, you're spinning your wheels.  And lord knows, none of us has time for that.

A Gentle Reminder

Time again for a gentle reminder...

PROOFREAD YOUR MARKETING MATERIALS!

Twice in the past few days, I've seen marketing materials with typos in them.  One, the author used your instead of you're.  The other, the author used there instead of their - twice in the same blurb.  :headdesk:

Seriously, folks, this shouldn't be that hard.  I mean, we're talking a few short paragraphs.

The first one was in a Facebook group.  So, free advertising.  The second was in a marketing newsletter that they obviously had to pay for.  Which makes it doubly egregious. 

FB group marketing... Sometimes shit happens.  Lord knows I'm not perfect, and I've made mistakes.  Which I then catch and edit.  Yes, you can edit FB posts.  There's a little ellipsis looking thing in the upper right corner of your status update.  When you click it, you get a dropdown menu...
And there's an 'edit post' option.  So, if you see an error, you can fix the error. 

Once, I had to go back and fix a half dozen marketing posts because for some stupid reason the UK sales link was broken and I didn't notice until I'd posted the damn thing all over the place.  Caught it, fixed it.  It was only live to users for about ten minutes. 

In marketing efforts you've paid for, fixing the flaw isn't necessarily possible.  Here, you really need to pay attention.  Because once you've sent it out to the powers that be, it's stuck there.  Well, I guess you might be able to contact them if you have enough time.  And then you can hope someone over there is paying attention and is nice enough to allow you to fix the error.  But I wouldn't count on it.  Proof, proof, proof. 

Otherwise, you might as well put on your big red nose and floppy feet because you'll look like a clown.

In either of the above cases, the author may have proofed the holy hell out of their manuscript to make it all shiny and clean, but their marketing materials tell the world that they probably didn't bother.  All that work down the drain. 

So, yeah, a gentle reminder this morning... proofread your stuff, folks.  It's kind of important.