B.E. Sanderson's Blog, page 41

Marketing Venues

Okay, I know I've done this before, but here's an updated list with recent info.

These are the venues I've tried this year and the results (as near as I can figure them):
(Disclaimer:  I don't know how much of the sales actually came from paid ads and how many came from freebie residuals or how many were from my own efforts on Facebook and Twitter.)


Author's Billboard: In April, I did a free book thing with Dying Embers, had Fertile Ground at 99c, and kept Early Grave at $2.99.  During that sale, I placed ads for all three books with AB at $6 ea.  I recouped that $18 and the residuals have been awesome.   In June, I did ads with them for Accidental Death and Natural Causes.  Those ads cost me $5 (they were having a sale), but I did not recoup my investment that time.

Ereader News Today:  In May, I put Wish in One Hand at 99c and left the other three books in the series at $2.99.  I placed an ad for WIOH with ENT for $40. I recouped my money, but as to how much above that is attributable to this ad?  :shrug:  Enough to make me want to use ENT again. 

Paranormal and Urban Fantasy Books:  I also had a two day ad for WIOH here during the above sale.  With the ENT ad already going, I have no way to assign particular sales to any one venue.  The cost of this was $8.

FB Boost Ad:  I also ran a Facebook Boost ad during the sale.  Again, I have no way of saying definitely that sales came from this boost.  It cost $20 with a $10 coupon, so I was only $10 out of pocket.

eBooks Habit: For my June Dennis Haggarty Mystery sale, I also used this venue.  And again, I did not recoup my investment.  I should have been paying better attention here, though.  Their FB page hadn't been updated in a while, but I'd already placed the ad when I discovered this.  Do your homework.

Bargain Booksy:  I used them for a trial ad for Project Hermes at full $2.99 price.  I paid $55 and did not make even half of that back on sales.  I've had better luck with them in the past, so I'm guessing it was the book and the price that screwed me this time.  Live and learn.

I discovered a couple new venues specifically targeting the mystery/suspense/thriller genre and the SF/F genre.  They're a little more strict with their requirements, so I'm not sure what I'll do for ads with them, but I'll let you know when I do and how it went. 

I have a request in for another ad with ENT, this time for DE for the end of this month sometime.  We'll see if they accept or reject my request. 

To wrap up, so far this year I've spent $153 dollars on advertising and I figure I've made about $230 off those ads.  So even with the ads that didn't do well, I'm ahead for the year there.  Now if I can just sell enough to recoup my editing and cover art costs.  Heh.  We won't talk about that hole today.  It's big and it's deep.

Pricing

You may remember that I mentioned something a little while back about changing the pricing for my books.  And you may also remember my staunch insistence a longer while back on keeping my books at $2.99.  So what changed?

Well, I've been considering things.  Mulling them over in my head.  Stewing on them. 

It seems to me that comparable books to mine are priced higher than mine.  And yeah, there's the whole perceived disrespect for $2.99 books.  And...  Yeah... well, I'm trying something to maybe shake things up a little sales-wise.

And since, right now, the majority of my sales come from Kindle Unlimited page reads - which are unaffected by the list price of a book - I figure I can't hurt anything by switching things up a bit. 

And since, other than page reads, the majority of my sales come from discounting my books, the list price really isn't affecting those sales either. 

But maybe, just maybe, having a higher price will make some people more likely to buy my books or read my pages - especially when they DO go on sale and I have advertising in place...

Eh, it's worth a shot. 

To that end, Project Hermes went up to $4.99 over the weekend.  As did Blink of an I.  Like I said, it seems to me that comparable books in length and genre are priced at that or higher. 

Now comes the tricky part.  Amazon won't let you change a price within 30 days of a Kindle Countdown Deal.  Either you change the price and have to wait 30 days to have a KCD or you have a KCD and have to wait 30 days to raise the price.  This means that the sales I'm planning for Dying Embers and for Wish in One Hand (July and August respectively) will junk up when I'm able to raise the prices for those series.  So, SCIU and OUAD will remain at $2.99 each for at least the next couple months.  After that, those two series will increase to $3.99 each.

I think I'm going to leave the Dennis Haggarty Mystery series alone at $2.99 each for now.  That feels like it's in line with similar books.  And I'm planning on Sleeping Ugly launching at $2.99.  It's a shorter, snarkier paranormal novel and that's what those seem to be priced at when I go to buy them.

We'll see how this goes.  I could fall flat on my face.  But I'll never know if I never try.  And doing things the same way I've been doing them isn't getting me better results than I've been seeing.  

And that's where my brain is at right now.  Any questions?  Comments? 

Updates and Junk

Okay, so the ad on Wednesday was a bust.  I sold 5 copies of Project Hermes that day.  Which puts me about $45 in the hole for that one.  Eh, live and learn.  I didn't have any expectations for this, so I'm not crushed or anything.  I did start seeing page reads for it last night, so maybe there's hope.

On the bright side, PH went from 1.2 millionth in all books to 39K in all books and reached like 253rd in Technothrillers.  Not sure why Amazon put it there, but hey, it's kinda technothrillerish.  Also not sure how it went so high with only 5 sales.  I'm hoping a lot of KU readers downloaded it due to the ad.  Wouldn't that be lovely?

In other news, Early Grave got another 5 star review at Amazon.  Someone who'd reviewed both Dying Embers and Fertile Ground, so yay.

And both Accidental Death and In Deep Wish got new ratings at Goodreads.  Hey, I'll take what I can get.

I found a couple new (to me) advertising venues I'm going to try - one for strictly mystery/suspense and the other for just SF/F.  Unfortunately, they both require the books to have at least 10 Amazon reviews, so I only have a few books to choose from for advertising there.  I think Dying Embers later this month and Wish in One Hand sometime next month.   We'll see.

I have until no later than the 18th to get Sleeping Ugly whipped into better shape and back into my editor's hands.   I'm hoping for an August 29th release, so you'll have it your hands for reading over Labor Day weekend.  Provided I get the editing done and my cover artist gets the cover done and there's no floods, famines, pestilences, Armageddons, etc.  As we get closer to getting this published, I'll have a better idea of whether I'll make the date, go early, or completely fall apart.

And that's about it for updates. 

Any questions?  Got any news of your own?

More Marketing Stuff

I'm trying something a little different today.  I purchased an ad for Project Hermes (formerly Blood Flow) with Bargain Booksy and for once, I didn't lower the price.  However, since my books are all priced reasonably, it qualified. 

After the ad is over and the subsequent residuals (if there are any) have stopped, I will be raising the price of this book.  So, I guess, in a way, it is kind of a sale.  Buying it now will save you a buck or two.  (Haven't decided whether it'll be $3.99 or $4.99 yet.)

We'll see if I get enough sales to cover the $55 ad.  I need to sell roughly 27 copies.  Fingers crossed I sell more.  Fingers really crossed I sell enough that I don't want to kick myself for trying this.

Part of me thought 'July 4th... political suspense... Perfect.' and then another part thinks 'July 4th... nobody will be buying books today because they're all out celebrating'.  Time will tell which part is right.

The ad is live on their site and relatively near the top of the page (7th book down).  It'll go live in their newsletter sometime between 9am and noon eastern. 

And Happy Independence Day, folks!  I didn't forget.  I just put something up over at The Writing Spectacle instead of here.   This is the work blog, after all.  ;o)

Have a great day and be safe out there. 

A Time for Everything

This morning, Elizabeth Spann Craig had an interesting post on her blog on balancing business and writing.  As always, she makes some interesting points and gives her take on things.  And I agreed with pretty much everything.  Except she says she gets the writing out of the way first. 

As you've probably heard me say before, I don't write in the morning.  Years of homeschooling got me in the habit of writing at night.  And while I haven't had to homeschool in years, I'm still in that habit.  Plus, now Hubs isn't going off to a day job either, and we share an office, and the majority of his work has to be done in the morning.  You can see where I'm going with that, right?  The office is nice and quiet at night. 

And now my pay-job is busiest in the morning. So shifting the schedule to write during the day is not going to work for me.

So, I write and edit at night.  I do business stuff - marketing, networking, emailing, spreadsheeting, etc. - in the morning, too.  That stuff is easier to pause when something comes up than writing.  I like a nice uninterrupted stretch of an hour or three to put new words on the page.  Or to get really rolling on edits.  I start after dinner and work until bedtime or brain fatigue kicks in.

But that's me.

Now, I don't think Elizabeth was saying her way is the only way to write.  Of course not.  She was simply giving what works for her as a template for what might help other writers find their balance between writing and the business of being an author.  And I'm certainly not saying my way is the only way.  As I've always maintained, there is no right way to do this crazy thing we do.  You've got to find your own stride.  And if your stride isn't working for you, try something different until you're in your own groove.

My groove ain't for everyone. 

Now, you might notice that I talk about working in the morning and writing at night.  What about afternoons, you say?  Well, I'm pretty much a useless toad from lunchtime to dinner.  I don't write, I don't work, I don't exercise, I don't do housework.  If it doesn't get done in the morning, it ain't getting done until the next morning.  Except for writing.  And unless I'm on a deadline.  Then all bets are off and I work whether I'm a useless toad or not.

How about you?  When's your most productive time of day?  Are you a morning person or a night person?  If you're an afternoon person, I am in awe of you. 

Comparing Yourself to Others

One problem with comparing your work to the work of another author comes when your potential reader HATES the author you just compared yourself to.  I mean, everything else could be going along just fine, and they're halfway to one-clicking, then BAM, you've compared yourself to the dreaded author.  Lost sale.

Which, I guess would be okay because, if your book is really like that other author then you don't want her detractors reading your book and giving you loads of bad reviews.  On the other hand, if your book really isn't that much like BIG NAME AUTHOR's work, then by saying your story is like theirs, you've just screwed yourself out of a sale.  Or left her fans feeling let down. 

I try not to compare my work to other writers' books.  Aside from the above, I have a tough time comparing authors.  Those 'compare and contrast' assignments in high school?  Yep, bombed them. Every rare once in a while, I'll be reading a book and think to myself 'this is kind of like...' but it's not often.  And who knows if the way I'm seeing it is the way other people will see it?  Know what I mean?

Anyway, it's a slippery slope. I'd avoid it unless you're really really sure.  Like, say, if other people have told you 'this reads like a Michael Crichton novel' or 'hey, this story could've been written by Terry Pratchett', it might be worth something.  Awesome praise, but I'm still not sure I'd use it as a sales tool.  Not that I wouldn't want Crichton or Pratchett's reader base, but I also don't want that reader base to be disappointed. 

Better off to just be you.  And hope the readership loves you for the way you write.

Writing Advice

I follow an author on FB who regularly answers reader questions in her posts.  She answered one recently that went something like 'I want to be a writer. Do I need a degree in English?'  She, of course, answered with a resounding 'NO'.  And then went on to write some pretty salient and interesting things along those lines.  But since I don't have permission to post any of that here, I thought I'd address the idea myself.

First off, I don't have a degree in English.  Or anything else for that matter.  I'm degree-free.  I did go to college for 4 years and majored in Speech/Communications with a minor in Psychology.  But I quit with one year to go.  (For reasons that aren't pertinent to anything here.)

Did those 4 years of college help me with my writing?  Well, yes and no.  The two English college courses I took both helped and didn't help.  The first one was basically a 'pat on the head for stringing words together in a cogent fashion' course.  The second one kicked my ass.  (Which is why I dedicated my first book to the second professor 'in memoriam' because he'd gone before I could show him what I'd accomplished.)  Otherwise, it was more about the experience of being in college and all the combined knowledge I'd soaked up while I was there that helped me in my writing.  Sure, the psych courses help me delve into the human mind and get hands dirty.  But I could've learned all that on my own online without paying for the classes.  Know what I mean?

Everything I've done and all the knowledge I've acquired has helped me more than any class I paid for.  Every person I've met.  Every place I've been.  Every experience I've had.  They've all helped me to write novels*.

So, basically, what I'd advise any person thinking about writing to do is acquire experiences and knowledge - from everywhere.  The more you know about existence, the better off you'll be.

Oh, and please do have some English (or whatever language you write in) education under your belt.  You need to understand language in order to make yourself clear to your readers.  And you have to know the rules before you can break them.  ;o)  After that, get an Awesome Wonderful Editor who has an excellent understanding of your language, so she can kick your ass and make you write better.

Now, go and experience things. Shoo shoo.

*Writing non-fiction is a different animal.  Obviously.  Since I don't write NF, can't help you there.

Recent Marketing Efforts

I suppose all y'all saw my overly optimistic marketing post on Friday.  Umm, yeah.  I never came back to update because there really wasn't all that much to update. 

I think my ads came out, but I don't know for certain because I never got the newsletters in question, but I did see a slight uptick in sales regardless that most likely did not come from my FB group posts. 

Anyway, here's the final shake out from those (without any potential residual sales - which I don't expect - or page reads - which I hope for but are unlikely.) I garnered 14 sales from the two ads for the two books.  Which netted me about $9.  I spent $22 on those ads.  The larger portion of the 14 books sold seem to have come from the $6 ad rather than the $10 ad. 

Now, it could be the books themselves.  I'll admit that AD and NC are not wearing my best two covers, and the blurbs might not draw the most people.  They aren't for everyone.  However, when I ran an ad with ENT for AD back in 2015, I sold gobs.  :shrug:

Speaking of ENT ads, I'm still seeing sales from the ad I placed with them in May.  Page reads mostly, but I'll take them. 

Anyway, I'm still figuring this out.  I'll be trying some more ads next month.  Fingers crossed those go well.  All I can really say for certain is that regardless of the ROI (return on investment), I sell more books with ads than without ads.  (As evidenced by the lack of ads last year and the corresponding lack of sales versus this year.)  So, I'll keep on trying.

By the way, the books are still on sale thru tomorrow night.  Since the number of copies of AD way outnumber the sales for NC, I'm going to assume some of you haven't picked up the second book yet.  What are you waiting for?  ;o)

Any questions about anything? 

Brief Marketing Update 1

I'm doing some test marketing right now.  This post is as much about me keeping it straight as information for you guys if you're interested in marketing data.  Bear with me.

So yesterday, I had a $10 ad go out for AD.  I sold 5 books and earned just under $4. 

This morning, I posted sales links for AD to various FB groups* for free and, within an hour, sold 2 books. 

Today, two more ads go out at $6 each.  One for AD and one for NC.  :fingers crossed:


The reason the title of this post says '1' is that I'm going to try to post an update later if sales change.  If you don't see an update, there was no change.

* The FB groups posted to were: Amazon Kindle Goodreads, Indie Authors International, eBook World, Self Published Crime Fiction Writers, and Crime, Thriller and Mystery Readers' Cafe.  Since the books I sold were in the UK, I'm going to assume the Indie Authors International group gained me those sales, but I could be wrong.

Sale Time Again

Years ago, there was this furniture store that would have so many sales it was hard to discern if any of them were really special.  It was like 'oh, yawn, they're having a sale again'.  I am trying to keep that in mind when I have these sales, but it seems like the number of books I sell hinges on having 'sales'. 

So here we are again.  Another sale.  This time, the books of the 'A Dennis Haggarty Mystery' series are both on sale for 99c or .99p.  Now until Sunday. 

I know a great deal of people have purchased Accidental Death since it's release in 2015, so now's their chance to pick up the second book - Natural Causes - for cheap.  See what's happening with Dennis and Jillian and Pat. 

Accidental Death, as you may know, is particularly close to my heart.  You know, the wife of a former city manager writing about the widow of a deceased city manager.  That sort of thing.  All spun up into a hard-boiled, noir-like mystery with characters you could meet in any small town on the eastern plains of Colorado.  (Or anywhere else in America, truth be told.  I borrowed some traits from people I knew back in small town Michigan, too.)

Natural Causes progresses from there with the problems of a small mountain town instead of a small plains town, but the problems aren't that much different.  Murder, mayhem, cover up, with Dennis investigating it all and trying to stay sane.

Anyway, I hope you'll give them a try.  Or if you've already tried Accidental Death, will give Natural Causes a whirl, too.