Ana Spoke's Blog, page 16

Marketing gimmick #3, or “what does it take to get on a bestseller list?”

It’s been exactly a month since Shizzle, Inc went live on Kindle, and what a month it’s been! Shizzle, Inc now has 10 all-positive reviews on Amazon and readers are already anticipating the sequel. Not only that, it went all the way up to #72 on the paid Humor Bestseller list and up to #23 on the free Humor Bestseller list during a 2-day free giveaway.

So, how did it happen, you ask? Am I ready to quit the corporate slavery and dedicate myself to full-time writing? Am I rich yet?

Yeah, about that…As promised, I will now reveal how many sales it took to get to #72 in the first week:

12

No, not 12 hundred. Just 12. Well, that did not include any copies downloaded as part of Kindle Unlimited, as Amazon no longer tells you that. All I know is that right about that time a thousand pages was read (equivalent to 4 copies read back-to-front). I do know that Amazon counts those copies towards the sales for ranking purposes.

“How can it be?” I hear you say.

Well, it was a shocker to me. I mean’ I’ve heard about the importance of placing your book in just the right category, without too much competition, but actually, you don’t get to. The categories you pick in “bookshelf” section of your author account are different from those that are assigned to your book in Kindle store. I didn’t put Shizzle, Inc into “Action and Adventure” subcategory. In fact, there are no subcategories at all.

The mystery cleared a bit when I’ve had similar levels of sales in later weeks, yet was stuck somewhere between 500-1,000 rank in Humor. It confirmed the rumor (or fact) that Amazon’s ranking algorithms give more weight to newly released books. This is very important, as it confirms the importance of your book launch – the best chance you have of making it onto the coveted list is in the first week. If you can keep there for longer than three hours (like Shizzle did), there’s a good chance you will be discovered by new readers.

According to this Kindle Sales Rank Calculator, it looks like getting back onto the Humor bestseller list (I was about 3,800 overall) will take 56 books a day. Sigh. I hope it’s wrong, or alternatively hope I’m selling that many soon.

“Okay, what about the free promo?” I hear you ask. “Didn’t thousands of people download it, and it will take just a few weeks before they tell thousands of their friends to read it?”

If you believe some of the posts on the Internet, all it takes to become a self-published sensation is to make your book free for a few days. I recall a number of 60,000 downloads over 5 free days. I’ve made Shizzle, Inc free for two days. So, how many people jumped at that opportunity?

139

No, not thousand. Just 139. And the giveaway followed by several days of no sales at all. Since then I’ve averaged about 1.5 books per day.

But, but…I have 25,000-plus followers? Isn’t social media supposed to launch your career and all that?

As it turns out, no. Since then I’ve realized two things that a lot of pros probably already know:

Social media is not going to help you sell books. Don’t get me wrong – a strong fan base is very important, for support, for those initial (few) sales, and for those all-important first reviews. But the reason most people follow others is to get free stuff – be that advice, jokes, or any other entertainment. So while I still strongly advocate to develop and maintain a social media presence, I will no longer consider it to be my marketing campaign.
You have to advertise if you really want to see results. Actually, you even have to pay to advertise giving your books away for free – I bet that’s the only way someone can get 60,000 downloads in five days. Lucky for you, I’m currently compiling the most comprehensive list of websites that offer advertising for free or for a fee. I will publish the list in just a few days.
You better have more than one book. Oh, how I wish I had something else to offer to those people who have read the first one and apparently can’t wait to read the next adventure! This was an important realisation, as it finally pushed me to start writing the second installment. I’m up to five thousand words already and will blog about this too.

There you go. A little dose of reality, which will hopefully get sweeter soon, as I start throwing money at the problem. Can’t wait to see a steep up-trend in my sales and tell you all about how I did it. Meanwhile, have a little fun estimating how many books you’ll have to write before you can replace your current income with this Royalty Estimator.

Interview With Ana Spoke

Ana Spoke:

The blog tour continues! Thank you, Steph!

Originally posted on Steph's Writing:

Hello all!  This week I also interviewed Ana Spoke.  She can be found here.  She is the author of the very poplar novel Shizzle, Inc.

1. Who are you?  Where are you located?  What is you book title and what is it about?

I’m Ana Spoke and I live in Australia – but you can always find me on anaspoke.com! I’ve just released my first comedy novel Shizzle, Inc. It is about Isa Maxwell, your average blond chick, who embarks on a not-so-average adventure as billionaire’s protege. This novel started with a one-off joke spoof of the 50 Shades of Gray, although there’s no sex in it. There’s however, lots and lots of sexual tension – after getting dumped unceremoniously right before Valentine’s Day, Isa seems to get a lot of new love interest. Trouble is, Isa may be mistaken in how she interprets the world around…

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Review | Shizzle, Inc (Isa Maxwell #1) by Ana Spoke

Ana Spoke:

What a Monday morning it’s been! Thank you, Dimple, for such an in-depth review!

The last reminder – Shizzle, Inc will be $0.99 for just a few more hours, then it goes back to $2.99, sorry!

Originally posted on enthrallingdimple:

Title: Shizzle, Inc (Isa Maxwell #1)
Author: Ana Spoke
Genre: Comedy, Humor, Women’s Fiction
Publishing date: 4th September, 2015

Published by: Ana Spoke

Pages: 274
My Rating: 5/5 stars  

*Book received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

Synopsis:

Isa Maxwell is an average busty blond, a recent graduate of a community college, and rap-loving, gun-toting, self-proclaimed badass. More than anything else, Isa wants to be discovered, so that she can solve her financial woes and win back Brad, the love of her life.

Thanks to her clumsiness, street smarts, and unbelievable bit of luck, Isa, lands a dream job at Shizzle, Inc. Things start to look up when Mr. Hue, the playboy billionaire owner of Shizzle, Inc takes Isa under his wing. Isa even gets a number of new love interests, but all is not what it seems. In fact, absolutely nothing is what it seems.

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Shizzle, Inc., by Ana Spoke

Ana Spoke:

Woke up this morning to find the 9th stellar review on Amazon – thank you, Tamara!

If you don’t have a copy of Shizzle, Inc yet, grab it today, while it’s still $0.99 – the sale ends at midnight.

Originally posted on Tamara Morning:

(I do not own this image. Image belongs to Ana Spoke.)

Ana Spoke is a writer/middle manager who promised herself she’d finish a novel, and started a blog to keep her motivated and follow through on her goal. Her first novel, Shizzle, Inc. is a comedy that just hit shelves.

Isa Maxwell is a (sort-of) typical young adult: she managed to graduate community college by some miracle, she’s broke, and her boyfriend just dumped her because his dreams of a NFL career require someone more than Isa at his side. Isa is determined to be discovered, be able to pay off her bills, and show Brad just what he’s missing so he realizes he still loves her. Despite a nasty hangover and having no idea what she’s doing, Isa manages to win a contest and land a job as the personal assistant of the Mr. Hue of Shizzle, Inc. Finally…

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Review of Shizzle, Inc. (Isa Maxwell Escapades Book 1) by Ana Spoke

Ana Spoke:

Aaaah…Nothing better than waking up to find another 5-star review! Thank you so much, S.M. Lowry!

Originally posted on The Fringes of Reality:

Genre: Comedy, Women’s fiction

Synopsis:

Isa Maxwell wants to be discovered. It’s a surefire way to win back her ex. She also needs a job. Lucky for her, the billionaire, Mr. Hue, is holding auditions for an assistant at Shizzle, Inc. The only problem is Isa has no idea what she’s doing in the world of business despite having somehow managed to graduate from community college. Through a combination of Mr. Hue’s stupidity and dumb luck, Isa manages to survive at her new job and even gains some new love interests. But Isa’s luck is about to run out.

Excerpt:

So it was sometime in late May when, unemployed, half-starved and depressed, I glimpsed a sign of hope. I just found out that despite my best self-destruction efforts, I managed to graduate from Capitol Community College, so I was celebrating the news with a sixteen-hour TV marathon and a family-sized…

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Marketing gimmick #2, in which I slash prices and @ everyone.

Shizzle, Inc is $0.99 for a limited time!

Did any of that get your attention? Hope so, cause my gimmick #2 got me no results whatsoever. Or maybe it did, if you consider negative a result. The rankings added zeroes – and of course, that means the sales didn’t. The stats went south and someone blocked me…

Before I continue with this pity party, I do have some amazing news to report. Shizzle, Inc now got six reviews on Amazon, all 5-star! This may not seem like much, compared to proper bestsellers, but from reading other people’s blogs, I gather that it is quite an achievement for the first three weeks of a self-published title. I have read each one at least a dozen times, and it sounds like there will be a few more within a week – people have messaged me to say that they are reading it and laughing. Sweeter words have not been written…

So, back to my gimmick #2, what was it? As the title says, I’ve spent last week #-tagging and sending @ messages to reviewers on Twitter. It was suggested in one of the comments, and as soon as I read it, I was overwhelmed with a vision that it would work. After all, I’ve seen celebrities madly hashtagging their every sneeze, and if celebrities do it, it must be working for them, right?

My plan was simple:

Add hashtags to my quote+link tweets sent out four times a day via Buffer. I’ve used some of the ones from 44 essential hashtags for writers. I have personally used #comedy, #humor, #Kindle, #ebook, and #chicklit.
Send @ messages to 20 Twitter reviewers. I sent quotes+link tweets to all reviewers still active on this Best Twitter Reviewers list.
Refresh stats at least once a minute.

A week has passed. Stats have been refreshed at least ten thousand times, and the results are in. So, how did I do, and what have I learned?

Hashtags seemed to reduce the number of link clicks for the week! Here are the last two weeks worth of engagements and link clicks:

The week before, I got 285 link clicks. This week it’s back down to the usual 131. Is that the hashtag’s fault? Or is everyone seek of seeing my quotes? Is there a “quote fatique” going on?

In addition, the number of profile visits went down, even though the number of engagements is way up (for the last 28 days):

When things are not working, one must change, and pronto. For this current week, I have stopped hashtagging and even including links, and the stats have actually improved! So far, I am getting a lot more retweets on my quotes, which may mean that people automatically hate hashtags or links – they know you’re trying to sell them something…I will provide a full update in a week.

2.  Sending @ messages resulted in zero responses from the reviewers, it’s like they didn’t even see it. Oh, wait, one did – I got blocked in a hurry! I kind of understand, because nobody has the time to respond to every single message, and maybe mine were properly spammy. I then tried again, sending more personal messages to those who did not block me and actually asking to review the book, rather than passively-aggressively sending a quote and a link. So far I got one polite “sorry, I’m too busy” and no other blocks. But no interest, either.

There you go, not all marketing ideas are good. For my next trick, I have reduced the price of Shizzle, Inc to 99 cents! get it quick, before I decide to test what a $9.99 will do to my royalty figures!

In my next gimmick reveal I pinky-promise to tell you:

How many sales it took to get to #72 on the PAID Amazon Humor Bestseller list.
Sales figures before and after the free ebook giveaway a couple of weeks ago.
The impact of this latest $0.99 sale on the sales figures.

If you have any particular questions about marketing of a freshly-self-published novel, ask away and I will answer them in the next post.

Published my new book! Seeing Red – A Bucks County Novel

Ana Spoke:

Congratulations to Dr. Meg on self-publishing another novel!

Originally posted on Meg Sorick- writes better than she dresses:

It’s live and ready for purchase here on Amazon!  Hopefully, you enjoyed Three Empty Frames because this story picks up right where we left off.

In case you missed it, I posted the synopsis a few days ago.

And in other exciting news:  I have an author page on Amazon!  Please come and check it out!

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Asked & Answered: On Books and Blogging

Ana Spoke:

Stop #3 on the blog tour – an article by Cori Casner of Planned Preoccupation.

Thank you, Cori – very interesting format!

Originally posted on Planned Preoccupation:

Ana Spoke  is a blogger and self-published author. I have been following her blog for over a month now, and have learned some great tips and tricks about blogging. The newest idea she shared was a blog tour.

Ana is promoting her new book Shizzle, Inc., and in an effort spread the good word she is doing interviews and guest posting on her follower’s blogs. Needless to say I jumped at the chance opportunity to interview her! Since Ana is in Australia and I am in the US we did the interview over email, which was another first for me.

“You Go, Girl!”

According to Ana, Shizzle, Inc. was born when she wrote a spoof scene of 50 Shades of Grey. The scene was about Isa, a young and dumb girl, meeting  an eccentric billionaire. She emailed that scene to her sister who found it hilarious and demanded more. At her…

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Author interview! Introducing Ana Spoke, author of Shizzle, Inc.!

Ana Spoke:

Stop #2 on the blog tour – interview by Dr. Meg Sorick.

Thank you for channeling your inner Oprah, Dr. Meg!

Originally posted on Meg Sorick- writes better than she dresses:

I am absolutely delighted to be one of the stops on the blog tour of the very talented Ana Spoke, fellow blogger and self-published author!

Ana’s debut novel:  Shizzle, Inc. has just been released on Amazon and you can find it here.  It has already reached #23 in the humor category!  It’s my privilege to welcome her to my blog for an interview.  Now, hang on while I channel my inner Oprah!

Ana, first of all congratulations on your sudden success!  Since you describe yourself as a writer moonlighting as a middle manager, how much of your work experience gave you material for Shizzle, Inc.?

Thank you Dr. Meg!  Fingers crossed it keeps going this way!  To answer your first question:  I think that it’s not only work – my life in general has been nothing but comedy material.  Over the last twenty or so years, I’ve moved countries…

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Ana Spoke has been INTERVIEWED!!!

Ana Spoke:

Stop #1 on the blog tour – my interview by R.G. Dole of A drip of Truth (a drop of Lies).

Thank you, R.G.!

Originally posted on A drip of Truth:

1. What’s your name? Where can we find you? Blog? Twitter? Facebook?

I’m Ana Spoke and you can see what I’ve been up to on my blog (http://anaspoke.com/) or Twitter (@spokeana). I’m one of the few people in the world that does not maintain a Facebook account – I think there’s one, but I have not logged onto it in years. I don’t have an Instagram or any other social media accounts – the blog and twitter are almost a full-time job!

Other than writing, what is your favorite hobby or thing you enjoy for fun?

I’ve had lots of other hobbies, but they tend to come and go – I’ve obsessed over orchids, raised tropical fish, and sculpted miniature portraits. For now, I just like to work out with my fiancé and take my dog for beach walks. Of course, I also read – currently half-way through…

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