Still no joy for Peter…or for Zoe

Despite all the promos, the interviews and a great first review, the first week of sales for Peter the Wolf still hasn't reached double digits. There are a lot of people entered for the Goodreads drawing, and as a result many more people are adding the book to their To-Read lists. So in theory, after the drawing passes, some of the people who didn't win might still be curious enough to seek the book out. But right now sales for Peter are as dead as they are for Sandy's book. And as dead as The Life and Death of a Sex Doll, despite getting a pair of glowing reviews. No matter which story I promoted, I couldn't interest you in sci-fi, YA fantasy, or adult fantasy, apparently.

This is not to say that I did not get sales. I did, on all sorts of titles that I didn't advertise, and most of those with no cover. Also, all this week, I've been promoting the Amazon links for my books because people told me I HAD to be in the Amazon market if I wanted real sales numbers. So I advertised to my peeps that I had heard their requests and I had my book up at Amazon… so Smashwords sales are up, and Amazon sales are flat. Of course. Makes perfect sense.

So, if I post links to Smashwords, will people go to Amazon? Because if this reverse psychology thing can be proven to work repeatedly, I'll just advertise for Amazon and smile with evil glee as you go to the store I wanted you to visit.

This, however, does not help me with the problem of title promotions. Or with the confusion I feel watching my sales numbers versus my actual promotions. I mean, don't get me wrong; when someone comes along and buys two of my books in one go, I'm a happy camper that a reader wants those books. But I didn't advertise the books they bought. The books I do advertise are doing poorly. And the more I promote them, the less they seem to do anything.

And, I don't know how to reverse psychology this into a positive rush of new sales. I can't skip advertising altogether, and I doubt I can make this work if I drop books and go, "Yeah, this is out, or whatever. You don't want it anyway." I've avoided tactics like saying "my work is better than So and so's writing," or that I'm the next great writer of any genre. I say my stories are good, but not great, and I try not to market in ways that people have indicated are irritating. (hit and run posts in forums, invitation spams to online events, or constant unrelated interruptions in threads to bring up their book link again.)

I share other people's stuff. I do reviews, and I talk about my hobbies. I share in the course of conversations in the social networks and forums, and I've been told time and again that I'm doing okay as far as my online presentation is going. When I panicked and asked on a forum what I was doing wrong, most of the people there said, "Nah, Zoe, you're doing okay."

But, if I'm okay…if I'm supposedly following all the rules for good social networking, why has this not yet equated to new traffic or to new sales? If I'm supposedly following all the rules, why are my ads failing so spectacularly?

I know a lot of writers are saying how social networking takes away time from writing, but being a shut in, I have extra time that normal people don't have. I've written so many books that even pro writers have to stop and admire my productivity. So I have a lot of titles to always keep myself in the spotlight with, in theory.

Since reducing my online presence, I only promote my stuff 2-5% of the time I'm on the social networks. I don't want someone scrolling through my Twitter stream to find a point where I'm doing nothing but advertising for my own stuff. Unless I've hit a blue moon begathon and post 4-5 book links all in one quick burst. But the idea is, someone will see all of these tweets and choose only one to retweet. So I want to give them at least four choices in the hopes that one of the pitches will catch their eye.

The thing is, extra RTs DO NOT equate to more traffic. Even when I've manipulated RT levels by using DMs to prod friends, a higher RT ratio has never resulted in a higher click through rate.

And this is the mystery. I get good reviews. I share and communicate without having to promote myself all the time. People say I have a good online presence. What then, am I doing wrong? Why have every single one of my promotions failed? Why is it that even among supposed friends and loved ones, no one will buy my books if I just ask "Please buy my book?" I've given you every song and dance you could possibly ask for. So why can I not convince you to take a risk on me?