My eBook eXperience -- part eight

So, hot diggity, I'd published an eBook, It Seemed Funny at the Time: A large collection of short humor. Now what? Here's the thing. My first twenty-three (rough count) books were published the traditional way, and my publishers took care of a lot of the promotion. I did the usual author stuff, like signings, conference talks, etc., but they're the ones who really spread the word. It's worked very well, and I have no intentions of abandoning the traditional route any time soon. (Quite the opposite. I have just one book coming out next year, but there will be a slew of releases in 2013. But it's far too early to promote any of those titles.)

I had several target audiences for the book. The first part is general humor, with a bit of extra appeal for people who remember the 1980s, or are at least versed in the pop culture of that time. There are separate sections for computer geeks, writers, and YA and kidlit fans. I posted an announcement on a listserve for librarians. I post there often. It has nearly 4,000 members. That resulted in a whopping total of three or four sales. This was the first in a series of groin kicks that drove home how insignificant my slice of the social network actually is. I'm on Facebook, Twitter, and here (Livejournal). But I've never made an effort to gain followers or friends. I don't focus on a specific topic, so I haven't developed a niche readership. I sometimes discuss my political beliefs, which might alienate some factions. I've sold millions of books, but my readers don't flock to Twitter and Facebook. They flock to Call of Duty and Family Guy.

Clueless about how to spread the word, I did something very stupid. I decided to send an email to everyone in my address book. Yup -- every person who'd ever sent me an email, or to whom I'd sent an email. I gathered up the list, wrote a short email explaining that this was the one and only time I was ever doing a mass mailing, and clicked SEND. My mail service informed my that I was over the allowable number of addressees. I cut the file into smaller chunks, and started sending emails. At about the halfway point, my mail service informed me that it was shutting me out for 24 hours because I'd sent too many email, and too many had bounced. Crap. I'd become a spammer. Briefly. Just once. But I still felt sort of slimey.

Here's the worst part. Later on, I realized that there were certain people I could email to ask for a review or a blog mention. But some of them had already gotten my first spammy mailing, and I didn't want to compound the offense with a follow-up.

In one sense, my early experience has been dismal. I've sold fewer than 50 copies across all platforms. (I offered it at a deep discount on a small message board I frequent, and sold no copies.) But there's a bright side. Unlike print books, eBooks don't get remaindered. They don't get pulled from the shelves if they don't sell well in the first month, or the first six months. If I figure out a good way to spread the word next September, or even in November of 2014, the book will be as available as it is today. (It's also possible my dismay is premature. I didn't do any promotion before the book was launched. Print books get a lot of pre-release PR. So the book has only been waving its arms and crying for attention for two weeks. There might be a dozen bloggers out there getting ready to write about it. Or there might not.)

Bottom line -- was it a good idea or a mistake? I'll discuss that, and pass along some final thoughts, in the conclusion of this series. Meanwhile. Buy my eBook. Please. I really want to get my sales totals up to three figures. Or six.