Guest Blog

Readers are Leaders: Buy a Boy a Book! Change a Life
A Lady in Defiance Defies Odds, Becomes Best-Seller – Heather Blanton

A Lady in Defiance

Back in February I put my book, A Lady in Defiance, up on Amazon to use as a fundraiser for my Relay for Life team. I cleared this move with my lit agent, David Shepherd of the DRS Agency. We all thought that with nothing but word of mouth, I would struggle to meet my $200 goal. What happened next was nothing short of a miracle…or a catastrophe.

My book went live in mid-February and two weeks later, I’d sold 135 copies. By the end of March, I’d sold an additional 343 copies. Goal surpassed!

But A Lady in Defiance continued to sell…and sell well. As of this writing, I have sold over 7000 copies of my book! No marketing to speak of, no publisher, no PR.

So, first and foremost, in answering the question, “What did you do?” I must give praise where praise is due. I prayed many times with the vision in my head of handing my book to God and asking him to do with it what He wanted…but I wouldn’t object if he wanted to sell it to Bethany House. My Heavenly Father has lavished his blessings upon my book. I’m eternally grateful and humbled beyond words.

Second, I read Amazon’s instructions for formatting the book and followed them exactly.

Third, I designed a cover that shouts romance, time period, and location. I studied dozens of covers of other books in my genre and tried to stay in the same field with them.

Fourth, I also studied the tags from other Christian fiction books on Amazon and used the same ones when I set up my book page.

Fifth, I worked really hard to come up with a book description that is compelling. Then I tweaked it. And tweaked it some more, even incorporating feedback from reviewers to make the description more accurate and honest.

Sixth, I stumbled into some effective marketing strategies (again, thank you, God!). My confidence was so low in my book that I initially priced it at $.99. In his book, Amazing Results with Amazon, author Eddie Jones talks about a “soft launch.” Price your book low to help build interest, minimize the consumers’ risk and maybe get the WOM going.

February and March I left the price at $.99;
In April, I tried a mix of $.99 and $1.99.
In May, I played around with $1.99, $2.99, even $3.02.
By August, I’d pretty much settled on $2.99

Also in August, I tried my first FREE promotion. Due to the blog Inspired Reads putting me on their front page (again, a God-thing, as I had no idea who these people were) A Lady in Defiance was downloaded nearly eight thousand times!

I’ve done two more free promotions since, basically one a month.

I work hard to keep my Author page updated on Amazon, linking it with my blog and Facebook page.

I dallied with a few Facebook ads in April and May. The click through rate was average and I couldn’t track any sales directly. My blog (http://patriotsinlace.com/) has helped me sell more books than the FB ads.

Because reviews and likes have a tremendous impact on rankings, I put a link at the end of my book asking for reviews. I also asked a few of my friends to leave reviews to get the ball rolling.

I suppose it’s worth mentioning here that in May my book made it to the publishing board at a major Christian publishing house. However, my sales projections were too low and they passed on the project. I received this soul-crushing email while at work. I sat through a grueling meeting with my boss then went to the ladies room and prayed. Holding back sobs, I said out loud, “God, I trust you. I know you have a plan here. I’m hanging on to you…no matter what.” Not the easiest words I’ve ever spoken, but I meant them.

So, on the one hand, this is all an awesome miracle. Just as easily as things went right, they could have gone wrong and my book could be floundering at 1,219,668 in sales rank. On the other hand, A Lady in Defiance will most likely never sell to a publisher now. A catastrophe? No, not at all. I have heard from readers who were really impacted by the book. One person even referred to my writing as my “ministry”. That took me back. I’ve always wanted to write something that glorifies God, but to call it a ministry makes it sound so much more…important.

But this lady was wrong about one thing. It’s not my ministry. It’s his. All his.