How to sell more copies of your self-published romance
Short answer to this question? Write a great book that people want to read. (Duh, right?) Long answer? Well…it’s substantially more complicated than that. In fact, there are so many variables that might be effecting your sales that your head will hurt if you contemplate it for too long. But if you’re looking to sell more copies of your romance novel, here’s some factors you might want to consider:
How’s your cover?
We all know that you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover. But the sad fact is that we all do it to varying degrees. We’re human. We can’t help ourselves. We like pretty things. We want to buy books with pretty covers. With this in mind, consider having a professional design or redesign your cover. Now, I know some of your sphincter’s just tightened up at the thought of shelling out money to a professional designer. Sounds expensive, right? You might be surprised. There are so many freelance e-book cover designers out there now that you can pay as much or as little as you’d like for a professional cover. In fact, many designers offer beautiful pre-made covers for bargain-basement prices. Do a little research. You’ll be surprised by what you find. And if your sphincter is still tight, think of it this way: you probably spent a full year or more writing and polishing your novel. Doesn’t it deserve something pretty to wear?
How’s your editing and formatting?
I’ll make the same argument for professional editing and formatting services that I made for professional cover designers: you spent a really long time writing your novel. Doesn’t it deserve the best editing and formatting?
Here’s a sad fact: as a writer, you’re more likely to read over grammar and spelling mistakes in your work than a fresh reader would. Reason? Your brain knows what you meant to say and will automatically correct what it sees on the page without bothering to make you aware of the error. Our brains are thoughtful that way. But that leaves us open to embarrassing errors that—trust me—readers who’ve paid for your work will notice. And believe me, the grammar Nazis on Amazon and Goodreads will avoid buying your book if it’s received multiple “needs editing” reviews. Same goes for formatting errors.
Editors can be hired on a freelance basis for anywhere from $1 per page, to $0.01 per word, and formatting services can be found for as little as $40 for a full-length novel. I don’t know about you, but for me, the benefits outweigh the costs of these services. And the beauty of e-books is that even after an initial publishing, you can always fix errors or upload re-formatted versions so that problems don’t plague you for the rest of your book’s life.
Pricing strategy
One of the benefits of being a self-pubbed author versus a traditionally published author is that you can actually have a pricing strategy. Traditional publishing houses set their own prices, giving authors no real say in the matter. But self-pubbed authors? We can do whatever we want. But before you laugh maniacally and set your price at $29.99, I would recommend taking the market into consideration. Because much like the real estate market, books are only worth what people are willing to pay for them. (Did your sphincter tighten up again? Sorry about that)
Opinions on pricing are all over the place. Some experts argue that if you price your book at $0.99, people will assume its crap and not buy it. Conversely, other experts argue that if you are a self-pubbed or newbie author with no track record and set your price at $4.99-$9.99, no one will be willing to shell out that kind of money for your work. Who’s right?
For me, since Semi-Charmed was my debut novel and I had no built-in credibility/history with readers, I kept my prices low. I’ve experimented within the $0.99 – $3.99 range, and I’ll be honest: I’ve had more success at the lower end of my pricing strategy. My theory on this is that romance readers are a particularly voracious group. They often read 5 or more books a week. And the genre is HUGE with shitloads of material to choose from. And for people who read that much and have that many options, if they didn’t spend some time looking for cheap reads, they’d probably be broke before too long—or at least living on Ramen noodles, having spent their grocery money on books.
But at the end of the day, no one really knows what the best pricing strategy is for a self-pubbed or newbie author. I recommend some experimentation. Try some different prices on for size and see which one(s) move copies.
Reviews
Reviews absolutely make a difference when readers are deciding whether or not they should give a new author a shot. And while I do not believe in paying for reviews, it is perfectly acceptable to ask nicely for them. I recommend taking a look at other books in your genre that are similar to yours (i.e.: books that you consider to be your biggest “competition”) and see which bloggers have reviewed them. If your competition has been reviewed by a blogger you respect, consider sending him/her a polite query with an offer of an ARC in exchange for an honest review. (And note I said HONEST review. It’s never OK to ask a blogger for a POSITIVE review. It’s possible that you’ll ask for a review and get a negative one. That’s OK. See my blog post from December 2014 about handling negative reviews for more info)(http://www.izzyjo.com/2014/12/).
The point is that reviews let readers know what to expect from your book, and in most cases, let them feel secure in their buying decision.
Key words
Your book’s visibility on sites such as Amazon is largely dependent on the key words and categories you choose to associate with it at the time of publishing. I won’t pretend to be an expert on this because frankly, it’s given me headaches trying to figure it all out, but here it is in its simplest form: if you use “zombie mermen” as one of your key words and no one is looking for books about zombie mermen, your book probably won’t hit the bestsellers’ lists anytime soon (although, I would TOTALLY read a zombie mermen book). You want your chosen key words to be part of the most popular searches. Resources I found particularly helpful in regards to key word searches are:
How to Sell Romance Novels on Kindle by Michael Alvear (http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Kindle-...)
Sell More Books on Amazon by Penny Sansevieri (http://thefutureofink.com/sell-more-b...)
Social media
I know, I know. As a die-hard introvert and antisocial person at heart, this one hurts me as much as it hurts you. But the truth is, readers want to connect with their favorite authors, and authors need to welcome and encourage this. Consider keeping a blog on your website (yes, you’ll need one of those, too). Become a Goodreads author and join groups with readers who share similar interests. And don’t just spam everyone with promos and reasons why they should buy your book. Actually talk to readers. Find out what they like and hate. Trust me, you’ll be surprised by what they have to say, and you might even learn a thing or two from them about writing and marketing your next book.
Kindle Unlimited
Here’s another controversial topic. To join or shun Kindle Unlimited…that is the question. I’ve done both. I started out on Kindle Unlimited in August 2014 and didn’t see a ton of immediate positive results. So, at the end of my 90-day term, I left the program and put Semi-Charmed on Kobo, Nook, and Smashwords, in addition to Amazon. And in the months that followed, I realized that I was selling more on Amazon in 1 day than I was selling in weeks on all of the other platforms combined.
Now, that’s not to say that another book wouldn’t do very well on the other platforms. And maybe I just did a piss-poor job of marketing to Kobo, Nook, and Smashwords readers. But whatever the reason, I couldn’t argue with the sales numbers, so I recently decided to go back on Kindle Unlimited. As a result, my sales and downloads have increased exponentially.
At the end of my current 90-day term, I will most likely give the other platforms another try (because I hate the idea of alienating even a few potential readers)—but for now, I’m happy where I am.
Consider your publishing goals. Are you solely looking to make money? If that’s the case, maybe Kindle Unlimited isn’t for you. But if you’re looking to get your book into as many hands as possible to build a name and a career for yourself? (not to mention built-in readers for your next book) Kindle Unlimited is definitely worth a try.
But what about all of you other self-published authors out there? Any suggestions or advice you’d like to share with the group? Now’s your chance to speak up! Let me know what you think.
How’s your cover?
We all know that you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover. But the sad fact is that we all do it to varying degrees. We’re human. We can’t help ourselves. We like pretty things. We want to buy books with pretty covers. With this in mind, consider having a professional design or redesign your cover. Now, I know some of your sphincter’s just tightened up at the thought of shelling out money to a professional designer. Sounds expensive, right? You might be surprised. There are so many freelance e-book cover designers out there now that you can pay as much or as little as you’d like for a professional cover. In fact, many designers offer beautiful pre-made covers for bargain-basement prices. Do a little research. You’ll be surprised by what you find. And if your sphincter is still tight, think of it this way: you probably spent a full year or more writing and polishing your novel. Doesn’t it deserve something pretty to wear?
How’s your editing and formatting?
I’ll make the same argument for professional editing and formatting services that I made for professional cover designers: you spent a really long time writing your novel. Doesn’t it deserve the best editing and formatting?
Here’s a sad fact: as a writer, you’re more likely to read over grammar and spelling mistakes in your work than a fresh reader would. Reason? Your brain knows what you meant to say and will automatically correct what it sees on the page without bothering to make you aware of the error. Our brains are thoughtful that way. But that leaves us open to embarrassing errors that—trust me—readers who’ve paid for your work will notice. And believe me, the grammar Nazis on Amazon and Goodreads will avoid buying your book if it’s received multiple “needs editing” reviews. Same goes for formatting errors.
Editors can be hired on a freelance basis for anywhere from $1 per page, to $0.01 per word, and formatting services can be found for as little as $40 for a full-length novel. I don’t know about you, but for me, the benefits outweigh the costs of these services. And the beauty of e-books is that even after an initial publishing, you can always fix errors or upload re-formatted versions so that problems don’t plague you for the rest of your book’s life.
Pricing strategy
One of the benefits of being a self-pubbed author versus a traditionally published author is that you can actually have a pricing strategy. Traditional publishing houses set their own prices, giving authors no real say in the matter. But self-pubbed authors? We can do whatever we want. But before you laugh maniacally and set your price at $29.99, I would recommend taking the market into consideration. Because much like the real estate market, books are only worth what people are willing to pay for them. (Did your sphincter tighten up again? Sorry about that)
Opinions on pricing are all over the place. Some experts argue that if you price your book at $0.99, people will assume its crap and not buy it. Conversely, other experts argue that if you are a self-pubbed or newbie author with no track record and set your price at $4.99-$9.99, no one will be willing to shell out that kind of money for your work. Who’s right?
For me, since Semi-Charmed was my debut novel and I had no built-in credibility/history with readers, I kept my prices low. I’ve experimented within the $0.99 – $3.99 range, and I’ll be honest: I’ve had more success at the lower end of my pricing strategy. My theory on this is that romance readers are a particularly voracious group. They often read 5 or more books a week. And the genre is HUGE with shitloads of material to choose from. And for people who read that much and have that many options, if they didn’t spend some time looking for cheap reads, they’d probably be broke before too long—or at least living on Ramen noodles, having spent their grocery money on books.
But at the end of the day, no one really knows what the best pricing strategy is for a self-pubbed or newbie author. I recommend some experimentation. Try some different prices on for size and see which one(s) move copies.
Reviews
Reviews absolutely make a difference when readers are deciding whether or not they should give a new author a shot. And while I do not believe in paying for reviews, it is perfectly acceptable to ask nicely for them. I recommend taking a look at other books in your genre that are similar to yours (i.e.: books that you consider to be your biggest “competition”) and see which bloggers have reviewed them. If your competition has been reviewed by a blogger you respect, consider sending him/her a polite query with an offer of an ARC in exchange for an honest review. (And note I said HONEST review. It’s never OK to ask a blogger for a POSITIVE review. It’s possible that you’ll ask for a review and get a negative one. That’s OK. See my blog post from December 2014 about handling negative reviews for more info)(http://www.izzyjo.com/2014/12/).
The point is that reviews let readers know what to expect from your book, and in most cases, let them feel secure in their buying decision.
Key words
Your book’s visibility on sites such as Amazon is largely dependent on the key words and categories you choose to associate with it at the time of publishing. I won’t pretend to be an expert on this because frankly, it’s given me headaches trying to figure it all out, but here it is in its simplest form: if you use “zombie mermen” as one of your key words and no one is looking for books about zombie mermen, your book probably won’t hit the bestsellers’ lists anytime soon (although, I would TOTALLY read a zombie mermen book). You want your chosen key words to be part of the most popular searches. Resources I found particularly helpful in regards to key word searches are:
How to Sell Romance Novels on Kindle by Michael Alvear (http://www.amazon.com/Romance-Kindle-...)
Sell More Books on Amazon by Penny Sansevieri (http://thefutureofink.com/sell-more-b...)
Social media
I know, I know. As a die-hard introvert and antisocial person at heart, this one hurts me as much as it hurts you. But the truth is, readers want to connect with their favorite authors, and authors need to welcome and encourage this. Consider keeping a blog on your website (yes, you’ll need one of those, too). Become a Goodreads author and join groups with readers who share similar interests. And don’t just spam everyone with promos and reasons why they should buy your book. Actually talk to readers. Find out what they like and hate. Trust me, you’ll be surprised by what they have to say, and you might even learn a thing or two from them about writing and marketing your next book.
Kindle Unlimited
Here’s another controversial topic. To join or shun Kindle Unlimited…that is the question. I’ve done both. I started out on Kindle Unlimited in August 2014 and didn’t see a ton of immediate positive results. So, at the end of my 90-day term, I left the program and put Semi-Charmed on Kobo, Nook, and Smashwords, in addition to Amazon. And in the months that followed, I realized that I was selling more on Amazon in 1 day than I was selling in weeks on all of the other platforms combined.
Now, that’s not to say that another book wouldn’t do very well on the other platforms. And maybe I just did a piss-poor job of marketing to Kobo, Nook, and Smashwords readers. But whatever the reason, I couldn’t argue with the sales numbers, so I recently decided to go back on Kindle Unlimited. As a result, my sales and downloads have increased exponentially.
At the end of my current 90-day term, I will most likely give the other platforms another try (because I hate the idea of alienating even a few potential readers)—but for now, I’m happy where I am.
Consider your publishing goals. Are you solely looking to make money? If that’s the case, maybe Kindle Unlimited isn’t for you. But if you’re looking to get your book into as many hands as possible to build a name and a career for yourself? (not to mention built-in readers for your next book) Kindle Unlimited is definitely worth a try.
But what about all of you other self-published authors out there? Any suggestions or advice you’d like to share with the group? Now’s your chance to speak up! Let me know what you think.
Published on April 19, 2015 14:37
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Tags:
how-to-sell-more-ebooks, indie-authors, kindle-unlimited, paranormal-romance, self-published-authors, semi-charmed
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