Carole’s Comments (group member since Oct 19, 2016)

Carole’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Thank you, Alex. That was lovely. We all help each other here and you are just as inspiring. Today I heard several girls in my office talking about your books, (The love a good crime thriller, they said.) just from watching my Facebook posts. Let's see if they bite. lol

;) Thanks Alex!

You have to admit, it's fun and you meet the greatest people!

Thanks, Alex. I understand how you feel. When I see authors with a thousand reviews or a great rating, I get frustrated, too. I am doing this for nine years with minimal financial results. When you weigh the cost of producing and marketing a book, it takes a long time before you see effective results. It's no coincidence big publishers have whole departments of people dedicated to promoting a book. The added problem is that print costs have skyrocketed reducing the profit on paperback books. When I see the actual profit on an individual book on Ingram Sparks, I want to cry- for instance
I sold 71 units just on Ingram last month ( these are mass distribution and have nothing to do with the sales on KDP) which results in a net profit of $119.99. So while it sound impressive, the end result is pretty dismal.

I know that feeling, but it really does affect the sale of books.It's a great marketing tool- that if you post carefully won't cost you a dime. Create an author page which will have nothing to do with you.
We've been very aggressive with posts in the last two weeks and this morning my assistant told me we sold we sold 27 paperbacks just on Sunday.

Well, Justin, we are all trying to promote each other's books on a communal Facebook page- You are more than welcome to join us there where we can all help promote each other's books.
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?...

Nope. The program ended.

Yes, everybody can join.

Kirkus liked Dayna Dalton https://www.kirkusreviews.com/search/...

For those of you who don't have social media, you are still welcome to post. You can put post something on Goodreads or your blog, anywhere it can be seen.

PLEASE SHARE:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW5IT...

Twitter: https://twitter.com/caroleproman

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarolePRoman...

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caroleproman

What a great idea! I'm going to buy indie books for the holidays for all my friends.

There are two ads ready for sharing. I have shared the other one.

Anna Faversham wrote: "Oh how you make me smile. No sooner do you receive an idea than it is done."

;)

it's ready

Erica is setting up a Facebook page called Goodreads Indie Authors Magazine Ad Collection Site where you can put any ads you want to be shared.
In order to participate- you must share other author's ads on whatever social platforms you have.
This will take minutes per day and a way to extend your reach.

Totally agree, Anna. It starts with our Thanksgiving. However, people do like to give books as stocking stuffers, so we've been pushing our paperbacks for that and putting out ads that people need downtime for themselves and should curl up with a good e-book.

Why don't we find a place to post ads communally and put them on each other's social media.
Erica, can we make a Goodreads thread FB page where people could put up curated ads and we could all share on our social media. One spot where everyone would look daily and promote the ad on their social media?

I couldn't agree more.

Our Kindle sales have gone very flat, and I can't seem to manipulate the rank of the books the way I used to. The only times they get into double or single digits is when we put them on KU for free and for a few days they bob around the lower ranks after the free part is finished.
It's getting very hard. I spend most of my budget on the books that sell more and target those groups who buy them. For me, it's my kid's culture books. I advertise with a lot of the mommy bloggers with wide reaches. It's becoming harder and harder to promote the adult stuff. Right now, we are trying to place Facebook posts three times a week and see if that stirs up sales. Brittney makes ads with Canva or we've been using photographs I've taken around the area and making a post with those. We've noticed a slight uptick in Kindle sales, so it may be having an impact.