J.’s Comments (group member since Sep 09, 2014)

J.’s comments from the THE Group for Authors! group.

Great thread and thanks to everyone who has posted. Lots of good info. My best results so far have been with Kindle Books & Tips (and by the way I asked about "new release" category for my scifi book Foxworth Terminus and was told they consider the first 90 days as qualifying). I have heard ENT is good but haven't used them and have not been able to get into BookBub so far. One thing I think we all need to keep in mind is that the market is always changing and sites may get better or worse over time. I think the Kindle Boards ads used to work better than they do now. Anyone else have any experience with there recently? And how about getting noticed at the Apple store? Anyone got any tips on promo sites that can help sales there? And John, I'll be looking to see what you think about Book Butterfly once they revise their site.

Interesting thoughts on cross-genre books, which really in my mind almost all novels are, and since I write what I'm interested in and tell the story I think needs told, they never fit in a single, specific genre. I empathize with Jack as my latest novel, Foxworth Terminus, is "sci-fi" dealing with experiments that produce unforeseen psychic abilities. I let it ride in the scifi genre for much the same reasons he noted previously. And I don't see any way around it.

I've tired a little of all of the above and can't say anything more than John and Jack already have. Freebies, giveaways, people adding your book to their TRL, all amount to little or nothing, though getting exposure is necessary to actually sell books and finding readers who like whatever kind of book you write is tough. There is no magic bullet that I've found. I like Rita's idea of the 1 book giveaway. Might try it.

I use my FB author page. Can't say if others have other pages that they might use.

Similar to the people who add books during Goodreads giveaways to their "to read" list and when you look at their profile you see that they have 30,000 to read books and 5 on their read list. It is pretty obvious that almost no one goes back and buys a book that they added as wanting to read during a giveaway.

P.d.r. - thanks for the link to indiesunlimited. Always can use potential sites to promo books, as I think most of us can.

An interesting discussion. The only giveaways I've tried have been through Goodreads (mailed printed copies which isn't cheap) and a couple of ebooks given away during friends FB launch parties. In both cases I've gotten some reviews from people who received a free copy (maybe about 25% of those who got books) and as far as I can tell that has netted me zero additional sales. The Goodreads giveaways resulted in hundreds of people adding the books to their "to read" shelf but again I cannot see any sales that were a result. It is difficult to figure out how to entice readers to buy a book. I think my best results came from a 99 cent sale that I posted on FB and then "boosted" though that didn't sell enough books to pay for the ad. Twitter is so easy to post I do it even though results are minimal. Anyone with a silver bullet, please share.

Hi all,
This is an interesting thread. I haven't participated in any large book fair but did go to two local events, one sponsored by a local library and one by an independent bookstore. Since both were free, though the bookstore event required a sample book for review and approval, it was pretty easy to reach a positive cash flow. I managed to sell some books at both events and had a good time talking to other authors and to the people who came to buy books. Based on such a small sample I can't say whether these events will generally equate to sales or not. At the bookstore event I was seated next to an author who had numerous books of poetry who did sell a couple and then remarked that this was the first time he'd sold anything and he'd been to quite a few such events. I'd guess it is worth looking for local events that do not require big fees as a starter to help build an audience for your work.