Inkshares Community discussion
Promotional Strategy Discussion
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Advice for Nerdist Contestants
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Its the close friends and family that I got right away, now it's the friends of friends aspect that has tripped me up. I'm not wasting my worry energy on it anymore, as much as I'd like to get closer to the top 10, I know at this point it won't happen. Especially since most of the followers are coming from others in the contest at this point, I would love to preorder all the offers and help, but I've only got enough credits for two books, and not the kind of real money it would take. Instead I am focusing on this group of people, who are greatly expanding my knowledge and connections in all things related to this new obsession of mine.
Has anyone worked out a gentle way of saying 'likes are not orders'? I seem to get a good number of people to like my FB posts, but the conversion rate from likes to orders is abysmal...
Also the conversion rate from someone saying to my face 'I'll buy one' to them actually buying one has been brutal so far.
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I seem to get a good number of people to like my FB posts, but the conversion rate from likes to orders is abysmal...
Also th..."
I'm right there with you. And I don't know.
I wish I had signed up for this group 2 weeks ago!
Paul; make a list of these people and in the last week hit them up with a "You seemed interested... Running out of time..."
J-F wrote: "Paul; make a list of these people and in the last week hit them up with a "You seemed interested... Running out of time...""Yup. Don't be afraid to tag people. And tag people. And tag people.
Calling people is also a good idea - people responding to a FB tag is a very tenuous connection. Call them up, walk them through the pre-order on the phone. Or directly FB message them when they are online - remove any opportunity for them to passively 'like' the status, then move on to other things.
K.E., I know this is a little late, but I noticed that you mentioned you are in school full time. Does your college have an English or creative writing club? I'm considering joining the one at mine and trying to pitch there while working with local writers. I know the feeling though. I'm 21 and my focus is on young, or new, adult books. Despite being in the age range I still don't know how to tap into that market. That and I have so much going on with college that I feel swamped as it is. But I think contacting any writing group around you would help. Actually I think any author, in school or not, could benefit from talking to college clubs if the demographic is right. Offer to host a workshop, or talk to them about your craft. They may be more open than you'd expect to having a type of guest speaker.
Has anyone had any success using Inkshare Pitches to random people on the site? Not other authors?
Richard, I have had a few readers (non-authors) back Blood Dawn who I pitched to, though I can't ascertain that they decided to back it because I pitched or if I pitched and they discovered my book later by some other means. I have pitched to about 2000 readers to date, though, and as of my last check, 40 or so of my backers are people I've pitched to. Again, it's hard to confirm if those (many who are authors) discovered me by some other means and ignored my initial pitch. I don't see pitching as a means of gaining pre-orders, but rather as a means of gaining exposure. It's one way of getting visible. Sometimes a reader might see your pitch and ignore it, but say if your book shows up in the "similar books" column on the right of a project they are viewing, they might remember it and have a look; or if someone else recommends it to them. It never hurts to pitch. I see it as getting practice for my copy-paste-and-repeat skills.
Jordan wrote: "K.E., I know this is a little late, but I noticed that you mentioned you are in school full time. Does your college have an English or creative writing club? I'm considering joining the one at mine..."There's a newspaper, and I believe there's a writing club, but I'm not really sure. I'm not very involved in anything, but I work part time as well so trying to get involved with clubs cuts into my time to do homework and work on promoting.
I should try to see about a writing club.
Paul wrote: "Has anyone worked out a gentle way of saying 'likes are not orders'? I seem to get a good number of people to like my FB posts, but the conversion rate from likes to orders is abysmal...
Also th..."
Yeah, I've had to remind myself that messaging people asking why they didn't order is not good pr. Thankfully I have avoided the temptation to send any such message every time. The worst for me have been the people who have seemed so excited to order and asked for me to send them the link, even thanking me for sending the link once it was done & then they do not order. I wouldn't guilt anyone for not ordering, but I hate when people say they are going to and then don't. I'm gonna stop whining now though, just needed to do a little bit of venting.
Tip: Don't ask why they didn't order. Ask if they need help ordering or are encountering problems.But yeah, turning 'likes' into 'pre-orders' is difficult. In Marketing it's what we call converting. The 'likes' are what we'd call an engagement, but until you convert that into a sale, it's not worth that much (it does have worth though!). Essentially, if someone does engage, the best way to get them to order is by mentioning any added value to the product: Free shipping, helping an indie artist, any contest associated with pre-ordering, etc. "Hey, btw, if you 'Like' this, then you're going to love... " Still won't guarantee a conversion but it's a good way to keep the conversation going.
Richard wrote: "Has anyone had any success using Inkshare Pitches to random people on the site? Not other authors?"Most of my orders have been through random pitches, but only one of those is from a non-author. The only person who has ordered who was not either a random pitch, someone(like you) seemingly finding me on their own, or someone who spotted a post on here from me, was my mom and I don't feel like she counts(not as a measure of how good my pitch/method was anyway).
While I appreciate everyone who has ordered, that's still not saying a huge amount for the random pitching when you look at my current order count. Not giving up on the random pitches, just not expecting an incredible amount from them.
Look, I talk big but pitching is one of my weakest traits. I'm not good at condensing what I do into a short, easily digestible format that is both memorable and attractive.I've found the best way to get readers is to ask people one at a time, directly and personally. It's very difficult for people like me who hate self-promoting. It's almost impossible to do with any level of confidence, but it's what works.
While we live in a brave new world where anyone can put himself 'out there', it's a much easier universe to navigate if you can establish your personality first and then barter that into a medium through which to sell your product. We're better off than we were, but far from perfect yet.
J-F wrote: "Tip: Don't ask why they didn't order. Ask if they need help ordering or are encountering problems.But yeah, turning 'likes' into 'pre-orders' is difficult. In Marketing it's what we call converti..."
Yeah, I would never ask why they didn't preorder, I was being largely tongue in cheek with that post. I am ashamed to admit I never thought about the follow up "do you need help/are you encountering problems" message though.
And with the direct messaging, I'd only done so with the tiny handful of people whose email addresses I had, though I am now getting to the point of deciding to send personal messages through Facebook and Twitter to some other potential buyers I've been eyeing. Just have to figure out personal messages for them, which always takes me a bit longer to figure out than it really should, overthinking and all.
As negative as I may sound sometimes(I tend towards negative humor, it just doesn't translate as well in text as it does verbally), I am grateful for this experience. Its forcing me to grow(albeit slower than I would like) in ways that I've needed to grow for years now. So yeah, that last line is on point for me, "We're better off than we were, but far from perfect yet."
There is a lot of psychology behind why we're so averse to asking for help yet we shouldn't be. As an introvert and socially inadequate individual myself, I tend offer help rather than accept it. The idea being that I want to be liked and perceived as useful and helpful. However, we tend to like people who ask for help more because they make us feel useful and needed.Still, even knowing that, even having seen it in action, I still feel a tremendous amount of anxiety asking someone to order my books or support my work. What makes the difference to me is that no matter how much I hate doing the self promotion, I love writing even more. My toil is pushing my books, my salary is writing them.
This has been a real lesson for me. I'mm sad that I didn't discover this group until the contest was almost over. I've been so busy getting out there trying to get face time with people. Even that's not helping me much. I feel like one of the biggest advantages anyone can have in this contest is to know about it ahead of time. Getting your pre-orders lined up and posted on the very first day to put you in the top 5 right off the bat has got to be a huge advantage. That way anyone who comes to the site and sees the contest will see you in the top five and check you out.
My original post on the topic - but at this point in the contest, just pure hand-to-hand grind. Stop trying to get people to read the excerpt or look at your shiny cover or listen to you ramble. Go to your nearest and dearest and ask them for money. Then go to everyone on your Facebook list - even people you haven't spoken to in years - I did this last contest and it was both terrifying AND fun. Every extended family member, every acquaintance - if they got $10, they are a target. Go to them and ask them for the money - don't try to sell them, just ask for help. With the deadline quickly approaching, you need to remove all hurdles or disconnects for people putting ten dollars in the can -- and making people care about the book is a hurdle. You are far more likely to find people willing to help YOU - then find people who are willing to entertain a lengthy sales pitch AND read the excerpt AND etc. etc.