What's important and what's not for sales and discoverability

[Michael]

You have that one right, Graeme. But let's face it, you and your personal goals as a writer don't even enter the mind of 99% of readers, even ones who like your book and would read another.

[J.J.]

Nik wrote: "First, there is 'also bought' feature on Amazon which groups your book with those purchased by the same customers. In my opinion, it's a powerful tool because your book gets that 'moment of glory' right beneath another (likely similar) book and it's big and visible...."

This is more of an accomplishment if you get on the also-boughts of someone famous. My alter ego now has four books listed on one of R.L. Stein's Goosebumps books...I'm waiting for the day when I'm listed on his author page as an also-bought author.

[Terence]

Goodreads suggests we imitate successful authors the implication being, your gems won't see the light of day because readers are funneled towards chatty socialisers. As someone who needs an ivory tower in which to concentrate, I've found this a problem but I do think interaction is the key.

As someone who's tried to follow their advice, my experience is the author suggestions are either too pricey or a tremendous timesink, e.g. list books read (I've read thousands), review books read (to do a decent job I'd need to read again), engage with audience (not possible until I've built one), advertise books (expensive). It's on the latter point where I have to put my business hat on. Goodreads is a self contained business ecology, promotion costs are set to skim the top of the market, pitching authors that aren't established against big earners. It doesn't need unsuccessful authors to become successful but does need us as a backdrop to the big earners. It'd be empty without the unpaid scenery, and besides, who would readers engage with? Amazon's business model doesn't work in our favour and in this sense Goodreads has lost its way.

Returning to the o/p, what we can do: Goodreads suggests we imitate successful authors here - I doubt many budgets will stretch to that (mine doesn't). The answer lies in what level of interaction we are comfortable with. Does that mean stop writing? The door hasn't opened for me and it may never do so, but if it does, what have I got in the locker?

[Ian]

One of the problems is writing is a somewhat solitary activity. The often quoted way to get more sales is to get people talking about your book, but why would they? They don't even know about it because the writer is away in a room writing. Then, in the odd time you come out and tell people, it runs off them. "That's interesting," they say, but it has made almost zero impression. You need a lot of friends to help get some momentum going, and if you are like me, my friends are all busy dong other things.

It is not just us. Tom Clancy couldn't make any headway until he got a little help in terms of a mention from the Reagans. Then, all of a sudden, everyone wanted to read it. Somehow, you have to make reading one the thing to do, but how you achieve that eludes me.

[Nik]

Rita wrote: "I'd be interested to know if anyone has had any success with AskDavid as it didn't work for me. ..."

Tried it, but mostly as a supplementary to a bigger promo elsewhere. Anyhow, don't remember anything huge coming out of it..

[Nik]

My story is similar to most authors here - negligible sales, however we do have Marie (speaking above), who started probably at the same time with me and while I was fooling around chatting here, became a real marketing pro on top of being an excellent author and for all I know has a decent monthly income from her Davenport series -:)

[Nik]

And to add a bit of a humorous touch to this otherwise serious and somewhat discouraging discussion.
Inspired by the last Champion's League Final streaker show and speaking about thinking out of the box, don't know how this could promote books, but an interesting thought to toy with: https://www.marca.com/en/football/int...

Imagine your series name on her swimsuit? -:)
And btw, look at the economic side: 18K in fines vs 3.5 mils in subsequent publicity income.
No, no, I'm not Vitaly, before you ask

[Philip]

Anne wrote: "Nik wrote: "Mine don't read that much too and even less so in English. But I'm honored to have a small nucleus that keeps buying and recommending my stuff and have my sincere thanks for that...

Bl..."

My own experience is limited and I don't blog often enough - i use the blog also to list books as well as my more political comments. try it and see but it means for me less time with real writing

[Philip]

Rita wrote: "I'd be interested to know if anyone has had any success with AskDavid as it didn't work for me.

Author interviews are another avenue of promotion. I've been interviewing a different author each w..."

I'm still with Ask David and tweeting every now and then as just a regular advert - cannot say it has made any difference by its an easy way to tweet

[Michael]

One thing we might want to keep in mind while we're having this conversation is that not that long ago there would have been a real possibility that not a single person on this board would have ever been published at all. Before self-publishing, writers could spend the better part of their lives writing manuscripts that never saw the light of day. Is the work to gain readership for your self-published book any more difficult than the work previous generations of writers put in to try to get their books published in the first place? Admittedly, I get frustrated at times, but if I look at the big picture, I feel pretty good overall. I've been at this for five years and over that time I've slowly but steadily gained readers and along with them, sales. I've sold 23 books in the last month and have some Kindle Unlimited movement as well. Not great, but better than a sharp stick in my eye. These sales come from three to four hours every day, six to seven days a week of marketing, marketing, marketing: blog posts on my website, social media interaction, sending email after email to bloggers, newspapers, other reviewers... The hopes are to build something over the long term. The good thing about GR is that interaction here is enjoyable. I was a reader long before I was a writer and I've found this community very supportive. I guess my point is that the advent of self-publishing wasn't a magic bullet. This has always been and will ever be an extremely difficult business to make it in.
My two cents

[Philip]

As a general comment I have tried lots of ads and different sites to run ads from Google to GR to Amazon and others. I have tried different book sites and tried to put my books into multiple formats. Result - Lots of work for me to design create and run ads plus the costs. Then the formatting for different sites all of which have their own idiosyncrasies meaning different versions of the book for each site plus wanting a bio and a a description of the book that is not the blurb.

Result Nada except lots of lost time better spent writing the next book and the lost cash on Ads

I know the answer write a better book that attracts readers or entice (bribe) some hot mainstream media reviewer to get my book out there (like the main publishers do) - Not going to happen.

[Nik]

I probably wrote it somewhere already, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to repeat.
A friend of mine is a trad published non-fiction author. As far as I understand his publisher allocated a few K budget to launch the book, blast it with promos and pitch every media outlet, but only for the first month after the publication. After that it should either sink or float on its own.
Not an unreasonable approach. If a book has a virality potential a massive promo should trigger it..
Probably wouldn't dare to do it myself though

[Anne]

If the author is seeking fame and fortune then good luck.
If the author feels the joy of creation whilst writing, enjoy.
If the author experiences the pleasure a reader gets from reading something he/she has written, that is reward in itself.
So, when you don't feel you are making much progress by trying to get yourself known out there, remember your creation will remain long after you. Just keep writing and improving.

[Ian]

I find ads annoying. Most of them cost far more than the sales you get, but if I don't do any ads, hardly any sales. On the other hand, keeping going helps. I have found that my first two years of self-publishing were a desert as far as sales go. Currently, my literary efforts lead to me paying modest taxes each year on them, which, as someone noted above, is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, particularly since I am not in a genre like romance that has a huge following. So I shall keep on keeping on. Who knows? (I have a fair idea, though.)

[Nat]

Rita wrote: "I'd be interested to know if anyone has had any success with AskDavid as it didn't work for me.

Author interviews are another avenue of promotion. I've been interviewing a different author each w..."

I haven't really noticed any sales with Ask David myself... so I quit doing it.