Hello and welcome to the monthly meeting of the
Insecure Writers Support Group(IWSG) blog hop!
May is my birthday month, so there's always birthday cake (Texas chocolate sheet cake) available for visitors. And if you leave a comment, you could get ice cream on top!
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| Internet Writers Support Group Blog Hop First Wednesday of every month. |
What is IWSG? Founder of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group and author Alex J Cavanaugh explains the group's purpose is "to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!" You're invited to become a member of this supportive group.
The group blogs the first Wednesday of every month. The list of bloggers is always available so you can hop around to the author blogs filled with humor, advice, and thought-provoking topics on writing and publishing. You can find the list of participants at Alex's IWSG page.
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Book marketing is my topic this month. I 'm very insecure about choosing methods to market my books. On Monday on this blog, I shared my experience in attempting to create a Facebook ad. You can click here to read that post. Let's just say it was a learning experience.
I attempted to create the FB ad to get the word out about my book for girls, Girls Succeed! It's on sale through Wednesday this week for 99 cents.
Then I thought, I don't want to use a FB ad along with the ads on the 99 cent sites and my efforts on social media because I couldn't judge what was effective and driving interest to my book page on amazon.
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| Girls Succeed! Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women Inspiring and empowering girls. |
Is that how you think? Or should we throw all our effort all at once against the wall and hope something sticks?
Book marketing is a mystery. Do free book giveaways increase actual sales? (I haven't found that to be the case.) How about using KDP Select and their promotions? But then I have to be published only at amazon. Am I losing sales if I don't use another distributor to offer more bookselling outlets to carry my books?
Who knows the answer to all these questions?
I feel like I'm lost in the world of book marketing.
I feel like I'm lost in the world of book marketing.
Please leave a comment below. Your feedback is appreciated.
14 comments:
I have no idea how to track my marketing results. This is something I need to learn. Because you're right, marketing without knowing what is successful is a waste of money and time. Make sure you post your discoveries. :-)
Anna from elements of emaginette
I'm horrible at marketing so I have no suggestions. I do find Facebooks squashes promos. It annoys the heck out of me, but oh well.
Happy birthday month! I'll pass on the ice cream though. I'm lactose intolerant. :)
I'm terribly with marketing. Personally I don't think KDP Select does a thing for me. I have more luck going to a few fb sites I'm a member of that relate to my stories and that let me *advertise*.
I just recently saw a Webinar with Bryan Cohen Sell More Books. The Webinar is like a little workshop itself. I learned a lot.
Here is a podcast by JoAnna Penn with Bryan talking about that and the book description.
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2015/09/14/book-sales-description-bryan-cohen/
This is the sell more books podcast
http://sellmorebooksshow.com/
Also Mark Dawson Self Publishing Formula
http://www.selfpublishingformula.com/
Mark offers a free course specifically about FB ads through email signup that I thought good.
Hope these help. I know I learned a lot.
Juneta @ Writer's Gambit
Hey Anna, I ll be happy to share the results.
Hi Loni, Glad you stopped in. The cake is tasty with no ice cream!
Hi Bish, thanks for the idea of visiting FB sites.
I usually spread my efforts out a little bit. I don't do anything I have to pay for. Sometimes I have a lot of sales and sometimes I don't.
Susan Says
Thank you Juneta for all the links. Anxious to take a peek.
Advertising through the free and discounted sites works if you can hit at least one big one. I know Elizabeth S. Craig offers the first book in her series for free and it does spur sales. But she also has a lot of books out.
Great post here, JQ, and I love people's responses. I'm dreadful at marketing. When I did my taxes for last year I saw just how dreadful! Spent way tooo much money for very little results. After our downsize, I'll do a local book signing that will help. Little cost and I get book sales. Haven't had a chance to do that on my last two books, so I've really fallen behind. What I understand from others is just keep writing the next book and releasing it. If readers like your books, they are ravenous and want the next one immediately! LOL Guess that's good. I shared.
Hi Susan, Thanks for stopping in. I guess if we try evaluating our effort, we'll have to keep the ads separate to figure out the response.
Hi Alex. It seems the key is to have a LOT of books for sale, so if you like one--an hook 'em with a free one--the reader will pay for the next and next and next...we hope! Thank you for stopping by, Captain!
Hi Marsha Thanks for sharing. Yes, I think you found the secret--Write more books!
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