The origin story for Pole Dance Aviation and a new Private Military Company. It was a fun one to write and I’m working on another short from the PDA to publish in September. And I’m procrastinating on finishing another story from the Breaching Ain’t Easy universe.
Just a question, what avenues do you use to market and expose content to potential readers? In the past I have used amazon ad, which was disappointing, paid publication on book blogs, branded SWAG (it was cool but way too expensive.). Im in the PNW so I have to r=travel to attend conventions, and full time job and a family come first on my spare time. Just wanting to spitball ideas…
Good to know I'm not the only one in the same boat. Just put me in VERY rural SE West Virginia. The closest city over 35k people is Roanoke and that's 2 hours away.
Full transparency, I'm the poster child for advertising fails. I've done Amazon Ads, using PPC and keywords. no dice. I've since learned that the algorithm changes constantly to maximize their profits and that leaves almost every indie author without 5 figure monthly advertising budget out in the cold. Of the "systems" I've seen to beat this, none of them have borne repeatable results.
We've tried newsletter swaps, ads in convention programs and promotions on places like bookfunnel, entering our books into $0.99 sales (They've been the most successful, but that's not saying much.) I've gotten burned twice by social media promoters that just threw the book links on their "network" of supposed millions of readers (bullpucky). They resulted after 2 months in ZERO sales. Sure the book ads were up there, but it was like a bill posted on a construction site wall. Worthless.
David & Lydia Sherrer seem to have spectacular success with FB ads, but I know they devote a sizeable budget, much larger than nearly all indies have. Not a criticism, but they're making it work and getting a greater return on their investment than they sink into the advertising dollars. So FB ads, like Amazon are a case of "You gotta have money to make money."
The absolute biggest thing that worked for us was John Van Stry recommended my first "Tales From the Dream Nebula" novel (BTW you have a copy from Libertycon last year) to his followers on FB. That resulted in a 500% increase in monthly sales, but had only a short tail. I am incredibly grateful for him doing that.
What this suggests to me, unfortunately, is that without a budget celebrity endorsements from people who already have an audience are what works best.
Now, I know that can't be completely true, because others companies like Rac Press seem to be doing very well with their marketing, and I think a big part of this is the hardest thing to build: A "street team". People who are going to extend your social media reach by reposting it on their feeds all over the place, both in house, the authors in your stable and fans at large.
I should mention I had an idea strike me the other day, but it's not one I want to share publicly yet. If you want to talk in private about this idea, I'm really game to do so on the side. It might benefit both of us to try it. PM me if this sounds interesting.
In a bit over a week since I self published this article it has sold a few copies. This was what I expected since my budget for advertising a bit less than zero. There are lot of “ifs” that could help with market penetration and advertising, I’m just not sure how much ROI I would get on the expenditure.
Please let us know how well it works posting a short story like that. I'm curious to know, in ballpark terms, how well it goes.
So, sold 8 copies so far with an ad budget of zero. And a few more days in the month.
And for just a short story, that doesn't sound too bad to me. Many trickles make the stream. Thanks for keeping us in the know. :D
Just a question, what avenues do you use to market and expose content to potential readers? In the past I have used amazon ad, which was disappointing, paid publication on book blogs, branded SWAG (it was cool but way too expensive.). Im in the PNW so I have to r=travel to attend conventions, and full time job and a family come first on my spare time. Just wanting to spitball ideas…
Good to know I'm not the only one in the same boat. Just put me in VERY rural SE West Virginia. The closest city over 35k people is Roanoke and that's 2 hours away.
Full transparency, I'm the poster child for advertising fails. I've done Amazon Ads, using PPC and keywords. no dice. I've since learned that the algorithm changes constantly to maximize their profits and that leaves almost every indie author without 5 figure monthly advertising budget out in the cold. Of the "systems" I've seen to beat this, none of them have borne repeatable results.
We've tried newsletter swaps, ads in convention programs and promotions on places like bookfunnel, entering our books into $0.99 sales (They've been the most successful, but that's not saying much.) I've gotten burned twice by social media promoters that just threw the book links on their "network" of supposed millions of readers (bullpucky). They resulted after 2 months in ZERO sales. Sure the book ads were up there, but it was like a bill posted on a construction site wall. Worthless.
David & Lydia Sherrer seem to have spectacular success with FB ads, but I know they devote a sizeable budget, much larger than nearly all indies have. Not a criticism, but they're making it work and getting a greater return on their investment than they sink into the advertising dollars. So FB ads, like Amazon are a case of "You gotta have money to make money."
The absolute biggest thing that worked for us was John Van Stry recommended my first "Tales From the Dream Nebula" novel (BTW you have a copy from Libertycon last year) to his followers on FB. That resulted in a 500% increase in monthly sales, but had only a short tail. I am incredibly grateful for him doing that.
What this suggests to me, unfortunately, is that without a budget celebrity endorsements from people who already have an audience are what works best.
Now, I know that can't be completely true, because others companies like Rac Press seem to be doing very well with their marketing, and I think a big part of this is the hardest thing to build: A "street team". People who are going to extend your social media reach by reposting it on their feeds all over the place, both in house, the authors in your stable and fans at large.
I should mention I had an idea strike me the other day, but it's not one I want to share publicly yet. If you want to talk in private about this idea, I'm really game to do so on the side. It might benefit both of us to try it. PM me if this sounds interesting.
In a bit over a week since I self published this article it has sold a few copies. This was what I expected since my budget for advertising a bit less than zero. There are lot of “ifs” that could help with market penetration and advertising, I’m just not sure how much ROI I would get on the expenditure.
I’ll give it a week to see. I don’t have name recognition or market penetration to just lay it out there and count the sales….yet!