The cold and work have cooked my brain. Hopefully I can make enough sense for you to understand me.
The jist of the whole thing is that April was my best month so far. Now, Sit Pretty, my second book, didn’t come out until April 29th, so most of the sales in April were from the first book in the series and… me pulling off marketing somehow.
I know I wrote down most of the marketing, but obviously I didn’t write down everything, because I don’t recall submitting to a thing called Radical Reads, which posted on April 29th about the launch and was absolutely fantastic. Even looking now, I can’t seem to find the button to submit. It just… popped up?
However I managed to get there for my launch, I am thankful.
In May, I managed to find a reviewer, who I think did a fabulous job and that helped a bit on the reports I could see. For all the other reports I have to wait until almost June and I will be waiting with bated breath.
Getting reviews can definitely help you sell books, but your reviewers can’t just be friends and family, it has to be people who already have an audience. So if I told you that you should read Adversaries Together by Daniel Casey (it’s quite good, but that’s for another post) I would be telling my audience to do something and possibly, maybe, someone in the audience will listen.
But your reviewer also has to have the audience that is looking for those suggestions. You, dear reader, are not exactly coming to my blog for book suggestions, now are you?
I tried Fiverr as well. My only problem with Fiverr is that you have to be careful to read everything in the description. Be certain of what you are getting. I also had a problem with not having access to the pages where my book would be marketed until after I paid. I wanted to check out the audiences that would be given a preview of my book before I decided to make the purchase.
Because I wasn’t certain that these audiences were the sort who were actually looking for books. And… it really seems that I was right. The choices I made on Fiverr for my first try did not help me in any way that I’m aware of. That doesn’t mean I won’t use the site again, and it doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t suggest Fiverr.
On the site you can find things like covers, editing, marketing, reviews… I even saw someone willing to write your English homework for you, all for five bucks.
I’ve also gone through a printing company and had some “postcards” printed off for the first book. I asked who wanted them and sent them, free of charge, to those who asked. This is all marketing. Not many people asked, but hey! I have people who wanted a copy of the cover of my book!
That’s exciting in and of itself.
The cost of printing the cards was quite a bit less than getting the print cover for my book. Which reminds me, when I do up my budget I’m going to work that into the budget so that I can get at least get the first book in print form. Right… after I do another run through to make certain there are no typos hiding in there.
I also sent several copies to friends in other cities, who will do with them what they please (which may result in some small guerilla marketing where the cards find their way into bookstores or libraries…) as well as relatives, one relative. I still need to send some to the others. And then of course I have one hanging up on my wall.
As much as the sales over the past month have been slowly gaining, that? That cover up on the wall? Is absolutely amazing to see every morning.
RJ Price 