Where’s the Money? Ideas on Book Promotion Ruth Ann Nordin ***** Where’s the Money? - Smashwards Edition Published by Ruth Ann Nordin at Smashwords Copyright © 2010 by Ruth Ann Nordin All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner This is a work of nonfiction The contents are based on the author’s experience There are no promises that what worked for me will work for someone else The hope is that other authors will benefit from the information provided Smashwords Edition, License Notes: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author Cover Photo © Copyright Photo Getty Images All rights reserved – Used with permission ***** Why Should You Listen To Me? Who am I to offer any advice on book promotion? Well, I’ll let my sales record speak for me because when it all comes down to it, the proof is in the numbers In 2010, I reported about $18,600 from book sales as income on my taxes About $15,500 came from Amazon (US), about $40 came from Amazon (UK), about $2800 from Smashwords, $160 from paperback sales, and $45 from my old books with vanity presses The total books I sold came to about 110,000 Keep in mind over half were free, and for most of the year, I asked $0.99 on them So 110,000 may no longer be as impressive, but free and $0.99 (from the past) has led to a nice start this year At the time I am updating this ebook (March 7, 2011), I have earned the following and sold these many ebooks: January Amazon US Kindle $1350 at 1800 books sold Amazon UK Kindle $40 at 110 books sold February (when I published a new book in mid-Feb.) Amazon US Kindle $1890 at 4865 books sold Amazon UK Kindle $965 at 4320 books sold (3044 copies being one book that took off all of the sudden) Smashwords: I got a check for $9260 (not 100% sure how many books were sold and I don’t want to take the time to find out, but you get the point—things are going up) March (so far) Amazon US Kindle 1720 books sold Amazon UK Kindle 1732 books sold *And as for paperbacks, I sold about 10 Now, I’m a simple stay-at-home mom who is not even exactly sure how she got to this point I never expected it, to be honest, and I wasn’t a big promoter with my books as far as going out and telling other people my books existed I’m an introvert who loathes the chance to talk about my books, except to my readers or author friends as we discuss what we’re working on So I’m hoping this ebook will help other introvert authors like myself who hate going on social networking sites and mentioning their books more than once or twice something in here can be useful to those who read it I hope ***** Promotion Strategy Ideas for Authors I've been mentally going through and thinking of everything I've done since I got serious about book promotion back in March 2008, weighing things that worked (both in the short and long run), and trying to decide what I would differently today if I were starting out all over again This is what I came up with Get familiar with networking sites like Facebook and Twitter Kindleboards.com is a nice place too, but I don’t get a chance to hang out there as much as I’d like Some people like to hang out on Goodreads and the Amazon forums, but I suggest hanging out there first to get a feel for how receptive people will be when you mention your book Some forums are more author-friendly than others Try to make your ebook and/or paperback as professional as possible a Tell a good story and polish your content A good story covers up for the minor errors that might pop up I’ve discovered that no matter how much you edit your book, someone won’t think you did a good enough job So what you do? The very best you can No book is perfect, and you can’t please everybody Just your best and write your next book to improve your overall work You can hire an editor or proofreader or barter for these services I barter But I’ll tell you even if you have another person look at your book, you might miss something anyway I’m not saying to shrug off mistakes I’m just saying when you become aware of them, change them, learn, and move on I also think it’s better to have a compelling story that will sell well than a perfect book that doesn’t (This is my opinion, of course.) Just your best I know I keep saying that, but it’s really all any of us can When you mess up, be merciful with yourself You’re only human b Formatting When formatting your interior file, I suggest looking at a popular ebook or paperback For paperbacks, I look at traditionally published romances because I write romance Things I look at are the title and copyright page to see how they look Unless I’m doing a Smashwords version, I copy the copyright out of a traditionally published book For your paperback, you may want to look at other books in your genre to determine where the page numbers go Top or bottom? Left, center, or right? What the chapter pages look like? What the scene divisions look like? Are there *** or ~*~* ~ or some other symbol separating scenes in a chapter? I also notice that all margins are justified If you are going to upload to Smashwords or to the Kindle, you will not have to worry about page numbers and headers, but you still want to use a page break between chapters and make sure your paragraphs are adequately spaced However, if you can manage to figure out those tabs, then you’re way ahead of me I’ve given up long ago and opted for a space after each paragraph This is so that the manuscript is clean and easy to read It also gets me into premium distribution c Get a good cover I used to laugh at the idea that a cover will make or break a book, but it is so true My best selling books are the ones with the best covers You can buy royalty free stock photos for as cheap as $10 on places like shutterstock.com or dreamstime.com I bought a book cover software program for $200, and that was the best investment I ever made I just tell the program the number of pages my book is, insert the picture, insert the text, and presto Five minutes later, I have a front, back, and spine paperback cover ready to upload to CreateSpace Here's the software cover program I bought: http://bookcoverpro.com/ I upload the cover as a jpg, not a pdf file Now, I keep it simple I use one picture for the front cover I have a couple of friends who have used their fancier picture programs (not sure what those are), and blended pictures for me But you know what? The one picture option I've done actually sells more than the fancier covers I got up So you don't need to get complicated I suggest browsing the bestselling books in the genre you are writing Which covers catch your attention? Why? Then go buy a picture that falls along that same line You don’t want the exact same cover, but I think something with the same feel can work for you If you’re making a paperback, I suggest carefully inspecting the cover of a traditionally published book Notice the spine There is usually the title of the book, the author's name, the publisher's imprint, and a picture of the front cover (without the text on it) Check the back There is the publisher's imprint again Where is it? Are there any other graphics on the back? Where? Where is the book summary and author bio? Where is the price located? What are the font sizes? All of this will help you have a professional cover I recommend getting a "publishing symbol" that represents you, and put that publishing symbol on the spine and on the back of your paperback If you only ebooks, don't worry about it I think these are just fun and attractive to have on the cover d Get a catchy title As for titles, browse some of the top selling titles in your genre I like to take an adjective from one title that I like and match it with a noun from another title that caught my attention Sometimes I even ask my readers for title ideas Now you're wondering, what does all of this have to with book promotion? In my opinion, it is an important part of book promotion Now, here’s what I did to get my target audience to find me: Get a Facebook Author Page and a first draft blog I wish I had done these sooner It will take time to build up and attract people, but go ahead and set the stage This is where you can make announcements about your book and interact with your readers Interaction with your readers is the most important thing I ever did Why? I get feedback from my readers, the people I write for It’s also been a nice way to build relationships with them When I get stuck, it’s helpful to bounce ideas around with people interested in my work because (to be honest) my family and most of my author friends pretty much don’t care about my books As for my first draft blog (a WordPress one) where I write 500 words a day, I have discovered this to be the single greatest way to meet my target audience They read my posts and leave comments After awhile, I get to know some of them well enough to send personal emails back and forth where we discuss my books I also have a Facebook badge on the WordPress blog, so now my readers can friend me on Facebook It’s a great feeling when 70% of the people on your friends list are your fans Then they join your Facebook Author Page and can get an inside look into your work (say cover ideas) that no one else will get My point to all of this is that a first draft blog has been the most effective tool when it comes to interacting with my audience What’s best about it is that they find my blog and website through my free books, so I don’t have to go find them; they find me Perfect for the introvert And what better way to give your readers what they want than to post a first draft look at your work? If you’re not comfortable writing a first draft and posting it immediately, then I suggest taking one of your already completed first drafts and posting it up a little at a time But if you don’t want to this at all, then it’s fine I’m just saying this has been the biggest way I’ve found my readers On Improving My work has been so much better since I took into account what my target audience loves and doesn’t love about my work Also, when there’s criticism, my readers usually state it so nicely that I realize they say it to help, instead of being mean (as is the case of some reviews I’ve gotten) I advise you to not worry about feedback from people who aren’t your fans because you don’t write for them and you can’t please everyone Free works Choose a short story or novella to offer for free in its entirety I am not a fan of excerpts because I like to see that you can start a story and finish it while resolving all the plot points But you don't have to make every single book or novella free Choose which one(s) you'll make free Free does work for you, and I still believe in it Choose one of your best works because free attracts a lot of people Put them up on places like Obooko, your first draft blog, your website, Smashwords (and make sure you opt to distribute your freebies through the Smashwords distribution system for additional exposure) What is not worth the investment in the long run is making every single thing free That only works short-term Yes, I learned that one the hard way Pricing your books I think the $0.99 asking rate might still be to your advantage when you're starting out, especially on Amazon where they don't let you offer anything for free, at least yet Someone said they’re going to start offering the option, but I’m not sure about that yet I'd wait until I started seeing a significant rise in book sales before upping the price, if that is what you want to You might want to leave one book at $0.99 for a year or two, or maybe forever Your choice I chose the forever route after I priced most of my books at $2.99 and lost a ton of sales—as in an 85% drop I have opted to price my new full-length novels at $2.99 I figure since the book is new, I have a better chance of selling better than pricing my older books at $2.99 We’ll see how that plays out in time Pricing, of course, is subjective You need to what feels right for you Distribution matters For sure, I’d use the distribution channels Smashwords has connections with Even if you don’t make as much money, each place you can sell your book is one more chance for exposure I upload directly to Amazon but use Smashwords for everything else It’s starting to get to the point where I am making more through Smashwords than through Amazon, though I guess the UK store is now starting to pick up Patience I can’t explain why a book can sit and sell one copy a month for half a year and suddenly take off to sell 3000 copies in one month It’s the weirdest thing, but I’ve noticed that my books (at least) will sit there for months and nothing but then they just take off So I suggest being patient Some authors sell better sooner than others I started serious book promotion in early 2009 by listening to The Creative Penn (www.thecreativepenn.com), and it’s taken me this long to get to where I’m at Periodically set up good deals to reward faithful fans and encourage potential ones to check you out You know that Facebook Author Page and first draft blog idea? Well, here's a great place to let everyone know you have a special "sale" going on Or you can give them a coupon for a free download of your latest book on Smashwords While I will never again offer another full-length book for free, I can see offering a future short story or novella for free However, I only plan to offer free downloads of my full-length novels to my dedicated fans on my Facebook Author Page and in my newsletter (which they have to sign up for) That's where incentive to join your Facebook Author Page and signing up for your newsletter comes in handy 10 Keep Writing and Publishing More Books Every time I publish a new book, my sales on all my other books go up I love having a new book out for this reason, but you don’t want to rush the next book You want to make it as good and fresh as possible Will you look back on previous works and think, "Gee, I think I could have done better?" Maybe I know I But should you go back and rewrite them? I'm going to say no Instead, I suggest taking care of easy things, like typos and moving on Just keep going because no matter how many times you rewrite a book, there will always be someone who hates it and someone who loves it I have enough to star reviews to prove it 11 Ads I didn’t try an ad for two books until this year I tried one for my pen name and one for my real name My pen name didn’t make enough to pay for the $35 ad My real name made probably an extra $150 off Kindle at the Amazon US store for the month it’s been up I put my book cover on Coffee Time Romance (since I write romance), and it worked great Eye of the Beholder is typically my third bestselling book on Amazon, but while the ad was up, it sold the most copies Like I said, my pen name yielded a loss I paid $35 and only sold 20 books This was at $0.99 So from this, I think ads are more effective for authors who have gained some recognition with their name For an unknown author, kindleboards and/or a free read might be better (Again, my opinion.) ***** Author’s Note I co-administer the Self-Published Author’s Lounge at http://selfpubauthors.wordpress.com/ This is a joint effort between myself and other authors who have a desire to help authors out Recently, we established a forum to go in conjunction with the blog Feel free to stop by I think the best way we can learn is by sharing what’s worked and what hasn’t If it weren’t for other authors sharing their tips, I wouldn’t be where I’m at today ... inspecting the cover of a traditionally published book Notice the spine There is usually the title of the book, the author''s name, the publisher''s imprint, and a picture of the front cover (without the. .. the text on it) Check the back There is the publisher''s imprint again Where is it? Are there any other graphics on the back? Where? Where is the book summary and author bio? Where is the price... my books I also have a Facebook badge on the WordPress blog, so now my readers can friend me on Facebook It’s a great feeling when 70% of the people on your friends list are your fans Then they