I’ll say it right up front: I was nervous for this particularly personal post about marketing for self published authors. 365 days ago, I made it my public mission to complete one actionable book marketing initiative per day, all year long. I will say this: I worked my butt off. I did more marketing than I’ve ever done before. I wrote more blog posts than I’ve ever written before. I got more twitter and FB followers, grew my mailing list to over 1K, rebranded all my books, and learned how to use incredible platforms like Mailchimp, Instafreebie, and Bookfunnel. I sold more books. I took courses, found new information sources and made new contacts. And now I’m set to turn 365 Days of Actionable Book Marketing into a book and a podcast for 2017. But I did NOT achieve my original mission.
books
365 Days of Actionable Book Marketing: Bookbub Results Special
My latest 99 cent Bookbub promo ran Oct 22-26. I piled a lot of expectations on this promo. I have been reading so much about how these 99cent Bookbubs have changed people’s careers. If I read the phrase “my first five-figure month” again, and I haven’t written it, I’m going to lose it. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m so happy for all of you through my gritted teeth!) Why have I not been able to get there with my bookbub promos? Well, here are some reasons I’d come up with and attempted to tackle in the past year’s 365 Days of Actionable Book Marketing
The Year in Reading
Is it me, or has this been a year of fantastic novels? Right off the top of my head I can think of Night Circus, Before I Go to Sleep, A Visit from the Goon Squad, Sarah Thornhill, Room, and The Tiger’s Wife. There were so many wonderful stories, I’m sure I’ve had my best reading year in a long while. I deplore the arbitrary nature of lists, so I won’t get into that here (though if anyone wants to stick my book on one, I’m not going to pull a Jonathan Franzen), but I’ll also say I was pointed to a ton of vintage reads, either by recommendation, happy accident, by way of research (one book leads to another leads to another and so on), or simply scouring used bookstores or op shops.
Books Aren’t Good Enough
I have a prediction: the public will soon be divided into two camps. On the one hand we’ll have these new technology enthusiasts, who not only love their ebooks, but can’t wait to see how the old skool words-on-a-page notion of books can be heightened, made more graphic, more interactive, more like a whole new category of technology—a mook or a boovie. And on the other hand will be people like me, who love books because they are in fact merely words-on-a-page that when done properly, can create a world all their own. People like me might be a minority, but we’ll catch momentum when the nostalgia trend peaks again, and it’s suddenly cool to be old skool.