I’m still behind on posting these updates. At this rate, my 365 days will take four years . . . So my 99cent Bookbub application was rejected, which was a bit depressing, but not wholly unexpected. Need to work out what to use in my next application and get it in soon. Everyone who’s successful in this space chalks it up to consistency. Also, will keep trying to get more reviews.
FB Update
Tinkered with lookalike audience ad: added more movies, countries and ages. Removed the additional behaviors to make my audience broader. I noticed that w/o my ads going (I must have exhausted audience), my sales have stopped. So, better to have a small something than nothing. However, I am convinced that giving away a free book for mailing list signup, rather than ‘buy this book’ ads, truly are the way to go if you’re looking for strong numbers. I’m working on this.
99 Cents Promos
Before I raised the price of my latest release, On Fire, to it’s regular $4.99, I scheduled features on both Digital Book Today and Bargainbooksy; neither garnered more than 10 sales. DBT returned my ad payment, which I thought was fair. It looks like Bookbub really is the only way to go for paid promos for 99 cent runs at the moment. For Bargainbooksy, you’re asked to describe your book in 250 characters or less. This is a good thing to have ready, so it doesn’t take forever when you’re looking to apply for a promo. I do think it’s a bit obnoxious for sites to require this kind of extra hurdle for writers who already get paid nothing for most of their time spent working, but if it’s a requirement, you’re not going to get your promo without doing it, so you might as well create a brief description while you’re in the mindset of working on your original blurb.
Here’s my shortie for On Fire:
Some people are destined for glory. Others have to be dragged kicking and screaming out of clinical anxiety, fall in love with a charming, self-absorbed investor, and light a fire under a lifetime of inertia in order to get a crack at it. Anna—and her roommate Ray—thinks she has what it takes to be a writer, if only she would write something; instead she’s hunkered down in a magazine’s publicity department for a difficult-to-like boss, promising herself she’ll do something to get noticed in editorial one day. When she accidentally humiliates said boss in a very public way, Anna’s convinced her career is finito. Instead, she’s suspiciously given a New York City nightlife column for which Anna’s dinner at the local, bed by nine, fashion-schmashion M.O. is an obscenely poor fit. Life is never all gravity or levity; and here its mix is at its messiest, hairiest, and somehow, its most hopeful yet.
Marketing to Your List
Even though my list is comparatively small, I made more in profit from updating this group than any of the other tactics. Let’s all try to remember this.
Leadpages
For some reason, I’m terrified to tinker with my website (I might break it!). Therefore, the attempt to setup my landing pages to giveaway ebooks in the various formats is really taking me forever and a day. I watched some tutorials on Leadpages and it seems pretty simple. I can’t imagine paying $25 a month wouldn’t be more cost effective than paying my web designer each time I want a change. Leadpages also seems to have a lot of flexibility. I guess it’s a matter of how proficient I get in this space. Need to sort this out asap.
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