This is a post that I originally shared back in April on my blog, Novel Notions. Â While that blog is now on hiatus, much of the content there is still relevent. Â Because of that, I thought I’d share this post as someone might be looking for an inexpensive marketing idea.
Original Post:
There are times I wish that someone had told me that writing my book was the easy part – the hard stuff came with the marketing. Â Obviously, some people are more adept at coming up with ways to sell their novels than others. Â You can put me in the “others” category. Â I can’t say that I enjoy marketing. I’m one of those people who wish I could devote all my time to writing and leave the marketing to some sort of magical marketing minions. Â But since that’s not going to happen – I decided to try something a little different.
I published my novel (Of Dreams and Shadow: Forget Me Not)Â at the end of September, 2013. Â Since that time, I have promoted my book with three virtual book tours and I have been pleased with the exposure. In March, I decided to try something a little different. Instead of a virtual book tour – I choose to use a three prong approach.
First, I did a little research. Â There are a lot of sites that promote books. Â I looked for sites that I felt were a good fit for my novel and then went to
Alexa to check their ranking. Â I considered the number of visitors to each site as well as the cost of their promotion packages.
- I lowered the price of my book to 99 cents (Thursday – Sunday)
- I asked my family and friends to help me get the word out by sharing links on facebook, etc.
- The morning of the 27th arrived. Â I went to my Author Central page and checked my ranking; it was humbling to say the least. Â My novel was ranked 250,914 among all ebooks and 26,785 among teen ebooks.
- StoryFinds listed my book on their daily specials. Â (This cost me $20.00)
- At Young Adult Promo Central, I was the featured author. I shared a post, book trailer, book blurb, etc. (I purchased their   Gold Promotion – $25.00.  The normal price of this promo was $50 but they are running a sale.)
- eBook Soda featured my book on the email list.  (This was free.)  **Update:  I think this service now charges $5.00
- I shared the links to StoryFinds and YA Promo Central as well as eBook Soda on twitter, Facebook and Google+ communities.
- By Friday morning (the 28th), my novel had moved up in ranking.  Among all ebooks, mine was now ranked at 30,293 and  among teen ebooks – it was ranked 1,551.  At lunch time, my book had peaked at just over 1,300 in teen ebooks.
- On Monday morning, I checked my Author Central page again. Â My novel was ranked at 22,893 in all ebooks and 2,323 in teen ebooks.
- Now, I will be honest – I don’t know which site generated the most sales but I do know that people visiting YA Promo Central were actively engaged due to the stats I saw on my blog. I also think some sales came from people who saw the “shares” of my family and friends.
- Total Cost of the Promotion: Â $45.00
I wish I could say that this was the marketing effort that sent me to Amazon’s top 100.  But even though it didn’t, I was pleased  with the results.
Beginning:   all ebooks  250,914  teens:  26,785
Ending:     all ebooks  22,893   teens:  2,323
I would think this approach would work with a variety of sites and genres.  It is important to find sites that are a good fit for your novel. But you can’t stop there – you have to enlist the help of others to spread the word. I hope this is helpful.  Thanks for stopping by and Happy Marketing!
dsmcknight.com 