Firstly… of course, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! May this new year bring you everything your mind, heart & soul desire.
Secondly… TODAY’S THE DAY!!!!!! Woot! Book 1 is properly out, launched and everything!
The best part of Book 1’s relaunch is that I’m now so happy with this book leading the pack.
Because… you know what?
My series is AWESOME! My characters are AWESOME.
I love my book babies. I’m SUPER PROUD of them. I’m super proud of myself for actually bringing them to life.
I hereby declare… I’m AWESOME!
If you’re looking for a heart-wrenching gut-punch of a romance read, go grab Book 1 and dive into the whole series. And be sure to leave me a REVIEW once you’re done. These little nuggets of encouragement (or even criticism!) are writers’ crack and we are junkies for it! ??????
I need 20 more lifetimes to ever get around to half of these that I already have.
…And I get 20+ emails per day offering even more freebies. I don’t even remember signing up to half of these newsletter subscriber sites. So… yeah.
Honestly, I’m not surprised authors are complaining about “no/low sales”.
We’re not “part of” the problem. We ARE the problem.
The Path to Freebie Addiction
First of all, I should probably mention how I became the not-so-proud owner of this RIDICULOUS amount of freebies.
Less than a year ago, I had literally zero idea that free ebooks could come to you almost automatically. I either bought books I wanted in a bookshop, or online… simple as that.
Then in July 2018, I decided to finally push the button and become a published author. Once I did that, I realised I was way behind in understanding the indie author life, so I joined a bunch of author groups and Googled the hell out of everything I could devour online in terms of resources.
POST-publishing my own book was the first time I even heard about the term “reader magnet”.
I used to think if it was free, it was a pirated copy. I had no idea you could even give your book away freely in any way, shape or form. Legitimately. Like, on an Amazon page where “$0.00” shows up and you just click on it and BOOM! Free book on your Kindle, like magic.
I repeat… NO IDEA.
But once I heard about it, I figured everyone’s doing it… so I tried it myself. So far, I’ve given away 3315 copies of Book 1 of my series through two freebie promos (the first, more successful promo is documented here: I hit #1-#3 in my categories, and #87 overall on the Free Kindle list).
Despite those great results, I’m pretty sure only one of my reviews came from this freebie promotion. And *maybe* a handful of sales, if I’m lucky.
And my book (Book 1, that is) was well received, with mostly stellar reviews. So I figure — okay, surely if someone reads and loves Book 1, they’ll rush for Book 2.
…Nope.
That’s just not how it works, you see…
The Magnet vs. The Fickle Reader
I took a step back and decided to look at it from my own viewpoint as a reader.
In the writing community, there’s this notion of “the ideal reader” who will lap up everything you produce on the spot, with no question. An ideal reader who will BUY your books.
And here’s the thing: I am no one’s ideal reader.
I love reading, but I read a lot. I’m not genre-monogamous, so I also hop around a lot, and I generally don’t read the same “type” of book continuously. In the past month alone, I’ve read 20+ authors from at least 5 genres — as you’ll note from my Book Reviews Reader Blog.
I should mention — I’m also a foodie who loves a little of everything and gets excited by new restaurants, tastes and fusions. And I’m also a traveller, who prefers to go to a new place rather than back to the same spots all the time.
So, yep, you’ve guessed it… I love — love — love VARIETY. That’s just who I am as a PERSON. So as a reader, yep… the same applies.
I’ve signed up to newsletters for at least 20 individual authors, and I still open their emails, and I don’t unsubscribe (that’s just rude). I love hearing what they’re up to, and getting those lovely sneak previews and behind-the-scenes moments. But at the same time, I’m fickle.
Even if I enjoy a freebie, I may still hesitate to click “purchase” on another book, the moment I’m done. I’m in the mood for a different flavour, so I may wait awhile before I go back to that author. And, sometimes by that time I’m “in the mood”, I might have forgotten how to find them or their books! (This is actually why I started following some authors… so I could “bookmark” them for later!!!)
So, as a reader… I’ve gotten something for free (the magnet), and I’m unlikely to ever be in a position to always be giving something back (actually sticking onto the damn fridge).
“Tough Sell” or “Grazing Consumer Culture”?
Now, I’m a tough sell, because I read a lot. And I’m a super-picky reader. The amazing books ARE out there. I know they are. I’ve found some of them!
And I HAVE purchased books that rocked my world, after reading the author’s freebie first. It just doesn’t happen often enough.
Sometimes, part of my hesitation is that I’m actually afraid it WON’T be as awesome. I’m scared to risk NOT getting that “reader high” again. I’m wary that it might have been a fluke, and I’ll be crushed. (*Sigh* I’ve been burnt by this before.)
But usually it’s a much more basic reason: I’ll be hovering over the “Buy” button, knowing the book will probably be just as awesome, and then remember — oh F##!@#!@K! Do I really NEED this book? What about the others I still have to read???!!!!!
Sigh. It’s a bleak outlook, but there you have it.
This is me as a reader. And I know I’m not alone in this.
We’ve cultivated a culture of “grazing” that celebrates low attention spans. And cheapness. Nope. Scratch that. FREENESS.
In my non-writer life, as a marketing professional, we’re encouraged to “get our message” across in the first 5-10 seconds of video content. Our applications are chock full of ads that we mindlessly close off, to get to the free stuff.
Netflix throws the entire world of entertainment at you, and the abundance of choice can be crippling. Flick, flick, flick… nothing to watch!
And, in the book world, there’s Kindle Unlimited, where the “pagereads” concept expects you to never have to necessarily finish a book. And the scary part is that unlike Netflix, you don’t even need a Kindle Unlimited subscription to get “free” books!
Authors throw them at you. All the time. We even PAY to GIVE AWAY our books. Yes. That is crazy. The even sadder part… is that it’s also NECESSARY.
Volume vs. Validity of Work
So if I’m a fickle reader, what about the flipside?
As I writer, I don’t write nearly fast enough, I barely market myself, and I work a full-time job on top of my sideline writing “hobby”. So…
How can I expect my “ideal reader” to be patiently waiting on me?
No wonder authors are pumping books out like it’s going out of style!
The indie author life is a numbers game… the more you have, the more money you make, even if you hardly sell anything.
The trick is VOLUME. After all, if you have 20 kids, you have a higher probability that ONE of them will do something important with its life, right? That’s how authors seem to be operating. More books, more writing… if you want even a trickle of money.
And I’m not saying that having a huge backlist necessarily means the writing is bad. (This is a HUGE point of contention on a well-known Facebook author group that has almost 30,000 members to date, and even holds writing conventions and everything. I repeat: a HUGE point of contention! So I’m not going to touch that one with a ten-foot pole!)
There are AWESOME writers with FABULOUS books, and LOTS of them. They’re just doing it wayyyyyyy faster than I am, or ever could!
I can put my best foot forward, with each book… but I just can’t compete, volume-wise. At least not anytime soon.
Many authors can afford to give away one or two “freebie” magnet book babies, with 10-100+ other book babies to pick up the slack. What about those that only have a few… or maybe even just one?
It’s an uphill battle.
Notably, I recently made a concerted effort to:
BUY BOOKS FOR MYSELF
BUY BOOKS FOR OTHERS
TELL FRIENDS & FAMILY TO GIFT ME BOOKS
So I’m trying to be a little less fickle.
But these days, “freeness” is so easy to come by, that I myself am always going to be WAY more of a “consumer” than I am an actual “buyer”. So, like I mentioned earlier:
I am no one’s “ideal reader”.
…What if I’m also no reader’s “ideal author”?
Fellow authors, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!
Now, myfirst published book was a whole six months ago (July 28-29, 2018). So it’s been quite some time bunkering down and absorbing all I can before my second book!
The first (book) pancake
The first book was kind of like the first pancake. Not that it needed to be “thrown out” per se; just that it was the guinea pig.
I’ve grown so much as writer, as a marketing strategist — hell, as a human being! — since.
I didn’t know much at the time. I just knew that I had to PUBLISH THE DAMN THING, so maybe I rushed it a little.
Bear in mind, the draft existed for 15+ years. So the “rush” was really just to “publish” once I’d made up my mind to do it.
And I’m a perfectionist by nature, so even my “rushing it” probably isn’t everyone else’s “rushing it”.
Mind you, Book 1 was edited several times, had a great cover and a good blurb. Which is much more than I can say for many self-published books, so I’m proud I got at least that right (I hope)!
Now, I know Book 1 is far from perfect. I love it, and readers did as well, but I personally wish it were significantly shorter — in fact, I managed to dock about 5 pages and re-upload it, post-publication!
But after doing that, I’ve told myself to just leave it alone. It’s out. It’s published. It survived. Move on.
It’ll never be perfect. And there’s no way I can realistically cut 100-200 pages and still tell the same story. There’s also no good point to chop that story in half, and then I’d need to rewrite and “fluff” far too much.
I need to accept that some books fall “outside” of genre norms, and my book just needs to be one of those.
So I’m moving on now, to Darren’s & Luisa’s story.
Books 2 & 3: Moving On
Book 2‘s & Book 3‘s couple is a lot more complicated than Book 1’s.
In Book 1, Kris and Nicole have one major issue in between them: she’s a workaholic, and he picks up the slack far too much with the kids; something’s got to give. With Darren and Luisa, there’s SO much more.
I loved writing their “early” scenes, when they were first falling in love.
I loved writing their “present – bad” scenes, when they’re sniping at each other.
I loved writing their “present – good” scenes, when they’re so tender.
…And that final scene (which bridges Book 2 & 3… OH MY GOD). Wait for it. Just wait for it.
Darren is a VERY difficult guy to love, but still Luisa can’t help herself. She also can’t help herself from feeling caught up in Gianni, who is the guy, as she says, that she “wants to want”.
The thing with Darren is that, as her friend Vicki puts it, early in Book 3:
“Darren Hart isn’t the rainbows and butterflies guy. He’s the one you call when you’re standing over the dead body with the murder weapon in your hand. You’re ridiculously lucky to have that guy. You can’t expect him to be the other kind.”
Even Luisa acknowledges this about him, many times. She’ll get the small-picture stuff from Gianni, but Darren is the big-picture guy. He’s always saving her, rescuing her, taking care of their family in the major ways that count.
That’s love.
When the chips are down, Gianni’s not the one who’s there. It’s Darren. It was always Darren.
You see, love doesn’t always look the way you expect it to look. That’s the lesson Luisa has to learn. And of course, she’s got to learn it the hard way!
So that’s Books 2 & 3 in a nutshell.
Writer Reflection: Gradual Growth
I should mention… Books 2 & 3 are way more emotional, way more steamy, way more provocative, way more profanity-laced, way more EVERYTHING than Book 1! I hope readers are ready!
But I’ve thought about it long and hard, and I KNOW it’s necessary. Apart from the obvious reason that the length is WAY too long for a single book (seriously — it would only be used as a doorstop!), you also need to take a break from this couple.
There’s a natural “break” between the two books because Darren and Luisa barely speak to each other for awhile. And a couple of months will be sufficient time to BREATHE before all the Book 3 action kicks off.
But anyway, I realise, as I look back at these three books, that I’ve matured as a writer.
Book 1‘s first draft was written when I was in my late teens, on the cusp of adulthood. I knew so little about relationships then! And still, I was writing such a story!
But Book 2 & even more so Book 3… yeah, I was a lot older and more mature by the time those rolled around.
My writing is better. I see myself in these books, more than Book 1.
And I’m ready to rip off the band-aid and expose Book 2 to the world.
It’s happening. It’s today.
It’s out there. It’s published.
I’m a little scared. *Deep breath*… here goes nothing.
Never mind the fact that you’re still at the point where you’re jumping for joy when you see even ONE sale pop up on your dashboard.
Never mind the fact that one measly sale only makes you like US$1-2, if you’re lucky.
None of that matters.
If you want to get your name out there (and I do)… if you want the world to meet your characters (and I do)… you have to bite the bullet and start flinging your goodies — for FREE! — at the universe.
KDP & Newbie Authors
First, a little about me.
I’m a newbie self-published author, with my first book “Climbing The Walls (Hart & Cole Book 1)” being on the market for about five months now (published July 28th, 2018).
So far, it’s gotten great reviews (5 & 4 star only) from anyone who made it through (check the Book 1 reviews here).
If you use ‘KDP Select”, you are exclusive to Amazon
I must thank every single reader who read and reviewed, because I know that picking up a book by a new author (especially one 500+ pages) can be a bit daunting!
My book has always been in KDP Select / Kindle Unlimited — which allows users who pay a subscription to read all eligible books year-round at no extra cost.
One of the benefits of having your book in KDP Select is that you get to list your book for free, for up to 5 days within your 3-month KDP Select period.
KDP Select simply means you’re selling on Amazon only. It’s not for everyone, and some authors have good reasons not to do it.
I’m not a full-time writer, I’m new to the game, and I would hate to have to maintain multiple copies of my manuscript at different retailers (I don’t even know the number of times I’ve re-uploaded after noticing a typo!).
Also, I’m not looking to become a millionaire overnight, and just having my book published is huge for me!
So, all in all… KDP works for me.
And the “free” days are a nice bonus, but only really worthwhile if you’re writing a series.
My book pre-promo: some background
My book was promoted for two days Dec 22-23, 2018
First of all, I should mention I’m not “killing it” by any means. A few sales here and there, and I’m a happy camper.
The most I’ve sold so far in one day was 6 books. Many days are 0. I’m cool with that.
It doesn’t upset me, because literally every single sale means that my cover design, my blurb, my writing (the Amazon “Look Inside” excerpt) are on point — and a few hard-earned dollars were spent by someone!
To my best knowledge (as I don’t religiously check this every day), for the Paid lists, my best stats have been in the top 1,000 in my three main categories (Romance, Family Life, Literary Fiction) and in the top 100,000 overall.
So like I said — not “killing it” by any means!
My book is a super-full-length 555-page 200,000+ word opus of a woman’s fiction/romance novel, the first in a series.
I added an excerpt and a pre-order link for Book 2 at the end of it, to promote sell-through if readers want more.
Book 2 “Pandora’s Poison” launches a month from my free promo (Jan 22, 2019). So, there you go — that was my purpose for making it free!
Preparing for KDP free days: Promotion stacking
In late November and early December, I scheduled my free promo through KDP on Dec 22-23, and then got cracking on the marketing strategy.
There’s no point in making a book free if no one knows to go get it!
I made teasers to be used on social media. Here are some samples:
Now, onto the websites/newsletters to mention the freebie!
First things first, I applied to Bookbub. I was declined. No surprise there. (It’s normal to be denied for a Bookbub deal – especially as a newbie!)
I wasn’t daunted, however. Onto other sites!
I put the promo up on BookSprout, which resulted in 43 opens and 14 clicks — not bad, considering this didn’t cost me anything.
Then, I did some research to find out which sites let you announce your freebie for free.
This. Takes. Time. Lots. Of. Time. Loads. Of. Time. It. Is. The. Most. Tedious. Thing. Ever.
Of these, less than 10 posted my book (that I’m aware of, because they emailed me. There is a chance it was posted elsewhere but no one told me!)
Of the ones that DID post it, it was often buried at the bottom of the page/newsletter.
One site had a great post for the book, but the “Buy” button didn’t work! I reported it, but by the time they got it fixed, half the day was gone, so I’m sure I missed out on some sales.
…So, yeah. You get what you pay for!
Then, I booked a couple of paid promotions.
Now, I’m super cheap, and it physically hurts to PAY to give away your own book, so this was VERY minimal.
There are loads of newsletter options that have a small cover charge.
The thing is, if you want to crack the Bestseller lists, you need to stack your promos and run several at a time.
The BookRaid newsletter
Unfortunately, that approach means that I have zero idea which ones paid off in the end between the free ones and the (cheap) paid ones.
Their customer service is good, and you only pay per click — $0.05 per click, up to a max. of $20 for free books.
(For paid books, it’s $0.08 — and I’ve used them before, and only paid like $2. So, not bad!)
They also have a dashboard, so you know how many clicks you got — for this promo, I got 794 (about 720 of this came during the promo, others trickled in slowly after — as the book is offered via Kindle Unlimited, this extra amount may still count as readers).
As the book is free, and the blurb is in the newsletter, I’d like to assume that most of those clicks turned into purchases!
Plus – it’s purple.
And yeah, I’m into purple (in case you couldn’t tell).
…But that’s not a helpful measure of success! 🙂
Anyway, I digress…
The Big Day – FREE promo begins!
Okay, so December 22nd reached, it was 12:00 a.m. — then 1:00 a.m. (I catered for the time difference between USA/Caribbean) — and my book WASN’T free on Amazon. I panicked.
A couple of sites were already advertising it, and it wasn’t free! OMG!
I contacted Amazon support but the KDP team wasn’t available. I emailed some of the sites to tell them to hold off, and I thought the end of the world was coming.
Nothing else could be done.
I went to bed and when I woke up, my book was free… and had already sold over 100 copies.
Because here’s the thing — the promo is in PST. Pacific Time. As in, four hours behind my own time. Yep. I felt like a nincompoop.
Anyway, I posted on Instagram, Twitter, and multiple Facebook groups. I have no idea how effective these were, but they can’t hurt!
A huge THANK YOU to any and everyone who saw my post and downloaded the book!!!
Results – Short Term Ranking Boosts
At any given time, there are hundred of authors running their own KDP free days, and I’m sure at least half of them know MUCH more than I do, and can spend WAY more money than I can to push their book.
So I’m super-thrilled with my results.
I’m also happy that I was able to hit the top 3 in my categories — and the top 100 overall — three days before Christmas with a book that ISN’T Christmas-themed. I was worried. I needn’t have been.
I stayed at #1 in my two main categories for most of the 22nd. Not bad at all. Romance was a tougher nut to crack. Romance is a TOUGH category to crack the top 3! And then I sat in the top 100 overall (#87) for a few hours, which is AWESOME!
So overall, I’ve had almost 2300 downloads with minimal investment — at least 8-10 sites/newsletters/social feeds posted my promo for free, and I forked out the cash to be in a couple of (very cheap) newsletters.
I also sent out my own newsletter to subscribers — my list is tiny, under 200 — with the simple tagline “Here’s your free copy of Climbing The Walls“.
I got my best success rate yet, 41.5% opens and 27.7% clicks. (People seem to like the word ‘free’!)
I also spammed what seemed like a zillion Facebook groups. I doubt that did much. If I got one ‘like’ or comment on a post, that was a lot. But again, it can’t hurt.
Synopsis of my KDP free experiment
I don’t know how the Amazon algorithms work, but putting your book free helps it to get sold!
I’ve climbed the charts in the Paid listing (I’m in top 50,000 overall as I write this, and top 500-1000 in my main categories). It won’t last, but still… it’s the highest my book has ever been!
I also saw a couple sales come in, the day after the promo. Woohoo!
AND I’ve also seen a trickle of newsletter sign-ups and Bookbub & Goodreads followers. Nice! Be a dear and follow:
If I had to do it again (and I will sometime soon), I’ll connect with other writers to help push my book in their newsletters, groups and social media. That’s the only thing I didn’t really focus on this time, because I wanted to see how well I could do on my own.
If any other writers are reading this, feel free to reach out to drop me a line and see how we can connect to help each other out!
A lot of TIME, EFFORT and ENERGY go into giving away your book!
It seems counterproductive that you end up paying people to buy your book, but that’s the life of a newbie indie writer.
I’m thrilled with the results. I was hoping to get around 500! At almost 2300, I’m hoping at least 5%-10% of that turns into a review of Book 1, a sale of Book 2, or both.
And now, almost 2300 people have the chance to meet my characters!
Of course, free books often end up sitting around on your e-reader for some time, since it costs you nothing to download it and you can download loads at a time.
BUT I have faith that the book cover will lure you in, while you swipe past others. I have faith that the first few lines will hook you. I have faith that by the end of Chapter 1 or 2, you’ll be invested in my characters.
Most of all, I have faith that if anyone makes it through my book and liked it, they’ll want to buy Book 2! And they should, because Book 2 is going to be SOOOOO much better.
Now, it’s just to sit back… and wait!
Feel free to grab up Book 1 (back to its regular $3.99 price now, BUT it’s still available on Kindle Unlimited), and to pre-order Book 2 – coming January 22, 2019!
