Amazon ads definitely help, especially in nonfiction. Search for a topic and amazon basically intentionally buries relevant books unless they have paid promotion. Sadly this is something that usually exceeds the royalty for your book, and a cost your publisher should be paying (but like many things publishers used to do, does not pay for). Amazon ads work much better than google ads, i suspect because most people on Amazon are ready to buy whole google is general population.
That makes sense on Amazon vs Google and I've heard the same thing about Amazon ads vs Facebook ads too, I think if someone is already looking for a similar book on the site it makes sense it might be an easier conversion.
Thanks, this was helpful in that I have tried several things and found medium results in any of them. I'm in a GoodReads giveway at the moment - my first time to try that. If the goal is to SELL books, I've not found the golden key. Giving away books, however, has been a good way to get the word out about your book. How many people actually read them, who can tell. My hope is by giving away about a thousand books, someone might recommend it to someone else. Anyway, this is the unfun part of writing a book (at least to me). I appreciate your candor and information!
I think it is tricky because it's so hard to track a lot of what is or isn't working and also you make a good point about whether or not people actually read the books when they get them, but I think a certain amount is just about getting the word out and hoping that leads to sales down the line.
Julie, thanks for sharing the details of your book marketing plan. Well done. You prove through your efforts that you believe in your book and want to give it the best possible chance to be seen and sold. Do you enjoy the marketing and promotion part of being an author?
I enjoyed some parts of it and some parts less so! I feel like I tried a lot of things the first time around, and would probably do things a little differently in the future, but I also felt like I kind of needed to try things to figure out how I felt about them.
This was very helpful! I never even considered little free library's. I agree, not a best turn on investment, but definitely gains exposure. And it's fun!
"When it comes to newsletters there are two paths, and despite what Robert Frost may tell you, you can potentially take both of them"-- ha! Excellent! 👍😅
Thanks so much for sharing your experience, and I wish you great success with your book!! 🙏💪😊
really appreciated this post! I have my first coming out in the Spring and I've been scrambling to cobble together a marketing and social media strategy. lots of food for thought here, thank you! And, I'm checking out your book because I'm a parent and I love comedy :)
This is fabulous advice, thanks for sharing! I’m on my second edit of my fiction novel and honestly I never thought I’d get this far. The idea of moving forward to someone actually reading it is so overwhelming!
For some reason, the algorithm showed me this post even though it’s from over 18 months ago. But I’m not ageist when it comes to content, so I read it. Also, I’ve had several books published over the past 13 years, and I was curious to see how your experience compared. The truth is, there’s not a huge amount an author can do to move the needle in terms of promotion. So much comes down to whether or not your publisher gets behind the book, and communicates that enthusiasm to the market. They pick one or two books per season. The rest are simply dumped. In my experience, the best thing an author can do is to get pre-sales. Beg friends and family to pre-order, come up with clever pre-sale incentives—whatever you do, if you can get lots of pre-orders, this shows the publisher that they should pay a bit of attention to you. Basically, 100 books sold before the publication are worth more than 100 books sold after.
I appreciate you saying what doesn't work probably more than what does because so few people address this topic.
I feel like it's definitely helpful to hear about both sides!
Amazon ads definitely help, especially in nonfiction. Search for a topic and amazon basically intentionally buries relevant books unless they have paid promotion. Sadly this is something that usually exceeds the royalty for your book, and a cost your publisher should be paying (but like many things publishers used to do, does not pay for). Amazon ads work much better than google ads, i suspect because most people on Amazon are ready to buy whole google is general population.
That makes sense on Amazon vs Google and I've heard the same thing about Amazon ads vs Facebook ads too, I think if someone is already looking for a similar book on the site it makes sense it might be an easier conversion.
Thanks, this was helpful in that I have tried several things and found medium results in any of them. I'm in a GoodReads giveway at the moment - my first time to try that. If the goal is to SELL books, I've not found the golden key. Giving away books, however, has been a good way to get the word out about your book. How many people actually read them, who can tell. My hope is by giving away about a thousand books, someone might recommend it to someone else. Anyway, this is the unfun part of writing a book (at least to me). I appreciate your candor and information!
I think it is tricky because it's so hard to track a lot of what is or isn't working and also you make a good point about whether or not people actually read the books when they get them, but I think a certain amount is just about getting the word out and hoping that leads to sales down the line.
Love the Little Free Library idea!
It can definitely be fun to do!
It’s so helpful for authors to see how much promotion varies and how important it is to try a bunch of avenues!
Definitely! I feel like it helped me to read/talk to other authors and realize experiences can really vary.
Totally!
Julie, thanks for sharing the details of your book marketing plan. Well done. You prove through your efforts that you believe in your book and want to give it the best possible chance to be seen and sold. Do you enjoy the marketing and promotion part of being an author?
I enjoyed some parts of it and some parts less so! I feel like I tried a lot of things the first time around, and would probably do things a little differently in the future, but I also felt like I kind of needed to try things to figure out how I felt about them.
This was very helpful! I never even considered little free library's. I agree, not a best turn on investment, but definitely gains exposure. And it's fun!
I think fun should count for something!
This is AMAZING. So helpful. I am saving this. Thank you!!
Of course -- glad it was helpful!
"When it comes to newsletters there are two paths, and despite what Robert Frost may tell you, you can potentially take both of them"-- ha! Excellent! 👍😅
Thanks so much for sharing your experience, and I wish you great success with your book!! 🙏💪😊
Of course and thank you!
really appreciated this post! I have my first coming out in the Spring and I've been scrambling to cobble together a marketing and social media strategy. lots of food for thought here, thank you! And, I'm checking out your book because I'm a parent and I love comedy :)
Thank you and congrats on the book! It is definitely a lot to figure out and feels to vary by different books so hard to sort through.
Thank you for that article. God help me...I've got to do all that!
Wishing you luck (but maybe you can also skip some of what I did!)
This is fabulous advice, thanks for sharing! I’m on my second edit of my fiction novel and honestly I never thought I’d get this far. The idea of moving forward to someone actually reading it is so overwhelming!
I get that! I am also trying to just get started on writing a novel so you are further along than me :)
These are such great tips! It reminds me of our conversation at Mom 2. :) Keep it coming!
It was great to get to talk to you about some of this stuff there! Looking forward to hearing more about your projects too :)
Great stuff Julie!
Thank you!
Very useful post -- thanks! Will be saving and revisiting. :-)
Of course -- glad to hear that!
For some reason, the algorithm showed me this post even though it’s from over 18 months ago. But I’m not ageist when it comes to content, so I read it. Also, I’ve had several books published over the past 13 years, and I was curious to see how your experience compared. The truth is, there’s not a huge amount an author can do to move the needle in terms of promotion. So much comes down to whether or not your publisher gets behind the book, and communicates that enthusiasm to the market. They pick one or two books per season. The rest are simply dumped. In my experience, the best thing an author can do is to get pre-sales. Beg friends and family to pre-order, come up with clever pre-sale incentives—whatever you do, if you can get lots of pre-orders, this shows the publisher that they should pay a bit of attention to you. Basically, 100 books sold before the publication are worth more than 100 books sold after.
So true on the marketing and that largely being outside an author's control, unfortunately.