I thought maybe some fellow prawns might like to hear this. Maybe it'll inspire some people. Either way, I'd like to try and give back after everything I've learnt around here.
Ssooo... I earnt over $1,000 in the last 30 days! That's a nice milestone to hit.
My story so far, what I've done, what I've learnt, etc.
I do not have lots of money to throw into promotion. I have a small budget that I do my best with, but I can't afford AMS ads, Facebook ads, or any of that.
I write Urban Fantasy. I released book 1 in the Infernal Hunt series on July 1st last year. Book 2 was released a week later. Book 3 a month later, then the last book in the series, 3 months later. The Ink Born series was started this year.
Before we go any further I think it's important to highlight the differences between the two series.
Both series are comfortably in the Urban Fantasy genre. They both make use of familiar Urban Fantasy tropes. They're both told from first person POV with the narrator having at least a little snark.
This is where they differ: (I have no idea why the lists went weird and don't have it in me to fix it).
Infernal Hunt series.
Ssooo... I earnt over $1,000 in the last 30 days! That's a nice milestone to hit.
My story so far, what I've done, what I've learnt, etc.
I do not have lots of money to throw into promotion. I have a small budget that I do my best with, but I can't afford AMS ads, Facebook ads, or any of that.
I write Urban Fantasy. I released book 1 in the Infernal Hunt series on July 1st last year. Book 2 was released a week later. Book 3 a month later, then the last book in the series, 3 months later. The Ink Born series was started this year.
Before we go any further I think it's important to highlight the differences between the two series.
Both series are comfortably in the Urban Fantasy genre. They both make use of familiar Urban Fantasy tropes. They're both told from first person POV with the narrator having at least a little snark.
This is where they differ: (I have no idea why the lists went weird and don't have it in me to fix it).
Infernal Hunt series.
- In a reasonably classic Urban Fantasy world, but set in Prague.
- Has a reasonably classic plot line of saving the world from a big bad.
- The protagonist is a kick-ass hero type.
- The protagonist has no magic of her own.
Ink Born series.- In a huge fantasy kitchen sink world (that I'll be setting a good few more series in).
- The protagonist is not a willing hero. He's happy with his quiet life dammit.
- The protagonist is a tattoo magician - this is the big hook that readers seem to love.
- A primarily gay cast with an asexual character and a number of bi characters.
Launching the Infernal Hunt series.
Book 1 is a prequel novella about 30k in length. Readers can start the series with either Infernal Ties or Infernal Bonds.
I had no mailing list, my social media wasn't exactly stellar, and no marketing budget to speak of. I made the most of pre-orders to try and build buzz around the release and it did ok. The first two books launched into the 30k region on Amazon, I made something like $230 the first month.
Once book 3 was launched I ran a free promotion on Infernal Ties and it got into the top 100 free. That helped fend off the increasing drop in income and made sure I earnt a reasonably steady $150 - $250 a month. Not huge money, but enough to show that there was a bit of potential there.
I dropped book 1 down to 99c and left it there. It seemed like a good idea to help pull people into the series. I ran a couple of small promos, BKnights and things to help improve visibility. Again that kept things ticking along.
Once book 4 was live I had the idea to try making book 2 free, as it does work as the beginning of the series. I promoted that with freebooksy and managed to get a free slot on OHFB. That did brilliantly. A good number of people bought book 1 when they picked up the freebie and that took my income up to $420 that month. Progress!
This was when Stolen Ink, book 1 in the Ink Born series came into play. I put that up for pre-order I think it was a week after book 4 in the IH series went live. I wanted to keep things rolling and start garnering interest in Stolen Ink.
Stolen Ink had a full 90 day pre-order, and it garnered far more interest than the IH books did. I tweeted about it once, and had a link to it in the back of the IH books. That was the sum total of my promotion for it. That achieved some 96 pre-orders that way (beating my previous 35 pre-order record), and ended up with 164 pre-orders after S.M. Reine recommended it to her readers.
I made book 1 in the IH series permafree through January and stuck it up on Instafreebie. That brought me 1600 ish newsletter subscribers. I wasn't satisfied with the income, despite throwing money into advertising it on sites such as Freebooksy. So I put it back in KU and made it 99c again.
I launched Stolen Ink in early February. Again I didn't have money to throw into promotion, I moved country earlier this month, so no spare pennies. Thanks to Patty I managed to arrange a couple of newsletter swaps, and sent out the news to my own newsletter. That combined with S.M. Reine recommending the book to her readers meant that Stolen Ink achieved a rank in the high 3,000's. It's been doing wonderfully since.
Stolen Ink is a completely different kettle of fish to the IH books. It earnt more in its first week than the first 2 IH books in their first month. It has out-earned the IH books (all 5 of them including the boxset) by a good way, on its own.
I launched Stolen Ink at 99c and left it there for 10 days to try and make the most of the newsletter slots. I've dropped it 99c again since then and run a BargainBooksy, ENT, and RobinReads on it. That's been enough to keep it in the top 15k. (It's been sitting pretty between 9k - 11k for a good few weeks now).
Last week I made book 2 in the IH series free again and ran that with Freebooksy and RobinReads, that boosted the IH books income again. It wasn't amazing, they'll earn about $280 this month. The rest of it is coming from Stolen Ink, all by itself. The sequel to Stolen Ink has gone up for a 90 day pre-order, the link is in the back of Stolen Ink. That currently has 145 pre-orders on it, and it achieved those over just 6 days. I tweeted about it once, and mentioned it to my newsletter.
The biggest thing I'm taking away from all of this, is just how important it is to stand out from the crowd and give readers something they love. Urban Fantasy is getting incredibly crowded, but readers leapt on that tattoo magician idea. Lots of readers have said it was those two words that made them grab the book. I get the impression that the LGBT+ cast helps, a lot of people are looking for that right now. I can't say I planned on writing it that way, but as a bi woman myself who grew up within the LGBT+ community that's just how my brain works.
The series could probably do better if I had money to throw at promotion, and I will continue to promote in the ways that I can afford. I'm currently lining up promo sites around the launch of Ink Born 2 and I'll be looking at newsletter swaps in that time period too. Stolen Ink will be down to 99c again.
I think a regular release schedule and a completed series is doing me some good too. It shows readers that I'm not going to leave them hanging.
Anyway, there you have it. My prawny little journey so far. I hope maybe it helps some people as I wouldn't have gotten this far without this board and the generous writers on it.
[edited to try and fix the weird formatting]