I just wanted to follow up on a rather ancient post I made a while back, in which I bemoaned my lack of progress and momentum since starting to self-publish my books. I won't dig it back up. It was typical, understandable (to be honest) griping that might come from anyone in this business. We all sometimes get frustrated. It was nothing you hadn't seen before.
Advice boiled down to:
1) Write longer books.
2) Chin up and keep on keeping on.
I wanted to let you guys know I've hit a minor milestone of about $50 in royalties a month. This is nothing, honestly, and yet it is something as well: it's momentum. I was hesitant to say this, but said momentum seems to be sticking.
I always believe in trying new things. In the interests of sharing info, I:
1) Experimented with AMS for a few months, losing some money, until I found how to make profitable advertising campaigns.
2) Rolled almost everything into KU. Page reads are not vast, but they are helping, and I find the exposure is bringing in new readers.
3) Began getting my fiction into multi-author boxed sets.
4) Really stretched into multi-author promos and FB sites. I particularly recommend everything the rather awesome Dean F. Wilson is hosting, but there are several other groups out there, many of which cater to multiple platforms and approaches, so you can chase everything from KU page reads to signups.
That's it. I'm treading water now, which is great, but it's on to the next milestone of $100/month. Good luck everyone, and hopefully for those of you currently on the rocks, this will help you shove off of them.
Just patience and time. Basically, I tried several variances of the same campaign until I saw consistent hits on the keywords. I then watched the individual key word metrics and nudged their per-bid settings up and down until I found the ideal mix of exposure and profitability. I am continuing to do this. The key is reviewing every 2-3 days since it takes a bit for the metrics to show up. I also try to keep in mind that I'm getting page reads off the adds, which the AMS dashboard unfortunately doesn't record.
The other thing I'll say is for cheap books, AMS is largely an exposure-only item. My $.99 lead-in to the Tyrant Strategy, Revenant Man, loses a little money every month. It's mainly there for exposure. On the other hand, my $6.99 boxed set, The Complete Beacon Saga, easily earns way more back than what it costs to advertise. Pricier titles with snazzy advertising blurbs are definitely the magic combo.
I'm not killing it with AMS, but I think I've learned how to conservatively leverage it to bring more eyeballs to my books, while also turning a small profit.
No matter what the business, one can't grow until one builds a starting point. It sounds like you have a dependable base. Keep posting and let us know what happens next.
Have you tried promo sites such as BargainBooksy, BookBarbarian, Robin Reads, etc? Rotating your Revenant Man through one of them a month would probably boost your performance.
I'd love to book a promo a month through these, but in the past all my promo has focused on temporarily-free or permafree lead-ins. I found somewhat mixed results. Do you see those sites being decent for $.99 or higher-priced titles, based on your past experience?
You find people starting them and find out how to get in. Sounds simple, yeah? There are often sets started here (it's how I got into a few), and on other author forums. I thought I had a link for a Facebook group that listed this sort of thing, but I can't find it. Someone else may know it. But anyway, you see someone offering spots in an anthology/box set, look to see if you write that sort of thing, or if you could, and what's required to be included. Some ask for a pay-in (you have to pay for something, ads, cover, whatever), and some don't. Some you get paid (those are nice!), and some it only gives you exposure.
You find people starting them and find out how to get in. Sounds simple, yeah? There are often sets started here (it's how I got into a few), and on other author forums. I thought I had a link for a Facebook group that listed this sort of thing, but I can't find it. Someone else may know it. But anyway, you see someone offering spots in an anthology/box set, look to see if you write that sort of thing, or if you could, and what's required to be included. Some ask for a pay-in (you have to pay for something, ads, cover, whatever), and some don't. Some you get paid (those are nice!), and some it only gives you exposure.
Thanks. I've not seen any for political literary fiction, but I'll keep an eye out...
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