[Antara Mann]

My book is from 2 months live and has only 9 sales and 3 KU borrows. I didn’t market it, I tried my second to be in place and I am nearly done. I am creating a marketing plan strategy. I don’t intend to spend more than 100 + bucks but it is very discouraging when I didn’t hit even 10 sales. I am from EU and my friends don’t have credit cards or they are disinterested or didn't set up an account… I cannot rely on friends and family obviously.
So I need your help with my marketing advice.
I am evaluating and creating my marketing strategy plan. When the campaign is over, I will share my experience here. I will track all those campaigns, something like second Steve Scott’ like post. Note! I will hide the affiliate links with pretty link. This is very important.

Pre ads
1st thing create a funnel. My two books don’t have the same characters but they tackle the same themes. Now, I am thinking to name the series “Fantasy Series Book 1, 2 etc”. Does it sound right for you?
- Include an excerpt of each of the books  from the other one.
- Readers magnets at the front and back for a short story, available only for a sign-up to my mailing list.
- Gather as much reviews as possible for my next book (at least 5-6). If you wish to review it, pm me and I will send you a copy format of your own choice.

Ads:
- use Bknights for both the paid book and the free campaign. Question: is there a point paying Bknights for advertising 99 cents book when later in a week, I will pay him to promote the same title as a free book?
- submit the free book to all free sites via AMC free submission tool.
- submit to readcheaply;
- pay 20-30 $ for a Booksends ad? It’s more expensive than 99 cents, 1.99-2.99.
- Booksbutterfly? Is it wise to pay 100$ or 10 per click for a free novella?
- Facebook ads - how much budget to set for per click? I read it’s wiser than to pay for impressions.
- ENT. When I have around 8 reviews, I might apply. It’s quite possible to be rejected because my book will be at the best a bit over the required length of 125 pages.
- try with Midlist; is Kindle Review worth for a free and paid ad?
- FKBT? Do they accept books under 150 pages? Now I don't see such a requirement.


If you have more suggestions, feel free to advise me. Again, I will share my actual experience either if it’s shining or not very impressive. Sometimes failure is necessary for success.

 

[jillb]

As anyone will tell you, genres vary greatly. I've sold less than 20 copies (and had maybe 10 borrows) of my 1 first book in the 4 months it's been published. I haven't done a lot of marketing other than BK free-day promos. In general, I've done pretty well with BK promos.

With the promo, I'd get about 1000 DLs vs about 400 without BK. However, I've also done 2-day free-days with BK on the 2nd day where I've had over 1000 DLs with no promo and only about 400 DL with the BK promo on the 2nd day. YMMV.

I did a Kindle Countdown promo on one of my books with a price of $0.99 for the full 7 days. I used GenrePulse ($10) and got about 10 DLs vs about 3 without promo. Again, YMMV.

So far, the best tactic for me has been KB's sage advise to keep writing and publishing. I didn't start to gain traction until book #5. Book #6 took almost 3 months to start gaining traction. Books #7 & 8 are also getting sales so my advice would also be to keep publishing - it's easier to sell when you have more wares to offer your customer!

 

[Christine Tate]

Have you identified a specific target market for your books?  Who would your books appeal to most?  My suggestions would be to really key in on who would be most likely to read your books and then focus your marketing efforts on ways to reach that target demographic.

 

[Guest]

Antara, here are my thoughts

Pre ads
1st thing create a funnel. My two books don't have the same characters but they tackle the same themes. Now, I am thinking to name the series "Fantasy Series Book 1, 2 etc". Does it sound right for you?
- Include an excerpt of each of the books  from the other one.
- Readers magnets at the front and back for a short story, available only for a sign-up to my mailing list.
- Gather as much reviews as possible for my next book (at least 5-6). If you wish to review it, pm me and I will send you a copy format of your own choice.

* This sounds good. However, I'm not sure about calling them a fantasy series. Same author should be enough of a link. Make sure to have links to the books at the end of each book.

Ads:
- use Bknights for both the paid book and the free campaign. Question: is there a point paying Bknights for advertising 99 cents book when later in a week, I will pay him to promote the same title as a free book?

* Not really. It's also troublesome since you asked those same readers to pay for a book that'll be free a week later.
Better to use that money with some site that gets good free book download results. In $5 to $20 range I think Fussy Librarian would be a good choice.
Also apply to places like The Midlist etc. as a free submission.

In general I think it's not a good idea to promote a book at $1 and then make it free soon after.

- submit the free book to all free sites via AMC free submission tool.

* yes, this is critical.

- submit to readcheaply;

* have head good things about them.

- pay 20-30 $ for a Booksends ad? It's more expensive than 99 cents, 1.99-2.99.

* yes, good results from them.

- Booksbutterfly? Is it wise to pay 100$ or 10 per click for a free novella?

*no. our readers prefer full-length novels by a wide margin over novellas and we hardly ever promote novellas.. A novella would get just a few hundred downloads. If it gets 200 downloads, the cost would be $10. Better to focus on sites that promote novellas too (not just full-length novels).

- Facebook ads - how much budget to set for per click? I read it's wiser than to pay for impressions.

* Yes, only cost per click. FB will just steal your money if you do pay per impressions. Start with lowest budget and slowly raise.

- ENT. When I have around 8 reviews, I might apply. It's quite possible to be rejected because my book will be at the best a bit over the required length of 125 pages.

* Yes, apply here.

- try with Midlist; is Kindle Review worth for a free and paid ad?

*Midlist yes. Kindle Review don't know.

- FKBT? Do they accept books under 150 pages? Now I don't see such a requirement.

* I think they do. Not sure.

 

[Antara Mann]

Have you identified a specific target market for your books? Who would your books appeal to most? My suggestions would be to really key in on who would be most likely to read your books and then focus your marketing efforts on ways to reach that target demographic.

Yes, I did: women and people (mostly women) who enjoy light fantasy novellas.c While I was looking at the prices of each category in Booksends, for example, I noticed that in the genre Women's Fiction there are 11 500 possible readers and the free ad spot costs 25$, while in Fantasy there are double number of readers - 26. 500 and the price for a free ad is 50$. I still wonder which one to choose. Considering my cover, I think the first category would give more results, besides it's cheaper.

 

[Antara Mann]

*no. our readers prefer full-length novels by a wide margin over novellas and we hardly ever promote novellas.. A novella would get just a few hundred downloads. If it gets 200 downloads, the cost would be $10. Better to focus on sites that promote novellas too (not just full-length novels).

- Facebook ads - how much budget to set for per click? I read it's wiser than to pay for impressions.

* I think they do. Not sure.

Thank you for the feedback. By the way, the one which I will market for 99 cents won't be free; I will run a free promo with the first book and plan to make it permafree afterwards. Is it possible a permafree book to be priced again in Amazon?

 

[Guest]

By the way, the one which I will market for 99 cents won't be free; I will run a  free promo with the first book and plan to make it permafree afterwards. Is it possible a permafree book to be priced again in Amazon?

1) OK, now I understand.

2) Yes, I think you just have to change the price back up at other sites and then change it at Amazon. However, hopefully other authors can chime in and confirm.

For BookSends, I think the first category would be a better fit. A smaller niche will generate better results per dollar if it's a better fit for your book.

 

[drewavera]

The advice above sounds pretty good. With only 2 titles out it can be hard, but if you use one to funnel into the other you might find a pickup in sales. I do think permafree works if you want to bring people in to build your reviews, but I haven't had too much crossover. I think a lot of people just download the freebies and move on. I recommend the book Reader Magnets by Nick Stephenson. It is free, but I can't link to it from my work computer (amazon won't load...). Good luck.

 

[Antara Mann]

As anyone will tell you, genres vary greatly. I've sold less than 20 copies (and had maybe 10 borrows) of my 1 first book in the 4 months it's been published. I haven't done a lot of marketing other than BK free-day promos. In general, I've done pretty well with BK promos.

With the promo, I'd get about 1000 DLs vs about 400 without BK. However, I've also done 2-day free-days with BK on the 2nd day where I've had over 1000 DLs with no promo and only about 400 DL with the BK promo on the 2nd day. YMMV.

I did a Kindle Countdown promo on one of my books with a price of $0.99 for the full 7 days. I used GenrePulse ($10) and got about 10 DLs vs about 3 without promo. Again, YMMV.

So far, the best tactic for me has been KB's sage advise to keep writing and publishing. I didn't start to gain traction until book #5. Book #6 took almost 3 months to start gaining traction. Books #7 & 8 are also getting sales so my advice would also be to keep publishing - it's easier to sell when you have more wares to offer your customer!

I totally agree with you. That's why I wrote these novellas, I am currently writing another one, have a short story when my first written work is a 95 k words novella. I hope when I publish the big novella, it will gain traction. I only didn't understand, is Bk an abbreviation for Bknights? And what DLs stand for?

 

[Antara Mann]

The advice above sounds pretty good. With only 2 titles out it can be hard, but if you use one to funnel into the other you might find a pickup in sales. I do think permafree works if you want to bring people in to build your reviews, but I haven't had too much crossover. I think a lot of people just download the freebies and move on. I recommend the book Reader Magnets by Nick Stephenson. It is free, but I can't link to it from my work computer (amazon won't load...). Good luck.

Yes, I did, that's why I created readers magnet. By the way, are you going to subscribe for Nick's paid services? I am watching his 4th video.

 

[drewavera]

I don't think I can afford the premium service right now, but I am trying to take on the suggestions from his free training. Video 5 comes out today, maybe we will learn more.