The results of my first year in self-publishing...

Congratz on the anniversary.

First of a 5.000 download free run on what I assume was one of the novellas is not bad. It of course depends a bit on the amount of days you ran, but still a pretty good result.

If I had to come up with some tips and pointers on the marketing front, then I will encourage you to post frequently on your blog (unless you only use it for release notifications). Good activity in September, a post in December and since then the tumbleweeds have taken over.

The link "OJ Connell on Facebook just takes me to my news feed, and I couldn't find any page for you, so if you don't have one yet, then either make one or remove the link.

You do not have a newsletter, which is a crying shame, since it is a perfect way for announcing new releases to your readers. You can go with Mailchimp and have a free account until you reach 2.000 subscribers. Do it!

Disclaimer: These tips will not earn you a gazillion dollars (or even half), but they can slowly and steadily increase your presence and your readership, so each new release yuo get out there will hook more and more people to your work.

And of course the most important detail is to bring out new releases to keep your readers entertained and drooling for more.

Finally a question. Are you planning on releasing a novel in your second year or will you focus on shorter works?

Good luck with your second year of publishing.

Avarian said:

If I had to come up with some tips and pointers on the marketing front, then I will encourage you to post frequently on your blog (unless you only use it for release notifications). Good activity in September, a post in December and since then the tumbleweeds have taken over.

The link "OJ Connell on Facebook just takes me to my news feed, and I couldn't find any page for you, so if you don't have one yet, then either make one or remove the link.

You do not have a newsletter, which is a crying shame, since it is a perfect way for announcing new releases to your readers. You can go with Mailchimp and have a free account until you reach 2.000 subscribers. Do it!

Disclaimer: These tips will not earn you a gazillion dollars (or even half), but they can slowly and steadily increase your presence and your readership, so each new release yuo get out there will hook more and more people to your work.

And of course the most important detail is to bring out new releases to keep your readers entertained and drooling for more.

Finally a question. Are you planning on releasing a novel in your second year or will you focus on shorter works?

Good luck with your second year of publishing.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

I blogged a fair amount during the early months last year, but I've definitely slacked off in that department. I enjoyed blogging but never felt that it increased sales/ helped me connect with readers. Perhaps I can give that another shot. I got rid of my Facebook late last year; I was spending way too much time on it and there was hardly any activity on the author page. most of the 'likes' on it were other authors from the KB, lol.

I've toyed with the idea of a newsletter, but kinda fumbled the process and I'm not sure how I should incorporate that.

A common complaint from readers is that my stuff is too short. "This was good, but I wish it was longer" etc. I'm trying to produce longer works this year, but they'll still probably be on the shorter side. For whatever reason I can only write short stories/novellas at the moment. It's what feels right. I'm trying to improve in that area but it's a slow process.

Thanks for the tips!

I just finished my first year as well. I completed three books and almost got my fourth book done in time and sold approximately 350 units. One third of those books were actually sold in the first two weeks of my books publication. Few knew of an experience I had a teenager and when I posted a link to my book on my Facebook wall...everyone I knew and their second cousin twice removed ran out and bought the book. I thought the sales would continue and a slow month may produce, 350 books in a month. I've since been educated. Sales came to a halt compared to the first couple of weeks. I sell on average 15 to 18 books per month at this point.

I've had free promotional as well but struggled to break 1000 on two runs. My time in select expires in May and I'm removing the two books and I plan on going back into the other stores. I got it out of my system, I wanted to try Select. My next title I plan to maximize all of the outlets available to us.

I've had a few moments when my books were snapped up. I rented a table over December at a community yard sale at a retired US Army fort. The craft fair lasted about three hours. In three hours I sold about 25 books. Over the fall, I arranged some one on one time with local youth pastors in an effort to raise awareness to suicide and discuss a possible guest speaking engagement. The members of the churches would buy all three copies at one time. I've been messaged by readers asking why my books, "aren't out there?" So, I know they have a readership potential.

For my second year: I plan on publishing my fourth book here next month. I have committed myself to promoting my suicide prevention books this year more so. I plan on investing $100.00 a month. With this money, I will use snail mail and mail old fashion letters to: Councilors, churches, groups like, "Celebrate Recovery", and suicide prevention groups. It's about 50 letters a week. I only need to take about 5 orders to cover my cost. Who knows, maybe this is what it will take to get my books out into the proper audience and get more invites to come public speak and earn income as a public speaker and promote my works as well.

Honestly - your covers are holding you back. I had no idea they were horror by looking at them in a passing glance. Especially that first one. It looks almost non-fiction about some historical happening. I'd suggest changing them drastically.

I read your sample for the boxed set and I can see what the reviewer was suggesting. You need to loosen up a bit. You use a lot of dialogue which is great but you can give us some descriptive instances in there as well. I'll admit I didn't read the sample for the others so maybe you already corrected this. Show some more instances of their personalities ie. the neighbor keeps shifting her eyes, wondering if the supernatural creature followed her.

Novellas are a hard sell. I don't suggest keeping a blog because seriously, have you ever read an author's blog? I know I haven't and my audience (YA) generally doesn't although they have a few. Get active on Goodreads. Find groups that read your kind of book and ask about their R2R program or anything having to do with authors. Most are extremely accommodating. Congrats on a good first year though. Selling even 1 book is a great job.

First, congrats! You've published stories you've written and sold them. Most people in this world cannot say that.

Second, you wanted advice, so here's mine:

1. Cover change on all of your covers. You have to compete with others in your genre and people DO judge books by their covers. Your covers are not engaging, eye catching, or genre-specific.
2. You're a good writer. (I read a couple of your samples.) You're lucky because that's something that's hard to fix! I recommend you find a writer who has a similar style to yours and find out where that author's readers are. That's who will read and enjoy your book. You need to bring your book to their notice.
3. Get some reviews up there!! Your books were published in 2012. Without reviews, they scare would-be readers away. I'm not saying get fake reviews, no way. I'm saying encourage your readers to leave them. Ask for honest reviews in your front and back matter of the books, on your Facebook, on your website. Ask and ye shall receive.
4. Engage with your readers via Facebook or website. Readers invest in people who care about them and what they think.
5. Write some full length novels, preferably in a series.
6. Get a mailing list going, put links in the front and back of your book, and stay in touch with your readers.

Best of luck to you!