Monday, October 27, 2014

Promotion Woes

My 3rd book, Wickedly They Dream will be released on November 5th, and I wanted to step up promotion. Not only for the new book coming out, but for my books already published. 

I don't know how author's get a best seller unless they dole out lots of money for advertising.

Like most of my fellow author's I've had book tours, a couple of book signings, giveaways, and begged for reviews. I joined books clubs and programs on Goodreads for exposure to help promote other authors. 

So this time I did boost a few posts on FB, and I actually took out a few ads in some daily book promotion sites. (which far surpassed my royalties) I planned on keeping my eyes peeled to see what kind of sales are generated.

Now I have a 99 Cents sale going on in conjunction with an ad which began yesterday. And this morning, instead of the Amazon ranks going lower, it's spiking higher. 

For no reason that I can figure out, last week one of my books went from 1m on Amazon down to 83k, and I can't figure out why. I chuckled and said someone must've purchased an ebook!

How do author's keep their books ranking?

I don't understand Amazons Author Central's ranking system. What I see and what the public sees are two different things? Anyone figure that one out?



The amazing author Alex J. Cavanaugh has written a post about blogging losing it's steam, or is it? Check it out here


29 comments:

  1. I'm with you Cathy. I don't understand any of the workings of Amazon's ranking system. I don't check it often, it can drive you crazy. I do check it, however, if I've paid money for some sort of promotion and I want to see if my money spent did anything to help my ranking. It usually has no real effect. But then there is the surprise once in awhile, when something does work and my ranking is better for a day or two. Who knows? I don't think I'll ever figure it out :)

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  2. I know just one sale can send my book 250 k higher in the rankings, at least. I imagine the higher you are in the rankings naturally, those single sales don't make too much of a difference. I've never worked out the best way to promote - wish I did! Congrats on the sale(s) :-)

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    1. Instead of making sales the book seems to be going into outer space! Go Figure!

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  3. Thanks for mentioning my post!
    Sometimes you can't figure it out. My first book hit the best seller charts almost a year after its release, and even my publisher wasn't sure how it happened.

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  4. I am totally with you on marketing. I can't figure it out and sometimes (actually almost always!) struggle with total marketing fatigue.

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    1. I spend so much time marketing...when I'd rather be writing.

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  5. I don't know about blogging losing its steam; I only know my engine is cooling down. That's why I'm taking a break and letting social media do whatever it does without me for a while.

    As to promotion, I don't know of any better promotion than to write your book the best you can. As far as I can tell, there's no best way to promote your books these day. Good luck, whatever you do.

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  6. Ah the infamous conundrum. If there was a foolproof way to keep your sales high, we'd all be doing it. They joys, eh?

    Unleashing the Dreamworld

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  7. If publishers knew how to create a bestseller, they'd do it with every single book. No one really knows. It's a combination of things, including luck.

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  8. Everyone has said what I was thinking.

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  9. I am beginning to wane on my marketing, but with a new poetry book coming out, I am thinking of how much, when, and where all over again. Working through first edits of my first novel has me thinking zero marketing now...for I want to edit and write. And now, I have no clue about Amazon's rankings, etc. I see a spike, but not a sale. Oh well, at least there's the writing.

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  10. Cathrina, I wish you mentioned you were thinking about boosting your ad on Facebook before. I have done this several times for my children's book and the outcome was not what I expected. With the amount of money I spent, I could have hired a good PR company which I ended up doing anyway and having a much better outcome. Not only that, but my children's book gained 15 five star reviews within 3 weeks! Facebook also charged me more money when I clearly stopped boosting my ads. I had to dispute the case with my credit card! So be careful!

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  11. I've seen many authors pay for advertising on FB or GR or pay for blog tours, but I haven't seen anyone make sales that way. The only thing I've seen work is Bookbub, but that costs $250 and unless your publisher pays, that's too much! Luckily/unluckily, I have no Paypal in Egypt so can't pay for a thing. Just keep plugging away and write new books. Wishing you much success!! :)

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  12. The Amazon component sounds incredibly complex. I think the most important concept with blogging as a writer is to remember you have to connect with readers via the web. That might mean Amazon, FB, Wattpad etc... There is no one answer with any of it, huh?

    Let me know if you want to post a Book Buzz piece on my blog about your new release. I'd be happy to! :)

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  13. Someone told me Amazon's numbers aren't always up to date...often they are late in posting how things are doing. So the efforts you're doing now might not show up for a couple of weeks? I don't know if that's true or not. I never could make sense of the upticks and drops in numbers...30 Days just had a big surge last week for no reason whatsoever...the book's been out for 7 months!!! I honestly haven't noticed that much of a difference from events, sadly. I'm not sure it's the best way--blogging and social media seems to have a much wider reach. At most events, they take my bookmarks, I sell a few books that I sign, and that's it. You just hope they tell others about the book if they like it!

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  14. On my last release day, Amazon didn't update my ranking for 24 hours so it looked like I didn't sell a single book. The next day it updated and my rank was really good. It glitches sometimes and I don't know why.

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  15. Amazon's rankings can be so weird. One sale can make a lot of difference, but then ten sales no difference. I don't know!

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  16. I've been thinking about using Facebook's promotional tools/ads...seems you can sort of buy advertising to fit your budget (though I think if you spend less, you also get less). As for Amazon rankings, well, I suck at numbers (which is why I'm a writer and not a mathematician). ;-)

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  17. I'm never sure what makes a book rise or fall in a certain category. Best of luck with your sale!

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  18. Other people I've talked to are confused by Amazon's ratings, Cathrina. I haven't talked to anyone who made sense of them yet, so you're not alone with your frustrations, or with being puzzled about it. Best wishes, as always.

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