I’m feeling good. No great leaps have been made but I am exactly where I hoped to be. And where is that? Is Given Time a success?
Well, the primary job for anyone looking to self-publish a book is almost certainly to get it onto Amazon. I uploaded my e-book and created a paperback version, ready for print. That’s neat. I like that.
I’ve also generated a copy on the Google Play Store and Kobo. I am yet to do Apple Books (because it requires Apple hardware to generate a book in the correct format) or B&N (because they require a feed of some kind. I forget the details).
Pricing in each case was a matter of keeping it as low as possible. I aim to do a ‘free book’ promotion using Amazon in the coming days. But first, let’s take a breather.
I started my marketing campaign shortly after making sure the books were ready to be sold. Current advertising platforms for my novel are: Google AdWords, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon’s own advertising. Today I’ve spent around £50, in the knowledge that I intend to drop this dramatically over the next 48 hours. My intention is to generate data at this point, and from there I can hone and cut my spending. At this point I’ll probably drop one or more advertising platforms altogether, as well as reducing the per-day budget that I’m willing to use to promote my book. In the end I can afford only a few GBP per day. And some months I’ll struggle to put aside that much.
So what have I seen from all this activity? Well, there were a few hours today in which I refreshed the various analytics and data screens in hope of seeing some good progress. But the truth is that without a bigger budget, or more publicity available to me, it was always unlikely that I’d see much. I’ve learned from the process, for sure. And that’s been hugely beneficial.
But! The good news! I have taken 1 sale. Yes, 1 sale. Dramatic, huh? But I’m not dissatisfied with that. I’ve seen good click through rates on the ads I’ve set up, so I know the premise of the book is somewhat interesting. I feel positive for the future.
What’s next? Well, I’m lucky enough to have a few hundred people on a mailing list that I can contact. I also have a number of websites in which I can post my own advertising. Fingers crossed I’ll see more traffic from that. And hopefully some more sales. I strongly believe that books are viral beasts. With some low levels of purchases will hopefully come reviews, and with reviews hopefully a mini-snowball effect.
Until then I’ll keep thinking about things. All while writing the next book.