While a website will not, on its own, drive much traffic for an author, most established authors have a site dedicated to their published books, and establishing the basics of their story. If a potential reader is searching for information about a particular author, it is good for them to have somewhere to go. Independent authors will typically only have a small (or no) budget) for such an undertaking, Fortunately, there are some excellent website building services that do not require their users to code or even know much about the technical side of things. So keep it simple to begin with, maybe even just a single page with links to your Amazon and other listings.
Scripted Response — Three Posters
Noted editor and author Euan Mitchell commissioned three posters for screenplays he entered into American scriptwriting competitions. The above posters are the final drafts. Happily, he has received several awards for his scripts.
Glenice Whitting shortlisted in Indie Excellence Awards
As the name suggests, the US-based Indie Excellence Awards were instituted to highlight the best examples of independent publishing. Scrolling through their 14th annual shortlist does give one a sense of diverse, high quality work. We are happy to relate that Glenice Whitting’s What Time is it There"? was deservedly shortlisted. We assisted Glenice with the design of her book in 2019. Glenice’s excellent website can be perused here, and includes purchasing information and a thoughtful blog.
Recent Cover Design examples
A few recent cover designs, from high fantasy to Australian railway trips…
Four Covers for 2020
A small sample of recently cover drafts for WorkingType clients, featuring the usual interesting diversity of subject matter and tone…
![July Seventeenth cover_front_05[5].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51dc1c1ee4b0c7a76cdb8427/1583867516955-NAY2PXMY5LXUCFZ76WIJ/July+Seventeenth+cover_front_05%5B5%5D.jpg)
Amazon advertising and BookBub
Practical suggestions from a very active and savvy independent author:
Four years ago, I fluked winning a FREE Featured Deal. I had five other books at the time, and the sell-through, and KUs were great (250,000/month). On top of this I received an additional 70 reviews for the Featured book, most of them 5-star. At the time I knew next to nothing about BookBub and expected to keep on winning Featured Deals. Was I in for a sad awakening!
Fast forward to July 2019 when I sold a mere 100 books and had a miserable 14,809 KUs. To make matters worse, I had more than doubled my number of books. There are many reasons why the preceding occurred, but the main one was that I did no promoting either via social media or paid advertising. I should say that writing is not my prime source of income, which is just as well, because if it were, I’d be starving. That said, I have a certain amount of pride and set out to remedy the foregoing.
I decided I’d actively advertise my books in promoters’ newsletters but would not spend more than $150 per month. The results to date, while not great, are promising. I’ll sell more than 200 books in October, and my KUs will nudge 30,000. The increase in revenue more than covered my advertising costs, and my numbers are up 100%. The idea now is to compound them at the same rate for the next four months.
I have not applied for a BookBub Deal this calendar year but soon will. If I’m successful, BB will be the exception to my $150 rule. I will not accept an international Deal and am of the belief that without the U.S., BB’s Deals, even with sell-through and KUs are still likely to be losers. The U.S. is critical.
The struggle that I have had is finding six suitable promoters for the seven-day Amazon countdown period. Outside of BookBub, ENT is the absolute standout. I don’t advertise the day after ENT ($45), as I’m still getting good sales and KUs from the day prior. The next-best promoter is BookRaid because it’s cheap (about 18 cents a click and usually less than $3) and is good for approximately 10 sales. Let’s say I’m promoting a book with a rank of #300,000 … it won’t be attractive to ENT’s subscribers, but by using BookRaid on the first day and another small promoter (say Authors XP at $20) on the second day, I can lower the ranking to sub #40,000 by the time ENT’s promo kicks in on the third and fourth days. Now it gets hard as I have three days to go and a remaining budget of about $82. The promoters available are eReaderIQ, FKBT, ManyBooks, The Fussy Librarian, Robin Reads, Just Kindle Books, Book Rebel, Book Gorilla, and Book Cave. I have had reasonable success with eReaderIQ ($20), FKBT ($30), and ManyBooks ($29). I might be tempted to replace FKBT with Book Gorilla ($50), but it would blow my budget by $17, and I’d need another 25 sales to justify it, and that’s unlikely.
Finally, I tried Amazon ads when they were first introduced in the U.S. with moderate success, but the competition was too hot (Mark Dawson spent $50,000 on Amazon Ads last month). However, Amazon has just introduced ads in the U.K., and I have 10 running, and they’re doing okay. I’m running them for two reasons … first-mover advantage and currently I hardly make any sales in the U.K.
Peter Ralph reviewed
“This is my first book by this author, but it will definitely not be my last. Mr. Ralph has taken a frightening and current issue, that of court appointed guardianships, and skillfully woven a thought-provoking, completely captivating, outrage-inducing work of fiction. The underlying concept of guardianships and their potential as instruments of legal theft and abuse has, sadly, become a widespread, yet fairly unrecognized, plague preying on the elderly segment of our population. Most people who read this book will probably think that this couldn’t possibly happen in reality but even a cursory search on the internet will lead to a vast wealth of information confirming this treachery as both real and ongoing. I applaud Mr. Ralph’s efforts at bringing this important issue to the attention of his readership. This is a well-written fast-paced story that will hold your attention from the first page to the last. The main character, Josh Kennelly, is a wonderfully likable veteran who goes the extra mile to help out a fellow vet when that man’s father falls victim to the guardianship trap. I have a feeling that this story will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading.
I was provided with a free advance copy of this book but decided to purchase a copy to start my Josh Kennelly collection and I am voluntarily offering this honest and unbiased review.”
5 Benefits of Writing And Why You Should Make It a Daily Habit
A guest post kindly contributed by freelance writer Angela Johnston.
Are you writing daily?
Writing can be a hobby that is incredibly beneficial for your everyday life.
You write to keep track of your ambitions, to improve your vocabulary, to get your story branded and published, or to maintain a journal of your day’s events or the on-goings in the world around you.
Below are some of the notable benefits of writing daily and the impact it can have in your life
1) A Wake-Up Call For Your Brain
If you have ever gone to work only to find yourself seated at your desk for several hours waiting for your mind to get with the program. That translates to lost time that you can never recover and if you are unfortunate to be forced to tackle anything, then you will have a tepid approach to handling the task.
Try and hit the ground running when you get up in the morning and prepare to head to your workplace. You can do this by sitting down and penning down your day’s agenda or playing a crossword puzzle as you sip your morning tea, coffee, or smoothie.
For instance, you can come up with writing assignment routine for your mornings in which you have topics on slips of paper that you pull out from a jar and write about what is on the selected slip
Conversely, you can subscribe to mailing lists and have a subject delivered in your inbox every morning. According to the hypnotherapist at AOTH, the objective is to get your brain’s gears turning early in the morning so that you are mentally awake as you head to the office. They explain that “by getting your mind going early, in turn, you will be able to stay focused, and you will be ready to handle anything that comes to your desk.”
2) Stream Of Consciousness Riddance
It is not common to wake up with a story to write in mind.
But you can pen down your first thoughts of the day and then work from there. It can be something as simple as “another wonderful Friday morning – the weekend loading; I am looking forward to the BBQ party this Sunday. I do hope my Saturday will set the right tempo.”
According to the relationship counsellors at Thinking Families, this can be an opportunity to vent your worries or frustrations that may have accumulated overnight. They explain that “this allows you to start your day on a clean slate. Moreover, writing down your thoughts will be an excellent way of self-exploration as you reflect on things and take a day off writing to read what you scribbled the last few days. It will help you identify some of the issues which popped up severally in your writing that you need to address so that they stop weighing your down.”
For instance, if you find that you start your day with some self-criticism, then you should put in more effort to appreciate and be kinder to yourself. Look at ways of starting your day on a positive note by thinking of positive affirmation worth writing about as you proclaim self-love.
3). Dream Recall
Your dreams may be a source of inspiration; therefore, consider keeping a dream journal by your bedside. You can then scribble down what you encountered in our dreamworld if you are startled into the waking world.
BONUS TIP: Jot down anything even if it is to state that you did not have any dreams.
Try to scribble what you can recall for your slumber’s meanderings, even if all you can remember are colours. It may help to gradually improve your ability to remember the details of your dreams and then you can start notices themes or patterns in your dreams.
4). Expanding And Maintaining Your Vocabulary
What you have but fail to use often loses its usefulness.
This also applies to your vocabulary. In this age in which tweeting and texting are the things that fuel how we communicate; people are increasingly encountering mental blocks when it comes to their word banks. It is the result of trying to condense thoughts and conversations into few words and character.
It is a culture that will birth problems when individuals must sit in a meeting, and all that comes to mind is cooked up jargon.
They most likely will ensure up using terms and phrases that are inappropriate for such a sitting. The same will be evident when they must write an assignment, and they end up spending much of their time go through a thesaurus in search of appropriate words.
Therefore, waking up to writing something down every morning can be a great way of expanding word bank and maintaining your vocabulary. You will find yourself fitting some of your words into your day’s written exchanges and leave people impressed.
5). Evening Contemplation And Relaxation
The demand of the day will have many people stress, and their minds preoccupied with how they will complete their duties. Such things will weigh us down. The only time, we get to enjoy a break from these responsibilities is when we are sleeping.
So, why not keep a journal or notepad on your bedside on which you can pen down your day’s thoughts and encounters? It can be a therapeutic platform on which you can vent, distress, and relax as you let go of your woes by acknowledging and writing them down. It will also help you enjoy better sleep.
Alternatively, you can opt to meditate or do some simple exercises or yoga poses. According to the Kinesiologists at Shen Ko Vitality, “exercise is vital in de stressing your body, especially after a long day of mental stress from work.”
In conclusion, writing daily is both therapeutic and enables a clearer mind moving forward. You’ve simply got nothing to lose with this easily adoptable habit.
If you’ve ever considered taking up this habit by writing a book, don’t hesitate to contact Working Type to help you design your book cover before getting it published!
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Written by: Angela Johnston
Promote Your Book with Persistence and the Power of Networking
We asked author Pat Kelly to describe her successful efforts to market her two books set on the Isle of Man (Shadow of the Wheel and Hedge of Thorns). There’s quite a bit of detail, but it is a testament to persistence and networking (and having two excellent books to sell)
When my book, Shadow of the Wheel was accepted for publication I was not a member of Facebook but joined at my publisher's suggestion.
I happily admit to being a complete computer nerd and had no knowledge about Facebook other than that people seemed to send each other photographs of what they were about to eat. However, I dutifully joined and asked one or two people I knew to be my friends. Most of these were family, but a few were people I had known when I lived in the Isle of Man. So after a few days, I had a whole twelve 'friends'. I looked amongst their friends and put in a 'friend' request to quite a few. Some accepted, some didn't and some asked 'who are you?' From the ones who accepted I put in requests to some of their contacts. So it mushroomed until I now have over 100 contacts.
The important thing was, who some of these new friends were and the actions they took for someone who was almost, and in many instances, a complete stranger.
As the book started in the Isle of Man and I know the Manxies love their island and its history, I joined a couple of groups on the Island and saw one or two names I knew, so put in 'friend' requests to them. Several of them, on hearing about Shadow of the Wheel' got on to Amazon straight away and actually bought a copy while we were still on Facebook chatting. They enjoyed the book and some of them shared a picture of the book along with some very flattering words with all their friends. One actually said 'It is a terrific book DOWNLOAD IT NOW!' Others who had read it invited me to join another Isle of Man group they were members of. So I am now in five Manx groups and the good thing about this is that there are Manx societies all over the world, who are also members of the Isle of Man groups. So this got the word out to the world about my book.
It was a bit like throwing a pebble into a pool and watching the ripples spreead and grow.
One lady who is the secretary of the Isle of Man Family History Society, got in touch with me because she wishes to do a write up about me in the society's journal which will be out November, after which she is going to organize a write up in the local papers about me and my books and also a piece on the local radio.
Since launching Shadow of the Wheel, I have done a huge edit on a book I had published on the Isle of Man in 1993. It is a true story, as told to me by my late mother in law, telling about her childhood during the 1st World War, in a village of about 20 residents, when a huge internment camp was built in the village to house 'alien internees'. It was made rather a mess of when it was originally published, but with a lot of patient help from Luke Harris I undid all the wrongs that were done to it originally and Luke designed a beautiful new cover for it.
I re-launched it in the middle of September and put a picture of it, with a few words of explanation, out to my Manx groups. Within two hours I had enquiries from South Africa, Zimbabwe, USA and Canada asking where they could buy the book. Presumably they are Manx expats now living in these countries.
I also friended (only because she bore the same name as my beloved sister) a young girl - sixty years my junior who lives nearby and is studying journalism and history at university. She has similar interests to me and we got on like a house on fire from the moment we met. We are now close friends, she has bought and read both my books. She wrote my life story and,said a lot of flattering things about my books and took a very nice photo of me sitting on my front steps with a copy of Shadow of the Wheel as one of her assignments for university, then shared this assignment with her almost 2000 Facebook friends, including links for buying my books. Ending with a comment that they were terrific books and advising her friends to buy them.
This, to me, shows the value of choosing carefully on Facebook, then putting in requests to likely looking 'friends, contacts of theirs - and so ad infinitum.
I addition to this my friends in the Lakes Entrance senior citizens club put of a little launching morning tea for me a the club and invited a reporter from the local paper to come and take a photo. She duly did this, then called out to my house twice to interview me and did a great article about my life's history and how I came into writing. Now that Hedge of Thorns has also been launched, she is going to gake some more photos and do another little write-up.
Update #1
I had an email on Friday from one of my friends in IOM who told me that her friend, Carol Tomlinson, had just sent her a message (tongue in cheek) telling her she had just finished reading her wonderful book and didn't know she had it in her. So Pat and I exchanged a few messages about it and I told her about Hedge of Thorns, etc and she said she was going to buy them both. The following day I had a friend request from Carol Tomlinson, who had seen Pat's and my exchange. Carol and I had some long chats about my books. She had bought Shadow to read on holiday in Italy and couldn't put it down, so now she'll have to buy another book for the rest of her holiday. She said she was enjoying it so much she was very sad when it ended and asked if I would be doing a sequel.
I told her about my other books - Beyond the Seas and that at some time I am possibly going to re-launch Smugglers. She says she is going to buy Hedge of Thorns when she gets home, so I suggested she should buy it from the Knockaloe Trust rather than Amazon. She also said she is going to buy another copy of Shadow to give to her friend — who lives in Laxey — for Christmas. When I opened up her page there was huge picture of Shadow of the Wheel and a very glowing report. One of her friends thanked her for the tip and said she had just bought it and another two said they were going to.
Then yesterday I had a message from a lady who bought it not long after it was launched, but at the time said she had a few in a queue in from of it waiting to be read. She had just finished it and said she cried at the end when Jos got off the train along with the rest of the family. She also put a big picture and write up about it and sent it to all her friends.
So it still seems to be moving well over there. In addition I sold two copies of Hedge and one of Shadow to two friend in my carer support group on Friday. It's all quite exciting.
UPDATE # 2
I just thought I would bring you up to date with my latest exploits. I decided to make today a day of running around all the little businesses I could think of to see if I could make any sales.
I started with the General Store in Swan Reach. The fellow there was very happy to take some of my books and have a go, though he did say he didn't really think they would sell there. But when I came to discuss money and how much his share would be, he just flapped his hand and said they didn't do that there. Any he sells he will just give me all the dough — to quote him. So let's hope he sells some.
Then I got to Bairnsdale and my first call was to a 'cafe' I just discovered a couple of weeks ago when a friend suggested we should meet there for a cuppa. It was only afterwards that I realised that they sold school supplies, stationery etc. there. So I decided to give them a try today. The first thing I saw when I walked in the door was a little stand of books and above it said 'LOCAL AUTHORS'. When I went in, books in hand and told the lady what I was there for I thought she was going to jump over the counter and hug me. No hesitation in saying she would have some of my books. She said she takes 20 per cent, which is $2 less than I was going to offer her, so I didj't argue. She then asked if I did events, which I haven't but would be willing to. She is very involved with the Bairnsdale Show and says they have a stand there which they invite local authors to bring their books to, and they get about 60,000 visitors to the show. She says there are also other events they invite authors to.
As you know, it was a stinking hot day, so I decided to have an iced coffee while I was there and there was a lady at another table. As Charlotte (the shop lady) was putting my books on the shelf this other lady said something to her and she took one of each over to her. Then she came back to me, told me the other lady was also an author and gave me her book to look at. The lady, Leanne, was actually a poet and photographer and her pictures were absolutely stunning - all local pictures.
When I'd finished my coffee I stopped to chat to her and we spent about half an hour discussing our masterpieces. She told me the secretary of the Bairnsdale Historical Society is Manx and she thought she would probably be very interested in Hedge of Thorns. When I got up to leave she told me she was going to buy Shadow of the Wheel herself and as I went out the door I looked around and sure enough, she was at the counter buying the book.
Charlotte asked to take a photo of me with the books to put on social media. In actual fact, she stood on one side of the 'local author' stand and I stood on the other side with a book each showing the sign between us. It looked good.
When I got home I found both ladies on facebook and requested to 'friend' them. They could both prove very useful contacts.
When I left there I went to the newsagent in the main street, but the boss was out and wouldn't be back for about an hour.and it was too hot to hang around. I had also been going to try two places in Paynesvile and the general stor in Metung, but again the heat was getting to me. I'll do them and the Newsagent another day.
Solving Writing Problems with Euan Mitchell
Euan Mitchell is a highly experienced editor and independent publishing expert who teaches at Swinburne University and also takes on private editing projects. His website provides further background information. He was interviewed on writing and editing for the Garret podcast. He specialises in Story design (all genres of novel and memoir), Young adult fiction (contemporary realism focus), Novel (commercial adult fiction), Memoir, Non-fiction (educational focus) and Short story (all genres). He has written a detailed guide for creating and marketing print and ebooks, available from Amazon. Here are some of his thoughts on authors and editing:
How does a writer know when their manuscript is ready to show publishers or readers?
This is a tough question to answer precisely, but new and emerging writers should not make the classic mistake of submitting unedited work to publishers. Too many new writers think a spellcheck is sufficient because a publisher will want to edit their manuscript anyway. But publishers want to spend as little money as possible on editing. Even though publishers know that a good edit can be the best way to add value to a book, editing takes time and editors typically work for an hourly rate. If you are self-publishing, then you don’t want your readers deriding your editorial efforts as substandard all over social media. There is a world of vocal armchair pedants out there!
Over the two decades I have been helping new and emerging writers to edit or rewrite their work to a publishable standard, I have found that a free sample edit of about 1,500 words from an extended manuscript is a good way to gauge how much editorial work is needed in total. Writers can then make an informed decision about whether or not to engage my services. Writers are usually pleased when I point out specifics that can be improved. This will typically include fixing some spelling, grammar and punctuation; however, often the sample edit will reveal other aspects to address, such as: lack of clarity, awkward transitions, ‘head-hopping’ points of view, weak dialogue, tautologies, clichés, and too much use of summary or stock character descriptions. The good news is that all these problems can be fixed. A careful edit or rewrite will ensure your ideas have the best chance of connecting successfully with publishers and readers. You can email Euan to discuss your writing project via euan@euanmitchell.com
Thrill of the Chase — books by Ray Scott
Ray Scott was born in England, and for many years lived near Birmingham. Ray and his wife Mary emigrated to Australia in 1970. Ray worked in the insurance industry, in England and Australia, over 35 years and after retirement devoted his time to fiction writing.
In 2012 he released his first novel, an e-book originally entitled “The Man Who Had Five Lives”, later re-issued as “The Fifth Identity”. In 2014, a paperback “Cut to the Chase” was published, followed in 2017 by “The Wimmera Shoot”, another e-book. In 2019, a fourth e-book and paperback “Double Dutch” was released.Ray maintains a website here.
Ray’s writing style is similar to top writers such as Desmond Bagley, Geoffrey Household and Eric Ambler. The books are racy and about ordinary people caught up in international or political intrigue by accident or design, who go on the run to avoid being arrested, or murdered to ensure their silence.
“Double Dutch” includes an exciting chase through country Victoria and New South Wales. The leading character accidentally learns of an impending coup d’état in a nearby Pacific island nation, is kidnapped to ensure his silence, but escapes. Penniless and without transport, he endeavours to reach Canberra to warn ASIO of the coup.
Author Trish George and her website
Independent author and outright character Trish George has an author website up, and it is quite well done. An inveterate traveler, Trish has been all over Australia and promoted her work along the way. Along with her works of fiction, she has also written several travel books and is quite a raconteur.
Sailor to Radio Lineman to CEO to Author — Jim Pratt and His Books
Scottish born James Pratt, the son of a coal miner, is a man from humble beginnings who rose to the top of his chosen profession. At the age of 15 he, (as he describes it), ran away to sea and joined the British Merchant Navy before settling in Australia at the young age of 18.
He worked as a radio lineman in outback Queensland for several years then moved into sales and marketing, then General Management. By the time of his retirement, he had reached the very top of his profession as a Telecommunications Executive.
He held several senior positions, including, Chairman of the globally renowned GSM Association, was the founding CEO of Peoples Telephone Company Limited, a substantial mobile telephone network operator in Hong Kong, (now China Mobile Hong Kong), a former Managing Director with Telstra and the President & CEO of GlobeTrac Inc. He served as a non-executive director on several boards until his retirement.
He honed his writing and communication skills on business reports and strategy papers and had numerous articles published in various global Telecommunications magazines.
Well travelled, he has been to almost 100 countries, meeting some of the most famous and influential people around the globe.
His first stop inside a departures lounge at any airport was always the bookstore where he would purchase a novel, usually an action thriller. He read almost everything by Le Carre, Ludlum, Forsyth, Cussler, Clancy, Harris and many more, most with enjoyment. However, over time, he concluded that he could write more entertaining stories than those he was now buying to read on those long flights and was finding it increasingly hard to find a book he could relax with and enjoy. So, upon retiring, he turned his hand to writing his first novel, Telekom, which he released several years ago with quite some success. He has just released his second novel, The Sleeper Project and had started work on his third, to be called, “Cassidy’s Conflict.”
Author Pat Kelly and her books
Pat Kelly writes well-plotted and thoroughly engaging historical novels populated by believable characters. Although her characters often face great challenges, she maintains a touch of humour and optimism. She is skilled at evoking lost eras and the way people saw the world.
Pat Kelly was born in Glasgow in 1938. When she was just over a year old her father was called up to serve his country and she barely saw him until she was about eight years old.
Perhaps as an escape, in early primary school Pat took to writing stories, which her teacher used to read out to the class.
In her teens and early twenties Pat wrote several books, sent them to publishers with a stamped return envelope, but never received any of them back, so had to retype them to send them to the next publisher. None were ever acknowledged or published.
Eventually, Pat married and was too involved with raising children to have time to write. In 1968 she arrived in SouthAustralia, with four children, as a £10 Pom. After divorcing after over twenty-five years of marriage Pat was contacted by a Manxman, Mike, she had known in her teens. They married and returned to the Isle of Man to live.
After Mike retired, in 1993, they followed the summers with six months in each country. While in the Isle of Man they ran a daffodil farm and were well known on the Island for their roadside stall, with an honesty box, selling daffodils and plants.
In 2014, the travel was becoming too much, so they moved to Australia permanently to live in Lakes Entrance, a beautiful, peaceful little town in Victoria.
When she moved to the Isle of Man, Pat left all her family in Australia. Mikes mother Lou, a wonderful lady took her new daughter in law under her wing and they had great conversations.
Lou had grown up in a tiny village in the West of the Isle of Man. The population of this village was around 20, but when the great war started an internment camp was built which eventually housed around 25,000 ‘enemy aliens’. As Lou told Pat about her childhood and this huge camp looming over her tiny village, Pat realised she was listening to history, a lot of which no one else alive could tell – and that if Lou died, all that history would be lost forever. So she wrote it's all down and turned it into a book called ‘Hedge of Thorns’ that was a great success on the island.
The research for this sparked Pat's interest in Manx history And she then went on to write a second book, ‘Smugglers Urchins’, set in the smuggling era on the island.
Her next foray into Manx history was the famous Laxey water wheel, resulting in ‘Shadow of the Wheel’.
Pat is currently working on a story which finds 14-year-old Manx girl being transported for 7 years for stealing a loaf of bread. She sails with the second fleet in a ship that was nicknamed ‘the floating brothel’.
Authors, Don't Forget Libraries
Independent authors sometimes forget the library market. Libraries have made a largely successful transition to the era of the Internet, becoming multi-use spaces, offering ebooks and audio books and maintaining their print collections. Many libraries are quite supportive of independent authors. Joanne Penn has posted about getting books into American libraries, but similar principles also apply in Australia. Apart from contacting individual library corporations, try reading this kindle book on the Australian market. URLs for Australian library distributors below. And don’t forget to register for Public Lending Rights!
James Bennet
https://www.bennett.com.au/
Peter Pal
www.peterpal.com.au
Bookbub Speaks, Advises
An author client recently got in touch with ebook promotional giant Bookbub to discuss the disappointing performance of a paid ad posted on that platform. He received the following interesting response, worth reading in full for anyone considering using the service or applying for the oly grail of a featured deal (as with so many areas of the Internet, Bookbub is overwhelmingly dominant in its space):
Thanks for reaching out! I'm sorry to hear your recent ad campaign didn't produce the results you were hoping for. I'll note that it does require quite a bit of testing and tweaking to develop ad campaigns that get the results you're looking for. When getting started with ads, we recommend that partners spend some time committed to testing ads with small budgets of $5-$10. Generally, you're unlikely to see a positive return immediately out of the gate with no testing.
I'd encourage you to read through some of our blog posts to get more familiar with BookBub Ads. I've gone ahead and listed a few that I think you'll find helpful below:
- First, you can find a blog post on increasing your click-through rate here: https://insights.bookbub.com/increase-click-through-rate-bookbub-ads-campaign/
- Next, you can read about how marketing goals affect BookBub ad campaigns here: https://insights.bookbub.com/how-marketing-goals-affect-bookbub-ad-campaigns-infographic/
- Finally, you can view our ultimate guide to BookBub Ads here: https://insights.bookbub.com/ultimate-guide-bookbub-ads/#getting-started
If you want to learn more about BookBub Ads, I'd suggest that you read through some other posts in the BookBub Ads section of our blog here for more tutorials, campaign ideas, and best practices.
I'm happy to answer any questions your have around Featured Deals:
1.) Currently, we rarely feature new releases in our daily emails. We’ve found that books that have had a chance to build up their platform perform best and, therefore, make for the most successful promotions for our partners.
2.) Your promotion's length is completely up to you and your marketing goals. You're welcome to discount your book for just a day, or a whole week or more if you'd like. We happen to have a blog post that discusses what promotion lengths work best for different marketing goals here. I hope you find that post helpful!
3.) Critical reviews play a role in our editor's selection process, so it would certainly be helpful for your title to have some reviews associated with it. You're absolutely welcome to submit this book for consideration, but please note that, as mentioned above, we tend to feature books that have built up their platform. If you're interested, you can learn more about the editorial team's selection process here.
Social Proof Sells Books
Author advice guru David Gaughran has posted a very interesting column on the most powerful selling tool for books — personal recommendations and reviews, or “social proof”. If a potential reader receives a strong social signal via reviews or a personal recommendation from a friend, they are much more likely to purchase. It therefore follows that independent authors need to do all they can to foster and amplify such signalling for their own work.
“The phenomenon is only different today in the surface details: that trusted source can be an algorithm at Amazon or Goodreads, a book blogger who taste maps your own, bestseller charts at various online retailers, daily emails from BookBub, or a million other things in today’s fragmented recommendation ecosystem.”
Independent Publishing Tips and Very Useful Resources
An interesting view from 30,000 feet of the challlenges confronting and opportunities available to independent authors, as posted at The Verge. They have spoken to a few successful authors and author advocates and provide several useful links. One of the best is here with a real trove of resources and advice, especially regarding predatory vanity publisher outfits.
“You are accountable for the success of the publishing process. By taking on the kind of freedom and flexibility of self-publishing, you’re also taking on the accountability.”
Selling Your Book Online — An Expert Speaks
Irish writer David Gaughran has plenty to say about maintaining an online “author platform” and driving online sales. Some of his pithier quotes:
“As well as promoting my own books, I’ve run giant campaigns for huge authors over the last couple of years, launching multiple books into the Top 100, running major backlist promotions that generated tens of thousands of sales during their foray into the charts, and million and millions of page reads, as well as multiple Kindle Unlimited awards. Some of these campaigns can generate extraordinary profits.”
“BookBub is the most famous, obviously, and is significantly larger than all the other sites combined with millions of genuine book buyers on its lists. There are no sure things in marketing, but a BookBub Featured Deal is the closest you’ll get. Authors typically report making the cost back in twenty-four hours or less, and then enjoying a significant increase in visibility and sellthrough and email sign-ups and reviews. ”
“Before the “do you not VALUE books?” crowd get warmed up, let me say this: those cheap deals are used to pole-vault us into position to shift even more books at full price. A springboard, if you like. I don’t focus so much on prices anyway, these things are all tools to me. I prefer to look at monthly income. Running price promotions increases it greatly. ”
For Whom the River Runs — Book Cover
Wayne Pappin has written a heartfelt tale about a small Australian town, focusing on two young men and their travails. He wanted an image of the bridge that features at the heart of the story, which we combined with the two swimmers. The title typeface is Northwell and the subtitle Charcuterie Flared.