New Mission Launch
I keep saying I suck at marketing, and I never started publishing with the idea of being a salesperson. But that has to change. I can't keep making the excuse that I know squat about promoting and marketing, and moaning about my sales. I've tried the usual things. Now it's time to try something different. Different for me, anyway.
So, I started this year with the intention to make some changes. January is the first month since July 2014 when I haven't had a release tour. And although I have edits for Zombie Girl releasing late April and continuing edits for the re-release of Keir (tentatively scheduled for May), I decided January would be the month to research marketing and actually stop making excuses. I have books, and pretty good ones going by the reviews and awards they've gathered. I have a backlist, now totalling ten titles. I can only assume that, aside from still being relatively new and in a niche genre, that where I fail is marketing.
What I'm doing:
1. Right now, I'm taking a workshop with FFnP HERE - a RWA chapter focussed on speculative romance - concentrating on the subject of book launches. I'm hoping to learn a few things for my re-launch of Keir and for future books. I plan to take other workshops, both in writing craft and marketing as they come up. If you're interested in workshops, you can also check out Savvy Authors HERE.
2. I'm spending this month researching marketing, including Cary Caffrey's excellent series of posts on marketing on the SFR Brigade blog HERE, various emails on marketing topics that I've sent to myself over the past few months, and a handful of books I've picked up. I'll be sharing anything of value I learn from these in the next few weeks.
3. Making use of my publisher's notes on marketing, including a program on selling better on Amazon. Not sure I'm allowed to share those, but I'll let you know if they help.
4. After much internal debate and reading so, so many posts both for and against, I've finally decided to trial a couple of shorts out on KU. 99% of my self published sales are from Amazon anyway, so I'm not losing anything by going exclusive for 90 days. And I'm curious. I have no intention of being completely exclusive to Amazon, but since I rarely have sales elsewhere, I think the time has come to give it at least a try, especially since I have enough titles to pull a couple from other retailers for a bit. I may at some future date put Keir into it, but only after the sequel has released (by which time the initial burst of release sales will have probably died out anywhere but Amazon).
5. While I'll continue blog touring because my publisher provides the opportunity (and it's part of my contract), I'm going to try asking for review only tours in future. I've been flattered by being asked for ARCs for a couple of my books in the last couple of months, so I'm more confident about asking for reviews as part of a tour.
As with all things in writing and publishing, I'm not expecting instant results. Since KU runs for 90 days, I figure I might see some results three months from now, so I'll report back then.
Are you trying out anything new for the New Year?
Ping Pong
On Monday, Laurie A Green's authorly debut happened ten days earlier than planned, lol! Congrats on the launch of your scifi romance novellette Farewell Andromeda. Woo hoo! And on Wednesday it's the cover and title reveal for her novel and SFR series over on the Brigade blog HERE. (psst, I've already seen it and it is AWESOME!)
My tour for The King's Mistress is review only, with limited guest post availability. I only had to do three for it, and the host picked the topic. I'm doing a few other scattered things, but it's mostly book spotlights and filling out interviews. Liza interviewed A'yen, so that'll be a hoot!
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