The secret to selling books

Shhh - don't tell anyone. It's just you and me here, right? I'll bet you're like me, teetering on the brink of giving up because nobody's buying your books. I've been like that for most of the year. Maybe even the year before. You know the feeling. You tried every which-way to get your books noticed. Ads with Book Gorilla, had another go at getting BookBub to accept one of your novels, did blog tours, got into NetGalley, did guest posts on friends' blogs. Even had a series book one as a freebie.

All to not much avail. The figures went down and down until they bounced on the bottom. Some stories didn't make sales in months.

Mind you, the perma-free book (The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy) did make a difference. Sales picked up in that series, with quite a few people buying the subsequent books. Nowhere near as many as those who downloaded the free book, but many people don't actually read free books. And while we're on the subject, I've not seen any discernible reaction to my contribution to the wonderful Portals project.

Anyway, as you know, I recently girded my loins and finished a book. Eye of the Mother. That was about a week ago. Sales weren't great. After all, not too many people not on Facebook would even know about it, because I didn't do any of the things mentioned above. But what has happened is that people are buying all my books. Even stories that have sat on the shelf for the better part of a year have a '1' next to their name. Don't get me wrong, I'm not making any best seller lists, but it's a heartening trend.

So it looks to me that if you haven't published anything new for a while, and you're wondering why your sales have tanked - get on with it. Get another book out there. Go on. You can do it.

Pippa's Journal & The Dreaded 'Sales' Word

Mission Success - Hallow's Eve Tour

So my paranormal short released last week, and this week the tour is in progress. You can check out the tour stops below. And how's it been going?

Well, none of my books are ever a straight tearaway success. Something that is quoted a lot about being a successful author in a niche genre is that it's a marathon, not a sprint. I've spent four years building my platform and readership as a Skiffy Rommer...and at this late stage I'm now diversifying into paranormal, superheroes, YA... So I almost have to start again in terms of finding fans in those genres, particularly the YA.

One thing I can say for sure is setting Hallow's Eve up for pre-order certainly made release day a lot less stress for a self publisher, and I'd do it again. It left me free to pimp, and to update my blog and website for the new release, instead of tearing my hair out when things didn't work and feverishly checking to see if it was up.

Tour Schedule for Hallow's Eve

13^th – Winter Bayne Fairies, Imps and Sprites

15^th - Going from Somebody to Nobody Three Little Things (story inspiration)

17^th – Liza O’Connor Red Hair Rocks

19^th – Kristina Stutts How to make a Woman

20^th - Layna Pimentel Review

21^st – Celia Breslin All Hallows’ Eve

22^nd – Sonya Clark Interview

24^th – Patty Hammond Five Facts about Hallow’s Eve

25^th – Paranormal Reads Review

27^th – Liana Brooks Hodge’s Spiced Elderberry Cordial

26^th+27^th – Paranormal Romantics Interview

30^th - Mark of the Stars Five Facts about Witchcraft

One thing I rarely talk about (in public anyway) is my book sales. Well, other than to occasionally sob on the virtual shoulders of my friends and fellow authors when I have a bad month. Despite the internet, it's harder and harder to get your book noticed because there are soooo many others out there. Like over 10 million on Amazon alone. If you said ten titles per author, that's one million authors. ONE MILLION. How do you get heard out of that lot? I'm still trying to figure it out.

Another reason I don't mention sales figures is because I think it would be disrespectful to my publishers to reveal exact figures. It's like discussing what you get paid with your work colleagues and having them complain to the boss that so-and-so is on a better pay scheme. But one thing that I've seen as being a 'guaranteed' sales boost is more titles (of course, there's no such thing as guaranteed in business, but I'm talking in general terms of relatively). And I'm going to tell you that I think that is true.

Okay, so I'm not in multiple sales figures per day--that much I will tell you. But since Tethered released in July, and with Restless In Peaceville coming out in August, my sales have been steady to date. And they've been my best ever. I don't think I'm going to hit any best seller lists just yet (although Tethered has sat at #5 on my publisher's website for scifi romance since August, then jumped to #4 at the end of September), but steady sales are unusual for me in the two and a half years I've been published. So I am cautiously optimistic. I had another release just last week and the tour kicks off today (details below), and I still have two more to go for this year. It's been exhausting and I don't think I'd do it at this rate again. But it's given me a good range of titles in varying genres, lengths and prices which I hope will give me a broader appeal (scifi romance is still painfully niche). It'll be interesting to see how it goes come January 2015 when they're all out together. Plus I'm attending BristolCon in just over a week, to put myself 'out there' somewhere other than the internet.

No, I won't be giving you exact figures. But I will let you know if it causes any jumps or changes in sales. In the meantime you should check out Cary Caffrey's series on marketing at the Brigade blog (I'm going to confess I've not kept up to date with them myself because I'm so snowed under, but I'll be looking through them after BristolCon).

Happenings

Scream! For the Cure:

Last Friday the first goodie basket was auctioned off for this cancer charity event, and the next is up for display HERE (this time a HUGE bundle of erotic romance). Please consider stopping by and lending your support by sharing the event even if you can't contribute. I even bared my soul and told my own story HERE. I didn't expect talking about it to be quite so painful, but it's for a good cause.

BristolCon:

I am freaking out a bit, I'll admit. I'm not the world's most sociable person, so putting myself in front of strangers is a nerve-racking experience. Fortunately I will not be alone. I did a practice set up of my table (I'm sharing with the awesome Misa Buckley so I think I may have to budge up a bit) but here's what I have so far. If anyone has any advice or suggestions for me, I'd appreciate it! Just ten days to go. *gulp*

Romancing the Genre:

I have my monthly stint on RTG on Friday, this month talking about my near death experience. Come and found out what it was, and what went through my mind HERE.

NaNoWriMo is coming! I was supposed to spend this month planning, but between preparations for BristolCon, releasing Hallow's Eve, and all the usual little tasks I have around the interwebs and at home, I haven't done a whole lot. I tentatively sketched out a plot for the WDF sequel...and got sidetracked by a sequel to Tethered, a sequel to RIP, and trawling through some of my older WIPs that I really should finish off. So what am I doing for NaNo? Come back in November and find out - I might even know myself by then. O.O

In the meantime, I've being doing some work toward Keir. Specifically, a key tattoo on his stomach that is also mentioned elsewhere in the book...and in other related stories. OooooOOOOooooOOO! Yep, not telling you anything else. But these are the two current designs under consideration (the final design will also be going onto the Redemption series books). Which do you prefer?

News

I finally have a definitive release date for my superhero romance! When Dark Falls will be out on the 21st November. You can check out the blurb and add it to your Goodreads TBR shelf HERE. Still loving that cover.

Ping Pong

Congrats to Donna on a safe move and a happily married daughter!

Triple, Trinary or Ternary? What's in a name?

"Rukbat, in the Sagittarian Sector, was a golden G-type star."

That was one of the opening lines from an Anne McCaffrey Pern book - Dragonflight - and my first introduction to an author who very much helped to shape my early writing. It also sparked a deeper love for astronomy - more so for the facts and figures than the actual stargazing. In my teens, I could list at least a dozen constellations and tell you the major stars within them, including their type, magnitude and distance in lightyears from Earth. I had a memory that was close to photographic in those days, and the luxury of time to spend immersing myself in that kind of information. Sadly, twenty years on and I no longer have that skill - or all those facts to mind. No, if I want to know those things now, Wikipedia is my best friend!

But I still love to do the research. Now I'm a little lot more nervous about quoting the facts and figures, one reason that I don't include a lot of technical explanations in my writing. It has to be exactly right so I don't fall foul of any true science nerds. While writing the sequel to Keir, I wanted to include a triple star solar system and went hunting for a suitable candidate. Wikipedia provided me with the perfect one - Algol, in the constellation of Perseus. Why was this perfect? Because it's known as the Demon Star, tying it in nicely with Keir's old persona as the Blue Demon of Adalucien. I spent a day on it, for a piece of writing that barely covers a single page out of the current 221 of the story.

From Wikipedia - the suggested rotation of Algol

However, after the sequel came back from my editor, she questioned the term 'trinary', listing 'urnary', 'binary', and 'ternary'. So I went back to my research, specifically looking at terminology for multiple sun systems.

Although Algol is one of the best known eclipsing binaries, it's "actually a three-star system (Beta Persei A, B, and C) in which the large and bright primary Beta Persei A is regularly eclipsed by the dimmer Beta Persei B." (taken from Wikipedia). Multiple star systems consist of three or more stars that are physically close to one another and gravitationally bound. Most are triple stars, also known as ternary or trinary. Usually two stars form a binary system with a third orbiting the pair at a distance (hierarchical). Now, the last thing I want to do is bog down a reader with all the complexity of Algol's three stars. The essential element for me is that there are three suns, making the planet featured in the story a searing ball of sand valued only for its high mineral and metal deposits. As far as I can tell, the terms 'triple', 'trinary', and 'ternary' are all valid and interchangeable. I'd never heard of 'ternary' before, while 'trinary' sounds closer to the more commonly known 'binary', and so hopefully more understandable to a reader. But for now, I'm tempted to go with my editor's recommendation even though to me trinary is probably the more recognizable term. Which term do you find the most familiar? Which would make you go 'huh?'

Pippa's Journal

So, just over a week ago I got my first royalties statement. Squeee! Okay, so I'm not a bestseller or anything, but it really hit home the fact that I'm an author with a book that has sold actual copies. Seeing it in black and white makes it far more real. People have actually bought my book, and judging by the reviews they're enjoying it too. :)

On the writing side - I finally sent out my revised YA scifi novella Gethyon. I'm currently a third of the way through edits on Keir's sequel (which sadly needs a new name now) and polishing up the first 5K of my sfr novella Tethered for entry into the Rebecca, which closes on the 30th June - so if you're planning to enter, hurry up! There's apparently a shortage of entries. Also entry for the EPIC's eBook Awards™ opened from 1st June and goes through until the 15th of July. Please check with their website for details on eligibility and rules. 

Discoveries

Tracking your sales - thanks to Melisse Aires I already knew about NovelRank which tracks sales for your book on ALL Amazon sites as soon as a single copy sells. Mine is a little behind since it didn't start tracking until three days after Keir's release, but still a handy gadget. If you're an author with books on Amazon, you really need to sign up and fill out your profile on Author Central. Please note, you will need to do this on ALL the sites that sell your book. Unfortunately you can't just fill in one profile and have it feed to US, UK, German, French etc sites. But I found this site which has further tools for tracking your sales, including those through outlets like Barnes & Noble. 
  
Happenings

It's the SFR Brigade's Midsummer Blog Hop!!

On Friday 22nd June (Pacific Time) the SFR Brigade will be holding its first ever Blog Hop to celebrate Midsummer. 36 fabulous science fiction romance authors will be telling you mystical or scientific stories related to the event, and they'll each be giving away a prize - books, gift cards, swag bags...and lots more!

Plus there's TWO GRAND PRIZES!

1st Prize - a Kindle Touch or Nook Touch

2nd Prize -a library of science fiction romance titles from over 20 authors (these will be mostly ebooks with one print anthology), and an Anabanana Gift Card.

All you need to do to enter is pop along to the blogs listed below and comment on as many as you want (only ONE comment per site will count as an entry). Each time you comment at a stop, you'll earn one entry into the grand prize - so the more sites you visit, the greater your chances of winning. The winners will be drawn at random on the 24th June and announced on this site. The list of participating authors can be found below this post. Spread the news!

Ping Pong

At Donna - hugs on playing the waiting game. 

At Laurie - sorry about the Triple - maybe next year? I was interested to hear your view on Prometheus - I can't bring myself to watch any of the Alien films, but my husband went and was quite scathing in his view. I did try to get him to write a review of it to post to my blog, but he turned me down. O.o