Wild, Wicked & Wacky Rewind from 2017

This post from March 24, 2017, about marketing still hold truths for today.

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Edit to Add: Ironically, Kris Rusch talked about a related issue this week. I suggest you go read her post on the massive amount of data we writers can collect on readers and our interactions with them.

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Indie writers have this tendency to freak about modern marketing. They generally seem to go one of two ways: either they promote the hell out of only one or two books or they panic and don't market at all.

The really big mistake I think a lot of writers make is failing understand their own work and target it to an inappropriate audience. I see a lot of new writers in the game make the same mistake the Big 5 make--they through spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. But they have no idea why something sticks.

I will say this, and it is just my opinion--permafree isn't working like it used to. Too many readers feel they've been burned by the writers, but bad writing and incoherent stories weren't the only problem.

A subset of readers will only accept or download free books. I'm not talking about folks on a limited budget. I'm not dissing those people. I've been there. I know what it's like when you don't have a choice between food and heat. When even having a TV was a luxury out of my reach. I was lucky my county library was within walking distance. And I ended up buying copies of the very same books I enjoyed through the library system.

I'm talking about those folks who feel entitled to anything they want for free. Those who mock anyone for being stupid to pay. Those who openly pirate. Those people are going to pay you anyway, so including them in your marketing plan is probably not in your best interest.

And these types of folks are an example of what I mean. You need to target your marketing efforts towards people likely to have an interest in and the wherewithal to buy your book. Not everyone on the planet will want to read your book no matter how great your book is. So get over the idea that your book is for everyone NOW!

Let's start by looking at my own family. Mom's into sweet romance. My father-in-law reads military history. Genius Kid loves manga and military sci-fi. Dad secretly reads my X-men comics. My sister is a major horror fan.

Now, let's pretend none of these people are my family. How would I market my sword-and-sorcery novels to them?

A lot of indies would say that since my heroine and hero are in a long-term relationship emphasize that aspect to my mother. My protagonists are fighting demons so highlight that element to my sister. And, you get the idea. And that lovely plan will probably fail.

What's wrong with this plan? Well, first of all, I asked the wrong damn question. My question should have been how do I market my book to people who already LOVE sword-and-sorcery. The people who are actively seeking the exact type of book I wrote.

Does this mean that other folks won't like my book? No, but you'll be wasting your time and money going after people who aren't likely to make your book their first choice.

So how does this apply in real life?

If you decide to run a Facebook ad, you don't include everyone who loves books. You narrow it down by genre and subgenre. I could can even narrow it down by looking at people who are fans of the type of sword-and-sorcery I emulate, i.e. Mercedes Lackey and Barbara Hambly, not Roberrt E. Howard.

One of the best examples of how NOT to market your entertainment is John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood.  Michael D. Sellers does an excellent job of detailing the screwed-up marketing on a movie that had a ready made audience.

The best thing you can do though is understand your potential audience before you do any marketing whatsoever.

Promotion and Advertising Shock

It's been several years since I've actively promoted my books, much less bought advertising. I feel like I'm swimming in a sea of information with waves washing over me in their efforts to drown my tiny little books.

Back when I started publishing in 2011, e-books were the red-headed stepchild of the publishing world. So I didn't have to do a lot. People with e-readers were starving for content because the bigger publishers couldn't deign to put their products out in e-book formats. Print was king!

I sold a shit-ton of books simply by uploading them, then listing them on social media. Maybe a few friends would mention my work on their blogs. Blog tours were big back then. Or someone would put an excerpt in the back of their book. E-book promo sites were in their infancy, and there were a plethora to choose from. You had to have your ear out with those who worked and those who were looking to make a quick buck from writers.

Nearly nine years later, none of the things I did back in 2011 will work today. Plus, the big publishers have woken up. They now like to undercut indies by putting their backlists on sale. (Seriously, I picked up the first nine books of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series for $1.99.) So the competition has stepped up.

What does this all mean? We indies are now competing with the big fish on ad spend. Especially with ads on Facebook, Amazon, and Bookbub.

There's still e-book promo sites, though they are fewer, and the ones that survived have become bigger. Bookbub has become a monster in its own right. No longer is it just a daily e-mail newsletter, but paid ads on both its website and the newsletter. The bigger publishers realize what a difference a BB newsletter makes, and they now run regular promos with their backlists.

I'm tentatively dipping my toes in the new ad/promo pool. It's more expensive than it used to be. But I'm being selective about which companies I use, and I'm keeping a strict accounting of the money I spend. I've heard too many stories of people spending $25K to make $30K. That's way too much overhead for my tastes.

I've got some things lined up for the rest of the year. Hopefully, I'll have some good data of what works and what doesn't in January.

Relearning an Old Lesson

It's been so long since I've released books on a consistent basis I'd forgotten one of my own rules--the best advertising is putting books out on a consistent basis.

I released the first three books of the 888-555-HERO series March through May, but a personal situation put me behind on the next Justice book, so I pushed the release schedule back. Not a big deal, right?

But Hero De Facto hit what we call the 90-day cliff on Amazon. That's when books disappear from the algorithms because they are considered old. Or they do unless you constantly goose the promos or ads.

But the third method of goosing the system is simply to release another book. Seriously.

I released A Matter of Death on Monday. The same day I had a surge in page reads on 888-555-HERO books through Kindle Unlimited. The last time I had any page reads was July 5th. The last sales on that series was July 2nd. But I've consistently had page reads all this week in addition to the lump of sales for the new book.

Do this mean I'm not doing any paid promos or ads? No, but I don't always do them on same day as a release.

One thing to keep in mind is this is what's working for me. It's not a hardcore blueprint for everyone. You may have to experiment a little on your own titles to figure out what works for you.

In other words, YMMV.

Target Marketing in the New World

Edit to Add: Ironically, Kris Rusch talked about a related issue this week. I suggest you go read her post on the massive amount of data we writers can collect on readers and our interactions with them.

* * *

Indie writers have this tendency to freak about modern marketing. They generally seem to go one of two ways: either they promote the hell out of only one or two books or they panic and don't market at all.

The really big mistake I think a lot of writers make is failing understand their own work and target it to an inappropriate audience. I see a lot of new writers in the game make the same mistake the Big 5 make--they through spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. But they have no idea why something sticks.

I will say this, and it is just my opinion--permafree isn't working like it used to. Too many readers feel they've been burned by the writers, but bad writing and incoherent stories weren't the only problem.

A subset of readers will only accept or download free books. I'm not talking about folks on a limited budget. I'm not dissing those people. I've been there. I know what it's like when you don't have a choice between food and heat. When even having a TV was a luxury out of my reach. I was lucky my county library was within walking distance. And I ended up buying copies of the very same books I enjoyed through the library system.

I'm talking about those folks who feel entitled to anything they want for free. Those who mock anyone for being stupid to pay. Those who openly pirate. Those people are going to pay you anyway, so including them in your marketing plan is probably not in your best interest.

And these types of folks are an example of what I mean. You need to target your marketing efforts towards people likely to have an interest in and the wherewithal to buy your book. Not everyone on the planet will want to read your book no matter how great your book is. So get over the idea that your book is for everyone NOW!

Let's start by looking at my own family. Mom's into sweet romance. My father-in-law reads military history. Genius Kid loves manga and military sci-fi. Dad secretly reads my X-men comics. My sister is a major horror fan.

Now, let's pretend none of these people are my family. How would I market my sword-and-sorcery novels to them?

A lot of indies would say that since my heroine and hero are in a long-term relationship emphasize that aspect to my mother. My protagonists are fighting demons so highlight that element to my sister. And, you get the idea. And that lovely plan will probably fail.

What's wrong with this plan? Well, first of all, I asked the wrong damn question. My question should have been how do I market my book to people who already LOVE sword-and-sorcery. The people who are actively seeking the exact type of book I wrote.

Does this mean that other folks won't like my book? No, but you'll be wasting your time and money going after people who aren't likely to make your book their first choice.

So how does this apply in real life?

If you decide to run a Facebook ad, you don't include everyone who loves books. You narrow it down by genre and subgenre. I could can even narrow it down by looking at people who are fans of the type of sword-and-sorcery I emulate, i.e. Mercedes Lackey and Barbara Hambly, not Roberrt E. Howard.

One of the best examples of how NOT to market your entertainment is John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood.  Michael D. Sellers does an excellent job of detailing the screwed-up marketing on a movie that had a ready made audience.

The best thing you can do though is understand your potential audience before you do any marketing whatsoever.

Know Your Audience!

Alter Ego has a large online presence through Facebook and Twitter. (Don't ask me why. She hasn't actively pursued the attention.) As a result, she belongs to a couple of private FB groups involving erotica and its subgenres.

A couple of weeks ago, a writer posted about their new religious thriller in one of these private groups. No sex. This is in a group that regularly discusses the pros and cons of buttplugs and vibrators. This is a place where we post steamy pictures and off color jokes. This is a group that discusses the worldwide legal implications of writing in our favorite genre.

This is not a place that discusses current politics, much less WWIII, the End Times and the Rapture.

I can name a dozen websites and FB groups where this book would be welcomed with open arms. I can also name a dozen where the writer shoots themselves in the foot. This was one of those times.

This is probably the most extreme example I've seen of misdirected marketing efforts.

Writers need to know their potential audience. What is the age? What is the primary gender? What are the audience's secondary interests that can be tied to the writer's book?

Let's stay with Alter Ego. Her audience is primarily female, ages in the twenties to the seventies. A majority of her audience, regardless of age and gender, have been in long-term relationships. By long-term, I mean twenty-plus years. These readers are looking to keep things fresh in their relationships, whether it be new things to try in bed or simply reading to each other.

How do I know all this? They tell AE these things.

However, AE already knew she was shooting for a primarily female audience with an interest in very hot romance. That's why she didn't market at hunting websites or weightlifting FB pages. While some folks at these sites might be interested in her books, the majority of people at these sites would not be. Those subjects are simply not naturals fits to erotic books.

So what am I really trying to say?

1) Don't spam places on the web.
2) Don't spam with books that have no relation to a particular place on the web.
3) If you're hard up for advertising money, check out places that are free and receptive to your pitch.
4) The hard sell doesn't work these days, especially if it's books and more especially if the writer is targeting the wrong audience.

That doesn't mean you can't experiment. But if you can get a Hell's Angels chapter to read a knitting-themed cozy mystery, I REALLY want to know how you did it!

Indie Book Promotion

Five years after I jumped in the indie publishing waters, I still see new writers debating which method of promotion works the best. Especially when comes to advertising newsletters, such as Bookbub, eBookSoda, Pixels of Ink, etc., results can vary wildly. Couple that with expectations of winning the author lottery, it makes me want to *facepalm*.

How many methods work? Therein lies the problem. Here's what I've learned since 2011:

1) There is no magic bullet. No perfect form of advertising. You will drive yourself insane and broke trying to find it. Do your research and stay within your budget.

2) Don't do what everyone else is doing.What used to work doesn't work anymore because of oversaturation by all the writers before you. By the time you learn about it, the ROI on that form will be shrinking to zero.

3) Don't be afraid to experiment. What works for Superstar Indie may not work for you, and vice versa.

4) Only do the forms of promotion that you're comfortable with. If you hate tweeting, it's a waste of your time, and your discomfort generally comes across to the public.

5) The only, and I do mean ONLY (assuming you've mastered the art of storytelling), method of spurring additional sales is to publish your next work. This method freaks out new writers because it means OH MY GOD! MORE WORK!

Um, yeah, if you want to sell more books, you need to put out more books. That concept eludes most people who believe they want to be writers. Yes, sometimes a person can write that one book that sets them up for life, but that's not always the case.

Take J.K. Rowling for example. How many of you had heard of her in 1997 when the first Harry Potter came out? I didn't learn about Harry Potter until 2000 when I was asking for book recommendations from other parents. 2000 was the year the fourth book in the series came out, not the first book.

Word-of-mouth takes time. When many new indie writers don't get immediate sales with their first book, they give up instead for writing the next book. Or else, they continue promoting that one book until their readers are sick of hearing about it. If someone likes your writing, you need to give them more product to enjoy. Your readers aren't going to buy the same title over and over again.

Unless you release three or four books at the same time, don't worry about promotion. If you do release a bunch of books at once, then by all means go to town on promotion, but only do what you can afford. Good luck!

Promotion and the Indie Writer

What I'm about to say flies in the face of of pretty much every piece of advice out in the blogosphere for indie writers--too much promotion can kill your book.

Back in 2011 (yeah, the good ole' days, LOL), I was one of those writers who flogged the hell out of my urban fantasy books. I got a few sales that year, as in $180 $130 worth, but nothing spectacular. [Sorry for the typo; it was 180 books.]

That same year, a friend who was copy-editing Zombie Love said, "You know, that sex scene between Sam and Duncan is really hot. You should try writing erotica." So in February of 2012, Alter Ego put up her first erotic romance novella.

Other than exchanging samples of A.E.'s first story with copy-editing friend's erotic novella, I did very little promotion. I set up a website and a FB page linked to Twitter. I'd announce when a new story was available. That was it.

A.E.'s sales took off.

Some of purchases were because of the popularity of the genre, especially since the FSoG phenomena was still climbing. But that wasn't all of it. Basically, A.E. wasn't screaming "BUY MY BOOK!" from the rooftops like I was.

About the same time, I was inundated with Twitter followers, who would unfollow me if I didn't follow back within two days (or in some cases, two minutes). If I did follow someone, all they talked about was their SINGLE book. Indie writers would leave comments on my blog that had nothing to with my post, but plugged their books. Some of the folks in the grassroots marketing group I joined were sending out twenty or more items a day, and if I didn't re-tweet/re-post EVERY SINGLE ONE then I wasn't being supportive enough.

It got pretty damn annoying. So annoying, that I did very little social interaction or social media for several months. I stepped back and took a hard, HARD look at my own behavior. If what other writers were doing irritated the hell out of me, what was I doing to potential readers?

So I stopped being an obnoxious indie writer on all social media. Other than making the novella Zombie Confidential perma-free on retail sites a year ago, I stopped all promotion for my urban fantasy. Funny how sales picked up a few months later.

So what am I doing instead? I'm spending that former promotion time writing. I'm getting better at storytelling because like the old saying goes, "Practice makes perfect."

Okay, maybe not totally perfect. I can already see that Blood Sacrifice will be a much better book than Blood Magick, but by no means is it perfect. Otherwise, I wouldn't be rewriting it after ripping the first draft apart, but I'm getting to the point were I'm catching mistakes and flaws before they happen.

So what does better writing have to do with promotion? Your writing and storytelling abilities are your primary selling points. If someone likes Book A, they will buy the rest of your books. Also, putting out a new book and simply announcing it is the best advertising you can do.

How do I know this? A.E. released the fourth book in her BDSM series on May 8th of this year. Sales for her were averaging 3.1 books per day. Average sales for the last two weeks shot up to 9.1. Not all sales can be attributed to just readers waiting for BDSM Book #4. People are going back and buying the other three books in the series. And when they devour those, they are downloading A.E.'s non-BDSM books as well.

So what's the moral in all this? It comes back to the fabulous Wil Wheaton's Philosphy of Life: Don't Be a Dick.

Don't flog your book to death. Don't annoy your readers. Write more. Write better. Stay cool. Have faith in yourself and your storytelling ability.

Oh, and eat more chocolate!  ;D

What Does Success Mean

There were a couple of events last week that made me think.

(This is where DH says, "AAAGGGHHH!)

The first one was having lunch with a former critique group. Four different writing career paths and life events mean we don't critique together anymore, but we still try to get together once in a while.

And by different paths, I mean incredibly different paths. Christie still writes for two of the Big 5 and 1/2, but she's self-published her backlist from the now-defuntct Dorchester and Triskelion. She's also hit the NYT Bestseller List. Teri started with Ellora's Cave, dabbled in indie publishing, and is now focusing on finding a trad publisher for her young adult series. Life has hit Jody the hardest, which is why she focuses on the magazines that still accept short stories. Then there's me, who went 100% indie after nearly two decades of rejections.

Christie related her adventures during her first publisher-sponsored book tour, so of course the conversation turned to book promotion. Needless to say, she's shocked at how little promotion I've done, yet I'm still make a few hundred bucks a month.

Quite honestly, I can't do the amount of travel Christie does for promotion. For one thing, I have a preteen child while her kids are adults with their own homes and significant others. Then there's my health issues. My immune system is so compromised I'm lucky to get through the grocery store without catching someone's disease. Believe me, I wish I were joking. A mild cold swept through GK's soccer team, and I spent a whole day on the family room couch because it was closest to the downstairs bathroom.

The other thing that happened last week was Charlaine Harris's last Sookie Stackhouse novel was released. Despite my best efforts NOT to hit spoiler sites, the fan backlash over the ending was a major topic of conversation on several writer business blogs I follow.

I realize I really don't want Charlaine's level of success. I already have DH pissed at me over something I'm going to do in Book 8 of the Bloodlines series, I can't imagine having thousands of fans sending me hate mail and death threats.

No, I definitely don't want the kind of success Christie and Charlaine have. I would never survive it.

Deep down, I want readers, not fans. I want to give people entertainment in their lives, but not to the point they go Kathy Bates on me. Most of all I want to bring them a little joy. That's my definition of success right now.

But I am a woman, and I reserve the right to change my mind down the road.

Setting Up a Blog Tour

As I said in last Friday's post, a young lady contacted Diane Holmes of Pitch University with some questions about book review blogs and setting up a blog tour. Diane, in her infinite wisdom, forwarded the young lady's e-mail to me and Jennifer Bray-Weber of Musetracks.

I've edited and expanded my e-mail response to this young writer.

Here the rest of my advice to this writer on setting up a blog tour:
Hopefully, you've been keeping a list of writer/reader contacts as you've been practicing your craft. For example, I met Diane through Romance Writers of America. I met Jenn standing in line at a signing for Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Start with your friends. Some of them have larger followings than you and are more than willing to help out.

Check out other people's blogs and meet people. You never know when a friendly word will lead to something.

Once a blogger has agreed to host you, follow their guidelines on what subjects to blog about. Posting only your blurb and cover and screaming "Buy my book!" does not work.

For example, I tell my guest bloggers they'll get more hits on my blog if they post a funny personal story or something about what they learned on their writing journey. Or hot naked guys. Hot naked guys ALWAYS work (but for some strange reason, male guests are reluctant to do this).

One thing I will say is DON'T get hung up on promotion too much if this is your first book. Announce it, but be working on the next book!

Seriously, a big blog tour with only one book available is a total waste of time. This is the voice of experience. LOL First book? I went ape-shit and promoted the hell out of it. Sales were "meh." My eighth book, the one book I did absolutely no promotion on, has been my best seller. BUT folks loved it, then went and bought all my other titles.

When it comes to promotion though, do what feels right for you, and watch your pennies, and most of all, be working on that next book!

Survey Says . . .

Last week, the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood posted the results of a survey on reader habits they did. They had 311 responses to the survey. Despite some particularly snarky remarks in the comments, nowhere did they claim this survey was a scientific sampling.

Go read it.  I'll wait.

What I found interesting is that the No. 1 marketing technique matches my own research--word-of-mouth makes the difference in a writer's sales.  But how do we generate this buzz?

WRITE A FREAKIN' GREAT BOOK!

Okay, beyond the obvious, I think it's a delicate balance between promotion and engagement with others. I've seen several writers send out desperate tweets of "Buy my book" every two seconds. I've seen writers spend too much time on social sites to the detriment of their craft.

Jon F. Merz is a good example of balance. He started following me on Twitter. My little pecadillo is you'd better have an interesting website for me to check out. If you don't, I won't follow you back.

Jon had a cool website. His first tweet had the tagline for his Lawson series--"James Bond with fangs." I love Ian Fleming and vampires, so I had to check the first book out. Plus, Jon is gracious enough to respond when someone tweets him. Also, his tweets find a happy medium between his promotions and other life stuff.

I read Jon's book, loved it, and STARTED RECOMMENDING IT to friends and family, especially males who like the action hero genre.

Word-of-mouth--it's the best way to advertise.  Oh, and being nice works too.