Well, here I am again at that crossroads where I need to do
something to push me beyond the steady, but stagnant sales of the last month.
It appears blogging and posting on free sites has worn thin and most of the
people who I got interested in my books have already purchased them. So, what
do I do next? I already invested $100 bucks into a KND book of the day
sponsorship for DROP OUT in November, and I have two more sponsorships with
Kindle Boards Book of the Day in December, one for AFTER and one for SILENT
INVASION. But is that enough? With Kindle releasing new versions at cheaper
prices, should I do more? This next year could be the absolute golden year for
Amazon and Kindle and may be the last time they will rule the marketplace. There’s
so many new ereader devices coming out that it is inevitable Kindle will slow.
My books are available on these new devices so I’m not too worried about losing
any of my target audience, I just believe the time to take action with Kindle is
now. That said, how much money do I invest? I will admit that I have been
putting royalty checks and extra bits of money here and there for advertising
and promotional purposes and the nest egg has grown quite a bit. I’ve been
hemming and hauling on KND’s new promotional package that blasts the book to
over 100,000 opt-in readers. Readers who are looking to buy ebooks. It all comes
down to numbers, of course. The risk of investing more than $300 in a two-day
campaign is frightening especially if it yields little or no results. However,
if just a small percentage, (less than one percent) of the people who receive
the blast purchases the book, the campaign will make money. If I decide to do
the sponsor it will be for DROP OUT, which is by far my best seller and has
gotten the most rave reviews, not just on Amazon, but on at least a dozen other
sites. It also won Indie Book of the Day. I’ll probably ponder the investment
for the rest of this afternoon but in the end I’ll probably book it. After all,
it takes money to make money, right?
I sympathise with the predicament - agents only seem interested in tried and tested authors and the costs of promotion seem to outweigh the gains.
ReplyDeleteI am offering free downloads on Kindle this weekend in the hope of gaining a higher profile, others say it has worked for them.
www.trevorholcroft.me