I am
reporting on my marketing efforts in 2016 and will focus on the most successful
for me and my books. I write science fiction fantasy adventures and romances.
You can see a list of my published stories HERE. My books are not best sellers, however, I have returned a small profit each year.
My
marketing goals are: 1) reach the largest number of potential readers, and 2)
sell more books! As an Indie author, I prefer free or inexpensive options to
maximize Return on Investment.
Take-home message: Cross-promotion is the clear
winner!
Indie authors are inventive and many are generous in helping other authors. Cross-promotion
with other authors outperforms most free or paid commercial sites.
Read to
the end of the post for details.
Various Outreach, Cross-Promotion Efforts and
Their Outcomes in 2016
Social Media
Twitter: @AuroraSpringer
My
followers have grown slowly from 3000 to about 8000. I am selective about the
people I follow. My tweets and RTs are partly automated thanks to valuable
advice from Effrosyni Moschoudi at http://effrosyniwrites.com/2015/10/22/twitter-lists-and-roundteam-explained/
Occasionally, someone will tell me they liked my book or
even left a review.
Again,
my followers and likes have grown slowly to 1200. I use facebook to chat with
virtual friends, mostly within groups. Sometimes, readers exchange messages
with me.
Pininterest: I set up an
account and posted most of my books. It does not seem to be furthering my
marketing goals.
Website/Blog
I
purchased a domain: http://AuroraSpringer.com. I blog about my
stories, writing and entertain guest authors at http://AuroraSpringer.blogger.com
One
new venture is Niume where I post about my stories, travel and wildlife. This
site will pay a small amount for original posts that people visit. https://niume.com/pages/profile/?userID=42051
Multi-author publications
In 2016,
I published an anthology of short stories with eight authors: Romancing the Stars. This anthology sold
regularly with some promotions.
The Science Fiction Romance Brigade set up Portals: Volumes of beginning
chapters of Science fiction romance novels. http://sfrportals.blogspot.com/ More than 60 authors
have participated in producing seven volumes. My stories: Grand Master’s Pawn is
in Volume Three and The Lady is Blue is in Volume six. This venture did not
seem to do much for my books, possibly because the adventure drives the story
more than the romance. It may be valuable in the long term.
Reaching Readers
BookBub: I participated in a giveaway with members of http://enovelauthorsatwork.com/ (cost
$60) and gained >400 followers.
Advantage: BookBub will email my followers
about new releases of full-length, previously unpublished novels. Note: You
must submit the new book within 7 days of its release.
Amazon: I ran several Amazon book giveaways and
gained >1000 followers at little cost (set your book to 99c).
Advantage: Amazon will email followers about your
new releases.
Disadvantage:
You cannot check how many followers you have. You have to sum up the new
followers for each giveaway.
Newsletter Subscribers
This
year, I tried paid and free promotions to grow my subscribers from a few
hundred to ~4000.
Advantage:
My subscribers like free and 99c ebooks. I hope they will enjoy my books and
read my series, although it may take time.
Disadvantage:
I have to pay for newsletter service.
FreekindleGiveaways: I paid $50 for a
multi-genre giveaway and gained ~1200 subscribers in June. Five months later, I
culled the inactive emails and had ~400 active subscribers.
AuthorsXP: Cost $35, but I helped in beta runs.
First: giveaway to gain subscribers netted 630 names, but only 500 new people.
Second, tested asking a question of readers and gained ~360 names, many new.
Instafreebie giveaways: A successful option.
Cost $20 per month to Instafreebie for required signup.
Advantages:
Various cross-promotion groups connect with instafreebie to offer readers free
books in return for their name and email address. You can integrate with
MailChimp.
Disadvantage:
You cannot add book in KDP Select. Also, the number of new people decreases
over time and I have a limited number of books to give away.
My Top Picks for Cross-Promotion
Cross-promotion
with other authors outperforms the majority of paid and free commercial sites
for promotion. My conclusions are supported by Jackie Weger’s tests - http://enovelauthorsatwork.com/plotting-your-books-life-in-2017/
All cross-promotions
expect participating authors to promote in their newsletters and social media.
Top Pick for Science Fiction & Fantasy: Patty
Jansen’s monthly cross-promotion at www.pattyjansen.com/promo
A well-established
monthly promotion with 100-150 participating authors. My free books can achieve
1000’s of downloads. Successful in generating sales and some reviews. Sales of
books in my series can produce >$30 in 7-10 days.
Promotions at the following sites have sold 10-40 of my 99c ebooks each time. Caveat: some sites are
relatively new and still gaining traction and readers. Others have begun to
charge small fees.
The Cross-Promotion
Authors’ Collective rozmarshall.co.uk/romance (Rose Dewar) and https://www.facebook.com/groups/xpromocollective/
SFF Bonanza: http://sffbookbonanza.com/authors/
(Dean Wilson) and https://www.facebook.com/groups/sffpromos/
Media links:
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Aurora-Springer/e/B00K2C4NL8
