|
I'll post my marketing plan here but first.. getting a po box to establish my self pub business. Oh boy it's work. ANYWAY. Here is what I am doing for my debut novel - mil scifi. Marketing strategy for "The Badger Company" High level Strategy 1: Get more KU readers to read my military scifi book Strategy 2: Get bobiverse readers to read Strategy 3: get progression fantasy readers to read and rec S4: reviews! Lowest level Tactics 1.1: spend enough time to get on silver pens(royal road top author discord) and make a network...and a following slash author platform accordingto david gaughrans boom following... 1.2: start exchanging shout outs to similar fictions and build up goodwill and favors 1.3: write a fiction that can move a lot of readers(fictions followers and views)- Sect Leader- so I can accomplish 1.1 and 1.2 at this writing sect leader was a smash hit as much as I could make it. 1.4: For everyone that I have shouted out, ask them for a shout out for BC on or around launch date(sept 5th) there will probably be an ensuing spreadsheet(I track this through discord PMs). This will probably be the biggest factor I can leverage myself. Also this would be nods from other authors newsletters. 2.1: Target the bobiverse Facebook group and the subreddit. Getting recommendations there would multiply any results. 2.2: For FB? Be active. Like and comment on posts that are fun. (DON'T AD SPEND, until book 3) The goal here is to get someone to rec BC into the group on our behalf. 2.3: For reddit, speak with mods about self recommendations. Are there mods? Not a lot of posts there. 2.4: The absolute highest thing here qould be getting someone to recommend this book to daniel greene. Do I need to consider joining his discord again? Has someone else in booktube also loved bobiverse? 3.1: two spots for prog fantasy people- their subreddit and the discord server. 3.2: some self posting is allowed there, so when it drops get someone to rec it there, and attempt to get as many as possible to get the word out. 3.3: when someone asks, I just finished cradle what's next? The goal is to have someone say the badger company series. 4.1 get people to commit to review the book ahead of time. Remind them. Remind them that they can have the review ready to post. Remind them that amazon doesn't care about collusion the way RR does. Many people have committed to this. It's all in the follow up.
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2022 02:38
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 15:37 |
|
|
Dream Weaver posted:I'll post my marketing plan here but first.. getting a po box to establish my self pub business. Oh boy it's work. I really like seeing people's marketing plans. A bit of hopefully constructive feedback. Your novel is mil sci-fi, Cradle is an anime kung fu novel. Are you sure that the audience for one is going to overlap significantly with the other?
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2022 06:14
|
|
|
Sailor Viy posted:I really like seeing people's marketing plans. 100% the bobiverse series is a progression fantasy as its core and my closest comparable author is Dennis E. Taylor. Cradle is also a kindle unlimited series and it is the classic example of the new genre of prog fantasy its often brought up as a comparable series. Also the audience is pretty big for Cradle... and I'm not going to move anywhere near Will Wights numbers. The man makes like 60k plus each time he launches a book. The dream would be to have my novel as an amazon also bought for unsouled, expeditionary force or we are legion we are bob.
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2022 10:54
|
|
|
Man, I'm seeing some really weird glitches when I use the KDP preview for my paperback version's print ready PDF. The print ready PDF itself is 100% fine as far as I can tell, everything looks correct, the format seems right and there's no extraneous objects or any other goofy poo poo. But in the KDP preview generated from the file has vertical lines through the blank pages, the last page of each chapter is offset left and has hosed up header/footer placement and a line on the right side, and the first page of each chapter somehow has different font size, margins and page number placement vs the PDF file. Has anybody else experienced problems like this? 
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2022 20:16
|
|
|
I think they deleted all the Createspace forums, which discussed all the problems with the lovely Kindle PDF renderer in detail. When I had weirdness in the renderer I did correct it for my own peace of mind - I think it was a PNG with transparency rendering as black - but also probably not worry too hard. What did you make the PDF with?
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2022 21:05
|
|
|
divabot posted:I think they deleted all the Createspace forums, which discussed all the problems with the lovely Kindle PDF renderer in detail. Adobe Acrobat Standard, not sure the version off the top of my head. File is PDF/X-1a:2001. e: should I trust that if the print ready PDF is formatted right the actual book will look right regardless of what the derpy Kindle preview renderer says? sean10mm fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Jul 13, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2022 21:15
|
|
|
I'd probably trust it. That said, I got an author proof before putting the book live. (And spotted a massive typo on the cover. OOPS.) You will likely be much more at ease if you do that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2022 23:28
|
|
|
divabot posted:I'd probably trust it. That said, I got an author proof before putting the book live. (And spotted a massive typo on the cover. OOPS.) You will likely be much more at ease if you do that. Yeah, I'm ordering an author proof before going live on paperback regardless.
|
|
#
?
Jul 14, 2022 00:01
|
|
|
Dream Weaver posted:I'll post my marketing plan here but first.. getting a po box to establish my self pub business. Oh boy it's work. Never marketed a book before but this looks like what I'd start with.
|
|
#
?
Jul 14, 2022 01:41
|
|
|
sean10mm posted:Adobe Acrobat Standard, not sure the version off the top of my head. File is PDF/X-1a:2001. I had some issues with KDP formatting my document all weird depending on whether I’d ‘saved as’ a PDF or ‘exported’ to PDF. I can’t remember which one was the one that worked, but there was a difference.
|
|
#
?
Jul 14, 2022 03:21
|
|
|
An update on my marketing plan:Leng posted:OK thread, I need some suggestions on what to do marketing-wise! Thoughts now that I'm 2 months post publication: 1. Do not re-enroll in KU. It was worth trying out for 90 days but I'm not really getting all that many page reads compared to sales. Like, maybe 15% of the people who have committed to giving my book a shot are doing so via KU. And I have gotten messages from people who don't have a Kindle who want to read it, so it might be worth going wide instead, especially before I build up a base of KU readers. 2. & 3. Do not be afraid of free. Make the ebook free for all of September to remove as much friction as possible from anybody who might even be curious about reading so they can participate in the r/fantasy book club 4. The paperbacks are ehhh for a giveaway. I have versions from both KDP and IngramSpark and they're...okay? The jacketed case laminate from IngramSpark is noticeably nicer, but I think my local printer would do a better job. Gonna see what their quotes come back like, and maybe I'll just do a giveaway of 3-5 signed and numbered hardcovers instead. On that note, has anybody here run an unrestricted international giveaway? The last time I did one, I limited it to US, UK, CA (excluding Quebec because they have insanely fiddly requirements), AU and NZ. I've seen other authors run unrestricted international giveaways on r/fantasy but they only cover shipping for certain countries. I'm thinking what I might do to get around it is run the giveaway for the countries where I'm across the legal requirements, and then put up the rest of the limited hardcover editions for sale on my website for just the flat cost of worldwide shipping, then technically they still get the book for free, but they're ordering it through my website and I'm not out ridiculous amounts for shipping those copies. Not expecting that anybody would take up the offer, but if they do, then I guess that's nice and probably worth it? And if they don't, then I guess I'd just put them up as signed editions for sale? Anyway, that's where my head is at right now. I might change my mind again as my KU re-enrolment date of 28 August approaches. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2022 12:34
|
|
|
I am years out of being immersed in KU vagaries but I recall the boost from free days translating into paid visibility lessening or disappearing, in which case wouldn't it be better not to use free days unless you have other books to funnel readers toward after they're done?
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2022 13:24
|
|
|
Fate Accomplice posted:I am years out of being immersed in KU vagaries but I recall the boost from free days translating into paid visibility lessening or disappearing, in which case wouldn't it be better not to use free days unless you have other books to funnel readers toward after they're done? That's what I use them for
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2022 13:55
|
|
|
Fate Accomplice posted:wouldn't it be better not to use free days unless you have other books to funnel readers toward after they're done? KrunkMcGrunk posted:That's what I use them for Yeah I think that's the most common reason to use them, as a loss leader where you hope for read/sell through on a series/back catalogue. Which makes complete sense if the objective is to maximize a return on the capital invested in the series so far. I'm probably 7 months away from publishing the sequel though, and I hear ads won't be profitable until you have at least 3 books out. I haven't booked any promo sites. Really, I need more reviews and ratings, which means I need more downloads/reads. I could drop it to $1.99 or $0.99 but I feel like that's still a barrier and more of a risk on a new pen name. The double digits (or low triple digits) of net royalties now from not putting the book free might not be worth the value of a new reader/review/rating gained in the long run, especially when I've got a reasonable chance of driving high quality traffic to the downloads. Hell if I can figure put a numeric value on it though, like if I come out of this with 10 organic 5-star reviews and 50 new emails on me mailing list, is that worth dropping $500 in out of pocket costs to run a giveaway plus whatever the lost sales/page reads might have been? What about of it turns out to be 2 3-star reviews and 5 emails instead? I don't know, honestly, I don't have the data. It's super frustrating being unable to calculate the lifetime value of a reader right now, especially when you take into consideration a sliding scale of "silently buys all my books on release but will never rate or review" through to "actively recommends my books at every opportunity".
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2022 07:22
|
|
|
Leng posted:Yeah I think that's the most common reason to use them, as a loss leader where you hope for read/sell through on a series/back catalogue. Which makes complete sense if the objective is to maximize a return on the capital invested in the series so far. For what it's worth, Amazon has apparently made some kind of UI changes to Kindle readers that makes a rating much, much more likely than it was in the past. The last time I really thought about it, I roughly figured that 1 in 10 people who read a book will rate it, and I'd hazard a gut-feeling guess than it's about twice that rate now. You're right about dropping the price. I don't know why, but whenever I do a discount/free run, I get more reviews, but I also get harsher reviews. I think the general psychology of people is "if this thing is cheap, it must be bad" and that comes through in the reviews. I definitely would not put a book free, or even bother with promo sites, if I didn't have at least 2 sequels behind it, it just doesn't make good business sense. All-in-all, I wouldn't worry too much about reviews if its the first book in your first series. You're still getting established and you don't have an audience yet, so you naturally won't have more than a dozen or so reviews in that first couple months. If you really want reviews, consider checking out Net Galley, but it can be prohibitively expensive. The best thing you can do now is work on getting that sequel done so you'll have better sell through in the long term which will help make your advertising a better return on investment, which gets you more reviews and more readers.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2022 17:00
|
|
|
I’ll test this out: just set a free Kindle deal for the first book in the series to see if that will translate to either sales of the sequel or reviews. I don’t have a ton of reviews, so I’m taking the risk of getting some bad ones and letting those swamp out the good ones. But this series is the first thing I’ve published, so I’m kind of treating it like an experiment 
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2022 17:15
|
|
|
KrunkMcGrunk posted:For what it's worth, Amazon has apparently made some kind of UI changes to Kindle readers that makes a rating much, much more likely than it was in the past. The last time I really thought about it, I roughly figured that 1 in 10 people who read a book will rate it, and I'd hazard a gut-feeling guess than it's about twice that rate now. Please post here when your readalong starts on r/fantasy as I should be done by then and can help stoke conversation (only at the Challenges chapter as Thunderdome has been eating a bunch of my time this week)
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2022 18:45
|
|
|
newts posted:I’ll test this out: just set a free Kindle deal for the first book in the series to see if that will translate to either sales of the sequel or reviews. I don’t have a ton of reviews, so I’m taking the risk of getting some bad ones and letting those swamp out the good ones. But this series is the first thing I’ve published, so I’m kind of treating it like an experiment It'll definitely translate into sales of books 2 and 3. It's a good tactic to use, and is especially nice when you're publishing book 4.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2022 20:21
|
|
|
KrunkMcGrunk posted:It'll definitely translate into sales of books 2 and 3. It's a good tactic to use, and is especially nice when you're publishing book 4. I only have two books in my series right now, but both of them could use more reviews.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2022 20:45
|
|
|
KrunkMcGrunk posted:For what it's worth, Amazon has apparently made some kind of UI changes to Kindle readers that makes a rating much, much more likely than it was in the past. The last time I really thought about it, I roughly figured that 1 in 10 people who read a book will rate it, and I'd hazard a gut-feeling guess than it's about twice that rate now.  I thought they used to periodically send emails asking people to rate their purchases, but not sure how frequently they do it.KrunkMcGrunk posted:If you really want reviews, consider checking out Net Galley, but it can be prohibitively expensive. KrunkMcGrunk posted:The best thing you can do now is work on getting that sequel done so you'll have better sell through in the long term which will help make your advertising a better return on investment, which gets you more reviews and more readers. Unfortunately, it turns out that I'm going slower good thing I didn't set up a long pre-order for book 2.KrunkMcGrunk posted:It'll definitely translate into sales of books 2 and 3. It's a good tactic to use, and is especially nice when you're publishing book 4. Tars Tarkas posted:Please post here when your readalong starts on r/fantasy as I should be done by then and can help stoke conversation (only at the Challenges chapter as Thunderdome has been eating a bunch of my time this week) 
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2022 01:44
|
|
|
My free book deal starts today. I don’t really have a way to advertise it (and too much work for my actual job to make much of an effort right now) but I’m actually kind of curious about what will happen if I do absolutely nothing. Which is mostly what I’ve been doing so far to promote this series.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2022 14:14
|
|
|
So if you haven't been following along, the DoJ v Penguin Random House case has gone to trial (not a lawyer, am probably getting all the legal terms wrong) and I've been following along on the live tweets here: https://twitter.com/JohnHMaher/status/1553919317883985921 And the general coverage here: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/90032-doj-v-prh-all-our-coverage.html Wishing I could get my hands on the court transcripts and court exhibits, even if book titles, etc are sealed because there must be so much gold hidden in there just from the gems being live-tweeted. My favorite one so far: https://twitter.com/JohnHMaher/status/1555232833823703042
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2022 05:43
|
|
|
Trip report on the free book deal on Amazon. Gave away 109, sold 3 sequels, got zero new reviews (so far). Only advertising was on r/freeEbooks. So, not great or anything. But 3 books sold is good enough for me. I haven’t advertised this series or really done anything with it, so that’s not surprising.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2022 02:22
|
|
|
Are there any awards for self-published books that aren't scammy and are worth applying for?
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2022 22:03
|
|
|
sean10mm posted:Are there any awards for self-published books that aren't scammy and are worth applying for? Can't speak from personal experience as I ended up deciding not to apply any but I did research it and this is probably the most reputable list out there, since it's vetted by ALLi: https://selfpublishingadvice.org/author-awards-contests-rated-reviewed/ What genre are you publishing in? If you're in fantasy or sci-fi, I have a couple more specific recs.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2022 23:17
|
|
|
Nm
sean10mm fucked around with this message at 15:04 on Aug 20, 2022 |
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2022 03:04
|
|
|
Final (I think) results of making book one of two free: 3 new ratings on Amazon and 2 on Goodreads. So, overall, I’d say it was worth doing since I’m not selling any books anyway 
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2022 22:57
|
|
|
Is there a good beginner guide for running Amazon ads? I googled around but a lot of guides seem to end with "buy our analytics software/marketing services/etc." Everyone seems to agree that Amazon's bid suggestions are not to be trusted though. I can't really sink a lot of money into ads but I'm fine with advertising on a small scale provided it's a net positive if that makes sense. I did a Bargain Booksy that gave my sales a nice shot in the arm, so it at least seems like IF people see my book page they buy it/read it on Kindle Unlimited sometimes.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2022 17:39
|
|
|
sean10mm posted:Is there a good beginner guide for running Amazon ads? I googled around but a lot of guides seem to end with "buy our analytics software/marketing services/etc." Everyone seems to agree that Amazon's bid suggestions are not to be trusted though. Dave Chesson has a free Amazon Ads course: https://kindlepreneur.com/free-amazon-ads-course/ I've done it once, just to get a sense of what Amazon ads are like, and it will walk you through the basics. Robert Ryan's Amazon Ads Unleashed also comes highly recommended but I haven't read it myself: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZXV4MVZ/ After that, everybody basically recommends Mark Dawson's ads for authors course which is like $900. Bryan Cohen is the other one, I think I've heard that he runs a 30 day ads challenge? But people also disagree on the advice, etc. also there are guides floating around in some of the Facebook groups, like 20booksto50k.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2022 01:47
|
|
|
Leng posted:Dave Chesson has a free Amazon Ads course: https://kindlepreneur.com/free-amazon-ads-course/ Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2022 20:05
|
|
|
The OP looks like it hasn’t been updated for a while. I’m planning to go wide for publication, and wondering if these things still hold true as far as platform experiences?Sundae posted:PLACES TO PUBLISH: I’m in Canada where Kobo is heavily promoted by Indigo, so very likely going to publish there as well as Apple and Amazon. It looks like D2D may be my only option to support Nook, and I assume D2D is still the one to sign up for (not SmashWords) even with the merger happening. Is it true that Google will discount your books without you opting in to that?
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2022 22:17
|
|
|
Smashwords is now D2D. I find Smashwords still has some word of mouth from readers who hate Amazon, so it's worth having your book there. But I think D2D can distribute there now, so that's fine. Yes, Google will do that and it will gently caress your Amazon price. I had to set my Google price artificially high to stop that happening.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2022 08:39
|
|
|
kaom posted:It looks like D2D may be my only option to support Nook, and I assume D2D is still the one to sign up for (not SmashWords) even with the merger happening. divabot posted:Smashwords is now D2D. I find Smashwords still has some word of mouth from readers who hate Amazon, so it's worth having your book there. But I think D2D can distribute there now, so that's fine. I don't know whether D2D authors yet have access to the Smashwords store, which does get organic sales traffic. It is one of the merger priorities, but if you want for sure to be able to get access to the Smashwords store to do presales and things, you should sign up on Smashwords. D2D's formatter is more user friendly and they also have partnered with IngramSpark for their print beta, so if you don't want to hassle with IngramSpark directly, you can go to D2D. Note that they have more restricted trim sizes than IngramSpark has available, as well as restricted formats.
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2022 07:49
|
|
|
man, I really hate when people read a book and return it. What a lovely, stupid thing to do.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2022 20:11
|
|
|
Well my novel is finally up out in the world. After so many delays, it's g2g. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BD6V44V4/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1662460971&refinements=p_27%3AJP+Weaver&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=JP+Weaver And it's on Kindle Unlimited, because military scifi. Now to find a narrator... Blurb... and The cover art makes me so happy. If I die, you’d better come back and avenge me, you goddamn ghost in the machine." Malcolm Parker was poised to make history as the habitation engineer who made his country's colonization initiatives possible—until a stealth missile strike destroyed the U.S. moon base. All that’s left of him is his A.I. clone, who must carry on both his fantasy tabletop campaign and the original mission: find and secure the closest habitable system. Trapped inside a space probe with a computer for a brain and other AIs for company, Malcolm and his crew face hostile spacecraft alone. The same assailants in pursuit or an opportunistic third party—either way they seem intent on wiping out the last remnants of America’s space program. Artificial intelligence isn't recognized as people under U.S. law, so as far as the top brass in the U.S. military is concerned, the crew is on their own. Or are they?
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2022 01:44
|
|
|
Tars Tarkas posted:Please post here when your readalong starts on r/fantasy as I should be done by then and can help stoke conversation (only at the Challenges chapter as Thunderdome has been eating a bunch of my time this week) Readalong has started! First discussion post is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/xfvjd8/bookclub_petition_by_delilah_waan_midway/ The final discussion post will go up at the end of the month. I'm very    to see what people think. So far I've already gotten a fab Goodreads review out of it with great pull quotes I can use so it's been awesome.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2022 23:14
|
|
|
Nice! I'll chime in as soon as I finish the book which should be this week as life looks to calm down a bit again. All the "I" names in the houses takes me a few seconds to sort out again when reading casually but I'm still at the parts where characters are acting like their house traits so it reminds quick enough and I should have it in case things get more intriguey later on.
|
|
#
?
Sep 20, 2022 02:22
|
|
|
Two pen names or one? I keep reading conflicting advice on whether I need two or one and I can’t decide. My first series is a sort of sci-fi mystery, which could be squeezed into urban fantasy, with a queer character and limited sex scenes. The 2nd series will be an urban fantasy with queer characters. The only substantial tone difference between the two is that the 2nd series has more of a focus on the romance, although it’s not nearly enough to be a paranormal romance. It’s really urban fantasy with a romance B-plot, and the sex is explicit but there’s not that much of it. Anyway, I need to make a decision soon. Blah.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2022 14:15
|
|
|
newts posted:Two pen names or one? Can't say whether those two markets are close enough for one pen name to make sense or not but have you considered splitting the difference and going for two pen names that are clearly related? E.g. Iain Banks and Iain M Banks or Victoria Schwab and V.E. Schwab?
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2022 14:30
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 15:37 |
|
|
Staggy posted:Can't say whether those two markets are close enough for one pen name to make sense or not but have you considered splitting the difference and going for two pen names that are clearly related? This is how I have everything set up right now, with a plan to include a line or two on my author page for each name with something like, ‘hi, I write XXX under this name and yyy under this name.’ I’m just wondering if there’s really a big enough difference in my audience (probably teeny tiny) to bother. I mean, yeah, if I wrote spicy romance and also hard sci-fi, I could definitely see the need for two names. I’m just not sure and I’m doubting every decision I’ve made so far
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2022 14:37
|
|