Marketing tips needed, no sales as of yet, really furstrated :(

jacob,

part of the problem with self-pubbing is you are a drop in the bucket. Granted you are trying to raise your profile it sounds like, but stop for a moment and ask yourself: Why WOULDN'T your radio stations ignore you? What do you bring to the table? Likewise, what would make your book stand out in the sea of e-titles out there?

There are some folks here very good at promotion, and I would browse both the self-pub and promotion forums here, but that is the hill you set out for yourself. Start thinking about what makes your title special beyond "you wrote it" and browsing other threads while you wait for more direct responses.

Well, the computer ate my original reply, but I'll try it again.

** warning ** This is blunt, but not meant as anything other than helpful **

On top of the fact that you're int he same boat as most self-pubbed authors (there's a reason commercial publishers have entire divisions devoted to this stuff), you've got some problems with your product.

The cover and blurb to start - they aren't doing their job.

The cover looks like an end of life or out of body tale (especially with "spiritual" tacked onto the description.) And it's obviously self-published by the appearance. The blurb doesn't make someone want to read on, as you've basically got it saying :This is a lesson about taking care of the environment and what will happen if you don't!

Readers run screaming from lesson novels. (That "spiritual" tags is also going to cost you readers who assume the book is religious in nature.)

The sample chapter is a HUGE problem. You've got a PDF of ch.11.

Samples ALWAYS start with ch. 1 ALWAYS. You don't drop someone into the middle of your novel as a sample. You also don't then tell readers that the sample has been changed in the final product (not even if its only one line different).

And, as much as you're not going to want to hear this, the writing needs work. Friends and family mean well - they may even have given their best efforts - but they're not editors.

Completing a book at any age is impressive, more so at 17. But you've got some serious work to do if you want the book up to market standard. As it stands right now, I can't see anyone looking at that cover, reading that blurb, and checking that sample and clicking "buy" - BUT - there isn't a single issue about your book that isn't fixable.

That's the beauty of self-published books like this. You can take it down, shine it up, and try again.

Jacob,

I've looked at your website and the first 100 words of your sample chapter, and to be honest with you, I can see at a glance why the book isn't selling.

1. The cover is bad. A striking cover is absolutely vital; a bad cover suggests a bad book. Professional cover art doesn't have to cost the earth - even a limited budget can handle it.
2. The blurb on the front page is badly written with lots of errors. The rest of the website has the same issues. That makes me very wary about the quality of the book. The website has to be clean and professional.
3. The sample chapter is badly formatted and difficult to read. The paragraphs aren't even indented, and the spacing is irregular.
4. The technical standard of writing is poor. Every line of dialogue is wrongly punctuated. There are missing capitals where capitals should be. Some commas seem to have wandered into the wrong places. Phrases are repeated in quick succession, suggesting copy-paste errors. I could go on.
5. Straying into more subjective territory, there's no hook, no tension and no interest to the opening. The characters are just names with no personality. I'm not feeling any kind of interest here that would lead me to continue with the free sample, much less buy the book.

This book needs to be critiqued by numerous people who have no reason to spare your feelings, ie. not your friends or family. Then it needs to be rewritten. Then critiqued again. Repeat until complete strangers light up when they read your first chapter. This process may take years.

After that, the book needs to be carefully edited and proofread by a third party, ideally multiple third parties, to ensure that it's clean and well-presented. Technical errors like punctuation issues are a major red flag. There should be no more than a handful of errors in the entire book - multiple errors in the first 100 words are a serious problem.

After that, the book needs to be carefully formatted for ease of reading, ideally by an expert.

Finally, you need good cover art, a pleasing website and a well-written blurb.

Unless you've done all of the above, there is no point trying to promote your book. Promotion is the very last step to take, after you're absolutely sure you have a top-quality book that readers will be dying to read.

Hope this helps, Jacob.

Cheers,
Parametric

hey, jake....

haven't seen you back, not sure if it is because you're busy, or because of the news. If it is the news, well, you have 2 choices: decide it is too depressing, or count it as a lesson learned for moving ahead. If you move ahead, expect many more lessons, because that's just how it is. Since you're all of seventeen, you have plenty of time to learn.

Quick

Please don't feel put off or down with what the other posters have stated.

You're doing fine.

Being that you're in London, don't pay attention to U.S. opinions on book covers. I've found that our tastes are quite different when it comes to that.

I like your website, it looks very professionally done, and beautiful to look at.

As one of the posters stated, it's quite impressive about what you are doing considering your age. But please do to not think that because you stated your age is the reason why the posters stated what they did. Your age has NOTHING to do with what you have written. Your style of writing is similar to the same as those who are in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. I say that it's the same, because I've read this stage of writing and it has no age. What it does have is--A Need For Development. And all writers must go through this...no mater what age.

Heck. I NEED my editor because I still don't know grammer..or is it grammar. Well anyway... I have an editor to help me sound good...or is it well...

Well...you know what I mean. But back to my point...

Maybe I can show you why your writing needs development with a quick re-write of your book's blurb. NOTE: it's just a quick rewrite, but hopefully you'll see what I mean.

"A solar storm has hit Northern England and its residents have fled down south. Yet 4 teenagers remain behind simply to escape from their parents maltreatment and to enjoy their newfound freedom. Their quiet life, however, is soon disrupted when they begin receiving spiritual visions telling them to travel south as well to relay a message of warning to those who have fled. There are consequences for people's actions, and if the message is not heeded, a price will be paid."

Actually, your blurb was much better than the Home page. I would just shorten that and use it.

The above posters have stated lists of errors in your work, and all of that...CAN BE FIXED, as one poster stated.

What you have:
“morning” said Ben, in his soft voice.
“morning Ben” Replied Joshua.

What it should be:
“Morning,” said Ben, in his soft voice.
“Morning, Ben,” replied Joshua.

Another specific example. Every new writer starts off with LISTS.
--There's a list of every single thing the character does when he wakes up
--There's a list of every single description of a character
--There's a list of every room number
--There's a list of every object in the room
--There's a list of every character waking up

Chapter 1 ends with a character list. The skill of writing is to end it with a cliff hanger to force the reader to want to read the next chapter. Every chapter should read like a Mini-story with a beginning and an end.

Every new writer's skills that need developing are mainly how to get away from "Lists" and incorporating them into "A Story".

And the only way to learn that skill is read other books and to join a critique group. I would suggest CritiqueCircle.com.

Jacob Mayes, you're doing well. Just don't give up. The skill for story telling is in you, you just now have to learn the skill to properly put it into print.

I know it sounds disheartening that you have to do rework, especially after all of the work your family and friends have put into this project...but that's what writing, and self-publishing, is all about. I learn something new every day with this stuff. I had to learn to stop sticking my fingers in my ears and not listen to what people had to say to me about my writing. It hurts when someone says, "You can't write" and I got that plenty of times before I finally got a: "Wow. I don't normally read Science Fiction, but I would read this!"

I wish you luck!

Again... don't give up! Keep doing what you do!

Print ads for folks who aren't already famous are a waste of time and money.

They say, essentially, "You know that book you were planning to buy the moment it came out? It's out!" No one is waiting to buy the first novel by an unknown author the moment it comes out. Therefore....

You know, James, I'm not so sure about that. When my publisher took out an add on the inside cover page of the NY Times Book Review that covered two thirds of the page, my Amazon rank went from in the tens of thousands to one thousand for the weekend.

Now, is it worth it for one weekend of decent sales, not sure, especially as an ad of that kind costs a pretty penny. But I have to disagree when people say that print ads aren't worth it if you are a nobody. They can absolutely be worth it in the right publication and the right size.

But they AREN'T worth it if you don't have a great deal of funds. If your budget is limited there are many other and I think better ways to get your name out there courtesy of the interwebs.

Jacob_M said:

However despite spending hours, I have not generated a single sale nor very many views to the site (it has a counter)

Click to expand...

I think you need to look at WHO you are targeting with your promotion.

For instance, spiritual fiction is quite a niche market and your best bet is to target those people who would read those books. So, look at Church groups, spiritual groups. Contacting local radio stations is fine, but they are usually very mainstream, instead seek out stations which are more discussion orientated and see if they have a spiritual hour, or a literary hour etc and contact the programme producers directly.

Flyers are fine, but again, think about where you put them to reach your target audience. Again, same with things like facebook - look for groups that are interested in the sort of book you wrote.


Now, not to put a damper on things, I read the first bit of your book, and I have to agree with the others who mentioned that it does need work. As a reader I wouldn't buy it based on what I read in the first couple of pages.

I appreciate that you are 17 and are still finding your voice, and also finding your footing in self publishing, which can be a fierce and competative part of the industry. So don't loose hope.

You said radio said no, what about the local paper where you live? There should be some reporter who would want a human interest story about a seventeen year old writing a full length novel. Cut up whatever mistakes they are talking about and call up the newspaper. If one says no, call any that is around you. You will never know. I see things like that in area papers where I live, local news station as well.