Self-publishing: What's Worked for Me and What Didn't So Far
I haven’t done that much with my self-publishing diary. Everyone else’s seems to mostly be about sales, and almost all mine have been inadvertent—in the small period after I put my book up for sale, before I can get Amazon to set my book to free.
But I am now in possession of three years of data on giveaways, and I thought some of it might be useful. Just so that we’re on the same page, I’m using total downloads as my measure of success.
In November of 2015, I pubbed Dragon Hoard and started acquiring some real, measurable data other than blog hits, so I thought I’d discuss this here.
Note: I was an active member of AW all three years that this data covers, but since that’s a constant and I’m monitoring variables, I’m just going to mention it here. It’s helped a great deal, but a lot of it had nothing to do with marketing, at least not directly. Mostly, AW’s helped me to be a better writer.
I worked hard on being a better writer during this time period. SYW, many beta exchanges, editing and revision on my own novels—it’s taken a great deal of my time, and that was a constant, too.
I tend to look at my results in terms of years--I look back and try to figure out what I can do better. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far.
2016
This is what trying to be a part of the Twitter community and blogging will get you, or at least what it netted me. I did #1lineWed, #SundayBlogShare, Folklore whatever—I can’t remember if was Tuesdays or Thursdays now, #amreading, #amwriting, Follow Friday, #blogbattle, #BookMarketingChat—basically, if it looked reasonably relevant, I was up for it. I tried to be a contributing member of all the microcommunities. It apparently paid off only in May, and I still have no idea why that month was so good.
At this time, other than blogging and tweeting, mostly I was working on submitting to ezines and anthologies. I still wasn’t sure that I was going to go SP with my novels, and I needed a great deal of reassurance that I had reached some sort of professional standard, at least with my short stories.
So, I was successful with that last—I had ten trade publications overall, but as you can see, it didn’t net me readers. That’s the first thing I wanted to note: pubbing short stories in ezines won’t get you an audience. The brand loyalty is to the publication, not the individual authors. Not enough people will go to your website to make it worthwhile as a marketing tactic.
For me, I don’t regret that year. Writing and submitting a lot of short stories made me a much better writer, and it gave me some confidence that I sorely needed. But I’ve heard it suggested that writers can build an audience this way, and that hasn’t been my experience.
2017
Since 2016 didn’t net me the results I wanted, in 2017 I got intense with social media. Not so much the Twitter groups, since I didn’t see them working for me, but how to use SM for marketing. (In case anyone’s interested in details, I posted everything I learned, as I learned it, and it’s under the promotions tab on my blog.)
I added a scheduler to keep my posting more consistent. Mostly I did author quotes and funny memes, but I spent a ton of time working up ads for Dragon Hoard and Stolen Legacy as well. I let go the microcommunities on Twitter.
Mostly, I’ve found that social media is good for branding and keeping your name out there. For a time, I did a fair amount of book ads, although it never exceeded 1/8 of my feed. I think that was probably too much. I’m keeping it below ten percent now, scheduling my feed for perhaps two or three book ads a month on both Twitter and Facebook. And those are only for free books--I don't try to sell anything there.
This year I added Pinterest, which is something I’d recommend for all fantasy authors. I’ve put way less work for far more results into that platform than any other.
And as you can see from the graph, consistent posting netted me much more consistent results. And the spike in December is the result of publishing a book that was more in the crosshairs for what people look for at Christmas time, Twelve Tales of Christmas.
But that book did well--its spike ran up all the way to number two in a couple of categories, and I didn’t know how to help it along, other than blogging and SM, which are mostly long-term, slow burn strategies. I needed to learn more.
2018
This year I finally joined kboards. I didn’t even know about it as a resource until late in 2017, and I wish I’d found out about it earlier. It certainly wasn’t perfect—any place populated by humans will have issues—but I could find out what was working and what wasn’t with far more frequency than my own little data could provide.
What I mostly got from kboards was a working knowledge of newsletter marketing. Posters there were very open about the campaigns they ran, what worked and what didn’t. I ran my first free promo, a precursor to this one (https://absolutewrite.com/forums/sh...r-little-fish-and-or-the-financially-impaired) in April, and if you look at the graph, you can see my volume never quite settled back to previous levels. I ran the same promo in October, November, and December, for The Golden Key, Dragon Hoard, and Twelve Tales respectively, for 730, 840, and 1200 total downloads. If you’re just trying to get people to know your name, which is all I’ve been trying to accomplish, it was more effective than anything I’ve done to date, barring releasing a popular book (by my standards).
I also learned a mistake not to make while marketing: https://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?338731-Don-t-Make-My-Mistake.
So, now I’ve got four books out, including Stolen Legacy, which is the only one I couldn’t give away at retailers since that’s my email reader magnet. Joanna Penn stated that it takes four books for readers to reliably remember your name, which is an incredibly depressing statistic, but that’s what I’ve been trying to accomplish.
The limiting factors there are Stolen Legacy, which has mostly just gone out to my email group, and out of 547 current subscribers, perhaps 250 have opened it, although I get a number of nice emails back on it. Maybe a hundred plus readers total. [insert sigh here]
The Golden Key, the other novelette I released this year, has 831 total downloads, free and paid (mostly free). I’ve given away thousands of copies of Dragon Hoard and Twelve Tales, so I have to hope that at least some of those recognize my name. Certainly those on my email list, although I have to figure out a subroutine to eliminate some of those on Mailerlite. I figure that since my welcome sequence is five emails long, if they don’t open six, there’s really no point. I trotted out my best stuff in that welcome series. Lots of freebies, mostly short stories.
On the email list, that’s gone well for me this past year. I’m up to 547, although after I scrub the list, I’ll be lucky to have 300. But supposedly, lower open rates affect deliverability somehow, and I only get a thousand free anyway. So, it’s not nothing, but it’s nowhere near what I need for consistent results.
My biggest single contributor there has been Voracious Readers Only (https://voraciousreadersonly.com/authors/). A year costs $150, although they have monthly plans, too, and for me, it’s been totally worth it. They’ve accounted for over ¾ of my new subscribers. Note: I am not an affiliate--I just like the service.
The other thing I worked very hard on in 2018 was branding, as in months. I took a free internet class and everything. Using feedback from kboards, I overhauled all my social media, blog, newsletter, etc., trying to get a consistent look across all my platforms. If anyone is feeling generous, I’d love comments on how well that worked (all the links are in my sig). Happy to return the favor.
Another swap I’d love to make is running through each other’s email welcome sequences. It’s tough to get real feedback on these, and I’d like to improve mine. This is where we keep people, or not.
I know it’s not a great deal in terms of results, but distressingly, I feel I’ve been slow. I’m cautious, and I get overwhelmed easily. I have a hard time believing in myself and my work. But these things are all surmountable challenges, so I keep working at it in small steps.
And a lot of this is just prequel. I’ve released two novella-length collections and two novelettes, and while I believe in all of them, they’re not novels. I have one novel, Bellerophon, ready to go once I listen to it a final time and format it. If my last, best beta friend can get through Snow White, parts 1 and 2, I’ll have those this year, and those are both novels, too. I also have another collection that’s almost ready. I already have covers and Hidden Gems appointments, so four releases could actually happen this year.
That would be nice. Hopefully, if I can manage that and learn how to promote on BookFunnel and Prolific Works, I’ll have more in the way of results next year.
As a codicil for anyone new, kboards is not the resource it once was. I’d like to request no commentary on this topic, since AW Admin told me that she’s received grief concerning kboards in the past, but I do want to provide a link so that people know what reasonable precautions to take if they choose to post there in the future: https://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,267677.0.html. Basically, the new parent corporation now owns everything—your words, your avatar, even your book covers by their verbiage. I don’t see how they could possibly enforce the latter, but I don’t want to lawyer up to find out, either. I only post rarely now, and then from a stripped-down account.
Sorry for the length of this thing, although I hope something here was useful.
I haven’t done that much with my self-publishing diary. Everyone else’s seems to mostly be about sales, and almost all mine have been inadvertent—in the small period after I put my book up for sale, before I can get Amazon to set my book to free.
But I am now in possession of three years of data on giveaways, and I thought some of it might be useful. Just so that we’re on the same page, I’m using total downloads as my measure of success.
In November of 2015, I pubbed Dragon Hoard and started acquiring some real, measurable data other than blog hits, so I thought I’d discuss this here.
Note: I was an active member of AW all three years that this data covers, but since that’s a constant and I’m monitoring variables, I’m just going to mention it here. It’s helped a great deal, but a lot of it had nothing to do with marketing, at least not directly. Mostly, AW’s helped me to be a better writer.
I worked hard on being a better writer during this time period. SYW, many beta exchanges, editing and revision on my own novels—it’s taken a great deal of my time, and that was a constant, too.
I tend to look at my results in terms of years--I look back and try to figure out what I can do better. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far.
2016
This is what trying to be a part of the Twitter community and blogging will get you, or at least what it netted me. I did #1lineWed, #SundayBlogShare, Folklore whatever—I can’t remember if was Tuesdays or Thursdays now, #amreading, #amwriting, Follow Friday, #blogbattle, #BookMarketingChat—basically, if it looked reasonably relevant, I was up for it. I tried to be a contributing member of all the microcommunities. It apparently paid off only in May, and I still have no idea why that month was so good.
At this time, other than blogging and tweeting, mostly I was working on submitting to ezines and anthologies. I still wasn’t sure that I was going to go SP with my novels, and I needed a great deal of reassurance that I had reached some sort of professional standard, at least with my short stories.
So, I was successful with that last—I had ten trade publications overall, but as you can see, it didn’t net me readers. That’s the first thing I wanted to note: pubbing short stories in ezines won’t get you an audience. The brand loyalty is to the publication, not the individual authors. Not enough people will go to your website to make it worthwhile as a marketing tactic.
For me, I don’t regret that year. Writing and submitting a lot of short stories made me a much better writer, and it gave me some confidence that I sorely needed. But I’ve heard it suggested that writers can build an audience this way, and that hasn’t been my experience.
2017
Since 2016 didn’t net me the results I wanted, in 2017 I got intense with social media. Not so much the Twitter groups, since I didn’t see them working for me, but how to use SM for marketing. (In case anyone’s interested in details, I posted everything I learned, as I learned it, and it’s under the promotions tab on my blog.)
I added a scheduler to keep my posting more consistent. Mostly I did author quotes and funny memes, but I spent a ton of time working up ads for Dragon Hoard and Stolen Legacy as well. I let go the microcommunities on Twitter.
Mostly, I’ve found that social media is good for branding and keeping your name out there. For a time, I did a fair amount of book ads, although it never exceeded 1/8 of my feed. I think that was probably too much. I’m keeping it below ten percent now, scheduling my feed for perhaps two or three book ads a month on both Twitter and Facebook. And those are only for free books--I don't try to sell anything there.
This year I added Pinterest, which is something I’d recommend for all fantasy authors. I’ve put way less work for far more results into that platform than any other.
And as you can see from the graph, consistent posting netted me much more consistent results. And the spike in December is the result of publishing a book that was more in the crosshairs for what people look for at Christmas time, Twelve Tales of Christmas.
But that book did well--its spike ran up all the way to number two in a couple of categories, and I didn’t know how to help it along, other than blogging and SM, which are mostly long-term, slow burn strategies. I needed to learn more.
2018
This year I finally joined kboards. I didn’t even know about it as a resource until late in 2017, and I wish I’d found out about it earlier. It certainly wasn’t perfect—any place populated by humans will have issues—but I could find out what was working and what wasn’t with far more frequency than my own little data could provide.
What I mostly got from kboards was a working knowledge of newsletter marketing. Posters there were very open about the campaigns they ran, what worked and what didn’t. I ran my first free promo, a precursor to this one (https://absolutewrite.com/forums/sh...r-little-fish-and-or-the-financially-impaired) in April, and if you look at the graph, you can see my volume never quite settled back to previous levels. I ran the same promo in October, November, and December, for The Golden Key, Dragon Hoard, and Twelve Tales respectively, for 730, 840, and 1200 total downloads. If you’re just trying to get people to know your name, which is all I’ve been trying to accomplish, it was more effective than anything I’ve done to date, barring releasing a popular book (by my standards).
I also learned a mistake not to make while marketing: https://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?338731-Don-t-Make-My-Mistake.
So, now I’ve got four books out, including Stolen Legacy, which is the only one I couldn’t give away at retailers since that’s my email reader magnet. Joanna Penn stated that it takes four books for readers to reliably remember your name, which is an incredibly depressing statistic, but that’s what I’ve been trying to accomplish.
The limiting factors there are Stolen Legacy, which has mostly just gone out to my email group, and out of 547 current subscribers, perhaps 250 have opened it, although I get a number of nice emails back on it. Maybe a hundred plus readers total. [insert sigh here]
The Golden Key, the other novelette I released this year, has 831 total downloads, free and paid (mostly free). I’ve given away thousands of copies of Dragon Hoard and Twelve Tales, so I have to hope that at least some of those recognize my name. Certainly those on my email list, although I have to figure out a subroutine to eliminate some of those on Mailerlite. I figure that since my welcome sequence is five emails long, if they don’t open six, there’s really no point. I trotted out my best stuff in that welcome series. Lots of freebies, mostly short stories.
On the email list, that’s gone well for me this past year. I’m up to 547, although after I scrub the list, I’ll be lucky to have 300. But supposedly, lower open rates affect deliverability somehow, and I only get a thousand free anyway. So, it’s not nothing, but it’s nowhere near what I need for consistent results.
My biggest single contributor there has been Voracious Readers Only (https://voraciousreadersonly.com/authors/). A year costs $150, although they have monthly plans, too, and for me, it’s been totally worth it. They’ve accounted for over ¾ of my new subscribers. Note: I am not an affiliate--I just like the service.
The other thing I worked very hard on in 2018 was branding, as in months. I took a free internet class and everything. Using feedback from kboards, I overhauled all my social media, blog, newsletter, etc., trying to get a consistent look across all my platforms. If anyone is feeling generous, I’d love comments on how well that worked (all the links are in my sig). Happy to return the favor.
Another swap I’d love to make is running through each other’s email welcome sequences. It’s tough to get real feedback on these, and I’d like to improve mine. This is where we keep people, or not.
I know it’s not a great deal in terms of results, but distressingly, I feel I’ve been slow. I’m cautious, and I get overwhelmed easily. I have a hard time believing in myself and my work. But these things are all surmountable challenges, so I keep working at it in small steps.
And a lot of this is just prequel. I’ve released two novella-length collections and two novelettes, and while I believe in all of them, they’re not novels. I have one novel, Bellerophon, ready to go once I listen to it a final time and format it. If my last, best beta friend can get through Snow White, parts 1 and 2, I’ll have those this year, and those are both novels, too. I also have another collection that’s almost ready. I already have covers and Hidden Gems appointments, so four releases could actually happen this year.
That would be nice. Hopefully, if I can manage that and learn how to promote on BookFunnel and Prolific Works, I’ll have more in the way of results next year.
As a codicil for anyone new, kboards is not the resource it once was. I’d like to request no commentary on this topic, since AW Admin told me that she’s received grief concerning kboards in the past, but I do want to provide a link so that people know what reasonable precautions to take if they choose to post there in the future: https://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,267677.0.html. Basically, the new parent corporation now owns everything—your words, your avatar, even your book covers by their verbiage. I don’t see how they could possibly enforce the latter, but I don’t want to lawyer up to find out, either. I only post rarely now, and then from a stripped-down account.
Sorry for the length of this thing, although I hope something here was useful.
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