What am I doing wrong?!

Honestly, that's pretty normal.

There are several writers around here who have had success of different sizes with self-publishing. You might want to start by reading through their threads to see what has and hasn't worked for them. Try searching out book blogs that will review self-published novels.

AFAIK, those with the most success have published multiple novels. Each new book generally gives a boost to the others as an author builds an audience.

What genre do you write in? That can have a huge impact on your sales, too.

When I click on your link, it says that it won't be available until 1 March 2016 and there's no 'look inside' feature. I would be strongly disinclined to buy a book on spec from an unknown author when I can't get a feel for their writing.

Do follow Cyia's suggestions. There's plenty of helpful information in the diaries and stickies in the self-publishing sub-forum. Just be ready for a long slog.

Hi, Nina

I'm going to move your thread to the Book Promotion Ideas & Advice forum. In fact, I recommend your taking a tour of that forum to check out the promotional paths others have taken and their takes on what does and does not work.

The usual spiel, everyone: Hang on and keep all hands and feet inside while the thread is in motion.

Hi Nina--

What Helix said is key: Add a Look Inside feature.

Also, can you add a "Pre-order" banner because right now, there's no indication it's not available until March 1 unless you read all the fine print.

I don't self publish so I don't know if you can move up the pub date, but I wouldn't expect many orders until it's available so don't be discouraged over that. And March 1 is a long ways away, so promoting it a lot now might be a waste of time since people will see it's not even available yet. Maybe wait until the middle/end of Feb and do a seven day "countdown" -- > "Who will survive, Jake Steele or the Great Inferno? Find out in 7 days, pre-order today!" Just make up a simple teaser every day with a link back to your book; that might help.

But here is the easiest thing to do: Get your family and friends who read your book to POST REVIEWS! That is really key for anything at Amazon; people are more likely to buy or at least stop and look if they see some reviews. The "sweet spot" is at least 30 reviews, but anything helps.

Since your family/friends have already read it and are champions, they can post their reviews as soon as the book is available.

Good luck to you!
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We want to use the funds from my novel to adopt a child.

Amazon is clamping down on reviews from family and (supposedly) from friends, so I wouldn't spend too much effort on getting them to review.

But to the OP: self-publishing is a lot of work (1% publishing and 99% marketing/promotion). One week isn't enough to judge, but I believe the overwhelming majority of self-published books sell very few copies beyond a handful of family and friends.

Also, preorders on Amazon don't tend work in your favor unless you're an established author with a devoted following.

Along with what everyone above has said, you've got from ages 8-18 and grades 3-12 on there. Is this book MG or YA? I'd say alter your category to suit.

I hadn't checked the link when I posted, but after reading cornflake's post, I took a look.

From the cover design and length, you're definitely looking at something that skews MG in appearance. I don't know if that matches the inside, but it's going to be the likely assumption based on what's obvious to a reader. Even the blurb sounds MG. (a 12 year old protag almost certainly is)

You may be hoping for a crossover audience, which is always possible. However, MG is almost exclusively bought by adults *for* children. A mom seeing so wide of a target audience range is going to wonder if there's material that might appeal to an older reader, but would also be controversial or inappropriate for a younger one.

Eight year olds generally get Ramona or Junie B Jones books in school, maybe the first Harry Potter or Eragon. Those readers *might* be ready for Percy Jackson, if they like adventure, but they're not likely ready for Anna Dressed in Blood. Your advertised age range would encompass all of these.

Metadata is hugely important for getting the right readers to your novel. Choose it carefully.

WriterBN, I don't think Amazon cares where the customer review comes from (how would they know if it comes from a blogger or your aunt?) I know they went through a period of removing "fake reviews" and those that were obviously purchased with the same postings over and over again. But I have no information that legit reviews are being looked over, and that's what I meant.

And to the OP, I forgot to mention that I wouldn't put a lot of hope in this: We want to use the funds from my novel to adopt a child. Best to write for the love of writing and not count on it for a living or earning enough to a adopt and raise a child. Regardless, good luck!

Amazon cares - they ban reviews from other writers and family and etc. They do remove reviews; there are just a lot of books to go through, and new reviews popping up all the time.

I wish you luck, but I second the sentiment about waiting to promote. It's too early. I don't pre-order books myself...not even from the likes of King and Bujold. When I buy a book, I want to read it at time of purchase. (although it doesn't always work out that way, I still have book 3 of the Percy Jackson series to read and it's been a year, lol)

I do preorder, but it's books I want the day of release, dangit, and that's pretty much entirely authors whose work I know very well and have checked to see when they're releasing new stuff.

Consider offering eARCs - Advanced Reader Copies, and look at some review sites. Most of the big-named review sites are already booking into early March now.

You could also look into something like Indie Book Promo. They have some nicely priced packages. (Disclaimer: the owner of IBP is affiliated with my publisher.) That's a legit service though, because you're not buying the review. You're buying access to reviewers.

Make sure your social media feeds are actually engaging your followers, not just saying "BuyMyBookBuyMyBookBuyMyBook" every post. Figure at least a 3:1 ratio of regular content to promotional posts.

Remember that you're playing the long game here. Even apparent overnight successes like EL James had a bunch of writing under their belts before things took off. Consider writing your first book as graduating from college. You're not going to get the CEO position right off the bat.

Good luck.

James was also not self-publishing. Just saying. I'm not saying success isn't possible, but she's not an example of it.

WriterBN said:

Amazon is clamping down on reviews from family and (supposedly) from friends, so I wouldn't spend too much effort on getting them to review.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought this was poor form everywhere, and specifically forbidden on Amazon, which is one down side of being an author who has a wide network of people they know on social media and so on. It's hard to review someone objectively if you know them, even as a fairly casual, mostly "online" friend. So it can be hard to get reviews initially, until people who don't know you in any capacity have read your book.

I'm not an expert on self publishing by any means (I'm trying the long, painful slog to trade publishing). But it's my understanding that it can take a while to build a following up to where you make much money in either type of publishing. New self-published authors can expect to sink a lot of their own money into editing, cover design, advertising etc. up front, and there's no guarantee they'll make it back. The vest odds, as I understand it from friends who have made decent money self publishing, are with those who bring new books out pretty frequently (because new books will attract readers to earlier books too).

But if the book isn't available yet, it makes sense that sales would be low so far.

As for the book being a bit long for standard MG length: I wouldn't worry too much about that if it's self published. I think the issues with novel length apply more to trade publishing, which have to consider shipping costs and shelving space for hard copy novels. If your novel is available PoD, a higher word count could drive the cost up, of course.

WriterBN said:

But to the OP: self-publishing is a lot of work (1% publishing and 99% marketing/promotion). One week isn't enough to judge, but I believe the overwhelming majority of self-published books sell very few copies beyond a handful of family and friends.

Click to expand...

Sadly, this is true. There has been a huge upsurge in self-publishing over the last few years: but mean sales figures tend to be low. I wish this were not so.

cornflake said:

Amazon cares - they ban reviews from other writers and family and etc. They do remove reviews; there are just a lot of books to go through, and new reviews popping up all the time.

Click to expand...

They definitely do.

Hellos

Just another idea--

As a reader, or potential buyer for a young reader--well, any cover that looks like it wasn't designed by a professional puts me off. That could just be me, but--if you can't afford professional help with it, I might suggest looking into getting some feedback on the typography of the title and playing around with it.

Good luck

.

So, I should just tell my Facebook peeps to not reveal they're friends to Amazon? How do they tell a friend who is effusive and a person who really likes the book?

Dhewco said:

So, I should just tell my Facebook peeps to not reveal they're friends to Amazon? How do they tell a friend who is effusive and a person who really likes the book?

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It's not about your reviewers telling Amazon that you are their friend. Apparently, they already know who your friends are.

http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2015/07/amazons-personal-connection-review.html

That WB article doesn't seem to mention FB unless I missed it. Amazon apparently has data miners that look for connections. I'm wondering if my posting on AW would flag somewhere...if one of you guys bought my book and decided to review it. I'm not saying we're all pals, but we're not complete strangers either. There's a connection.

The people on FB are the ones I grew up with or met through various dating experiences. I'm FB friends with a guy from England who only friended me because we have the same first and last name....would Amazon flag him as a false reviewer, if he liked my book. It's just so ambiguous.

Might I suggest that if you're a relative unknown, and on the day your book becomes available there are several 5 star reviews, none of them from people who are known reviewers (and therefore might have got ARCs), Amazon is going to figure that the only way they had access to advance copies is the 'friends and family' plan?

I don't know if I should be devastated or relieved. I guess I can stop begging friends and family members for (apparently useless) reviews. On the other hand, I'm never going to get a review again, and that's pretty depressing. I have received zero reviews that didn't come from an ARC person or a friend/family member. It seems people simply don't leave reviews. I have multiple friends who are very active readers and they have all told me they would never consider leaving a review. When I asked why, they just say it's an extra task that takes up time, and there's no motivation to do it. A lot of them wouldn't even bother despite me asking nicely.