So, here’s the book promo chart which I linked to in my earlier post ‘So does the marketing work?‘ – my efforts to make my book visible over the last ten months, and the chequered results. Read and enjoy, and if you’ve got any better suggestions please drop me a comment below.
ps The link was there last time because I hadn’t worked out how to insert a table into a WordPress post (without a plugin). Well I have now, sort of, but if anyone knows a tidier way of doing this I would love to hear from you!)
and a pps to The Sister – so yes, everything is possible if you try hard enough! Not perfect, but possible 🙂
| Promotion | Cost | Time consumed | Enjoyment/ bad taste in the mouth | Result | Profit |
| Start a blog | £0ish (I got led astray with domain names and pretty backgrounds but it doesn’t have to cost) | Quite a lot | Great fun! I’m a writer, of course I want to write.
WordPress & HTML sometimes do my head in |
Met lots of nice people in the blogosphere. Learnt new skills and generally enjoyed myself. Had some lovely feedback from readers
Recommended |
No idea. Probably not, but I have sold a couple of books to people who were able to contact me through the website |
| £0 no ifs, no buts | Ate up my life in the early days but I’ve got a grip on it now | Some laugh out loud moments.
Bad taste in the mouth? Depends who you follow! |
Met a lot of nice people in the twittersphere. Even made friends – yes really. A lot of generous sharing going on out there.
Recommended (if it’s your thing) |
Would have to be, because it didn’t cost me a penny and I have sold books to twitter pals. | |
| Facebook Page | £0 to £Any limit you set (if you pay FB for ads or boosted posts) | As much as you want to give it, but you will disappear if you don’t keep at it | Meh. I don’t spend enough time on the page – no real interaction with followers | Boosts and ads can be directed to people who are likely to read your books, but you are paying for it | No idea, but somehow I doubt it |
| Feature in Good Housekeeping Magazine | £0 + A lot of luck | 1 Day | Bloody brilliant. Best day out ever (read all about it in This Weeks Shenanigans) | A trip to Londinium, a make-over, posh clothes to try on and a free lunch. What’s not to like?
Recommended 🙂 |
Definitely sold a number of books, and it cost me nothing |
| Visit the local bookshops | £0 | Roughly half a day begging, ongoing sucking up | Great once I’d talked them round. Lovely people.
Sticking the neck out was uncomfortable. Bookshops hate Amazon |
Sold lots of real, paperback books. Great buzz seeing my book on the shelf. Became the ‘local bestseller’ (briefly!) | Absolutely. Or it will do when they pay me for the books… |
| Feature in the local press | £0 | Roughly half a day finding photos, talking to reporters and writing a press release | Mild embarrassment when the headline read ‘Saucy Farmer’s Wife’ (or something like that) | People stopping me in the street. A run on the local bookshop (which of course I mentioned in the feature. | Yes. Bookshop and Amazon sales |
| Kindle Free Promotions | £0 | 15 minutes to fill in the form | Fun watching the download graph rocket.
Not so fun that you’re giving the book away. |
Hundreds of downloads, gets the book seen by readers. | Yes and no (the download is free) but it cost me nothing and I’m hoping the same readers will buy the next book. More pages read on Unlimited, which I do get paid for. |
| Goodreads Giveaway | £0 for promo, cost of books + postage to mail the books to winners | 15 minutes to fill in the form, a trip to the post office | Another chart to follow! | A few reviews of the book | Not sure/not really BUT reviews grow interest in the book. Postage costs can be high if you run worldwide (you don’t have to) |
| Public speaking | £0 (some authors charge, but I’m not there yet) | 3 days stressing + however long the event is | More fun than you would think (or more fun than I thought it would be) once you get over the nerves. People are nice. | A good laugh, and usually good sales. | Yes – best sales day ever of the paperback was after my talk to the WI! |
| Paid email subscriber lists (I’ve done BookBub and Fussy Librarian) | ££ depends which countries you target. USA is spendy, I went UK – less than £100 | An hour or so submitting (with a good chance you will not be accepted)
A fair bit of time faffing with time zones and price drops |
Watching the money roll in…
… oh wait, I’m giving the book away again. |
Lots of lovely downloads | Yes when I price dropped to £0.99, no when I priced at £0.00. But there’s always that second book that their tongues are hanging out for… |
| Start a newsletter/ email sign up | £0 so far | I reckon quite a lot, but it’s early days for me with this. | People really need more crap in their inboxes…
… luckily for them my Newsletter rate is scarce/non-existent |
I’m told the potential is huge…but how the hell do you persuade people to sign up?
Ps – do please sign up for my Newsletter here 🙂 |
Watch this space. The idea being that every faithful fan who has read your book will be running for the shops the minute you tell them a new one is out. |
Sam Russell 