A Barren Landscape...

[R. C.]

A question of curiosity.

My advertising, on all platforms, has dried up over the past two weeks.  AMS impressions are a fraction of what they were three/four weeks ago.

Question: Are others also experiencing a lull in the marketing efforts?  OR, has my limited audience (few sales) become a victim of the BOTs?

Cheers,
R.C.

[RPatton]

My AMS dried up and then I did a few promos and primed the impression pump and now it's skyrocketing. My conversion has gone from 3 to 5 (not happy about that), but I am getting impressions/clicks/order & reads so not complaining.

[idontknowyet]

I cut of 95% of all my ads a couple of weeks ago, because my conversion stunk and i decided to recover and see if that helps. I'm still getting about the same amount of sales/pg reads which is weird.

The only issue is my new release getting broken and barely any reads.

I've been reading threads like this all over the place.

[Al Stevens]

This might be a good time to post series 1 of your backlists as freebies and get word to your mail lists and social media followers, to give them something to read while they're rebuilding their discretionary capital. Perhaps we could collaborate and send each others' announcements to our own lists. Unless, of course, you're among the oh-so-wise authors who don't believe in and won't give away free ebooks.

[Lorri Moulton]

This might be a good time to post series 1 of your backlists as freebies and get word to your mail lists and social media followers, to give them something to read while they're rebuilding their discretionary capital. Perhaps we could collaborate and send each others' announcements to our own lists. Unless, of course, you're among the oh-so-wise authors who don't believe in and won't give away free ebooks.

I've built most of my social media following on giving away books.  Either for special occasions or as first in series.  Not everyone does this (which is fine) but it's worked well for me.  Happy to put your first in series free on my Facebook group.

Please let me know if there's anything above a PG rating when it comes to language, violence, romance, etc.  I try to include 'steamy' or 'adult' in the post. Many of my readers enjoy books of all types, but I do have some followers preferring G to PG rated books, so I like to give them a little warning. 

[LilyBLily]

I don't think it is a coincidence that Amazon just gave me another three months of free KU subscription. As this miserable pandemic lockdown situation begins to ease with more and more people vaccinated, it may be that fewer people are buying online and fewer people are buying ebooks. I guess we'll know for sure if some of the movie/television streaming companies suddenly start offering deals, too.

[PJ Post]

I think it's important to remember that there are a lot of moving parts at the moment relative to markets and book sales, way more than usual, and each with significantly exaggerated influence. Things are not always what they appear to be, which means some sales will be up and some down - neither for obviously discernable reasons.

[LilyBLily]

I think it's important to remember that there are a lot of moving parts at the moment relative to markets and book sales, way more than usual, and each with significantly exaggerated influence. Things are not always what they appear to be, which means some sales will be up and some down - neither for obviously discernible reasons.

We get this query over and over when someone's sales take a sudden dip or vanish entirely or whatever. As evidence against what I just supposed above, later yesterday when I wanted to stop my free trial of Amazon Prime, I was not offered another free trial. So that would suggest the opposite, that general sales online for Amazon are doing fine and they do not need to hand out lots of freebies. It's the nature of us humans to try to put random events into a logical framework--even when there is none.
 

[David VanDyke]

Seems like this complaint comes up repeatedly this time of year. Summer holidays (both from school and work) seem to cause the "summer slump," which hits some harder than others.

The world is not linear. It's fractal and chaotic. That means if there's an average of 10% drop in sales, those losing the sales will not likely lose 10%--they will lose more, or less--some much more, some much less, and some will actually increase.

And, only those losing an unusual amount will probably notice or complain--the outliers.

[Crystal]

I've never seen a summer slump. The only seasonal trend I've seen again and again is increasing ad costs November through Xmas. Some years, they skyrocket. Some years, they stay relatively stable. But they always increase by some degree.

Well, that and Kindlemas. There's always a drop in income Xmas Eve and Xmas and an increase the following week. People don't usually complain about the increase though.