Writer Sanctum
Writer's Haven => Marketing Loft [Public] => Topic started by: Hopscotch on July 28, 2020, 01:15:25 AM
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For those of us who have studied the WS AMS debates and tried w/o success every other bit of WS marketing advice, what breed of chicken do you recommend I sacrifice under a blue moon to turn a few bucks profit this plague year when everyone’s at home reading books that aren’t mine?
BTW, for those of you working the minimal-price (10 cents?) AMS ads on the pay-to-play theory, is that really boosting your books, even if just a bit?
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I consider the ads a baseline to get some attention. My daily budget is under $5 for each title and it rarely gets spent. I always make a net profit.
I used to fiddle with the targeting constantly. I haven't done much of that lately and the ads are not producing as well. I also haven't released a new book in their genres for many months. My next books won't be in the same subgenres so I don't expect any big boosts. I'm satisfied with Amazon ads. I'm quite sure that my books would not sell at all if I didn't advertise.
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BookBub ads do well for me. But whether you use AMS, BookBub, or Facebook, you have to experiment until you find a successful ad. This can cost money in itself, unfortunately. I am failing lately with AMS. I think it's because I'm not fiddling with changing the ad enough. I'm doing very well with BB. And like LilyBLily, once I find a successful ad, I allocate around $5 per day. My absolute minimal price has been $0.35 per click.
Some successful Indies are so prolific that they don't bother with ads. Their books are the ads. If you can release a book every 2-4 weeks, this could work.
Promos help revive books a little. I think for writers staring out, they help. They help me. Of course landing a BookBub promotion is awesome whether you're a veteran or newbie.
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Some successful Indies are so prolific that they don't bother with ads. Their books are the ads. If you can release a book every 2-4 weeks, this could work.
It does work. It works for 6-8 weeks, where you pre-order the next book before the current one releases.
What also works is tying in your series with each other somehow.
At the end of my last book in series 1, there is 2 specific events.
My series 3 tied into providing 2 key people to the first event.
Series 5 starts with the second event from a previously unknown but hinted at perspective.
Series 4 was the sequel to series 1. 5 parallels 4, up until now 4 is paralleling 5.
Confused? Well, yes, but the result is new readers coming in anywhere are going back to the first series, and that converts very nicely. My book 1 still bounces in and out of the top 50k. And it's over 5 years old now.
My current aim is to get series 5 to the same place in the timeline as series 2, which is a spin off of 1, so I can get that series getting the love as well. And since I didn't document that actual timeline properly, I'm having to re-read series 2 to recreate it. But once I get both galxies back in sync time wise, then the real fun can begin. :banana:
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Facebook readers' groups can be helpful and they're free. :dog1:
I've done a few Fussy Librarian promos for free books...and that was my advertising budget for the summer. Maybe next year I'll be able to try some different things when I have money to experiment.
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Facebook readers' groups can be helpful and they're free. :dog1:
I've done a few Fussy Librarian promos for free books...and that was my advertising budget for the summer. Maybe next year I'll be able to try some different things when I have money to experiment.
Maybe next year for me, too. I would like to do a BookBub just once; I check out a lot of their titles and they are by no means all incredibly superior books, so I don't think my modest efforts will be a shocking departure in quality.
Edited: After I posted this I realized it sounded wrong.