Promos ~ A Continuing Discussion

I swore I was done. After my failed BookSirens quest and a paltry reception from book reviewers, I saw no point in continuing on. My quandary, though, is what am I going to do with all my books? Most of them have been languishing since...well, forever. My novels, especially, are complete busts. As far as I know, not one person has purchased Once In A Blue Moon nor Radio Crazy. I might have sold one copy of The Apple. Some of my novellas have fared better, but some are buried deep in the bowels of Amazon's listings, never to be revived. In particular, Second Chance and Find My Way Home have never been given a spin by anyone.

Yesterday I again searched for review sites and stumbled upon an unrelated blog by David Gaughran. This guy is awesome! Informative, yet kind (I appreciate that), Gaughran knows his stuff. I watched his video on book promos and he's so keen on Bookbub I determined right then that I would give the site another chance. The first two ads I ran, I did completely wrong. Gaughran showed me how to target other authors that are popular (but not too popular) in my genre, in order to pinpoint my potential audience. He explained how much to spend on a test ad and to focus on countries other than the US to start. I scribbled notes as I watched. 

Bookbub truly is one of the most economical promo sites (and, I learned, by far the widest read), but my two previous experiences with them were disappointing. I wish I would have found Gaughran's blog before I flushed money down the toilet.  

He also taught me that I should offer my book for free*, since I will be competing against well-known, very successful authors who are advertising their books on the site for $1.99. I've got all my novellas priced at $1.99, so even though it would be great to make a bit of coin, that's not going to happen if I'm competing with someone like Danielle Steel (or someone more contemporary ~ I'm not a big fiction reader).

*Still not sold on the idea that offering free books leads to anything. The only person who's browsed my book collection on my website is me. 

So, I did it. Today, with all my scribbled notes, I created a Bookbub ad for The Diner Girl. I set up a free price promotion on Amazon for the same time period, so there you go. And yes, I revised my cover again. I think this is the fifth iteration. This time it was the font that bothered me. I found one on Canva that looks like a neon diner sign ~ much better.

As for author targeting (or "comps")? Gaughran advises authors to consult their "also reads". Well, I don't have any! Hard to have also reads when nobody has even read my books. So, I did a women's fiction search on Goodreads and viewed descriptions of books that "sort of" sounded like mine. I typed the authors' names into my ad creation page and eliminated those with hundreds of thousands of followers (per Gaughran's directions) and I managed to find five or six that fit the criteria.

I also chose Amazon Canada and Amazon Australia only. Why? Well, Amazon US is too broad and I don't know whether the book would be relatable to UK readers (nor AU readers for that matter, but what do I know? Might as well try.) Gaughran did note in his video that Australian readers have fewer choices, for some reason, so my ad could potentially stand out. As for Canada, it's predominately a rural landscape, which I think would fit nicely with the setting of my story.

Don't get me wrong ~ I'm not hanging my hopes on this ad. My primary goal remains getting reviews, and I don't know if a free book will simply languish on someone's Kindle, unread. And if someone does happen to read it, will they bother leaving a review? 

I'm getting close to the point where I'll need to start a new novella, and I'm doing all I can to avoid that. Can you tell? It's not that I won't enjoy the process. I always do. It's the "starting" that demoralizes me. I have no ideas, although that never stopped me before. When I was searching for comp authors, all their book summaries sounded so much more interesting than anything I could ever think up. Those authors are probably outliners. Pffftt! Who does that?

My ad starts on Thursday and runs through Sunday. I'll provide an update with the results here. Honestly, I'd be thrilled to find a ton of takers, even if none of them even reads The Diner Girl. Just a nice number would bolster my spirits at this point.