When an author's expectations are as low as mine, even a tiny bump in sales is a win. Since I began my quest to submit my latest novella, Lies and Love, to a bunch of free promo sites a couple of days ago, I've racked up nine sales. Sure, that may sound laughable to you, but I'm thrilled. Yes, I managed to move 40 units of New Kaitlyn and 32 of The Diner Girl, but except for maybe three of those, they were all free copies. (And by the way, none of them resulted in a single review.)
It kind of makes me sad that the majority of my promos are now over. I have a few stragglers coming up in March, only due to scheduling availability, so this short burst is kind of the end. What it does tell me, though, is that through a minimal amount of effort, free promo sites are definitely worth it. And to be honest, I rather enjoyed completing those submission forms. There was a feeling of, this could work!
By the way, one of my sales came from the UK, so that free listing on BookAngels was worth something.
No, I haven't gotten any reviews yet, but for those I'm crossing my fingers for Voracious Readers Only and my LibraryThing giveaway, which is now up to 24 entries, with today being the final day.
I was really lucky with my cover creation for Lies and Love, and I don't underestimate the power of good cover art. Canva has been such a blessing. And this one came together really quickly. Not to rag on authors who pay for graphic design, but I've gotten inundated with promo site newsletters lately (I had to subscribe so I could judge how my book looked in the mailings) and I really hate every other book cover I've seen. Just awful. (Side note: some indie author is apparently following me around, because her creepy romance novel keeps showing up in the same newsletters as mine, and her image makes me want to rip out my eyeballs.)
I hired two different graphic artists in the course of my publishing journey. The first time I did it, I didn't know about Canva, so I assumed hiring someone was my only option. I hired this woman for two covers (my first two novels) and it wasn't as if I went the cheapest route. Perhaps a contributing factor to the covers' awfulness was cultural differences. I don't remember where the lady was from, but face it, most of the Fiverr designers are foreign-based. Each of her designs featured a "woman" who looked like she was about 12 years old. After some prompting, she did a bit better, but the covers still turned out...strange. I stuck with them until I found I could create my own. I even won a free cover design from Fiverr later and submitted one of those two books for a redesign. Oh, lord ~ the artist was apparently big on manga. Or she was playing an elaborate practical joke on me.
Out of desperation I sought out a Fiverr artist for The Diner Girl. I couldn't find a perfect image on Canva ~ lots of diner images, but none with an actual woman in them who didn't have piercings or wasn't wearing a Covid mask. Well, this guy...I explained what I wanted ~ waitress in a diner. He came back with a lovely appointed restaurant with a fireplace and upholstered chairs, kind of like the den in an 1880's oil baron's mansion. "Well, that's not a diner", I wrote back. He didn't know what a diner was and asked for clarification. I had to find a couple of Google images and send them to him. I'm not positive, but I think he used one of those images and just plopped a woman in the middle of the photo. And she wasn't an American woman. Again, I used it, but finally found a better image on iStock for about nine bucks to replace it.
And then there was the font. BIG yellow lettering; I mean, huge. Ugly as sin. And I'm not partial to yellow in the first place.
My point is, authors see something, perhaps designed by a publisher's in-house artist, and they think that's what they need to do. So every damn cover looks the same, they're all too gaudy, and they all scream, I AM THE AUTHOR! I don't think what potential readers are looking for is some obscure author's name on the cover. Tone it down a bit! To be honest, I'll reject a book if its cover repulses me (looking at you, author who's following me around).
I like my Lies and Love cover. The woman is pictured in profile looking down, a wistful expression on her face. Her image encompasses the entire cover. The font signals that it's a woman's book, and below it is my name in smaller lettering (not vice versa, people!) I am so proud of it. I realize I've gone off on a tangent, but anyway, yes, I believe my cover helped my sales.
And now it's on to the next challenge ~ waiting for my giveaway to end so I can get those PDF's and epubs sent out.
And maybe do a bit more digging for additional promo sites.
No comments:
Post a Comment