Most of Reddit's self-publishing posts are focused on/obsessed with promotion -- how to do it, which companies to use, how much to spend on ads, etc. I'm so glad I no longer exist in that world.
What most self-published authors, self-publishing gurus, and naturally, book promo sites, won't tell you is that nothing actually works. I've tried basically every means to boost sales except Facebook ads. Some authors (and gurus who shall remain nameless) swear by them. Color me skeptical.
Things "they" tell you will work:
BookBub ads ~ I watched David Gaughram's entire instructional video detailing the precise steps to take when creating a BookBub ad. I followed them to the letter; researched comp authors, targeted specific regions, created intriguing ad copy (such as the site allows, which is about four or five words). Chose CPC versus CPM. How did my last ad do? I received zero clicks. Authors, have you subscribed to BookBub's newsletter? Do it. You'll see what your book is up against. The listings go on forever. The only BookBub ad that "worked" for me was when I offered one of my books for free. Still, out of forty-two takers, not one left a review, which is the only reason to give away a book.
ARC readers ~ Everyone touts ARC readers. Send out as many free copies of your book as you possibly can, and watch the reviews pour in. Lots of sites will gladly host your PDF or epub, for a price, and they'll dutifully send a copy to anyone who wants one. I blame myself for enrolling in Voracious Readers Only and for not first reading the fine print. Sure, I got FAR too many ARC readers ~ I estimate about 200 ~ and no reviews. Folks catch on really fast the best ways to obtain free books. (VRO's evergreen program asks authors if they'd like to grow their newsletter subscriber list. It doesn't promise reviews.)
I also landed about four ARC readers from Goodreads. Two of them left reviews. Two is the sum total of my reviews for Inn Dreams.
How many reviews, author, have you ever left for books? People don't leave reviews unless they feel very strongly about a book, either positively or negatively. I've left maybe two or three Amazon reviews in my life.
Major promo sites ~ see BookBub above. Some of them don't even list my genre, but those that do still result in negligible sales. I've made two sales here, one there. Certainly not worth the price of the ad.
Minor promo sites ~ same.
Amazon ads ~ Granted, my first (and only) attempt at creating an Amazon ad left me confused and uncertain. My results reflected that. Zero clicks. But even if I was an ad genius, I may have gotten a click or two, and probably no conversion to a sale.
I haven't bothered enumerating the other little "hacks", like Amazon's free book promotion or asking for blog reviews ~ all things that have a zero to 1% chance of making a difference. You can either spend every waking moment trying all these tricks or you can do nothing. The result will be the same.
The bottom line is, there's no magic formula. There's no formula at all. It's like hurling darts at a dartboard and instead hitting the wall.
In order for your book to sell, you need these three components:
- A great cover
- An intriguing blurb
- Luck
As for me, I'm relieved to be out of the game. Now when I pull up my author email each day, I'm not inundated with (and disheartened by) scores of new ARC readers that I need to add to my mailing list. Even as I did that daily exercise I knew it was a waste of time. My newsletter gets no engagement, unless someone clicks on the unsubscribe link. No longer do I need to sit and fill out forms for a bunch of promo sites that could potentially result in one sale. No longer do I pull up my sales report or check for reviews. No longer am I wasting my money. That in itself is a relief.
Some authors get a thrill from the chase. Me? My spirit is light as a feather now that I've given up.
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