Promotions: From the Writer’s Drawer

Originally published on Sulis International’s Blog. I felt that this needed to be touched upon in a little longer of a post, so I will be expanding this into several posts.

This is a first part of a two, or three point posting about…Marketing. Yes, that which every author likes to put out of sight, and out of mind. Today, though, we will be specifically talking about promotions.

Promotions are almost an eldritch evil (deadlines are another, but let’s not load up on shouldn’t-be-named subject matters) that can’t be ignored for long. Like that pile of clothes in the corner, or that persistent smell whenever you eat beef. Because whether we do a promotion or not the costs are unavoidable.

Yes, it is unavoidable. Don’t do a promotion? Well, it will make selling that book even more difficult. Run a promotion? Choose to spend either money, time, or both. And no matter the choice, sales during the first go around will undoubtedly trend red, sometimes quite red. To maximize a return, it will be necessary to compare results, and tailor a marketing strategy—involving promotions—to a novel’s niche. But to do so, there are a few points that need to be thought about.

• Be realistic. Landing a Bookbub Featured Deal is unlikely without a lot of reviews, and even then, expect a monthly dance with rejection. Outside of this unicorn, there are a plethora of other sites—some free, some paid—that will be happy to blast all about Grandpa’s Socks, An Adventure in Smells. The trick is to find which ones work best. To do this, set up a longer burn time on the first few runs. Run that promotion for a week or two, mixing in some paid sites, along with free. Curses of Scale, my recent A Young Adult Fantasy novel, for example, had decent results with the following freebie marketing campaigns: EbookSaurus, Ebooklister, and Discountbookman. Others worth trying, depending on genre, might include Debutcity, BookoftheDay, Digital Book Girl, and Pretty Hot. It should be noted that the list of wannabe marketers grows every day, and while tracking numbers remember that Amazon sales trail anywhere from seven to eight hours behind.

• Paid promotions for trial runs, on the other hand, should be well-spaced, to give enough room for any tail (these are after the promotion purchases, or day late shoppers). These should always be considered the heavy hitters, or anchors of any run. Of these Bookbub and ENT (Ereader News Today) are always priorities, as they give solid results regardless of the subject, though the competition for spots is fierce. Second tier marketers for Curses of Scale included Bargainbooksy, Book Gorilla, Ebooksoda, and Bookbub’s pay-per-click ads, and a fiver campaign (costing 5 per day) from BkKnights. Others that might turn out for different books, such as The Fussy Librarian, Book Barbarian (for fantasy novels), EbookStage, Booksends, Booktastic, HotZippy, and Snicklists did nothing for Curses of Scale. The best use in-house newsletters, while the weakest rely only on social media blasting.

• Once you have established a solid group, plan any upcoming promotions well in advance. The dates considered the most profitable include Thanksgiving, early June, and early September. I believe it may also be advisable to try the early part of February to cut into the lull time of March and April. Schedule at a week for each run and pick a stack of three-four profitable paid sites with a smattering of freebies. Prioritize Tuesdays and Wednesdays and try to avoid Saturdays for main stacks. This will allow the previously mentioned tail to kick in, as well as pick-ups from any newsletter post. Absolutely do not waste money on Banner ads for single sites, outside of Amazon, Google, and Bookbub. Magazine spots bought for Curses of Scale brought negligible returns.

• The last item is to always consider building your newsletter. This is something that every writer seems to neglect (including this author), but which will have the greatest of effect on sales. Facebook ads are good drivers for newsletter signups, and there are some solid list builders like Booksweeps, Authorsxp, and self-controlled setups like Kingsumo. Goodreads giveaways are not worth the time or effort. More about newsletters in a follow up post.

Whatever the circumstances, the main thing is not to get discouraged. It is all about that trial and error, but with enough planning, foresight, and effort anyone can put together an effective campaign and negate some of those early growing pains. Outside of a Faustian deal, this is always the best strategy.