My debut novel, AMERICA’S NEXT REALITY STAR, was published a couple of weeks ago. There’s so much excitement that goes into the days before the release, but there’s also a lot of work involved.
The past year
has been a bit of a whirlwind for me. After all the time I spent looking for an
agent, and all the time I waited (sooooooooo patiently, let me tell you) to get
an offer after signing with my agent, it occurred to me that I hadn’t really
spent any time thinking about once happens once the deal is done.
Part of it was
superstition: I didn’t want to act like I assumed I’d get a deal, because I
didn’t want the universe to take that opportunity to laugh in my face. But part
of it was simply things I hadn’t even thought about needing to know yet. It
wasn’t until I started trying to figure out how to get people to buy my books
that I realized. Even after I signed the contract, I was busy for a long time
focusing on editing and copyedits and social media and not spending enough time
looking at the bigger picture.
superstition: I didn’t want to act like I assumed I’d get a deal, because I
didn’t want the universe to take that opportunity to laugh in my face. But part
of it was simply things I hadn’t even thought about needing to know yet. It
wasn’t until I started trying to figure out how to get people to buy my books
that I realized. Even after I signed the contract, I was busy for a long time
focusing on editing and copyedits and social media and not spending enough time
looking at the bigger picture.
Here are five
things I learned once I started doing the research.
things I learned once I started doing the research.
1.
I know nothing about marketing. Worse, I found the sheer amount of
information out there to be completely overwhelming. Worse than that, when
you’re trying to learn about marketing six months or even two months before a
release, it’s difficult to measure whether you’re having any success at all. Is
that one pre-order because of that guest blog I did? Or did my great aunt hear
about the book from Grandma and head on over to preorder that day?
I know nothing about marketing. Worse, I found the sheer amount of
information out there to be completely overwhelming. Worse than that, when
you’re trying to learn about marketing six months or even two months before a
release, it’s difficult to measure whether you’re having any success at all. Is
that one pre-order because of that guest blog I did? Or did my great aunt hear
about the book from Grandma and head on over to preorder that day?
2.
Learning to market is work. This is important. There were days where
I spent all my writing time reading about ways to get sales, researching and creating
swag, or drafting articles and guest blogs to pitch. After several days in a
row of this, I felt like I should be writing, like I’d accomplished nothing
since I hadn’t added to my total word count. But learning how to sell books is
just as important as writing and editing them, so it’s important to devote time
to the process. And not to make myself feel like I’m not doing anything
important.
Learning to market is work. This is important. There were days where
I spent all my writing time reading about ways to get sales, researching and creating
swag, or drafting articles and guest blogs to pitch. After several days in a
row of this, I felt like I should be writing, like I’d accomplished nothing
since I hadn’t added to my total word count. But learning how to sell books is
just as important as writing and editing them, so it’s important to devote time
to the process. And not to make myself feel like I’m not doing anything
important.
3.
Twitter followers ≠ sales. Going into my debut year, I had about
4,000 followers on Twitter. I felt great about that. After all, my Twitter
followers were primarily other writers and readers, right? People who’d want to
read my book? Wrong. I’d say about one percent of my preorders came from
Twitter followers as opposed to friends I met through Twitter, real-life
friends, and family members. Building that audience is great, but don’t think
everyone who favorites your tweets is going to rush out and buy your books. It
doesn’t really work that way.
Twitter followers ≠ sales. Going into my debut year, I had about
4,000 followers on Twitter. I felt great about that. After all, my Twitter
followers were primarily other writers and readers, right? People who’d want to
read my book? Wrong. I’d say about one percent of my preorders came from
Twitter followers as opposed to friends I met through Twitter, real-life
friends, and family members. Building that audience is great, but don’t think
everyone who favorites your tweets is going to rush out and buy your books. It
doesn’t really work that way.
4.
Watching Amazon rankings will make you
crazy. No, seriously. My
New Year’s Resolution was to dial back to checking no more than once per day.
It’s super exciting when that number creeps closer to #1. But here’s the thing:
when your book goes up for preorder months before the release date, it’s not
going to hit #1. It’s not even likely to go into the Top 100, not for a debut
author. So you wind up refreshing and fixating on the number, with zero idea of
how it correlates to actual sales.
Watching Amazon rankings will make you
crazy. No, seriously. My
New Year’s Resolution was to dial back to checking no more than once per day.
It’s super exciting when that number creeps closer to #1. But here’s the thing:
when your book goes up for preorder months before the release date, it’s not
going to hit #1. It’s not even likely to go into the Top 100, not for a debut
author. So you wind up refreshing and fixating on the number, with zero idea of
how it correlates to actual sales.
5.
I’m not good at anticipating what people
want. I did a giveaway
where people could buy my book for extra entries. The giveaway got hundreds of
entries – exactly six people utilized that option. I did not require proof of
purchase, and my Amazon numbers did not reflect six sales. One is someone I
know bought the day before, and that was allowed. The others? No way to say. I
also said I’d give feedback on non-winning entries for people who pre-ordered
the book. Of the six sales, one person took me up on that offer. A few months
later, I did another offer: free query critiques to the first 5 people who
pre-ordered the books. In my ridiculous pride, I expected to be inundated with responses
within a few minutes. Several friends shared the offer, but no one replied. Mathematically,
this is a great deal. At the time, I was charging $10 for a query critique (now it’s $15). So,
for less than half the cost of a critique, a person could get one, and all they
had to do was preorder my book. They didn’t have to read or review it. Heck, I
couldn’t even stop them from canceling the preorder as soon as the critique was
received. But no one bit, despite the fact that my query critiques usually do
well when I donate to auctions and other contests.
I’m not good at anticipating what people
want. I did a giveaway
where people could buy my book for extra entries. The giveaway got hundreds of
entries – exactly six people utilized that option. I did not require proof of
purchase, and my Amazon numbers did not reflect six sales. One is someone I
know bought the day before, and that was allowed. The others? No way to say. I
also said I’d give feedback on non-winning entries for people who pre-ordered
the book. Of the six sales, one person took me up on that offer. A few months
later, I did another offer: free query critiques to the first 5 people who
pre-ordered the books. In my ridiculous pride, I expected to be inundated with responses
within a few minutes. Several friends shared the offer, but no one replied. Mathematically,
this is a great deal. At the time, I was charging $10 for a query critique (now it’s $15). So,
for less than half the cost of a critique, a person could get one, and all they
had to do was preorder my book. They didn’t have to read or review it. Heck, I
couldn’t even stop them from canceling the preorder as soon as the critique was
received. But no one bit, despite the fact that my query critiques usually do
well when I donate to auctions and other contests.
Marketing a book
can easily be a full time job of its own. As publishers take on more and more
writers, much of the burden of convincing people to buy our books falls to us
as writers. There are millions of books on Amazon – what makes someone choose
ours over someone else’s? With so much at stake, it’s important to attack the
task like any other job that needs to be done: do the research, make a plan,
and stick with it. Part of me always hoped I’d be able to rely on my good looks
and charm to sell books once they were out of the world. And, sure, I suppose
those things would help if I were standing on street corners hawking my wares.
But selling books online in the twenty-first century requires just as much
dedication and creativity as writing the book in the first place.
can easily be a full time job of its own. As publishers take on more and more
writers, much of the burden of convincing people to buy our books falls to us
as writers. There are millions of books on Amazon – what makes someone choose
ours over someone else’s? With so much at stake, it’s important to attack the
task like any other job that needs to be done: do the research, make a plan,
and stick with it. Part of me always hoped I’d be able to rely on my good looks
and charm to sell books once they were out of the world. And, sure, I suppose
those things would help if I were standing on street corners hawking my wares.
But selling books online in the twenty-first century requires just as much
dedication and creativity as writing the book in the first place.