blog « Robin Writes

When it comes to sales, authors are always trying new things; sometimes there is success, sometimes not. Often, you can do the same thing and it works once, but not again.

Let me explain: a year or so ago, several times, I’ve had “free” book offers on Amazon Kindle. I know people who have had tens of thousands of downloads, but my personal best is just over 1100 or so. Now, we all know that some readers, or non-readers, will grab anything marked “free;” it doesn’t mean they’ll ever read that book.

The idea here is to get people to read your book, talk about your book, and then, hopefully soon, some of those people will actually BUY the book.

Does this work?

The first few times I did this, with different titles in the Reduced Series, I got squat. Maybe one or two sales after 1000 free downloads. Whoopee.

This last time, REDUCED was free on Kindle for five straight days (just to be clear, I’ve done one-day, two-day, three-day, AND five-day prior to this). Since then, December 1-5, I’ve sold 18 books in the series and had 18 “borrows.” I also scored a five-star review, but not on the free book—on Recycled.

So I count this promo a success. At least, more successful than the rest . . .

Now, this does, perhaps, work better if you have a series, although I’ve had the series out now for 17 months—not like any of the books were just released. And I have dropped hints of the fourth book, REPEAT, coming in March 2015.

Something else I started, the first of November, was hiring a publicist. They aren’t cheap, but I had a little extra cash at this point, so it was a “now or never” deal. Did this make the difference in the free downloads/sold copies?

It’s possible, yes. I know the company has RT’d some things, I had two interviews/spotlights, and last week I did a radio interview—which, by the way, was super-short and I can’t imagine anyone even heard it, let alone followed the conversation.

Yesterday, I had a radio interview via California. It was awesome, the host was excited about my books (she’s reading the series) and asked a lot of questions—for thirty minutes!

I have another one scheduled on Thursday, out of Virginia.

I know, too, that the publicist has sent out copies of my books, but to my knowledge, it hasn’t garnered any more reviews. I’m in this for the long haul, and making connections, so yes, it’s all valuable—even if there are no immediate sales.

Should you trade books with other authors? Well, of course you can—but I’d make sure that it was a book I was interested in actually reading, because otherwise it’s likely to sit around and collect dust instead of being read and reviewed. And even if that other author IS interested in reading your book, he may still not have the time. Besides, what if you read his and you hate it? What if it’s horrible? Do you tell him? Or just leave a bad review? What if he sees that and then leaves YOU a bad one? Do you see how this is going?

Flip through the book, make sure it’s well done, and that the genre and story are something you’d enjoy; talk to the other author and make sure it’s mutual—books cost money, as you know . . . You want bang for your buck.

What about online events? It depends. I’ve been invited to many, but never hosted one. I simply don’t have the time to hang out on FB for a couple hours—then again, I do that for other things, so maybe I’ll give it a whirl one of these days. Authors I know who have done this typically gain a few sales. Again, you have to weigh the cost and the outcome.

Personal appearances can often result in additional sales—both in person at the event and later, when people may remember you and download an E-version. You have to consider downloads too, particularly a few days or even a week beyond the event. It could be someone you met, or someone who told another reader about your book.

Sometimes, too, it’s all about a connection, especially if you’re speaking. Not long ago, ONE thing I said resonated with an attendee, and immediately afterwards she introduced herself and bought REDUCED. And then, within a week, she bought the other two books.

Mostly, book sales are about cumulative numbers—you sell one, you sell another, then two or three. My co-interviewee yesterday said that, as an SP author, she’s sold about 100 books a year—and that’s four or five titles. So yes, the more titles you have, the more books you will sell. Especially if you can tie them together somehow.

It’s brand building, name recognition. Keep that in mind when deciding which WIP to pursue next. I really think it’s a big factor. If you write a romance, and then move on to a children’s book, and next, you publish science fiction, it’s going to take longer to build those things.

And that will affect your sales numbers too.

This weekend, we went back to look at the “barn property.” You have to understand something: where we’re looking for land is covered with county roads, CRs, and they all have numbers. And you know how well I work with numbers! So we could call them CR-124 or CR-131 or whatever, and we’d be, literally, all over the map. Of course, I still haven’t figured out counties number these things; as soon as it starts to make some kind of sense, they change the rules . . .

Anyway, the property is 42 acres, roughly one-third pasture. Not exactly what I was envisioning, but it has a lot of good qualities. I think this could work. Most of the woods are on a hill, and surround the property. County road frontage—gravel—and a back way in too. Electric on site, no well, but there is a live creek bordering the entire west side.

The front pasture is fenced, about seven acres, with an adjoining barn. A really big one, too, but unfortunately it’s in really, really bad shape. I think there’s more roof missing than still attached, and the inside is rotting quite a lot. But there’s the electric—ha!

Straight back through the front “gate,” which is just a cable now, there is an opening to the back pasture; that’s about seven acres as well, rough estimate.

First things first: we need better measurements and an official plat, of course, to know the particulars, but the plan is to purchase over the winter, in the next month or so, this section or maybe another—hard to say, and still keeping our options open, but we’re getting close.

However, IF we were to buy this piece, here are our starter ideas (keeping in mind, of course, that the actual move date is June 1, 2016—not THIS June!):

First, we need a driveway; gravel, of course. This requires removal of topsoil, grass, etc., before the first layer of gravel is put down. I’m certainly not opposed to driving through the meadow, but mud could be a factor at some point—not sure AAA comes out there! So, remove topsoil, pack it, three layers of gravel. The entire process is not a rush job, as the more we drive it, the more each layer gets packed down.

Second, build a latrine and put in a solar shower. We’ll be camping out and working down there for a year or so before we actually finish the cabin, so, yeah . . .

Third, a kitchen shelter—my camp peeps will know exactly what it’s going to look like! Counters, a couple picnic tables, a stone barbeque pit, and cabinets for cookware storage.

Fourth, we’re putting in a pond, in the front pasture. Dennis likes to fish, we have a feeder creek, and the livestock will need it too. So, Number Four, dig a really big hole. And build a dock. And maybe get a canoe . . . Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself . . .

Next, plow up the garden. We’ll plant some things this spring, like asparagus and strawberries. And gourds; I have a market for those. We’ll put in the fruit trees then, too.

After that, we just need to decide where the outbuildings will go: general storage, woodshed/fuel, toolshed/shop, pump house and food storage. And the cabin, of course.

Once those are staked out, we can decide where to drill the well and get that taken care of—yes, we’ll be hauling water for a bit, but that’s doable.

Now, my original plan was to have, like Mike said, the cleared acreage in the middle of the property. Well, that seems to be quite difficult to find, at least in our price range. So, we may have to make do.

There are always compromises, and I can tell you about a big one—cell service. Yes, I’m planning on self-sufficiency, but I also have a company to run. So, yeah, that whole “out in the middle of nowhere, but with WiFi?” Yep, that’s me.