I haven't had #TheNemo&CoSeries out for long. #TheVanishingOffice came out at the end of February and #TheGhostSociety at the beginning of April. Considering that, I'm not doing so bad.
But even then, selling books can be a wee bit sporadic. Without the clout of a publishing house doing your promo, you have to do it yourself. Proper punk promo. It doesn't guarantee loadsa sales if you have plenty of cash, but it helps, because promos can be expensive!
It's quite usual to have fallow days, weeks or months (in some cases) especially if you're just starting out and don't have many followers or a teeny fan base. It can be a bit disheartening if you've flogged a few copies to begin with and then, suddenly, tumbleweed....
One thing that can really help is if you're flogging eBooks on Amazon, every 90 days you can put your book on a freebie promo. It might seem a wee bit nonsensical to put your book on for free to begin with, but it's amazing how it can transform your book's fortune.
After all, you want people to read your book, don't you?
So last week, this is what I did with #TheVanishingOffice, my first book. I did put it on a freebie about halfway through my first enrolment with KDP but after it was first launched. I didn't realise that I could put it on a freebie straight away, doh! So, I was interested to see how it would fare now that I've learned a little bit more about marketing in the meantime.
I gave it a bit of a tweak (a new cover) and set up a promo with my favourite promo sheet, BestBookMonkey (see their website here if you want to upload your book or interested in finding out what free and low price eBooks are out there). They are very reasonable if you are on a budget.
I hoped that I would have a decent week and have a few more downloads than last time.
So how did I get on?
Well....
To my amazement, it was #1 for freebie Suspense in English, in Germany, for two days!To say I was chuffed to bits is an understatement!
It got up to #19 in dystopian scifi in the US, #9 in Canada and #15 in the UK. So it worked very well. I'm not meaning to brag but I was so amazed! I still work in a shop and I've been fortunate enough to have this happen. Thanks, thanks and thanks again to everyone who downloaded it! You made my year!
Enormous, big thanks to BestBookMonkey because their promo definitely helped. You don't do any of this stuff alone. But my takeaway and advice is do give both free promos and promo sheets a go. Simultaneously! They work and help make your book, whatever genre it is, visible. Go for it! You never know where you'll end up. As for me, well, this week my downloads are back to their modest averages but I know that an awful lot more people downloaded my book on to their kindles than a couple of weeks ago and maybe a few of them will read it and like it? Hope so!