New thoughts

I don't know how many people read my blog--I have a list of followers but I doubt very much if they all follow me any more. I have noticed that I don't follow other blogs the way I once did. Not enough time and also, even though I was once signed up, they no longer appear in my in-box. I've been remiss in not blogging more often and vow to do better in this regard!

This leads me to marketing, a subject I can't seem to get away from. I placed my first Facebook ad today--they refer to what I did as promoting my page but I assume my ad will show up on the right of the FB page--at least I hope it does. From what I've read 'promote page' is better for what I'm trying to sell than 'boosting posts.'

They wouldn't let me include a link so I hope that the ad itself will link back to my author page--from there one click will get to my books on Amazon. My ad goes for 10 days at 5 dollars a day. At least at the end of it I'll have more information about what works and what doesn't. Trying to choose the target audience is hard, though--the choices they give you seem more geared toward small business trying to sell a pair of shoes. I did the best I could given what I had to work with, entering e-readers, arts and music, environmentalists, dogs, cats, and so on, into the interests area...

I'm sure many of you have experience with this sort of thing--I'm kind of flying blind. Maybe that's good since I don't have any expectations.

Speaking of marketing I've been trying anything and everything these days, tired of my books languishing in KDP. It used to be that I would sometimes see my own titles in my e-mails from Amazon, but that has not happened in a very long while. How does that work, exactly? I wish I knew.

I used Draft2Digital for my newest cozy mystery novel, 'Murder in Plain Sight' in order to place it in Kobo, Nook, I-tunes, Oyster, and several other e-book markets. They offer the service for free but take a nominal percentage when the book sells. I decided to do the same with my other books, incurring the wrath of Amazon in the process. I had heard that offering the first book in a series as permafree is a good marketing tool but I neglected to pay attention to whether the two I chose were still in select. They were and I found out about it tout suite. Select on those two titles (The Moonstone and Gypsy's Quest) has now expired and all is well, at least I hope so! Hate to anger the largest retailer in the world.

I do some form of marketing nearly every day now, taking the time to research sites or going with others advice who have been there before me. My main problem continues to be doing stuff and then forgetting what I've done! I hope this is due to being disorganized and not some form of brain disorder brought on by age...

Thanks for reading!!!

Books and books and books...

Book 1 is out! The first Summer McCloud paranormal mystery, Murder in Plain Sight,  is now up on
Amazon to download as a .99 ebook or buy the paperback. But with this one I did not do kindle select, instead I went to draft2digital and had my Word doc. converted and put onto Apple, Kobo, Page Foundry, Scribd, Oyster, Barnes and Noble, and Tolino--and it did not cost me a cent even though I had them generate a title page! Maybe a lot of you authors know about this. I just recently learned of this service from a very good friend who has generously given of her time to walk me through several marketing strategies. My question is: why is it so hard to format for kindle? I'm desperate to do my own formatting but so far have not figured it out.

I had my first fantasy books up on Smashwords, which did nothing for me, but maybe this time with some targeted marketing I'll have some success!

From what I've heard from my friend and others trying to sell books, a series is the way to go. And once you have several books going you make the first one permafree.  This is said to boost sales of subsequent books in the series. So on that note I'm hard at work on Book 2, Saffron and Seaweed. I absolutely love this cover, also done by Valerie Howard. I'm having a lot of fun with this new more light-hearted genre despite the murder aspect.

On that note I have taken The Moonstone and Gypsy's Quest, the first books in each of my fantasy trilogies, off KDP select. By the middle of september I should be able to put them both permafree. And then I will see what happens. It is all new territory that I kind of wish I'd known about several years ago. I find it very hard to discover these marketing tips on my own despite being in  several Indie author groups. I am most appreciative of Helen Page's ongoing help. She is an author with books in several genres as well as  being an editor.

And so the struggle to find my peeps continues. But everything is a learning experience and I can't complain, especially since I'm having so much fun!

Thanks for reading!