As I mentioned in the past post, Gypsy's Secret is nearly here. The Kindle version is up but has one spelling error that needs to be corrected. And there may be other small things as well. The paperback is still in process with problems with the cover. Not sure what the e-mail Createspace sent me meant but I forwarded it on to my cover designer and despite it being a weekend she sent me a new improved copy. (Thank you Viola!) Now I'll have to wait again for the approval.
Now to the reason for the title of this post. I set out this morning with great hopes and a bag of books, heading first to find ribbon to tie around my Wolfmoon Trilogy and then speeding down the road to my local bookstores. My plan was to tie a nice red bow around the three books and offer a big holiday discount for buying all three together. Sadly this was not to be. The first one, Antigone Books, said 'they don't do that sort of thing'. I whined about how difficult it is to be a self-published author, asking if I could showcase my books somehow...the answer was NO.
The second store, Mostly Books, said I could replace the ones already on the shelves with the bow idea, but if I did so then no one would have the option to buy them singly! We talked for a while (I like the people there) but didn't come up with any sort of marketing strategy for me, although she did say she would try to get someone to read Just Another Desert Sunset--if he or she liked it, it could potentially be facing out on the 'staff picks' shelf. (I'm not holding my breath)
After that I found a new clothing store a couple of doors down and proceeded to buy myself two new items of clothing. It was my reward for at least making an attempt to market myself! Don't worry, I didn't spend much.
My conclusions from this are as follows:
1. My books do not do well in bookstores due to too much competition and no showcasing.
2. I will market my books in gift stores and metaphysical stores and maybe Celtic stores.
3. I will concentrate my energy on my kindles and deal with KDP select and trying to get them seen.
4. I will drink wine and try not to whine.
5. I will be proud of the fact that I have 7 books out now--a major accomplishment! And maybe since 7 is my lucky number this year will start a new upward trend in sales!
Thank you for reading and I would love to hear your stories!
About Me
- nikki broadwell
- working writer wending her way through the labyrinth that is self-publishing
Showing posts with label metaphysical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label metaphysical. Show all posts
Saturday, November 22, 2014
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Marketing Genre Fiction
Thanks to all of you for your thoughtful comments on my last post! It's interesting how people handle this issue...I no longer feel as I did when I first began Wolfmoon Trilogy six (could it really be that long?) years ago. I feel as Mike mentioned (last post) that my own voice does now shine through. But at the beginning I was very nervous about writing in such a narrow genre. Which brings me to the topic of this post.
Is it easier to market genre fiction? When I was still banging my head against the wall trying to get an agent, I was told that it is. At the time YA fiction was HOT, especially fantasy. I tried to market my books in that niche but then realized that it wouldn't work--according to the agents I spoke with my protagonist was too old. For a while I thought about changing her age but for the purposes of the story it just wouldn't work. Being older and wiser now I've determined that there can be several niches for a book to fall into. Mine is suitable for young adults, just not VERY young adults. When my ten year old granddaughter wanted a copy of The Moonstone my answer to her was, 'you won't like it'. And she wouldn't. My books could be categorized as part fantasy, part myth, part romance, part adventure and part mystery with a sprinkling of Celtic spirituality mixed in for good measure. Trying to go too narrow can be a problem as well.
Logically it would seem that as authors we would want our book to have as wide an appeal as possible, but a Celtic fantasy should not be pitted against a work of literature, such as, (first one that came to mind) 'The Great Fire' by Shirley Hazard. And so we try to find our readers in various ways, targeting different groups on Facebook, tweeting to #___ and/or placing them in bookstores, Celtic stores or metaphysical stores--places our readers tend to frequent. We roam the internet searching for blogs and other places where we might collaborate or interest a blogger in our books--we exchange blog urls, we do interviews and ask strangers to review our books. All of this seems pretty obvious but there seems to be a lot of flailing around out there in the cyber world, and I'm one of the flailers!
So how do we narrow our focus without turning our niche into a knife edge? I know there are search engines that can help with this--I've done the searches, but haven't gotten much out of it. Blog tours are the big thing that everyone does, but do these tours work? I was told by a well-respected editor/marketing consultant, (Christine Myers), that I would need to find 100 blogs and contact them all. If anyone has an answer, please write a comment below.
We all get stuck in trying everything when we first bring out a book, but in order to have time to write we need to cut out the chaff. The trouble with social media is that everyone is in the same boat! Well, maybe not everyone, but enough to fill the thing to capacity so that it might be in danger of sinking. I guess the best idea would be to interview all the successful self-published authors and find out what worked for them--I'm sure there's lots of information on this topic floating around out there. Which brings me to another subject that I plan to explore very soon--gatekeepers for self-published books. Any thoughts?
Thanks for reading and I appreciate any and ALL comments!
Is it easier to market genre fiction? When I was still banging my head against the wall trying to get an agent, I was told that it is. At the time YA fiction was HOT, especially fantasy. I tried to market my books in that niche but then realized that it wouldn't work--according to the agents I spoke with my protagonist was too old. For a while I thought about changing her age but for the purposes of the story it just wouldn't work. Being older and wiser now I've determined that there can be several niches for a book to fall into. Mine is suitable for young adults, just not VERY young adults. When my ten year old granddaughter wanted a copy of The Moonstone my answer to her was, 'you won't like it'. And she wouldn't. My books could be categorized as part fantasy, part myth, part romance, part adventure and part mystery with a sprinkling of Celtic spirituality mixed in for good measure. Trying to go too narrow can be a problem as well.
Logically it would seem that as authors we would want our book to have as wide an appeal as possible, but a Celtic fantasy should not be pitted against a work of literature, such as, (first one that came to mind) 'The Great Fire' by Shirley Hazard. And so we try to find our readers in various ways, targeting different groups on Facebook, tweeting to #___ and/or placing them in bookstores, Celtic stores or metaphysical stores--places our readers tend to frequent. We roam the internet searching for blogs and other places where we might collaborate or interest a blogger in our books--we exchange blog urls, we do interviews and ask strangers to review our books. All of this seems pretty obvious but there seems to be a lot of flailing around out there in the cyber world, and I'm one of the flailers!
So how do we narrow our focus without turning our niche into a knife edge? I know there are search engines that can help with this--I've done the searches, but haven't gotten much out of it. Blog tours are the big thing that everyone does, but do these tours work? I was told by a well-respected editor/marketing consultant, (Christine Myers), that I would need to find 100 blogs and contact them all. If anyone has an answer, please write a comment below.
We all get stuck in trying everything when we first bring out a book, but in order to have time to write we need to cut out the chaff. The trouble with social media is that everyone is in the same boat! Well, maybe not everyone, but enough to fill the thing to capacity so that it might be in danger of sinking. I guess the best idea would be to interview all the successful self-published authors and find out what worked for them--I'm sure there's lots of information on this topic floating around out there. Which brings me to another subject that I plan to explore very soon--gatekeepers for self-published books. Any thoughts?
Thanks for reading and I appreciate any and ALL comments!
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Reemergence of the muse
Finally a moment to write a blog! I probably shouldn't be taking the time to do this, since I'm in the middle of editing Book III, The Wolf Moon, but...I have some things to share...
First of all I've backed off of FB a bit, using my extra time to write and edit. I check it from time to time but feel somewhat lost now that I have so many 'friends'. At the beginning I could keep track of things, recognizing the same names who were posting in the various groups, but now when I check I have no idea who all the people are or what is going on! I have joined over ten different groups and I think that adds to my confusion. In any case I consider my time more valuable than I did a few months ago when I hadn't begun this final edit.
About the edit--I wrote the entire book several years ago and haven't even looked at Book III for at least a year. That, combined with all the changes I made to Book I and II makes for quite a lot of work! The fun part is all the new detail I'm adding--the skeleton was there but there was no flesh on the bones! My earlier estimate of having it out in February has been moved to March and I plan to have a professional go through before I send it to Createspace.
I had a Goodreads giveaway for Saille during the month of December that seemed quite encouraging. Had over 600 people enter for the five copies that I gave away. More than I had on Amazon the last time I did the Kindle select thing...I encourage everyone to try it!
Speaking of Kindle Select, it continues to be a thorn in my side. The Moonstone is signed up until February at which time I will NOT renew. I now have Saille, the Willow on Smashwords via Rik Hall who formatted for me. Most likely I mentioned this in my last blog but I can't say enough good things about working with him. The Moonstone is formatted and ready to go, waiting until Amazon allows me to put it elsewhere!
Another thing I wanted to share was that I have managed to get my books into three places here in Tucson. One is a yoga studio and the other two are what I would call metaphysical stores. I have a list for other places here and in other parts of Arizona and will take it one step at a time. I really enjoy the face to face aspect of this. Although maybe not as lucrative as the e-book thing, it's nice to have a personal relationship with those who are stocking my books.
One last aside--I've been despairing of ever finishing this last book of the series. The editing was not going well. I attributed this angst to two things--1. The idea that I had to get it finished and out by February--2. That the book was the END of the series.
So yesterday I had a talk with myself. First of all there is no deadline although I'd like to have it out sooner rather than later. Second, I've begun a sequel so this is not the end of the series! I asked the spirits to help me, those muses who have been by my side during all the writing. I lit a candle and burned incense and had a quiet moment before I began. And it helped get me over a rather large hurdle.
How do you deal with these issues in your own writing?
First of all I've backed off of FB a bit, using my extra time to write and edit. I check it from time to time but feel somewhat lost now that I have so many 'friends'. At the beginning I could keep track of things, recognizing the same names who were posting in the various groups, but now when I check I have no idea who all the people are or what is going on! I have joined over ten different groups and I think that adds to my confusion. In any case I consider my time more valuable than I did a few months ago when I hadn't begun this final edit.
About the edit--I wrote the entire book several years ago and haven't even looked at Book III for at least a year. That, combined with all the changes I made to Book I and II makes for quite a lot of work! The fun part is all the new detail I'm adding--the skeleton was there but there was no flesh on the bones! My earlier estimate of having it out in February has been moved to March and I plan to have a professional go through before I send it to Createspace.
I had a Goodreads giveaway for Saille during the month of December that seemed quite encouraging. Had over 600 people enter for the five copies that I gave away. More than I had on Amazon the last time I did the Kindle select thing...I encourage everyone to try it!
Speaking of Kindle Select, it continues to be a thorn in my side. The Moonstone is signed up until February at which time I will NOT renew. I now have Saille, the Willow on Smashwords via Rik Hall who formatted for me. Most likely I mentioned this in my last blog but I can't say enough good things about working with him. The Moonstone is formatted and ready to go, waiting until Amazon allows me to put it elsewhere!
Another thing I wanted to share was that I have managed to get my books into three places here in Tucson. One is a yoga studio and the other two are what I would call metaphysical stores. I have a list for other places here and in other parts of Arizona and will take it one step at a time. I really enjoy the face to face aspect of this. Although maybe not as lucrative as the e-book thing, it's nice to have a personal relationship with those who are stocking my books.
One last aside--I've been despairing of ever finishing this last book of the series. The editing was not going well. I attributed this angst to two things--1. The idea that I had to get it finished and out by February--2. That the book was the END of the series.
So yesterday I had a talk with myself. First of all there is no deadline although I'd like to have it out sooner rather than later. Second, I've begun a sequel so this is not the end of the series! I asked the spirits to help me, those muses who have been by my side during all the writing. I lit a candle and burned incense and had a quiet moment before I began. And it helped get me over a rather large hurdle.
How do you deal with these issues in your own writing?
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