The past month has been a whirlwind, both incredibly busy and exciting! NightWind has been available to readers for about a month and I am now officially in the research phase of my next project.

For all you fellow indie authors out there, I thought I’d recap some of the book promo work that I did to help get the word out about NightWind and my other work. Here’s what happened.

May 1-4

ACTION: Countdown to cover reveal on social (Facebook author/personal pages, Twitter, Instagram)

RESULTS: Received additional followers on Author page. Have now reached 100 Facebook author page followers.

May 5

ACTION: Cover Reveal on Blog, announced on Social (Facebook author/personal pages, Twitter, Instagram)

RESULTS: Social countdown resulted in 101 views on blog in one day.

INSIGHTS: Next time, I will wait to do the cover reveal until I am also ready to start pre-orders. It’ll better guarantee I can capitalize on the blog views.

May 9

ACTION: Kindle edition available for pre-order. I updated all of the buttons on my website and announced that pre-orders were available on social.

RESULTS: I received just 2 pre-orders on the first day. But, they were two orders that I didn’t invest any money in, so that’s something.

May 11

ACTION: Blog/social posts announcing eBook promo for May 23-27

RESULTS: I now have more than 3,700 blog followers! My Facebook author page has 130 followers. Before I began this campaign, I had fewer than 100.

May 18

ACTION: Blog post announcing panels I’ll be participating in at ConQuesT

May 23-27

ACTION: Free eBook Weekend Promo on Amazon

• The Green Lady and Withered World eBooks offered for free on Amazon.

– Social Media campaign promoting pub/discount on Facebook ads

• Post Boost #1: Promo new book
• Post Boost #2: Free ebook promo

Budget: $30 for each boost

May 24

Publication Date
ACTION: Blog Post announcing NightWind Book Birthday

May 25

ACTION: ConQuesT panels and book promo work

RESULTS: Sold 2 copies of Withered World after sitting on a Dystopian literature and politics panel.

June 21

I received an unexpected review on a fellow local blogger’s site today! Click here to check out what Seven Cups Mystic thought of NightWind! Thank you for the very kind review and for taking the time to share your experience with my book with your own readers!

June 22

ACTION:

• Recap of book promo efforts blog post (which you are reading now)
• Book Publication Party at Noir Arts and Oddities
  If you’re looking for something to do, I hope you’ll join me down at Noir from 4-6 pm for some sweet treats and book conversation. I’ll have copies of all 3 of my books for sale and will likely do a reading at 5 pm

Reflection

So, as you can see, it’s been quite whirlwind! But, I think I’ve had some great results. I spent a total of $60 on post boosting on Facebook and increased my followers to 130. The first promo earned 1.2 K views and 157 engagements. The second didn’t do as well for some reason which I need to evaluate and decide what I should do differently. It might be because it wasn’t a free offer as it was about my new book which wasn’t discounted. I would have offered the Kindle version at a discounted rate for the weekend, but Amazon wouldn’t’ allow me to make adjustments to the price for some reason.

I also gave away a ton of books, so many that The Green Lady made it into the #2 spot on Amazon’s Top 100 Free Book list under the Historical Literary Fiction category on Monday, May 27!

 

Overall, I gave away 291 Kindle copies of The Green Lady, 120 copies of Withered World, sold 2 print copies of Withered World at the conference, and sold 8 copies of NightWind during the Memorial Weekend time-frame. I sold a few additional copies of NightWind during the pre-order period and have sold a few sporadic copies on Amazon in the month of June.

Now, all I have to do is hope that I can get a few positive reviews out of all those free downloads so I can get on the Amazon recommendation list and get used in some of their promo materials and then maybe people will want to buy some of my books for real. 🙂

What would I do differently? I need to update my print materials to use at the convention. I didn’t have a bookmark or a business card this time and those materials are very useful. I also learned how important it is to do panels not just because I know about the topic, but that relate to my books. When you can talk authoritatively about a topic and that pertains to your book as well, you’re more likely to sell copies. That’s how I sold the two copies of Withered World at ConQuesT.

Other Key Takeaways
The Fantasy genre is overrun. This isn’t news. It’s clear I can make a dent in the historical fiction realm though, based on the small beats of success I’ve had promoting The Green Lady. So, my inclination to turn back to writing historical fiction is the right choice as I continue to try to grow my audience and also myself (though last night I had a great idea for a new character who would live in an urban fantasy story!). I write whatever I want of course, but this data shows me that turning to the project I’ve been dreaming of writing next is exactly what I need to do.

Overall, I’d say it’s been a pretty successful first month! I’ll be stepping back from promo work and focusing on my next project (that’s the plan at least!) now, but I’ll have lots of updates and things to share along the way as I start the writing process all over again! I hope some of this info is useful to you as you complete your own projects and begin to think about how to get the word and your work out there. Good luck and keep writing!