Promo Loop Update
I know we don't usually have a Saturday blog, but I got my June royalty statement and wanted to see what the results of posting excerpts on a good dozen email loops were.I sold exactly the same number of books in June, with the daily promo on email loops, as I did in May, with no promo.
Good to know.
posted by MJFredrick @ 12:16 AM
8 Comments:
Wow. Thanks for sharing your personal experiences with us, Mary. Do you have any theories on why it worked out that way?
I wonder if a lot of those loops are more authors than readers.
Maybe my excerpts weren't sexy enough.
Maybe the same people are on too many loops.
I'll continue to participate in publisher days, but I don't think I'll pepper the loops with excerpts anymore, though it wasn't as time consuming once I chose my excerpts.
I've found that participating in author days has done virtually nothing for sales, although it's truly impossible to tell for sure. But I also suspect that most of these publisher days are inhabited 99% by fellow authors either there to promote themselves or offer moral support.
I've cut WAY back after I discovered all the promo I did for my last release didn't increase the first month's sales at all.
Depressing, but my publisher has such limited distribution channels that I can see why people might not like to go to all the trouble when they can 'one stop shop' elsewhere.
I find I rarely read excerpts on loops because the formatting is cumbersome, and frankly, although I don't mind hot, the constant "give me hot hot hot" scenes taken out of context usually leave me cold cold cold.
Sigh.
But yes, you see the same names on all the loops, and I suspect they all enter contests and wait to win books rather than go buy them. I notice when I have a contest that requires some effort (like my July one), I don't get nearly the number of entries.
Terry, I know just what you mean about the clamoring for hot hot hot...some of the chats lately have been - well, I'm glad my son hasn't been in the room when I open some of these emails.
I will say I bought two books based on excerpts, but they were about firefighters ;)
I will say that the one positive thing about the excerpts is you do get to take a peek at the writing. Since I don't buy based on covers or trailers or any other 'visual' approach, it's the writing that will sell the book for me.
And I have an 'excerpts' file of my own stuff, so I can snip and paste when I want to post. That's a timesaver.
However, I've decided that posting the entire first chapters on my website is a much more 'fuel efficient' way to go. If people like what they see, they can buy the book based on that.
That makes sense, Terry, but how do you drive traffic to your website?
LOL, Mary!
I try to keep visible. Posting on blogs, doing posts to the groups that aren't 'promo' all the time. Hold contests. Beg. Grovel. Pray?
I've got my email, blog & Red Room page links in my sig line of any email I send out. I'm not a 'name' yet, but I'm hoping I'm planting a few seeds. I'm trying to get some spots as a guest blogger, too.
So true. While writers ARE readers, I'd like to reach more readers that aren't writers - but as an ebook author, with no presence in the store, what's a girl to do other than hope some of the blog hopping, interviews and yahoo loops eventually drive some traffic to both my website and my publisher?
If someone comes across the answer, I'd sure love to hear it!
Thanks for posting your experience so we know we're not alone out there! :)
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