Business Archives - Page 5 of 12 - Writing As A Second Career

Bonus Materials For Your Readers

If I could go back and do one thing differently from the day I published my first novel, it would be to start an author email list on that day.

Why You Need An Email List

I published The Awakening (Book 1 in the Awakening series) in ebook format in 2011. When I put it in Kindle Unlimited and made it free for a few days, I had thousands of downloads.

But I had no second book to link to in the back for readers who liked the first. I was working a lot of hours as a lawyer at the time, so it was 2 1/2 years until Book 2, The Unbelievers, came out.

At least if I’d had an email list sign up option in Book 1 with some sort of bonus for people who joined I might have had a way to reach those readers.

But I didn’t. So when Book 2 came out, I had to start all over.

Forms, Bonuses, And Costs

Bonus materials or other incentives are a good way to encourage people to join your email list and to remain on it. When you offer a bonus or gift to new subscribers, though, you need to (1) be clear that you are asking them to sign up for an email list and (2) let them know what else they’ll be receiving from you.

Your email provider typically has on-line forms you can customize for your list and whatever bonus you’re offering. I use MailChimp. This is a simple form to receive a Character Creation Tip Sheet for subscribers to the Writing As A Second Career list.

Sending readers a bonus or gift doesn’t mean you need to spend money, though some authors do.

If you don’t want to spend at all, you can email a file directly to readers yourself.

If you’d like to have someone else deal with any technical issues and you’re sending an ebook as a bonus (more on that below), you can use a service such as Book Funnel.

For a minimal amount (right now $20 a year), Book Funnel will let you create a reader landing page for your book and will handle the download process. Readers can download in whatever format they read. If they have problems with the download or have questions, Book Funnel handles those.

Types Of Bonuses

Some ideas for bonus materials:

Complete Books

If you have more than one novel or non-fiction book, you can offer readers a free ebook edition. Offering a complete book works best if you have a series, especially one with multiple books that are for sale.

Make sure you include sale links to your other books in the back matter of the free book.

Inside Information/Snippets From Your Writing Process

If readers enjoy a book, they often like getting a glimpse into the writing process.

You can offer items such as:

deleted scenes
scenes written from a different character’s perspective
early drafts (including with handwritten corrections)
author commentary
interviews with favorite characters
author interviews
research notes

I offered some or all of these at different times. More recently, I put some of these items into a Reader’s Guide in ebook format.

Here’s the Book Funnel landing page for the Books in Order and Reader’s Guide I created for the Awakening series. People who sign up for my email list get the guide free. Otherwise, I sell it for $1.99. (Go ahead and download it for free if you’d like to see how the process works.)

Worksheets, Checklists, Tips

For non-fiction, useful materials like worksheets, lists of tips, or checklists can be a good draw.

Years ago I downloaded a book launch checklist from Bryan of the Sell More Books Show. Now I’m a devoted listener to the podcast and I attended the Sell More Books Show conference this year.

Creating those materials sometimes can help you as the author figure out what to write next. I got such a good response to a bonus I offered on a simple 5-point method for plotting that I expanded it into Super Simple Story Structure: A Quick Guide To Plotting And Writing Your Novel.

Short Stories

If you write fiction and aren’t yet able to offer a novel, you can offer a short story.

A short story may not be as intriguing to readers as a full book, but it’s a place to start. Also, it can be a draw if it ties into a novel or a series.

Some authors use short stories to tie two different series together. In that way, the free short story may draw a reader from one world of yours into another.

Also, once you have several short stories, you can consider putting them together into a collection and selling them.

Swag

Some authors offer readers promotional items such as pens, mugs, T-Shirts, coasters, or other items with logos or names identifying the author or the author’s work. Others offer signed paper books.

The downside of physical promotional items is the cost of shipping.

The upside is that other people likely will see the items, possibly adding some free advertising for you.

A podcast for my favorite TV show does a great job with physical merchandise. Whether or not you’re a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, it’s worth a look at the merch page for the Buffering The Vampire Slayer podcast to see what can be done.

That’s all for today.

Until next Friday when I’ll talk about Adjusting Your Writing Goals When Life Throws You A Curve—

L.M. Lilly

Sitting, Not Pitching, And Relaxing: Lessons Learned At This Year’s Book Fair

This year I felt really nervous about the Printers Row Lit Fest (a/k/a the Printers Row Book Fair) because I broke my foot some time back.

That fact meant I didn’t get as much publicity done for the fair as usual, I had to get there and back with all my books, a wheelchair, and crutches, and I’d need to sit rather than stand most of the time at my table.

To my surprise, this year was my best year of the 5 times I’ve rented a table there.

I talked with more new readers, had more people join my email list who seemed truly interested, and sold more books to strangers.

Last year in The Beauty of Book Fairs my thought was that it was hard to make a sale at a live event to someone who didn’t already know your work.

So what changed?

Sitting Rather Than Standing

Most authors I talk to about or share tables with at book fairs favor standing behind the table or at least standing as soon as someone approaches.

The idea is that people are more likely to see you as they pass by. Also, as educators and speakers have found time and again, standing generally gives you authority and makes you the focus of a room.

Initially I tried standing on the crutches.

But it was awkward and uncomfortable, so most of the time I sat in the wheelchair. And what happened? Way more people came to my table to browse, and more talked with me as they passed by, then looked at the books.

My guess is that more people stopped to talk because I wasn’t looming over the table like an overanxious salesperson.

(They couldn’t see the wheelchair from the aisle, so it wasn’t sympathy or curiosity.)

They didn’t feel pressure to buy, so they felt free to chat or browse.

Also, I was more relaxed. I felt happy to have gotten safely behind the table (for more on my harrowing wheelchair ride there see my author blog) and to be outside among people.

I hoped to sell some books, but mostly I wanted to enjoy the day.

In short, I was more interested in having conversations than selling. I think that made it easier to chat with me.

More Books To Share

People also seemed to feel more comfortable looking over the table because I had more different books to sell. In previous years I’d published fewer titles (only Book 1 and 2 in my first series the first year). People assumed I was the author standing behind the table. This year, though, they asked if I was and were excited when I said yes.

When you only have one novel or two to sell, readers feel bad if they pick one up, look at the back, and walk away. At least, I always feel that way at a book fair. So I’m more comfortable looking if there are lots of choices. It doesn’t feel so personal if I choose not to buy.

The larger number and type of books also allowed me to group them on the table by genre.

I put my supernatural thriller series at one end, then my short horror story collection and standalone gothic horror novel, then my new mystery/suspense novel, then my non-fiction books.

That way, if people didn’t like one genre or weren’t interested in the covers, they naturally gravitated to the next set of books.

This progression seemed to make readers more comfortable browsing.

Having many books also allowed me to have multiple price points.

The novels were $10 (or two for $18), the non-fiction $5, and the short story collection–which is very short–$3. One person bought the short story collection, which was set in Chicago, as soon as he heard it was $3.

On Not Pitching Your Books

In previous years, I asked people who neared the table or browsed, “What do you like to read?” or started telling them about the books.

This year I said hello, said how nice it was it had stopped raining (it was nice!), or asked if they’d found anything interesting this year at the fair. If they didn’t start looking at my books, I didn’t say anything about them.

As a result, some people who started out by saying they’d already bought too many books ended by buying after chatting with me, and/or signed up to my email list.

If people looked at a book or two, I explained how the books were grouped. If someone seemed interested in that, I volunteered which ones were set in the neighborhood of the book fair, which I’ve always found to be a good sales point. If they looked at the writing books, I asked if they were interested in writing.

But I only explained the premise of a book if the person asked about it. In previous years, I started with that–my pitch–as soon as the person picked up the book.

After this year’s experience, next year I plan to sit behind the table, enjoy talking with people, and not worry so much about sales.

Who knew breaking my foot could be such a good thing?

Until next Friday–

L.M. Lilly

Answering The Snarky Things People Say About Your Writing

Many of us have heard the Eleanor Roosevelt quote “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

When it comes to something as personal as our writing, though, sometimes it’s hard to put that advice into practice.

While most people you talk to about your books will be supportive or at least polite, odds are you will run into someone (or more than one someones) who says something that leaves you feeling bad about yourself or your writing.

The comment may be made unintentionally or it might be designed to belittle you.

As I mentioned last week in Mastering Talking About Your Books, fear of these types of comments can keep us from telling people about our writing despite that it helps our careers to do so. I think this can be especially so for self-published writers because we don’t have the outside validation that trad-published writers get when a traditional publisher backs their work.

Below are a few thoughts on how to handle unkind, thoughtless, or snarky comments, followed by a some responses I’ve used.

Taking Comments In The Best Light

I find it helpful to answer each comment or question as if it had been meant in the most positive way possible.

For one thing, that might be true.

Sometimes the person is genuinely asking for information or expressing interest or support, but doesn’t know a question might be intrusive or upsetting.

When I was submitting a manuscript to publishers and agents and getting rounds of rejections, a business colleague of mine would always say, “Hey, keep trying, you’ll be just like that Harry Potter lady. Pretty soon you’ll be a millionaire.”

He was trying to be supportive, but every time I’d plummet into depression because I couldn’t possibly have felt farther from J.K. Rowling. My colleague didn’t know that I’d already been trying, and trying, and trying for years. I’d written several novels, yet I’d never made a single dollar on a piece of fiction. (I sold one short story for $15 and the check bounced.)

As another example, most people don’t realize asking how many books you’ve sold is a bit like asking your salary.

Some people might be comfortable answering that, but others won’t be. If you’re not, you can come up with some responses you do feel okay with.

Recognize It’s Not About You

Sometimes a person’s comments about you or your work are really about themselves and where they are or want to be.

For example, someone who says “I wish I had time to do nothing like you do” (I’ve had people say this) on hearing that you write fiction may be feeling overwhelmed at work and desperately wants to be doing something else.

This also is true for someone who makes comments that undermine you.

For instance, a relative once called to ask me about self-publishing paperbacks. She knew I’d published a series, and she was giving a workshop for people in a retirement home who had written memoirs or family histories and might want to publish them.

After I’d given her information on tips, costs, and publishing platforms, she said, “Thanks. I figure most people will self-publish because their writing is pretty bad. The ones who wrote anything good will get real publishing deals.”

I was so surprised by her implying that my writing must not be any good, especially after I’d spent an hour of my time helping her, that I didn’t respond.

Later, I thought about it and realized that she often threw digs about my writing and publishing into conversations as asides or “jokes.”

None of it had anything to do with my writing. She’d never read my books.

Instead, her snarky comments reflected something inside her. What exactly I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. There are no good reasons for trying to tear someone else down, and someone who does that isn’t a friend.

Ways To Respond

Over the years I’ve developed some answers that work for me to difficult comments.

Most are based on the idea that the person is genuinely seeking or offering helpful information, even if they’re not, and others are meant to shift the conversation, point out that the questions might be a bit tactless, or elicit information that might actually be helpful.

My friend sold 100,000 copies of her book the first week. How many have you sold?

Answers (assuming you haven’t sold 100,000):

That’s fantastic. Do you think she would meet me and give me some advice?

I’d love to sell 100,000 in one week. Do you have any suggestions on doing that?

I haven’t sold 100,000 this week. Maybe next week!

Oh, you wrote a book. Did you self-publish it? (said with raised eyebrows or while looking down the nose)

Answers:

Yes, I did. Are you thinking about it? I’d be happy to share what I’ve learned.

Yes, I did. I love having control and keeping all the profits.

Did you try getting a real publisher?

I thought about a traditional publisher, but I’d rather work to make money for myself than a big company.

No, I like having control over my creative work.

Why? Do you know a good one?

Your book sounds dull. Why don’t you write about something interesting/ important, like General Custer/animal rights/wizards?

Answers:

Oh, are you interested in General Custer/animal rights/wizards? Tell me more about that.

Is there anything I could change in how I described the book(s) that might make it sound more interesting to you?

How much do you make writing books?

Answers:

It varies. Some authors earn six or seven figures, others earn enough to cover their Starbucks habit.

Oh, I’m sure you make more. What’s your yearly salary?

I wish I had time to sit around and do nothing but write.

Answers:

What would you write about?

Sounds like you have a busy schedule. What have you been working on lately?

If you like, I could share some tips/recommend a good book on how to fit writing into a busy schedule.

Obviously, these aren’t the only ways to respond. I offer them in case they might be helpful to you, or to spark your own ideas for what to say.

However you choose to answer, having responses ready can help you shift away from a comment or question that might undermine your confidence. And it might help you learn something new or get to know the other person better.

Until next Friday–

L.M. Lilly

Should You Use A Pen Name?

I recently got a question from a new author about whether or not to use a pen name.

The closest I’ve come to a pen name is that on this site and on my non-fiction books, I use initials. So I’m L.M. Lilly.

My fiction is all under my full name—Lisa M. Lilly.

(I was once asked why the “M.” Basically because otherwise my name sounds a little too much like a romance writer—or an exotic dancer as my godmother once said. As I write mystery, occult, suspense, and thrillers, I thought that might confuse potential readers.)

Why Use A Pen Name

Here are a few reasons authors use pen names:

To keep writing separate from other professional pursuits

If you have a job or profession where you fear your writing might affect how colleagues, bosses, clients, or others see you, a pen name can be a good option.

Writers who cover potentially controversial material or otherwise write something that they don’t necessarily want business associates to connect with them often use pen names.

If you’re a professor and you write erotica, for instance, you might prefer your students not to know you wrote the steamy book they’re reading.

Also, you may worry that your boss or clients will think you’re not focusing on their work/business/issues if they know you’re also pursuing another goal.

As someone who wrote while also running a successful and busy law practice for many years, I think there’s no reason you can’t do both.

But that may not be everyone’s view, so you need to weigh whether that’s a concern.

To stay anonymous among family and friends

Similarly, some authors don’t want family and friends to know what they’re writing.

If you’re writing political thrillers or essays that espouse a certain point of view and it differs from your family’s, you may not want to get embroiled in the political discussions you could otherwise sidestep.

If as you write you’re thinking about people you know reading your words, that could inhibit your creative process. A pen name is a way to avoid that feeling.

It also avoids friends and family (and enemies–but you don’t have any, right?) trying to figure out if characters are based on them.

Separating genres for readers

I use initials for non-fiction to make it easier for readers to find my other similar books.

If you read Super Simple Story Structure that doesn’t mean you’ll be interested in my Awakening supernatural thriller series or my new Q.C. Davis mystery series.

And the converse is likely to be even more true.

So I prefer that when a reader of The Worried Man clicks on my author name, the books that display are my other novels.

Likewise, when a reader of one of my Writing As A Second Career books clicks on L.M. Lilly, that person will see my non-fiction.

Pen names also can be handy for different types of fiction.

If you write both hard science fiction and romance, you may want to write one under your actual name and one under a pen name. That way, readers of one genre will more easily find the type of book they like.

Separating genres for algorithms

From what I’ve read, Amazon’s algorithms also try to match readers with authors.

Using different names for different types of writing helps the algorithm send readers to the “right” books.

The Downsides Of Pen Names

Using a pen name–or more than one of them–has downsides.

More names = more work

If you are writing under more than one name and you want to publicize your work, you’ll need to spend more time building your pen name’s identity.

You will likely want to create social media accounts for each name, as well as author profiles, websites, and printed materials.

You won’t be able to leverage existing social contacts

If you truly want to keep your pen name separate or anonymous, you won’t be able to use your existing social and work connections to help market your book.

If you don’t want to stay anonymous and are using a pen name for other reasons, you’ll still be adding a hurdle to people learning that you’re an author.

As I noted in The Top 5 Reasons Your Friends Won’t Read Your Book And What You Can Do About It, often friends and family aren’t the best source of sales or support for your author career.

But some of your connections will be.

I published the first two books in my Awakening series while still running a busy law practice. I was regularly in touch with hundreds of lawyers all over the country.

Because I published under my own name, it was easier to let them know about the books and for them to find them organically.

Some have bought the entire series.

Others have told friends and colleagues about it, and some connected me with other professionals (such as graphic designers and other writers).

Using a pen name would have added a layer before my business colleagues could find me. It also would make it more difficult to connect with them on social media.

True anonymity is hard to find

Staying truly anonymous can be a challenge in today’s world.

Author’s notes, biographies, and comments on social media all give clues to your real identity. Ensuring that doesn’t happen takes extra time and effort that you could devote to your writing instead.

And no matter how much you do, readers may still figure it out.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to stay anonymous if it’s important to you. Just know that you may put in that effort and still find you can’t really be anonymous.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few pros and cons, so feel free to share in the comments.

Also, if you have a question please send me an email at [email protected] and I’ll do my best to answer in a future article.

Until next Friday—

L.M. Lilly

Chickens, Eggs, and Sales (Advertising Your Book Before You Get Reviews)

A question I often get is how to advertise a newly-released book that has few or no reviews.

This issue causes a lot of stress for self published authors, including me, because it’s the old chicken and egg problem. It’s hard to sell books if you don’t have reviews. But it’s also hard to get reviews without a lot of sales.

The best places to advertise e-books are always evolving.

That’s why I periodically search the Internet for articles with up-to-date lists.

Best Book Promotion Sites 2018 is a good example of this type of resource. It includes descriptions of many sites as well as bonus discount codes for some of them.

Caution When Advertising

Below are some advertising options I’ve used in the past–and intend to use in the future–for new releases.

A few things to keep in mind before you advertise:

It’s often hard to make your money back on advertising, particularly in the beginning when your book has no reviews.

For this reason, I try to keep my advertising spending at a level I can afford even if it takes a long time to sell enough books to make a profit or cover the cost.

The options below are ones that I found helpful, but results vary depending on your genre, the price at which you’re offering your book, whether your cover appeals to your target readers, your book description, and how readers feel about your first few pages (among other things).

So sites that worked well for one of my books may not be helpful for one of yours, or for a different book I published.

Before you advertise anywhere, sign up for the newsletter or study the books listed on the site.

That way you’ll see whether the books being promoted are similar to yours.

I also find it helpful to see how high advertised books rank on Amazon on the day of the ad.

This gives some clues to whether the platform is effective. Keep in mind, though, that authors may be advertising on more than one platform at a time, so a book in the Top 100 overall or for a category may have gotten there based on a combination of ads.

Digital Book Today

Digital Book Today offers a New Release option for Kindle books. The feature has no minimum review requirement. For 14 days, your Kindle book will be featured on the website’s New Release page and will be included in a dedicated blog post with just 2 other books.

Right now it costs $30.

The site also offers some genre-specific pages, including one for Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller, which is where I’ll be advertising my new mystery release The Worried Man for 30 days beginning on May 1 (the ebook release date).

While I haven’t found Digital Book Today webpage listings to be as effective as enewsletter options, which go directly to readers’ In boxes, I have seen boosts in sales when I listed my books there.

Digital Book Today also offers some listings for free.

Bargain Booksy

Bargain Booksy lists ebooks on its site and in enewsletters.

You can advertise ebooks on numerous platforms, including Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBooks, and Google Play, as well as include a paperback link and an audiobook link. You can list books that are priced anywhere from Free to $5.

Bargain Booksy’s website says that it has no minimum review requirement, but “every book goes through an editorial review process. If your book does not meet our editorial guidelines, we will email you within 72 hours and issue a full refund on your payment.”

So far, I have not had a book turned down for lack of reviews when it was a new release. I suppose that might happen, but why not try and see?

The price for listing in the enewsletter varies based on genre.

For mystery, right now it is $55. (This site is the only other one so far where I’ve scheduled a new release ad for The Worried Man.)

Free books can be listed on Freebooksy, a related site/enewsletter.

Fussy Librarian

Fussy Librarian is also a website and enewsletter service.

If you have a new release, you can advertise there before you have reviews so long as you have another book with an average rating of 4.0 with between 10 and 19 reviews (or an average rating of 3.5 you have more than 20 reviews).

Fussy Librarian also lists ebooks on multiple platforms and includes an audiobook link, which is one of the reasons I like advertising there.

As most of my books are wide (meaning they are available on multiple ebook platforms), I prefer advertising venues that allow me to list all my links. Also, I’ve found that when I advertise a discounted Kindle book on Fussy Librarian, I often see additional audiobook sales.

The prices for Fussy Librarian vary by genre and by whether your book is offered for free or at a discount. Right now to list a Mystery/Female Sleuth, it’s $18 if the book is offered at a discount.

Fussy Librarian also offers an enewsletter dedicated solely to free ebooks.

AwesomeGang

AwesomeGang will include books in its enewsletter that have no reviews.

According to the website and an interview I heard of the founder, that’s because he had trouble getting noticed when he had new books and he wanted to offer an option for authors in that same position.

Listings are available free or for $10.

I’ve only used AwesomeGang once when the service was just getting started, and I couldn’t tell whether or not it really boosted my sales.

For the price, though, I feel it’s worth trying again in the future.

JustKindleBooks

JustKindleBooks sends out enewsletters and lists books on its site.

Despite its name, it includes links to both Kindle books and iBooks.

Listings cost between $18 and $38 depending upon the features you want.

I could not find a review requirement on the website. The site does state, however, that authors are better off launching a book promotion “after your book has some reviews.”

I agree, but in my opinion, it’s sometimes worth spending to get some initial sales. Those may in turn generate reviews, making advertising more effective in the future.

Books Butterfly

Books Butterfly provides many options over a wide range of price points for advertising your ebook in its enewsletter, on several websites, and through its social media pages. You can include links to multiple platforms.

I did not see any review requirements listed.

The cost ranges from $50 up to thousands of dollars, so I personally use some caution in using this service.

The site offers a guarantee of sorts for some of the promotion options if you don’t sell as many books as projected. Read the fine print, though, as there are caveats on that guarantee.

Book Zio

I also did not see a review requirement anywhere on this site.

The cost ranges from free to $49. You can include links to multiple ebook platforms.

I advertised The Awakening, a supernatural thriller, through Book Zio and was very happy with the sales, but at that time the book had about 100 reviews. I do plan to try for The Worried Man, but probably when I have at least 10 or 20 reviews and am offering a significant discount, as I feel I’ll get the best results then.

Ereader News Today

For me, Ereader News Today, or ENT, has been one of the best places to advertise. Through its newsletter, I have usually sold enough books to pay for the ad the day it runs and earn some extra money.

As with Book Zio, though, I have not used it when I had a low number of reviews.

Also, it’s unclear whether a book with no reviews would be accepted.

The website says “while we do not have a minimum number of reviews [that] are required, we do look at the reviews to get an idea of how well the book has been received by those that have read it.”

Further, the site says that it will accept preorders and, if those books have no reviews, ENT will consider reviews of previous titles.

Both of these comments suggest to me that you probably need to have some reviews to be accepted by ENT. Personally, though, I’d submit a book regardless and see what happened.

The cost varies by genre and by the price at which you are offering your book. For mysteries, right now it is $45-$120.

If you found other places to list books with limited or no reviews, I’d love it if you’d share them in the comments so that other readers can see them.

Until next Friday–

L.M. Lilly

What To Include In Your Book Launch Schedule

Once again it’s March and I find myself getting ready for a May book launch.

New Book, New Series, New Genre

Last year I was launching the fourth and final book in my Awakening supernatural thriller series. (You can read more about that in When Working Harder Might Not Be The Answer Part 1 and Part 2 if you like.)

This year I’m launching Book 1 in a new series. I’m also publishing in a new genre–mystery/suspense without any paranormal or supernatural element.

Because I’m seeking new readers as well as trying to reach existing ones, I hope you’ll find my launch plan helpful wherever you are in your career.

As in any business, it’s always more of a challenge to draw in new customers than to sell additional products to existing ones.

Because of that, I felt I needed a more detailed schedule/plan than I had last year.

Feel free to copy and paste any part of my plan and modify it to fit your books.

The tasks to do begin this week, but I created the schedule by working backwards from the May 1 launch date.

What It All Means

A few notes on the reasoning behind certain tasks and on vendors you might not be familiar with:

Book Funnel is a service that allows you to easily deliver free ebooks to readers who are reviewing your books or to whom you want to give an ebook for other reasons (such as for a bonus for signing up for your newsletter). (See Nos. 2, 9, & 10 in the plan below.)

Right now it’s only $20 a year for a basic account. I signed up last night.

As I wrote about in Reaching More Readers PublishDrive is where I upload my files to distribute ebooks to a boatload of platforms. (Nos. 17, 23, 29.)

For the other platforms, I upload directly.

I’m setting a later preorder date for Kindle than for Kobo, Nook, and iBook/iTunes (Nos. 19 & 21) because last I checked, in terms of where your book ranks on Amazon’s charts, it’s better to have more sales on the first day than a bunch of preorders.

Why do a Kindle preorder at all in that case?

I want to have a Kindle link available before the release to put on my website and into the back matter of my other books.

Vellum is the software I use to convert Word files to files for the various ebook and paperback platforms. (No. 8.)

It’s very easy to use, but so far available only for Mac.

When Darkness Falls is an urban gothic horror novel and my only novel in Kindle Unlimited (which means it’s not available on any other ebook platform). (Nos. 12, 16.)

Because it’s in KU, I can run a Kindle Countdown sale. I’m hoping by doing that for the same week as the new release, at least some readers who buy or borrow it will find their way to my Q.C. Davis series.

The Charming Man is my working title for Book 2 in the Q.C. Davis mystery series.

As you’ll see in Nos. 36-40, I’m holding off on most of the advertising and outreach to bookstores on The Worried Man until Book 2 is also out. That way the effort and funds have a chance of selling two books in the series rather than only one.

It’s possible I could sell three rather than only two if I’m superproductive and get a preorder for Book 3 underway in time. (Working title The Fractured Man.) That seems unlikely, but I’m ever the optimist when it comes to time.

The people I mention sending paperback books to in No. 35 are ones who love mysteries or loved my previous books and who know a whole lot of other people that they might tell about The Worried Man.

The Book Launch Schedule

The Worried Man (Q.C. Davis Mystery No. 1) Launch Schedule

	Completed?	Date	Task(s)
1.	__X_ Goodreads __X_ Facebook	March 12	Create Goodreads and Facebook review teams & invite friends
2.	__X__	March 16	Create Book Funnel Account
3.			Contact Kobo re: Worried Man preorder and release date
4.		March 17	Contact my book groups re: reviewing advance copies
5.			Invite Goodreads readers who like Sara Paretsky and Elly Griffiths to join GR review team
6.			Email mailing list re: chance to read and review
7.		March 18	Add Coming Soon to LisaLilly.com
8.		March 19	Create Vellum files for review teams
9.			Add files to Book Funnel
10.	___ Goodreads ___ Facebook ___ Mailing List	March 23	Contact reviewers re: links to ebooks on Book Funnel
11.		March 24	Add Coming Soon to all Bios online
12.	___ Countdown scheduled ___ Just Kindle ___ Digital Book Today ___ Other(s)?		Schedule When Darkness Falls 99 cent Kindle Countdown (for 5/1-5/8) plus ads
13.	___ Fussy Librarian ___ Bargain Booksy ___	March 26	Schedule New Release ads Worried Man
14.		March 30	Contact designer re: paperback cover
15.		April 1	Final Edits (if any)
16.		April 2	Schedule When Darkness Falls 99 cent ads (for 5/2)
17.	___ Kindle Upload __ Kindle PreOrder set ___ Nook Upload ___ Nook PreOrder set ___ iBook Upload ___ iBook PreOrder set ___ Kobo Upload ___ Kobo PreOrder set ___ GPlay Upload ___ PublishDrive Upload	April 8	Upload Final Files on All eBook Platforms & set pre-order dates as noted below
18.		April 8	Create KDP Print edition
19.	___ Nook ___ iBook ___ Kobo	April 9	Upload for 3 eBook Platforms PreOrder
20.		April 16	Upload cover and manuscript files on Ingram Spark
21.		April 17	Kindle PreOrder Begins
22.	___ Awakening ___ Unbelievers ___ Conflagration ___ Illumination ___ Also add 1st Chapter of WM to Illumination ___ When Darkness Falls ___ Also add 1st Chapter of WM to When Darkness Falls ___ Super Simple Story Structure ___ One-Year Novelist ___ Creating Compelling Characters		Update Also By and Bio in previous books with Worried Man (include links for Kindle, Nook, iBook, Kobo, website for others)
23.	___ Kindle ___ Nook ___ iBook ___ Kobo ___ GPlay ___ PublishDrive	April 26	Final Book Files Uploaded
24.		April 27	Add Worried Man To Goodreads
25.	___ KDP Print ___ Ingram		Publish KDP Print & Ingram editions
26.			Contact review team re: KDP Print edition
27.		April 29	When Darkness Falls Countdown price to 99 cents today
28.		April 30	Schedule Goodreads Ad for Worried Man
29.	___ GPlay ___ PublishDrive	April 30	Publish
30.		May 1	Worried Man Live on all
31.		May 1	Contact review team re: eBook editions
32.		May 1	Contact email list New Release Worried Man
33.		May 2	When Darkness Falls 99 cents ads run
34.	___ Awakening ___ Unbelievers ___ Conflagration ___ Illumination ___ When Darkness Falls ___ Super Simple Story Structure ___ One-Year Novelist ___ Creating Compelling Characters	May 2	Update back matter with GPlay and print links and upload new files
35.		May 3	Send print copies of books to Merry, Anne, Dan L., others who might spread the word
36.		June	Contact Bookstores in Chicago area re: signings/release parties for The Worried Man and The Charming Man
37.		June	Set release date for The Charming Man
38.		June/July	Schedule Worried Man Ads for week of Charming Man release
39.		Charming Man release week	Run 99 cent sale for 3 days on The Worried Man
40.		After The Charming Man is released	Schedule Goodreads Kindle Giveaway

If you have other questions about the schedule, please ask in the comments.

Until next Friday–

L.M. Lilly

The Top 5 Reasons Your Friends Won’t Read Your Book And What You Can Do About It

Maybe you gave your friend a paperback of your first or latest novel. Or you emailed a link to download the e-book free or buy it for a low price.

Yet your friend hasn’t read it or reviewed it.

Or maybe, as several authors I’ve spoken to recently have done, you had a party where you gave away 25 paperback copies of your novel to your friends and colleagues and asked them to please read it and consider leaving a review.

No one did.

What can you do other than feeling disappointed?

Below are five main reasons your friends and acquaintances don’t buy or read your novels and what you can do in response.

Reason 1: They Don’t Like Reading

It seems shocking to those of us who love to read and write novels, but some people simply don’t like to read and/or they find it very difficult.

I recently heard a podcaster who believes that paperbacks and e-books alike will disappear entirely in favor of audio because reading is hard. While I like listening to audio while doing other tasks because it makes good use of my time, I can read much faster than a narrator can speak, so it’ll never replace reading for me.

Also, I love the experience of reading a book.

If your friends find it difficult, though, they may read if they have to for work, but the last thing they’ll do when it’s time to relax is read your novel or any book.

Solution:

If your friend is not a reader, pushing your book will do nothing but make that person feel bad.

If your friend is otherwise supportive of your career as an author and wants to help, ask your friend to pass your novel on (or recommend it if it’s an e-book) to someone who does love to read the type of book you’ve written.

Be clear about what type of reader that would be and about the genre of the book you’ve written. Don’t task your non-reading friend with figuring that out.

Reason 2: They Don’t Read Your Genre

Some people love to read but don’t happen to read what you like to write.

They may enjoy stories or narratives but prefer to read about real people, so they read biographies rather than novels.

Or they read novels but they love mysteries and you write westerns, or they love romance and you write horror.

It’s tempting to think that our friends should be willing to switch genres for us.

But if you think about what you love to read and don’t, it can be hard to switch to an entirely different genre.

I will cross over a little bit, but not that much. I don’t read a lot of science fiction, but if a friend who knows what I like recommends a sci-fi book I’ll check it out.

On the other hand, if my friend wrote a long literary novel about a highly dysfunctional multi-generational family where everyone behaves horribly to everyone else and is deeply depressed, I’d rather bang my head against the wall than read it.

And if I did read it, there would be almost no way I could honestly write a positive review or, even if I set honesty aside, that I would know what to say that would be positive.

I just deeply dislike that kind book, despite that many such books win prestigious literary awards.

Solution:

Despite that this type of friend loves to read, your solution is the same as for Number 1 above.

But there is good news. Because your friend overall likes to read, she’s more likely to know other readers or to understand who would be the best person to whom to give or recommend your book.

Reason 3: They Read An Average Number Of Books Per Year

Most of the research I did listed 12 books per year as the average number that people read.

Keep in mind, though, that this number is skewed by voracious readers. These are people who read anywhere from 2 to 5 books per week or more.

If we take out those people, most people read only 1 to 4 books per year.

If your friend falls into that category, it’s a big commitment to read your book. If the person already has a couple favorite authors, that fills the reading quotient for the year.

So this friend may in theory want to read your book and be excited about it but may simply not get to it for a long time.

Solution:

This friend may very well buy your book to be supportive, so go ahead and tell him about it or give your friend an autographed copy.

If your friend is really excited for you, ask if he will shelve the copy somewhere where other people might see it, maybe on a shelf above his desk at work, on a coffee table at home, or on a virtual shelf on Goodreads.

That way, your friend can help you even if there’s no time to read the book right away. The same friend might also be willing to post a picture of himself holding the book on social media with a note about how excited he is to have it.

As far as actually reading the book, don’t push. Putting on pressure makes it less likely your friend will want to read, as it will make it seem like a chore.

Give it a little time and back off and you may be surprised to find one day that you have a new diehard fan or a great review.

Reason 4: They Read A Lot More Than Average, But…

It can be especially upsetting if you have a friend who talks about books and seems to read a lot of fiction, but who doesn’t read your novel.

Because most people read only 1 to 4 books per year, though, a person can read much more or much more quickly than average and still not read a lot.

Someone who reads 12 books a year, for instance, is reading more than average. And if that person likes to read novels, she probably has a number of favorite authors who put out at least a book a year. Once that person reads each book by a favorite author, that leaves only a few slots left.

Also, how much people can read depends on what’s happening in their lives. If your friend just had a newborn or got a promotion or is caring for an aging parent, there simply may be almost no time to read.

Solution:

If your friend doesn’t read your genre, see Number 2 above.

If your friend does usually read the type of book you write, ask what format is the preferred one. If your book is only available as an e-book, and your friend only reads paperbacks, you may need to wait until you issue a paperback version of your book or offer to print a copy from your word processor for her.

Also try the approaches in Number 3 above.

In addition, because your friend is a bit more of a reader than those in previous categories, you can feel a little freer to let this friend know how much it would mean to you if she would read your book (and post an honest review if she’s comfortable doing that).

Finally, be sure to read Number 5 below, as if your friend is not reading your book, it may be the reason why.

Reason 5: They’re Afraid They Won’t Like It And Don’t Want To Have To Tell You

Your friend may love to read and may read in your genre and yet still hold off on reading your book.

That’s because it can be very awkward if you read your friend’s book and you really don’t like it. You are then in the position of needing to lie to your friend and/or, if you’re being pushed to write a review, to write something that will hurt your friend’s feelings or that you might not be comfortable writing.

Solution:

If you are giving the friend a copy unsolicited, make clear that you are not pressuring that person to read it. You can say something like, “I promise I won’t quiz you on it.”

You can also say something like, “If you love it or hate it, I hope you’ll post a review, because having more reviews, even if they’re not all 5 stars, helps a book sell.” (Which is true.)

That way, your friend knows that you understand that you may not love the same types of books. Also, it’s unlikely your friend is going to post a truly bad review. If she or he doesn’t like the book, either there will be no review or you’ll get a neutral review.

You can also tell your friend that if she fears she doesn’t have time to read it, it would be helpful to do the things suggested in Number 3. That way if your friend doesn’t like the book, she can avoid mentioning it but still be supportive in other ways.

One Last Category

There are acquaintances and friends who simply will never buy or read your book and it has nothing to do with whether they are readers or not.

You may have referred clients to them, donated to their political campaigns, or given gifts at baby showers, christenings, and birthdays for each of their children, but even if you directly asked them to, they won’t get around to spending a few dollars on your book or reading it if you give it to them.

Often these are people who don’t understand how important writing is to you, particularly if you have another career.

Regardless what you say, they’ll see it as a hobby that there’s no reason to get excited about or support.

Or these friends may simply not be very supportive people. Presumably they have other great qualities about them that you value and that’s why you’re friends.

Appreciate those qualities and let go of your hope that they’ll read your books or be encouraging about your author career.

Hopefully, though, most of your friends don’t fall into this category!

If they do, you may want to make an effort to add some more positive, supportive friends to your circle.

That’s all for this week.

Until next Friday —

L. M. Lilly

Earnings From Traditional v. Indie-Published Books

I get a lot of questions about whether a writer can earn more with a traditional publishing deal or by publishing indie.

That depends on a lot of factors, as I wrote about in Do You Need A Publisher, Part 3: Money, but this week a great opportunity presented itself for a concrete comparison.

On the Sell More Books show Jim Kukral talked about his book contract with traditional publisher Wiley and posted a link to it in the show notes.

The contract was for his non-fiction book Attention! This Book Will Make You Money: How to Use Attention-Getting Online Marketing to Increase Your Revenue, but the terms are similar to contracts for fiction.

For comparison, I’ll share the 2017 numbers for the third book in my Awakening series, The Conflagration. I published it in May 2016, so it’s fairly recent and was available all of 2017.

While I’ll talk about my personal impressions of Jim’s contract and views, this article is not legal or financial advice. If you need legal or financial advice, you should consult a professional about your own particular situation.

The Traditional Publishing Contract

In the contract, the publisher agrees to pay a $15,000 advance against royalties. An advance means that until the advance is earned back through royalties, no additional amounts are paid to the author.

Royalties vary by type of publication and number of copies.

Mass market paperbacks have a 7.5% royalty. Hardcovers have a 15% royalty for the first 10,000 copies, 17.5% for the next 10,000, and 20% after that.

The royalty is based not on the price the consumer pays but on the publisher’s “dollar receipts,” which are defined as the U.S. dollars the publisher earns less any discounts, bad debts, book returns, or other credits.

Even before discounts or returns, the publisher doesn’t receive the price the consumer pays but rather receives whatever the retailer (such as Amazon or a local bookstore) pays the publisher.

What does this mean in actual dollars?

Most books don’t earn enough to cover the advance, so it’s likely that from August 2010, when the hardback was released, through now the $15,000 was the total paid to the author. (For more on the royalty calculations, read on.)

That’s an average of about $2,000 per year.

Self-Publishing Dollars

Now to The Conflagration (Book 3 in The Awakening Series) which I published myself.

In 2017, I earned about $2,600.00 in royalties, the bulk of that from e-books, but some from paperback and audiobook. If you multiply that by 7.5 years, about the amount of time Attention! has been out, it looks like I earned more: $19,500.

But I spent money on a cover and on having the book converted to e-book format (something I now do myself on Vellum), and on advertising. Also, though sales of the series have been pretty steady, there’s no guarantee The Conflagration will earn the same amount each year.

Taking off $700 the first year for costs and assuming a more conservative $1800 a year to account for a possible drop in sales and future advertising, my total for 7.5 years would be $13,600.

From a pure royalty and cost perspective it’s a toss up which approach is better financially, but there are a few other factors to consider.

Beyond The Royalties

When the author gets paid

The Kukral/Wiley contract provides an advance on royalties, so even if the dollars came out the same overall, having the first $15,000 up front is better than spread out over 7.5 years.

On the other hand, beyond the first $15,000, the publisher is only required to pay royalties every 6 months, with amounts under $100 held until the next period.

Most platforms through which I published pay 60 days after the royalties are earned and there’s no minimum (or a $10 one).

Transparency

The publisher sends a statement every six months showing royalties, but many traditionally-published authors have told me it doesn’t seem to them the publisher figures match up with their books’ ranks or what they believe was sold.

The sales figures I see are almost in real time or at most a day or two behind.

Occasionally there are system glitches, but I more or less feel I’ve got a pretty good sense that what I’m getting paid matches actual sales.

Marketing And Advertising

In the Attention! contract, the publisher has the right to both set the price of the book and market or advertise it as it deems appropriate.

Most traditionally-published authors find that they must do most of the marketing themselves, just as I do, yet they are unable to offer limited price discounts that might jumpstart sales the way that indie-authors can. (I had my best sales numbers ever for The Awakening Series and doubled my earnings when I made the e-book editions of the first book free, yet that’s not something you’ll see a traditional publisher doing.)

On the other hand, for those books the traditional publishers truly get behind, such as The Girl On The Train, it’s hard to argue the author would have been better off being able to discount.

Future Sales

This factor is where it gets interesting.

Jim Kukral is on a quest to get his rights to his book back, suggesting he’s not expecting a lot of future sales and believes he can do more with it than the publisher can or will.

As an indie, I keep all the rights and, as noted, I can try whatever marketing and advertising I like. Unlike traditionally-published books that publishers usually ignore after the initial sales push, I’ll keep promoting the series.

While there’s no guarantee The Conflagration will continue to earn as it has, there’s also a decent possibility it could or might earn more.

Why?

For each e-book I sell at $3.99, my royalty averages $2.60.

In contrast, traditional publishers typically focus on paperback, not e-book. Under the Wiley/Kukral contract, the trade paperback royalty for the first 10,000 copies is 10% of what the publisher receives.

So if the retail price is $9.99 and the publisher gets $6.99 from the bookstore, that’s $0.69 per book.

Not only are the earnings for the indie author nearly $2.00 more per sale, it’s easier for a relatively unknown author to sell an e-book at $3.99 than a paperback at $9.99.

Long-term v. Short-term

The clearest conclusion here is that, for most authors, publishing is a long-term effort.

Because of that, if you have one book on a topic about which you care deeply, if you can get a traditional deal, from a financial perspective it might be the better way to go.

You’d get money up front and be free to move on and focus on other things in life.

On the other hand, if you don’t absolutely need the money up front, you might rather retain control so you can keep promoting your book and getting it into other people’s hands from now through infinity.

A Career v. A Book

If you hope to make a career at writing, there are no easy answers.

When I looked at the numbers, realizing it would take 7.5 years for one of my books to earn what Jim was paid up front for Attention! was a little discouraging.

But I reminded myself that I never expected to earn a living with one book, which is why I’ve published a four-book supernatural thriller series, am launching a new mystery series this year, and also publish non-fiction.

Right now, I have many streams of income that range from minimal (my first $2.55 from a Kobo subscription service just this month) to smallish (about $9,000 from Amazon last year).

Also, last year my writing gross income was about double the previous year. If I could do that every year for the next five years, I’d be turning cartwheels. Even every other year would reach six figures in six years.

I hope this comparison was useful.

We all owe Jim Kukral a debt for sharing his contract. If you get a chance, check out Attention! This Book Will Make You Money: How to Use Attention-Getting Online Marketing to Increase Your Revenue.

Until next Friday–

L.M. Lilly

3 Ways To Create And Distribute Your Audiobook

One of my goals this year is to release my non-fiction books on writing in audiobook editions.

I created and released my Awakening Series through ACX, an Amazon-related company. I used the royalty-share option, which means all four books are exclusive to ACX for 7 years, and I split a 40% royalty for each book with the narrator/producer.

Now I feel less sure about committing to 7 years with my audiobooks distributed only through ACX.

Audiobooks are growing in popularity due in part to how many people now have devices like the Amazon Echo that will play audiobooks at home. Also, more vehicles now incorporate technology that will play books and other content.

These changes mean more potential income from audiobooks, so I see a greater possible downside to an exclusive deal.

Below is what I learned based on reviewing the websites of three companies:

A few things to keep in mind (a/k/a disclaimers):

I’ve only worked through ACX before, and I have no direct experience with the other two.
You should read the sites and information yourself, as I’m not perfect (though I wish I were!). Also, I’ve focused on what’s most relevant to me. You may have other interests or concerns.
The narrator typically produces the audiobook. When I refer to “narrator” below, I mean a narrator/producer.
When I refer to “author” below, I’m assuming you as the author hold the rights to your own book. Most of the information below technically refers to the “rights holder,” not the author.

Producing/Creating The Audiobook

Author’s Republic is a distributor, so it helps you distribute an audiobook that’s already produced.

But if you don’t already have a finished audiobook, and most of us don’t, its website offers a lot of information on how to produce an audiobook, as well as resources to find producers and narrators.

Author’s Republic’s website indicates it accepts audiobook submissions from authors and publishers in all countries.

Findaway Voices will help you produce your audiobook.

You can work with a narrator you suggest, if the narrator is willing, or Findaway Voices will help you find a narrator. Findaway Voices is also available to authors and publishers in all countries.

ACX provides an exchange through which you can find a narrator. The narrator produces and uploads the audio.

Note, however, that on one of its help pages, ACX indicates it is only “currently open to residents of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada or Ireland who have a mailing address, valid local Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and banking details for” one of those countries.

Paying For Your Audiobook Production

There are three ways to pay a producer/narrator to create your audiobook:

Paying the narrator up front
Sharing royalties when the book sells, or
A hybrid deal of the first two options

Because Author’s Republic is a distributor, the cost will depend upon what deal you work out with your narrator or producer.

If you pay up front rather than by sharing royalties, you typically pay a narrator per finished hour of the audiobook. 9,000 words of text usually comes out to one hour of finished audio. (For more on costs generally see The Cost To Create An Audiobook Edition Of Your Book.)

If you produce and narrate yourself, you obviously won’t need to pay a narrator, but you will need to pay for recording time and expertise if you don’t have your own studio and lack production skills.

When working through Findaway Voices, the author pays the narrator/producer up front per finished hour.

Findaway Voices says the range is typically $150-$400 per finished hour of audio.

Further, according to the site, “Findaway Voices charges a $49.00 fee to cover project management and ongoing administration.”

On ACX, you can pay your narrator through a royalty share, by paying up front per finished hour, or through a hybrid of the two.

ACX also offers narrators (not authors) a stipend–an additional payment above the royalty share–to produce certain books. Presumably these audiobooks are ones that ACX believes will sell well enough to earn back the stipend and then some.

How You Earn Money

The Author’s Republic website says the author receives 70% of what the “audiobook earns across over 30 channels, including all major distributors such as Audible, Audiobooks.com, and iTunes.”

My understanding of this term as to Audible, for instance, is you as the author would get 70% of whatever Audible would pay the author. So if on an Audible book created through ACX you’d get 25% of the retail price for a non-exclusive deal, you’d be getting 70% of that 25%.

Through Findaway Voices, the author keeps “80% of all royalties Findaway Voices receives, which varies by distribution partner, channel, and business model.”

Findaway Voices indicates royalties from its partners vary, but are usually within the range of 25% to 50% of the list prices.

Through ACX, if you (1) do a royalty-share deal with your narrator and (2) your audiobook is exclusively distributed through ACX, you’ll be paid 20% of the retail price (another 20% goes to the narrator).

If you (1) paid the producer up front and (2) your audiobook is exclusively distributed through ACX, you earn 40% of the retail sales price.

If you (1) paid the producer up front and (2) your deal is non-exclusive, meaning other companies can distribute your audiobook, you earn 25% of the retail sales price.

ACX also offers a $50 bounty (to be split with the narrator if you have a royalty-share deal) if yours is first audiobook an Audible Listener purchases.

Who Sets The Retail Price

For Author’s Republic and Findaway Voices the author sets the retail price (though there’s no guarantee all distributors will agree to sell the book if you set the price too low or too high).

Being able to set your own price can be an advantage because if you have control, you can run and promote sales or adjust your regular price based on the length of the book or how well it’s selling (or not).

On ACX, ACX sets the price, and that price may vary over time depending upon several factors, including whether the buyer already owns your ebook and whether the book is bought with an Audible credit.

Exclusivity

If your audiobook is exclusive, it means you can only distribute it through that company.

Author’s Republic: No exclusivity requirement.

Findaway Voices: No exclusivity requirement.

ACX: Your choice.

If you do an exclusive deal with ACX, right now you’ll earn 40% (split with the narrator if you do a royalty share deal).

If you choose a non-exclusive deal, you’ll earn 25% (but will need to pay your narrator up front).

If you have an exclusive deal, you agree that for 7 years your audiobook will only be distributed through Audible. (If non-exclusive, you still need to keep the book on Audible for 7 years, but you can distribute it through other companies.)

Distribution

Author’s Republic states it allows you to sell “your audiobook through over 30 major retailers, library providers and distributors, with new channels added monthly.”

According to its website, Findaway Voices has “the world’s largest distribution network — reaching customers in more than 170 countries.”

ACX distributes through Audible, Amazon, and iTunes.

It’ll be fascinating to see how the audiobook world changes over the next few years. At the moment, I’m leaning toward using ACX again but choosing a non-exclusive deal. While that means paying a narrator up front and potentially earning less, I like the flexibility to try distributing through additional channels.

If you have experience with any of the audiobook companies, please share in the comments.

Until next Friday, when I’ll write about Using Discovery To Make Your Novel More Layered (And To Write It Faster)—

L.M. Lilly

P.S. Producer/narrator Shiromi Arserio (who narrated Books 2-4 in my Awakening Series) tells me Spoken Realms is another audiobook production option. I have not yet had a chance to research that company, but it’s another one you can check out, particularly if you live in a country where ACX is not an option.

Create Your Own BookBub

As I noted in The Worst Ways To Spend Money On Book Promotion and Experimenting With First In Series Free the best e-newsletter I’ve found for generating sales of ebooks is a featured deal on BookBub (which often boosts audiobook sales as well).

It has a huge subscriber list and is very selective about the books it lists as featured deals.

BookBub, though, rejects most applications for featured deals, so that’s not always an option.

If you can’t get a BookBub deal when you want one (or at all) I found the next most effective technique is to schedule a series of ads in similar e-newsletters around the same time.

Cost vs. Benefit Comparison

For Supernatural Suspense, the genre in which I usually advertise Book 1 in my Awakening Series, BookBub charges $224 to advertise the book as a featured deal if the book is free.

My other ebooks in the series are priced at $3.99, and I make an average royalty of $2.65 for each sale. That means I need to sell at least 84 ebooks to break even.

The last time I had a BookBub deal like that, on the first day I sold 140 ebooks (of later books in the series) and 231 audiobooks.

That means on the first day I earned money on the BookBub even if you assume 20% or 30% of the sales would have happened without it. (That’s why BookBub is able to charge so much.)

Most other e-newsletters haven’t made back the money the first day and some don’t earn back the dollars spent at all. The best ones usually generate enough sales, though, that over the following 1-3 weeks I come out ahead.

This February I’m running a series of 5 e-newsletter ads. The total cost is $170.

At that price, I need to sell 65 ebooks to break even. I’m hopeful that will happen within the first couple days and that I will see increased sales for at least a month or two afterwards. (I’ll do results post a few weeks after the last listing runs.)

Making The Submission Process Easier

Scheduling multiple e-newsletter ads means filling out multiple forms, which is time-consuming.

To make this process simpler, I keep a list of product links and product ID numbers (such as the Amazon ASIN) that I can easily copy and paste into the forms. The ID numbers matter because some forms ask for those numbers rather than product links.

Here’s how my list for The Awakening looks:

I also keep a variety of descriptions saved.

That’s because some e-newsletters ask for longer descriptions, others limit you to 50 words or a certain number of characters. In addition, you may want to appeal to slightly different audiences, as not all e-newsletters will offer the same genres.

Below are a few of my descriptions for The Awakening, which are all a lot shorter than what appears on its product pages on sites like Kobo:

Though you’ll use them over and over, be sure to review the descriptions before you submit them each time.

You’ll catch typos you may have missed before. Also, once in a while I have come up with much improved ways to describe my story or my characters.

Tracking Your Schedule And Results

It’s important to track which e-newsletters you scheduled, how much each one cost, when each listing will run, and what genre you chose. You may think you’ll remember all of this, but when the dates roll around you probably won’t.

I use an Excel spreadsheet.

Once the ads run, I also keep track of how many free downloads and sales I have of each book each day by platform. That’s how I’m able to determine later which e-newsletters are most effective for my books and for particular sites. (For example, some are more apt to generate Kobo or Nook sales than others.)

While you can research the results that other authors get, what works best for your books will not necessarily be the same.

There are e-newsletters that other authors rave about that generate few sales for my Awakening Series. Similarly, I’ve had great results with e-newsletters that others find to be a waste of money.

Paying For The Ads

I personally like to pay with PayPal. That way I’m not giving my card number to an online vendor.

Even if I trust an e-newsletter, I find PayPal quicker and easier. I don’t need to reenter my credit card information and I can easily sign on and look at my payment history. (You can also input your credit card into PayPal if you prefer that to having money withdrawn from your checking account.)

As always, though, you should do your own due diligence regarding which sites you trust or don’t, including Paypal.

Before You Start

Before you spend anything on advertising, though, you should make sure you have a strong cover that fits your genre, a solid sales blurb, and good opening pages, as readers often check those before buying.

If you’re missing any of those things, you will probably be throwing advertising dollars away.

If you think you have all those elements but haven’t tried advertising in e-newsletters yet, try one or two of the less expensive ones. If the results are pretty good, then try scheduling a batch of ads.

It’s also important to try e-newsletters one at a time first so you can get a better sense of which ones work best for your books.

Keep in mind also that e-newsletter advertising is most cost-effective when you have at least three books to sell.

If you only have one or two, you may still want to advertise, but it’s less likely to pay for itself even in the long run. (What it can do is help you get some initial sales so that people start reviewing your book. You also may want to include incentives for readers to sign up to your email list within your book.)

If you try scheduling a batch of ads, good luck, and please let me know how it goes!

Until next Friday, when I’ll write about 3 Ways To Create And Distribute Your Audiobook —

L.M. Lilly

P.S. If you want to increase your chances of getting a BookBub featured deal, check out this Kobo Writing Life Podcast episode interviewing Carlyn Robertson of BookBub about exactly that.