Since selling 300,000 books in a little over a year, one of the questions I am asked most frequently is: How did you do it?
Answer: I have no idea!
And that’s the truth, but I can tell you what I did and you can decide what might or might not work for you. The very first thing I decided to do was put myself out there and try everything!
Before I made a dime, before I had any idea if I would sell ten books let alone thousands, I started a Twitter and Facebook account. Next, I made a free website using blogger at Theresaragan.com and I began sharing sales numbers because I was super excited and I wanted to let writers know that they had options.
I have a writer friend who doesn’t spend a dime on advertising and she is selling incredibly well. I believe she posts on a few blogs every once in a while, including her own. This tells me that word of mouth is probably selling the most books. If someone enjoys your story and recommends your book to a friend, you’ll probably do just fine without spending too much money on promotion and marketing.
About Blogs: If you don’t like writing blogs, don’t do it. You need to put your energy into the things you enjoy doing…like writing a great book. Writing a blog post can be time consuming, but for some people it’s easy and fun. When trying to decide what to blog about, ask yourself what you would be interested in reading or learning about? Who is your target audience? For the past year, my audience has been writers, but I plan to have a new website up by the end of the year with a link for writers and a link for readers. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Let’s see…what else did I do? I used Windows Live Movie Maker to make video book trailers. It was easy and fun (also time consuming). I went to istockphoto for photos and music. Each video cost me about $30 by the time I was finished. You can view my videos HERE on Author Central. I also posted my videos on YouTube. If you have time and $50 to spare, try doing a blog tour. I did one and I enjoyed connecting with readers, but blog tours can be very time consuming. When my books started to sell, I was interviewed by Geovanni Gelati on BlogTalk Radio. I also ran a few contests on my website. I gave away some books and I have some names to add to my database. Now I just need time to start a monthly newsletter. In the beginning, I priced one of my books at $.99 but now all of my books are $2.99 and $3.99. I used to do the FREE thing, but I’m going to hold off on doing that for now (I never say never). All of my books except for A Knight in Central Park have been offered in KDP’s lending program.
On Amazon
On Nook
On Smashwords
Once I began to make some money, I advertised on The Romance Reviews, Eye on Romance, Digital Book Today, Frugal Ereader, Cents-ible eReads, Just Romantic Suspense and, of course, Pixel of Ink. In April 2011, Pixel of Ink mentioned A Knight in Central Park and my book went soaring to the Top 100 List at Amazon. The more books I sold, the more interview requests came my way–the more requests, the more opportunities (USA Today, Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letter to Shareholders, mentions in Publishers Weekly and Wall Street Journal, etc.) and thus more sales.
I did pay big bucks for a Kirkus Review of Abducted. Although I don’t know if I will do that again (because of the high price) I love using parts of the review for promotion and marketing purposes (product description, interviews, blogs). I also paid for advertising in Romantic Times and Abducted was reviewed and received 4 1/2 stars and Top Pick status, so I am using that to its full advantage also.
I did all of the above and I really have no idea what, if anything, really made all the difference (other than Pixel of Ink and going FREE). I like to think that the three months I spent (24/7) marketing and promoting my books and myself, made all the difference, but I really don’t know. In my opinion, luck plays an important role when it comes to shooting to the top of the charts. Better books than mine are going to sell less copies and vice versa, but I don’t think it does anyone any good to worry about things you can’t control. The best promotion truly is the release of your next book, so get writing!
If anyone here in WG2E-Land has other ideas to add to the list, please share. Curious minds want to know what you did to sell some books!
The Best of WG2E Wishes — Theresa Ragan
I just checked out the video trailers and they are amazing! The music really gets you into the mood of the story – I’ve popped back here to comment then I’m off to download Knight in Central Park
It’s a shame they are so time-consuming to put together – I can imagine choosing the right images and the right music is the longest part.
Well done on the fantastic promotions and thanks for sharing x Jo
Good morning, Jo.
Thanks for nice compliment! And yes, choosing the right images is the most difficult part. I would right a little outline before I started so that I would know how many pictures I would need, then I tried to keep each video trailer at one minute because people usually don’t want to spend too much longer than that watching one! At least I don’t.
Thanks again!
Theresa- thank you for sharing your journey. And congratulations on your great success:)
Hi Lois,
Thank you for all the great info you always share with us!
Fabulous post, Theresa! And huge kudos to all your over the moon superfab success!!!
It wasn’t until I began to focus on Readers that my sales went through the roof and beyond. And I know that sounds like a big ol’ duh moment, and it kinda is, but an idea in its infant stage when it comes to publishing in general.
And here’s what I mean by that…
Every decision I’ve made that has really paid-off in sales has been based on the wonderful impact I felt in my gut that decision would have on Readers.
So, for example, Ridin’ the Free-Way (where the “first one is on me”…aka Free) has had a HUGE impact on the sale of my entire booklist, creating a Boxed Set (where Readers get 6 books for just $2.99) which still makes me over $1500 per month just on that one product’s sales alone, connecting and spending time with Readers on all kinds of social media sites (like Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, my own Ereader-Centric Blog The RG2E), making all my books Bargain Book prices ($2.99 or less), advertising them on wonderful Reader-Centric sites like Pixel of Ink, Ereader News Today, Kindle Nation, spending the majority of my time writing the next books and hangin’ with Readers, etc.
If I had one thing to do over in my career thus far, it would have been to focus more on Readers than Writers from the get-go. And y’all know how much I luuuvvv writers and do all I can to help you and show you the luv, but it’s only when I’ve made decisions in which Readers benefit that my sales have soared to new heights.
Thank you so much for sharing this information Theresa! With the release of my first book coming out this Fall, I’ve been contemplating how to advertise and promote. This article has given me some really useful, solid information and thoughts to consider. I checked out your video trailers and was definitely impressed. I then checked out istock and Windows Movie Maker and book marked each of those as well. Excellent post and great advice. Oh, and I’ve now downloaded A Knight in Central Park, Abducted, Return of the Rose and Finding Kate Huntley to my Kindle! We have a 2 1/2 hour trip to Toronto tomorrow and return same day, so lots of great reading time.
Hi D.D. I love that you mentioned going with your gut…listening to your instincts is really important.
I’ve had fun watching your boxed set to so great! I did a two-book boxed set that didn’t take off, but I have two more contemporary romances coming out this year and I might do a four-book boxed set. $1500 a month on the boxed set alone is super wonderful! Go D.D.! I love your tag line “first one is one me!” That’s great. You are such a positive and happy force–thanks for that. So, do you have ONE book that is always free? More than one?
Guts can be golden, my friend!!!
It seems like the more you can put in a Boxed Set for a great price, the more of a treat for your readers and thus the better they’ll respond. For example, when I did that 6 books for $2.99 during the holiday season when everyone had new Ereaders, all the major blogs like ENT and Cheap eReads gave me shout-outs for Free on their sites, alerting their readers to a heckuva deal! WooHooo!!!
Gemma Halliday and I have been battling it out and having a ball doing it with our Boxed Sets. First, I had her with my 6 books for $2.99, then she got me with 3 to 6 books for 99 Cents!!! LOL!!! I’ve got another one coming soon though that will get me in there again…LOL some more!!!
I do always have my “first one is on me,” meaning the book that started it all for me (the first book in my series – Bootscootin’ Blahniks) is FREE all the time on all platforms (Amazon, Nook, Sony, Kobo, iPad, Diesel and more), and that’s how I build my readership by over 7,000 new readers each month. I did this beginning in September 2011, and almost a year later, that’s still attracting over 7,000 new readers per month to D. D. Scott-ville just on that one book, and they are going on to buy all my books after that!!! That book alone has now had over 150,000 downloads across all platforms! It even does well on Diesel, and I’m now selling my other books on Diesel too because of that “first one is on me”…and peeps have a tough time breaking into Diesel.
Oh, wow, this is great to know. Great marketing/promo tip!
Hi Debbie! Thanks for downloading so many of my books! You’re awesome! I hope you have a wonderful drive to Toronto. Good luck with your new release. How exciting!
Thanks so much for sharing this with us. I’ve been trying to decide where to focus my meager advertising budget, and this really helps. I like the idea of book trailers, but I’m not sure I have the tech savvy or time to figure it out.
I do plan on offering a free short story three weeks before my release and including an excerpt in the back. Hopefully that will generate some interest. I’m also doing two different blog tours – one for charity that ties in with one of the subplots of the book. We’ll see how it all pans out!
Hi Stacy, I think you have a great plan! I have never written a short story. It’s on my list of things to do! You should definitely try one short book trailer (when you get some time). After you do one, though, it’s addictive because it’s so fun to do! Keep the first one short and sweet and it won’t take too much time.
Wishing you tons of success on your blog tours!
Hi, all!
These are all great ideas – thanks for sharing!! You know, I always keep a notebook beside me when I log on here because I get so many great tips from everyone!!
It’s extremely motivating!
Happy writing!
I agree, Diane, the WG2E has always been an inspiring site with tons of great info. Thanks for stopping by with your notebook!
Great info! I think you’re right about not ever being completely sure of what works and what doesn’t. I know I blogged my little heart out and worked all the publicity angles (signings, t-shirts, book giveaways, press releases, and book signings) when my first books came out. It was a different era then! Now, I’m much more into writing a good book. Still love Twitter, FB, Scoop.it, Pinterest, and my fav writing/pub blogs (like this one).
Hi Sara, I agree…you can only do so much (blogs, signings, t-shirts, etc.) before you realize it’s time to focus on the content. I used to visit many more blogs, but I’ve narrowed it down to a select few like WG2E!
I don’t do much advertising. I blog, I FB, Tweet, go on PInterest. I use the stock photo sites for my book covers. And I put a brief summary of story as my tag line when each story/ebook comes out. I do plan to release a boxed set of 3 ebooks plus a couple of free short stories sometime soon of my Angel series, and plan to do that after each third book in the series. The other way, long tail sales, is to do a ‘other books by Julie’ page at the back of each ebook, so that readers can see what else I’ve written and maybe want to try those out, too.
Hi Julie, great reminder to do the “other books by Julie” page at the back of each book. Also, love your idea to do a free short after each series.
A couple of you have mentioned Pinterest. I’m signed up, but I really don’t know what to with it…do you just mention other books you like or outfits your characters might wear? Please give me some tips!
I put my book covers on a ‘board’ titled My Books. I repin images I like, eg a healthy food photo for kids. I put up images of my characters, or something they like, or a place they work at.
This is great. Thanks, Julie!
HI, Theresa! Great post. I’m still in the trial and error stage (Does it ever end?), experimenting with how I spend my time and money. I’m also a person who uses gut instinct, which I guess for writers is second nature, since that’s how a story can tell us where to go.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Alicia! LOL. No, I don’t think the trial and error experimenting will ever end. Not when things are changing so fast. Cheers to using your gut instincts! I agree that writers do need to use their instincts for each story. Good point!
Thanks for the comment!
At this moment, I’m not advertising either. I may look into doing KND once I have a few more books out. I’m blogging, on Twitter, Facebook, Kindleboards. Can’t figure out Goodreads, though, but I’m thinking I need to back off some things right now. Too much time spent on the boards and not enough time writing. Plus, my budget right now is for editing and covers.
I am doing some blog hops that look like fun and I’m hosting guest bloggers on my blog and my pen name’s blog in August and September and I just joined the Street Team site. I’m looking forward to seeing how everything will grow over time and I get a few long tail sales that DD loves to talk about.
Hi Christina, good idea using your budget on covers and editing. I know what you mean about backing off on some things. You can’t do it all and sometimes it’s just a matter of finding the right balance…doing the things that will give you the most bang for your buck/time spent.
If you get a moment, will you explain what a Street Team is and what it can do for you? Either way good luck with your blog hops and thanks for commenting!
Great post! I’m in the nascent networking stage, just reminding people I’m out there! I’m still not super-convinced that book trailers are a good bang for the buck, though one publisher, who published an anthology I’m in, did have some success with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlbWmMzyYfA
Still seems like a bit too much effort for the time and money, though I’m willing to be proven wrong – it won’t be the first time!
Thanks for all the tidbits – it helps to know that luck plays a role, but I’m willing to put in the effort to hedge my bets, as well.
Forrest, sorry I missed your comment. I agree with you that the book trailer might not be a great marketing tool, but it sure is fun! Thanks for sharing the link!
I’m book marking this page, so I can come back to it when I need to think more about how to market my books.
Thank you for the wonderful ideas. I’m just at the beginning of my career, so much of this is new to me.
Thanks for stopping by, Diane.
Where did you dig up the music for your book trailers, Theresa? I happened to come across music by a very nice folksinger (Rebsie Fairholm) that fit the mood perfect for one of my upcoming books and already put together a trailer for it, but I have no idea how to dig up music for the rest of my works without paying gigundo-bucks!
Nice book trailers, by the way. I enjoyed them all!
Thanks, Anna! I bought my music at iStockphoto also. They even offer FREE audio every once in a while. It’s weird to listen to the music because they put a robot voice so that nobody will be able to steal the music…click on this link to get see what I’m talking about. Click the play arrow to get a sample of what the music sounds like. Each song will tell you what instruments are being used and whether the tempo is fast, slow, etc. If you use the FREE music and its too short, you can just play it over and over during your one minute trailer.
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-audio-12500384-sunset-dreaming.php?isource=EN_LO_FREE_AUDIO
http://www.istockphoto.com/search/lightbox/12231560?isource=EN_AUDIOBUCKET3#7087042
That was SOME STORY. Kudos!!