Happy Tuesday, all! I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season and that you’re rarin’ to go in 2013.
Today, I want to write about a strategy that worked very well for me over the holiday season: using a short story or novella as a promotional tool to drive sales towards a newly released novel.
Before I get started, I’ll point out the obvious which I’m sure we all know: there are no guarantees. So many factors play into sales success, including time of year, cover, title, blurb… and a little luck. However, the more strategies we have to try, the greater our chances of hitting on something that just might work.
At the begining of last November, I released my Christmas novella, Mistletoe in Manhattan. I’d seen other authors use Christmas-themed short stories the previous year to drive readers towards their new novels, and it looked like it’d been successful. Since I planned to put out my full-length novel, The Pollyanna Plan, at the end of that month, I figured the novella would be a great way to ‘prime the market’ by putting the first chapter of my novel at the back of the book. I priced it cheaply– the number of readers was more important to me than actual revenue, since I looked at the novella mainly as an advertisement. Of course, I worked as hard on it as I would on any other piece of writing, as having readers enjoy my writing was critical to the success of my plan.
Sales of Mistletoe started off relatively slowly, but by December first the novella had entered into the top 100 in the UK and, thanks to shout-outs from E-Reader News Today, had gone into the top 200 on Amazon.com. By the time Mistletoe gained momentum, I’d finally published my new novel, The Pollyanna Plan. Within weeks, it too entered the top 100 on Amazon.co.uk, where Mistletoe sales were strongest, and the top 2000-3000 on Amazon.com, where Mistletoe sales were steady but not as strong.
When Christmas Eve hit, both my novella and novel were in the top 100 on Amazon.co.uk, with combined sales of around 20,000 (10,ooo on Amazon.com). Inevitably, with Christmas over, Mistletoe sales have dropped and so too have sales of my novel. However, it’s still bopping in and out of the top 100 in the UK and going fairly steady on .com. We’ll see how it continues!
What would I have done differently? Well, ideally, I’d have my novel up the same time as my novella, so there wouldn’t be a time lag between the two. I likely lost some sales in those three weeks, as I couldn’t point readers directly to the novel link. Overall, though, I’m very pleased with how the strategy worked this Christmas, and I’ll certainly be trying it again next year!
Fingers crossed it works as well.
Have you tried something like this? How has it worked for you?
Like you, I’ve seen many authors do this, and wished that I could do something similar, however, it just doesn’t work for my genre (fantasy). It also doesn’t help that I’m not really much of a Christmassy person, so I don’t think I could write a seasonal thing like that anyway.
However, I have found that quite a few people have discovered my writing after reading the Here Be Monsters anthology in which I had a short story published. That kind of exposure is probably 99% of the reason authors even DO anthologies. =)
That’s a great point, India – thank you. This type of strategy may not work for all genres, but anthologies will and they’re also a great way to gain new readers.
Mm, interesting. Thanks for sharing the info. It is something worth considering in the future.
My pleasure, G!
This is a brilliant strategy, Talli! I’m going to apply it to my teen books as well as my chick lit, right now! Cheers, my dear. Also, hope you can get some rest soon, new mummy-hood is lovely but rough. xx
Thanks, Suz! Luckily I sneaked in a nap this afternoon.
Hi Talli,
Thanks for sharing your holiday short-story ‘ad’ idea! How wonderful that sales were so strong–that is really encouraging. I also love the idea of plugging our upcoming novels at the back of our previous books. Which means I will have to start on the new story before I publish the ‘old’ one…gosh we authors work hard!
I’m wondering a few things: When did you start writing the short story? What date did you publlish it? Did you do KDP Select/Prime?
Alex Sheridan (pen)
Author of Treasure Life and Finding Round
Hi Sheri! I started writing the novella in October – I’m a full-time writer, so it’s possible for me to do about 20,000 words + editing etc in about two to three weeks. I published it the first week of November, although in retrospect it might have been better if I’d put it up a couple weeks sooner.
Thanks for sharing! I think shorties are a great way to promote your other work, and you seem to have nailed it right, Talli! Super congrats. Plus, they take less time to write so it can be great for a filler if you’re waiting for editing to be done!
Very true, Sibel! I use them as a stop-gap between editing sessions and novels. They’re so much fun to write!
Interesting, but what other strategies did you use to drive people to the Amazon site? Or did you just leave it to chance that people typed in keywords that you had used to list your book.
Kind regards
Hi Ian,
I did what I usually do with a novel launch: contacting reviewers, using social media to let people know it’s out there, and that’s about it, really. One of the interesting things about the Christmas effect is that, generally speaking, Christmas themed works don’t tend to need a whole lot of extra promotion, in my experience. People look for holiday readers and if you use the right tag words (and I used Christmas in the title), your novella/ short story should pop up somewhere along the way.
Hi, Talli! Thanks for the tips! Ever since the WG2E Anthologies, I’ve been writing short stories on occasion that are part of one of my series. They’re so much fun to write, and at $.99 they sell quite well. In addition to readers enjoying them and being able to get hooked on a series through them, I find I learn more about my characters by writing them, also! It’s a win-win!
Hi Tamara! It is indeed a win-win, and I agree about them being so much fun to write!
Thanks for the info Talli! I have a short story that is a prequel to the trilogy I’m working on. I’ve been trying to think how to use it and this helps. Sales of book one in the trilogy have been abysmal and I wonder if people don’t want to read book one when there is no book two or three available, so I’m thinking that by the time I release book two this summer, I’ll have the short story out for free with a chapter from book one and buy links to books one and two.
Hi PJ! That sounds like a great strategy. I’ve heard that the more books in the series that are available, the stronger the sales. Good luck – keep us posted!
Hi Talli,
Thanks for sharing this tip, and congratulations on such fab sales! I might try something similar next year, and maybe it would work for other holidays too – Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Halloween etc? Do you enjoy writing short stories? I find them a nice break from novels, but for some reason my ‘writing style’ for short stories is completely different from my style for novels! Need to work on that
Jo x
Hi Joanne,
I’ve found that other holiday-themed stories don’t work nearly as well as Christmas. There is something about Christmas stories that readers seem to love! That’s not to say it isn’t worth a try, but in my experience the effect isn’t as great as at Christmas.
I love writing short stories (by ‘short’ I mean 15k to 20k), but it is difficult to get a character arc in there. Very often my readers comment they want more detail or a more drawn-out ending.
Hi, Talli. Last year I published a single short story for teens in between my YA ebooks being released. I have had several copies sold across platforms, which has surprised me. I plan to write a series of short stories this year to publish in between my two main series of short ebooks, to keep readers reading my work. Will blog about this later in the year to see how it goes.
Hi Julie! Yes, definitely keep us posted on how it goes!
I believe any publicity is good, but a short story is a great idea for those fans who just can’t get enough! (The extra sales $ doesn’t hurt either!) Thanks for the input.
Talli,
Thank you. What length are these short stories? When does a short story cross over into being a $2.99 book? Any gut-feeling for that price break? I read some of the reviews for Kindle Singles. Although they are clearly promoted as shorter stories… there were some complaints from readers. Not many but enough to make me wonder… word count versus price versus how much you have to stress this is a SHORT STORY.
As you might guess… I’m considering going that route.
BTW… Love your books!
Thanks!
Barbara
Hi Barbara! Great questions, and I’m not sure I can give definitive answers but I’ll try based on my experience. My short stories are more novella length, I guess… usually around 20k-ish. Because my novels are anywhere from 99 cents to 2.99, I wanted to try to keep the price as low as possible. In the UK, it’s possible to price below 99p, so the novellas I’ve done are 77p. In the US, although I’d like to make a clear differentiation between my novels and novella, it’s not possible. I do think it’s important to make it clear it’s a short story and not a full-length novel, and I use the short story category on Amazon to signal that.
For me, anything over 50k warrants a higher price point. However, I tend to keep my prices low to gain more readers. I’m trying to have a range of price points to give readers a taste of my writing without having to commit too much to it.
I hope all that makes sense! And thank you for your kind words.
Thanks, Nancy!
Great idea, Talli. Thanks for the tips!
My pleasure, Theresa!
Oops… my question for Talli got stuck in the wrong place. Talli, can you see me?
Yup, got your question! My attempt to answer it is above.
Great idea – something to think about for this next holiday season for sure. This year I decided to do a boxed set and was pleasantly surprised at sales. Always looking for new ideas.
I haven’t yet tried a full box set. Nice to hear you had good results, Jamie!
I love writing short stories, and started writing those before my first (and only) print book sold. The two e-books I wrote “Mr. Short, Dark…& Funny” and “Mr. Tall, Tan…& Tasteless,” started as short stories and a novella, but they both got rejected and I made them into books — couldn’t get the characters out of my head. Sales for those have been awful — I’m waiting to hear about the sequel short story for the first book. The prequel came out New Years Eve but I haven’t gotten much feedback on it. Still love writing my short stories, though
I love those titles, Nancy! Short stories are so much fun to write, aren’t they? Have you tried a Christmas story?
Interesting. Last summer I was shouted down for suggesting such a strategy on this very same website in a comments section. I’d urged writers not to give novels away but to give short stories. Reply posts poured in telling me I was wrong.
I wrote a short story with a planned launch for the holiday suspecting I’d strike gold as you did. Then I heard about WOOL, Hugh Howey’s highly successful serialized version and re-tooled my plans. Your post has validated what I’d long suspected. After reading it I’m torn with indecision: go back to my original short story and barrel ahead? Or keep working the serialized version for much the same purpose ?
Peace, Seeley
Oh, sigh, it’s so hard to know what to do – I feel your pain at trying to determine which way to turn! The hard thing about this business is that there are no guarantees and what works for one person may not work for another. I’ve given away novels for free with great success and also with dismal results. Likewise, I’ve had Christma novellas bomb and also ones, like this year, that found success.
I realise I’m not doing much to help here!
Talli, thanks so much for posting this. Currently I ONLY have short stories published on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I am planning to publish a zombie novel this summer, and will definitely use the short stories to generate interest. Of course, my area is horror so we’ll see how it all pans out. Cheers.
I love your short stories!
But what about those that struggle with editing in such a short time frame? I’ve got a story or two that I just can’t devote time for while trying to edit my novel…
I’m seeing a lot of big-name authors giving away short stories at the moment. I don’t repost things on my FREE EBOOKS Google+ community unless it’s a full-length ebook, but I -do- repost anthologies. I think banding together to create a buffet of writing styles is a good way to introduce readers to your brand as I’ve noticed the anthologies seem to please my subscribers.
Great post, Talli!
It’s good to get another perspective.
I’ve been thinking about messing around with something like this for my fantasy/scifi stuff and for another pen name. Definitely worth trying out, honestly, since the worst that can happen is few sales on two revenue sources instead of one.
What did you price the novella compared to the novel?