Always learning new things

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Doing things in Real Life ™ is educational. Frustrating, tiring, confusing, and risky, but educational. Case in point: after writing a book comes the part you have much less control over, and a learning curve that you can’t postpone. (Or should have researched better, earlier).

I hit the big PUBLISH button on Amazon. OK, my part is done, right? Well, no, of course not. Now I have to publicize it, let people know it’s out there, while at the same time realizing I should have been laying the groundwork and telling a broader range of people earlier. Telling everyone here is easy. Make a post, done! But what about all those people that don’t know anything about the story, or me, and their eyeballs see it? What will make THEM buy it? Well, that’s the catch-22.

A friend of mine, an author, said the most reliable marketing tool is not simply positive reviews (though obviously those are better than negative), but numerous reviews. If you see something with three 5-star reviews, it carries less weight than a hundred 4-star reviews, because lots of them give an air of demand, respectability. It indicates it isn’t just some guy talking his parents and kid sister into reviewing it.  But most people don’t do reviews, either thinking they are not good enough writers, or there are too many already, and one more won’t get read, or what they have to say has already been said. That’s OK. Say “what he said, and MORE!” It doesn’t have to be perfect, or fine writing. But there need to be enough that it looks popular, that will generate a much higher conversion rate (people that buy) among that see it.

I know I asked for reviews earlier, but I’d REALLY, REALLY be thankful if most of the people that read it, or are reading it, can post even a short review saying what they liked about THIS book in particular. Saying “awesome” is fine, but what made it awesome? The editing, ending, the twists, the Easter eggs, lack of typos, the writing, the format, the editing, a particular variation on some well-worn sci-fi theme, the relatability of the character, the accurate depiction of gun handling or science or swords-and-sandals combat, the lack of gratuitous sex scenes, or what? Doesn’t have to cover everything, just say “I really liked it because XYV” and give it 6 stars. I know a notorious problem with self-published books is editing and typos, for what that is worth.

I think it will get a few plugs this weekend, so it may have a lot of eyeballs seeing it. The Stars Came Back has 8 10 wonderful reviews now (thanks guys!). If I can get another twenty or more by the weekend, that will help tremendously. Not glowing and literary, just Larry the Cable Guy quality.

It’s a numbers game. You need enough buyers close to you, that know the product, to get it into the charts, then you need enough reviews to get enough people you don’t know interested to keep it up near the top of the charts, to write more reviews. More lessons later, as I learn them. Still finding out more about paid reviews, other avenues of promotion, etc.

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6 thoughts on “Always learning new things”

  1. I hear you. Published my Kindle book about 3 years ago, and don’t get much in sales. Why? because I don’t run to every blog I read asking for a review (and trust me, I’m not going to do that here, either). But then, how does one get the word out?

    I’m still working on it, but if you figure it out, let me know!

    Good luck with yours. I’d buy a copy, but frankly, I’m out of work right now and things are getting a bit thin. Once I have a larger income stream, I’ll swing by and pick one up.

    • I’m new to it all, and not a master of it by ANY means, but I do know: there isn’t any magic. Things might work better than you expect, but you still have to try, a LOT. Skipping all the details about writing a good book, and getting it properly edited so it isn’t painful to read, and all that stuff, once it’s done, it’s a numbers game that I was vaguely aware of and am now figuring out the details on. To play, you need two things: eyeballs to see your book, and something to hook them well enough for them to hit the BUY button. You are competing with a million other titles, thousands of which have publishing companies with marketing departments behind them. As the drill sergeant said, “what makes YOU so special, buttercup?” As SPQR said, get plugs in any forum, particularly ones that attract the sort of people that might read your book, particularly websites that have regular “book thread” discussions. His idea on that was great.

      My plan was to have enough readers following while I posted it as a serial that I’d have enough buyers just after release that it would get pushed up where a lot of people would see it. I thought a hundred sales in a day or two should be good for top 10 in the category. (I was both right and wrong, details later). Great as far as it goes. Now I learn that what I should have done is figured out some way to encourage those early buyers to post a quick review, so that while it was still high in the charts it had two or three dozen positive reviews from verified buyers. Maybe I could promise them Boomershoot patches with Minion rockers for the first three-dozen reviews, or something. That would have signaled to people that it was a “real thing,” not just some coordinated buy. It’s the sort of thing where there is a comfort to a lot of people to be part of the crowd. If a thousand other people thought enough of something to write a review, then there were likely 20 or 30 thousand that bought it, maybe hundreds of thousands.

      Hey, that IS an idea – folks that have bought the book, if you write a review hit me up at boomershoot for a patch & Minion rocker (send an email or reply here so I know how many to expect). Offer subject to supply, void where prohibited, yadda yadda yadda.

      Anyway, back to my stream-of-consciousness blurb… Oh, yes. Eyeballs, conversion. Only three reviews? Looks sketchy, they take a pass, sales fall, it drops off the charts and doesn’t advertise itself with chart position, and you are back to square one on the question of “how to attract eyeballs.” Plugs in appropriate places are vital, but may not be enough. Between here, and plugs on three other sites that collectively get many thousands of eyeballs, I garnered enough sales to put me in the “top 1%” of self-published books, meaning I’m almost half-way to recovering my editing and cover art costs, about as much as I take home from working a week as a substitute teacher.

      Hopefully, I can get positive review volume up, then get a good “celebrity review” posted, and get a solid plug somewhere with a lot of eyeballs, and it will be able to start a “virtuous cycle” near the top of the charts. Obviously, I still have a lot to learn. I’ll post more as I learn more.

      So, lesson so far: build a cadre of interested readers/buyers. When you release, ask some of the highly motivated buyers/readers to post reviews, then after they are up you tell the larger group, so it’s going “on stage” up in the charts with a “track record.” Groupies attract fans, so to speak ;-). At least, I think that’s the plan. To quote somebody famous, “quantity has a quality all it’s own.” I think I’d rather have a hundred reviews that say WHY they are giving the number they are, split evenly between three, four, and five stars, than only four five-star reviews that say nothing about the story and what makes it worthwhile.

  3. Pingback: Painful lessons, learned slowly | The Stars Came Back

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