So, I’ve now been the self-published author of a novel for a month. Aside from the free promotion, I haven’t done anything except run ads via the Amazon system. I feel like I’ve learned something? Maybe?
I think the book is doing pretty well, actually, for being a first novel in a genre that doesn’t typically sell in the indie market. And for being a book with only four reviews.
I have sold 4 books since I ended the free promotion. 3 of those were hard copy and another 1 was a Kindle copy. Kindle copies are where I make my money, so it was nice to have one. The profit margin on the print book is slim (although not nothing, and I’m not really in this for the money anyway at this point).
I also had several Kindle Unlimited pages read, though that’s also hard to break down. The reports tell me how many pages, since I get paid by the page. But is it the same people re-picking up the book, or is it new readers? We’ll never know…
My ads haven’t been working okay. I’ve never written copy before, nor do I have any experience with advertising, so I’m being gentle with myself about it. I’ll be rejiggering the ads today to make them better.
You may already know this, but with Kindle ads, you bid on a keyword. If you’ve bid the most, whenever someone visits a book that’s classified under that keyword, they see your ad. You pay if they click on it, otherwise it’s free.
I currently have 4 ads running. On the first, I let Amazon pick my keywords. Hardly anyone has seen the book on this one – about 74. On two other ads, I have about 450 people who have viewed it, but only one person on each ad has clicked on the ad and the report estimates I haven’t had any sales. They don’t take Kindle Unlimited into account, though, so I think this might be where I’m getting some of those extra Kindle Unlimited pages from. On my third ad, about 650 people have seen it, but no one has clicked.
I ran the same exact keywords for all three ads I set up myself, so I’m not sure why everyone’s seeing the one and not the others.
So, I have two goals this month. The first is to re-do the book description on the ad so it’s a little more punchy. The second thing is to pick better keywords. Right now, the ones I’m getting the most hits on are the names of other authors. I plan to add in a greater swath of authors who I think write things that are like this book. I’ll leave the Amazon auto-target ad alone, probably.
That’s a rundown of the basics. In addition to redoing the ads, I’m considering a blog tour. Most authors I’ve seen who have done it say they basically break even – they make about as much in book sales as they paid for the tour. Still, I think it might be worth it for me from a review perspective. The blog tour I’m considering would have 15 stops, so that would be 19 reviews on the book once I’m done if you add the ones that are already there. I’d definitely consider buying a book with 19 reviews, where I’d look askance at 4.
That’s mostly all I have to say. For those who want to get into the nitty-gritty with me on the ad portion, I’ll post a little more detail below.
The book descriptions I went with on the ads are as follows:
- What do a spy, a runaway, a subversive print shop, and a queen have in common? Blue Gentian. You won’t be able to put this book down. (450-ish views)
- “Love at first page!” Looking for something new to read? You just found your next favorite epic fantasy with a strong female lead. (450-ish views)
- Traditional fantasy gets a makeover in this epic coming-of-age tale about leaving home to find it. You won’t be able to put this book down! (650-ish views)
I went with these descriptions partly because I read a book that told me that ads with “you” in them tend to do better than ads that don’t.
In this next cycle of ads, I intend to run descriptions 1 and 2, but not 3. I also intend to run one that says “If Lord of the Rings and Little Women had a baby, Blue Gentian would be it. You’ll love this epic fantasy about leaving home to find it.”
I ran the following Keywords:
action, adventure, caravan, coming of age, council, epic, fantasy, female voice, gentian, healer, intrigue, kwed, little women, low magic, medicine, mission, notlimah, printing, queen, quest, shaman, spy, strong female lead, sword, tolkien, traditional fantasy, travel, travelers, traveling, wise woman, young adult
BY FAR Tolkien got me the most views. Wise woman, shaman, and travel got me the next most, although I’m not sure travel is really doing for me what I’d like it to do.
This month I’ll add:
Shannon Hale, Le Guin, Dianna Wynne Jones, Chrestomanci, Uprooted, Naomi Novik, Wheel of Time, Rothfuss, Jane Austen, Jeff Wheeler, Veronica Roth, Sarah J. Maas, Harry Potter, Patricia C. Wrede
I may also take out some of the others that are probably deceptive (like travel), although it doesn’t cost me anything to bid unless the ad gets clicked on. We’ll see where that gets me, and I’ll report back in another month!
Here we go…
Casey E. Hamilton 