Canada

Gotta hand it to my friends to the north every time I check the rankings for my books on amazon.ca. Last night First was #3 in the Space Exploration category, and as I’ve probably said before, Next Time has been in the Top 10 Time Travel Romances on several occasions. I was a little surprised to see First doing so well, but honestly, sales have been good the past several weeks. Seems like the ads are finally starting to produce consistent results. Some people might say, what’s the big deal? Canada is just a lot of trees and lakes and mountains. But you’d be wrong. Toronto is the fourth most populous city in North America, a face that somehow escaped me until I visited there last year. Which means there are a lot of book-buyers there and scattered across the country. The books have also been doing well in the UK, so it’s not just a Canada thing. When it comes to selling books, I’ll take every bit of good news, no matter where it comes from.

Spelling

The topic of this post might be a bit misleading. Yes, spelling counts. Especially in writing. However, in this case I’m talking about spelling in the context of ads. Yes, I have a story to tell. Yes, it’s embarrassing. It happened with a couple of ads I put together for the launch of Next Time. I used a quote from Independent Book Review. I checked and double-checked to make sure I got the quote exactly right. What I didn’t realize was that I’d misspelled “Review” as “Revew”. I didn’t catch it until two weeks after the book launch. Talk about feeling like an idiot. Here I am, trying to promote my new book to an audience of book readers, and I can’t even get the spelling right in an advertisement. I’m sure anybody who read it and noticed the misspelling thought the book probably consisted of the same low quality. Not my greatest moment. And now I’ve ruined the image and you know I’m not perfect. Why do I share this? Just as a case study that in making sure you’ve done all you can do, sometimes you still miss something. At least I finally noticed it and sales have improved since then.

Money

It’s time to cut through some of the ads I see on Facebook and Instagram about how to become a bestselling independent author. While I appreciate people sharing their expertise in order to help others, I also recognize that there are many ways to sell books. I’m still figuring it out. But what those ads remind me of are the people who hold seminars on how to get rich investing in real estate or stocks. Are they out there telling you to do it because they’re altruistic? Or are they doing it because they found they could make more money telling people how to do it than actually doing it themselves?

Regardless, what I’ve found so far is that you have to spend money to be even on the bottom rung of success. Or even seeing the bottom rung from below. If you do an Internet search, the average independent author sells 250 copies of their book. I’ve sold quite a bit more than that, but I’m still not making any profit. The reason is I have to pay for ads and promotions. That’s the only way I’ve found so far that lets me get people to even consider my books, but it’s pricey. Building your website, your brand, your mailing list - those are all the things the experts behind those ads will tell you if you pay for their materials or online classes. And they’re fine, but you can get all the info you need on how to do those for free from multiple sites. You’re going to spend money to sell books. Do you want it to go to someone telling you what to do, or do you want to spend the money directly on activities that’ll get you direct results?

Readers

Since in my previous post I talked about how the book is doing in other countries, I should probably take a few minutes and mention readers’ sites like Goodreads and Reedsy Discovery. Both of my recent books are doing well on Goodreads. In fact, yesterday three readers gave Next Time five-star ratings. Small sample size, but right now the book’s average is 4.92. It’s gratifying to see people who take the time to register on a readers’ website rating the book so high. Reedsy gets less traffic, at least in my experience, and it works a little differently with Upvotes alongside reviews. Next Time was upvoted enough to be featured by Reedsy a few weeks ago, but the number of overall reviews is a lot lower than Goodreads. First received no reader reviews on Reedsy and a middling site review, and I almost didn’t send Next Time to them. However, it worked out and Next Time became a must-read. Both sites are worth checking out and finding what bibliophiles say about my books.

Charts

I continue to learn more about book sales than I ever wanted to know. And not nearly enough. As mentioned before, I’ve been running ads through BookBub which reach not just US but international readers as well. That includes Canada, the UK, and Australia. The ad links to the reader’s preference, meaning if I live in Australia and my preference is Apple Books, a click on the ad will take me to the app or site for Apple. What I should’ve figured out earlier, or at least been more consistent in checking, is looking at rankings on sites outside the US. I’ve found over the last couple of weeks that Next Time has basically been a bestseller in Canada and the UK, ranking as high as third in Canada in its category. As a bonus, Amazon also lets you click on Hot New Releases in a category, and Next Time has been #2 several times. Not sure how to use this yet in my ads and not sure I feel comfortable calling it a bestseller. Still, it’s a pretty big deal and something I should have been keeping an eye on a lot sooner.

Medal

Friday late afternoon I received an email notifying me that Next Time had been selected as a Gold Medal Winner by Literary Titan. If you recall, they previously did a very nice 5-star review and posted some author interview questions that I’d answered. That’s the first award for Next Time, and I hope many more follow. I feel quite honored that the book, which of course I think is good, is seen that way by others. It’s also been getting positive reviews on Amazon, including a couple written. I’m monitoring Goodreads and Reedsy as well. So far, the book is at 4.6 Stars on Amazon and 4.89 on Goodreads. It really is helpful to get feedback, whether it’s in the form of a medal or somebody who clicks the stars when they’ve finished the book.

“Instant Classic”

I added another link to the main page of this site for a review that came in this week for Next Time. This one’s from The Bookish Elf, which I ran a promo with, mostly involving social media. I saw part of the review yesterday on the Instagram posts, and this morning the full review on their website. It’s a nice, detailed write-up and as always, I’m happy to read what people think about the book. The reviewer used phrases like “instant classic” and “a gorgeous, affecting read.” You can be darn sure I’ll be using those phrases in my upcoming ads. Speaking of ads, people in the US are clicking the hell out of my Next Time ad. Every day the budget is drained, usually by mid-afternoon. Last week it paid off in a lot of sales and hopefully this week is even better.

Conundrum

I mentioned late last week that I was interested in seeing how many sales I got from Barnes & Noble for Next Time. The US ad seemed to be garnering a lot of clicks pointing to the book’s B&N page. When I got the results Monday, the weekly B&N sales were okay but not great. Doing some simple math, it seems like about 10% of the time someone whose preference is B&N got to the B&N page, they bought the book. In contrast, the Amazon ratio looks more like 20-25%, which isn’t bad. I mean, neither one is great and I should probably look up the standards so I know what’s normal. Not sure what to do about it on B&N since I don’t directly control the page. The book description and info about reviews is the same as other sites. Maybe I just need some people to leave their ratings and others will follow - again, something I don’t control. It already has 7 ratings on Amazon for a 4.6 rating, which I think helps others in their decision-making. I’ve also heard that people have to see an ad multiple times before taking action, which seems fair. Also, the ads overall seem to be doing quite well as far as number of overall clicks, and as we’ve learned from the past, don’t change them when they’re working well.

Halfway

We’ve made it halfway through 2024 already. Congratulations. This is usually a good time to take stock of what’s happened compared to the original plans for the year. For ease of reference, here they are, along with my comments:

1. Publish Next Time - Done! Released on June 11th

2. Promote Next Time and First - Yeah, been doing the heck out of that and spending lots of money on ads and promos

3. Do a featured advertising deal with First - Did several with varying degrees of success

4. Do a new release advertising deal with Next Time - I didn’t do the formal “new release” deal with BookBub, but I did do additional ads and budget for the first month of the release

5. Finish writing the first book in the new series - About halfway finished, but pivoted to writing the sequel to First. I can likely still finish this book in 2024

6. Write the second book in the new series - Doubtful, but you never know. The sequel to First is taking the place of this one.

7. Publish the first book in the new series - Also doubtful. It could happen, but it would be a change in my publishing schedule.

8. Set a publishing date for Assignment Day - It will see the light in 2025. By the end of this year I should have something concrete in mind.

9. Get a total of 500 reviews for all the published books across all sites where sold - This’ll be a stretch. I’m currently just below 90 total across Amazon and Apple, but if you add in Goodreads it’s another 50 or so.

10. Be a guest on at least three podcasts - I’m scheduled for an interview in a couple of weeks. I’ll have to work on the other two.

Not bad so far, but more work to do. Onward and upward!

Effectiveness

Sometimes it takes a few days for an ad to take off. Other times, they immediately start collecting clicks. And sometimes you’re surprised. The night before last I did a final evening check on the ads I have going right now and found all of them doing exceptionally well. That’s a good sign, but as we’ve discussed before, getting a click on an ad doesn’t mean somebody bought the book. Usually not, in fact. However, on this particular night I was excited to find Next Time had risen to #7 in its category ranking in the UK. I take that to mean the ad was effective enough for a good portion of people to buy the book when they got to the page on Amazon. And to be clear, the description of the book has to be effective as well or people will take about five seconds and hit the back button. I’ve also been monitoring the book’s Barnes & Noble page since the US ad has garnered a lot of clicks pointing to B&N. They don’t provide category rankings on the book’s page (at least that I can find), but the book’s Sales Rank has been steadily rising all week. Let’s see what the weekend brings.

Click Click

Those are the sounds of people clicking on my ads. Remember what I said in the previous post about the study saying people don’t read as much during the summer months? Based on the number of clicks my ads received the past few days, I’m not sure I agree with that analysis. Of course, mine is a sample size of one person. I’m running five ads right now: one global ad for Next Time, UK and USish targeted ads for Next Time, and UK and USish targeted ads for First. Both books jumped up the Amazon rankings yesterday, The Next Time ads are getting a lot of clicks to Barnes & Noble links, and I’m keeping track of the sales rank there as well. First crept up to #17 in UK Space Exploration Science Fiction, the highest it’s been by one spot. One reason for the high number of clicks, particularly for Next Time, could be that not only did I target the readers of certain authors, but I also whittled down the campaign to target people who read Time Travel Romances. In other words, they like that kind of book and are more likely to click on an ad for something in the genre.

Why did I use the term “USish” up above? Because I created BookBub ads specific to the UK, showing the cost in pounds instead of dollars. The other ad I run is not only for the US, but also goes to Canada and Australia. Those bookseller sites show the cost in dollars, so there’s no need to make ads specific to those countries. I mean, I could, but they’d be the same ad. Hence the term USish, which is easier to type than US and Other Countries.

Summer

Summer has definitely landed in Texas. Our temperatures are supposed to be in the 100-degree range over the next week and probably beyond. I saw something the other day that said people don’t buy as many books during summer as they do during the colder months. I thought that seemed a little odd since I read year-round, and I think of people traveling and sitting on the beach, reading as they do so. But then again, it makes sense that people read more when the weather turns frigid, staying in inside and doing fewer outdoor activities. Maybe if people read all year long instead of seasonally, the world would be a better place. Just an idea.

First Sequel

In my previous post, I wrote about pondering a sequel to Next Time. My current project is actually a sequel, but to First. I’m probably about a third of the way through it, or maybe a little more. How’s it going, you ask? Pretty well, I think. There are already things I know I’ll need to go back and shore up, but that’s normal for how I write a first draft. I had a couple of false starts with this one, but I feel like I’ve got the right idea now. This one’s a little different from other books I’ve written in that it has two narrators, which switch back and forth with each chapter. The ideas I had before really didn’t lend themselves to a whole book and it was when I had the inspiration to tell two stories - two for the price of one! - that things started to take off in my brain and on the page. My rule of thumb is that if it keeps me interested then I’ll keep on writing it, but if I’m bored, then the reader’s going to be bored.

Sequel?

I really haven’t thought about a sequel to Next Time, but I made an offhand remark in an interview posted on Literary Titan about it. Something along the lines of, “you never know…” I read through that interview this morning and my impression was that maybe I was too cavalier with that remark. I tend to think that the book stands on its own as a self-contained story. It has a beginning, middle, and end. We know how William and Miriam end up. Would a sequel to a book like that actually add anything? Or would it water down what I think is a great story? I know, never say never, but right now I’m not inclined to it. The story would have to be worth telling. Sure, there are gaps where other stories could take place. Or maybe the story of one of Miriam’s relatives. Does it sound like I’m trying to talk myself into it? No, just musing. I have plenty of other items to keep me busy for the next year with writing the sequel to First and getting Assignment Day polished and ready to publish next year. Maybe it doesn’t need to be said, but I’ll say it anyway: one sure way to guarantee a sequel is to sell a million copies.

Ad-ing

Continuing to run ads on BookBub and still getting lots of traction on the UK ads for First. Next Time has been slow to pick up on clicks and I’m going to mess with the image today and see if something else works. I’m still amazed that the First UK ad is still doing so well, especially when v2 of that ad tanked. Yesterday the book climbed about the highest it’s been on the Amazon UK rankings. The old ad is a bit out of date by this point, but as I learned previously, don’t mess with a good thing. The analytics for the US ad show the clicks going to Amazon outside the US and Apple. I’m still getting sales on Amazon US, though, so maybe some of the other promos are driving traffic. Was talking with another author last week about what it takes to get to be self-perpetuating sales for a book. Let’s just say I’m a long way off from that level. It’d be nice to get there someday, though.

Another Win

The new book released three days ago, but let’s not forget about the one that came out last October. Anyone remember a little book called First? Well, it won another award yesterday. And a nice one, at that. First won the Best Science Fiction Novel from the 18th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards. I’m honored for the book to rack up another award. And it’s not some fly-by-night site either. I took a look at the finalists and First beat out some good competition. I looked back at my tracking spreadsheet and saw that I mailed a copy of the book and entry form in April, but never got an acknowledgement the organizers had received them. I wasn’t sure if the book had even made it to them, so when I got the email yesterday it was a nice surprise and tbh, a little unexpected. Once again, it’s awesome to get more accolades for the book.

Launched

Next Time is now in the hands of readers as of yesterday. Seems like the launch went pretty well and I sold some copies. I ran a campaign on BookBub to get impressions instead of clicks, and the two ads burned through their budget by evening. I don’t know, maybe I should have spread that out more? Regardless, I’m continuing other ads going forward and of course, promotions through other vendors.

I also concluded my Seven Questions in Seven Weeks series yesterday, and I’ll reiterate what I said there: my goal is for people to enjoy the book. I hope the readers are sad when it ends, glad they read it, and wish it would go on a little longer so they can stay in that world with those characters. I want people to be happy they spent several hours reading it. Accolades, sales, and 5-Star reviews are fantastic, but my goal is more personal and I really hope each and every person who reads Next Time gets a lot of enjoyment from the experience.

No Sense

Remember how I had an ad running for First through BookBub a couple of weeks ago that was killing it in the UK? I updated the ad last Monday to reflect the current number of ratings, a little snippet I captured from the Amazon website. I paused the previous ad and started up the new one. Let’s review one more time: exact same ad except for the number of ratings shown, targeted to the same readers, same CPC (cost-per-click) bid, and…it tanked. The number of clicks per day barely registered. I suppose I could take this as a lesson that I shouldn’t mess with something that worked. On Friday, I paused the new ad and restarted the previous one, the ad that had gotten all the clicks. Even though it was out of date slightly because of the number of ratings, I wanted to see what would happen and what do you know? The clicks went through the roof again. It makes absolutely no sense to me why one would work and one wouldn’t. You better believe I’m not going to mess with it for a while. Besides, tomorrow is the release date for Next Time and I’ll be a bit busy with that for the rest of the week. Put this ad nonsense down as an unsolved mystery.

Countdown

The countdown is on for the release of Next Time in only four days! Overnight I received a new review, another 5-star writeup. For those of you keeping score at home, the book is now 3-out-of-3 in 5-star reviews plus a Must-Read listing, with the review pending. That’s pretty cool to see and the book hasn’t even gone live yet. I’m hoping for a good launch day and it’d be nice to see the book jump up the charts. Lots of promotions and ads going into it, so let’s see what kind of results show up.

Looking back, it’s funny to think about writing Next Time. I started with the idea a couple of days after we returned from an overseas trip, and it’s been twenty months since then. I don’t really remember much about writing it, just that the book seemed to flow quite easily. My notes on it along with the minimal outlining I do, shows something remarkably close to my original idea. Again, not sure how that happened but judging by the reviews so far, it worked.

Hooray for the UK

Those clicks last week and the good Amazon sales rankings translated into the best week yet for First. The volume gets transmitted to my publisher every Monday morning (after I wrote the previous post) and I can see at that point the raw numbers. Even though it’s not broken out, the lion’s share must have come from the UK. The total from Apple was pretty much the US along with maybe some from Canada and Australia. I’m grateful that the book is doing well, and hope that this is the beginning of an upward trend across the globe.