Published 4/6/15 with a small press. At a loss since promo is largely placed on me. Stressed. What is normal to expect for debut author. Any suggestions?
Hi Alan, welcome to the forum. We have more than a few discussions ongoing about promoting your work. Browse the publishing sub-forum.
A little more information might help, too. What publisher? Does 'promo is placed on me' mean you've selected a vanity publisher? What have you done with promotion so far? What do you mean by 'normal to expect'? Sales?
Sounds like you're expected to market your work yourself within whatever networks you may have established. If you haven't yet, you might want to start thinking about a website, social media presence etc. Having your family and friends buy copies. I think. I have no idea; I'm making this up.
Chapter one was great fun - with the hero and the marines fighting it out with tasers, took me right into scene. Good luck.
I'm not sure the publishers are doing you any favours regarding pricing. For the price you have you'd receive 70% royalties through Amazon but apparently your publisher only gives you 35%? with 10% for hard copies? If they print hard copies. Might be better getting out and doing it yourself. Especially if you have to self promote anyway. Good luck with it though.
Champagne. Not vanity, small publisher. Normal to expect means how (and if) do sales build. What is typical in the first month for a debut?
Disappointingly low. It's 19 days since release and I'm inexperienced, so I'm not sure what a "new guy" can expect. The promo group I hired doesn't seem to have had much impact at all. Thanks for asking. Could I beg a favor? I'm running a giveaway at my site. Would you visit and check the Goodreads link to see if it's working?
The link to Goodreads seems to be working, but if there's an excerpt from your book there, it's hard to find. Might make more sense to link directly to Amazon? Easier to find the excerpt (assuming the info is in the first chapter or whatever) and the buy link is handier!
I'm not sure promo groups ever have much impact. I think they're just satellite money making ventures hitching a ride on the back of the self publishing author hoping to get their work noticed.
So, @rincewind31, can I ask what you've been doing for your book? The difference between your UK and US Amazon numbers is striking, which suggests that there's something happening in the UK that isn't happening in the US? Does that sound right, or is it just that the language/culture barrier is holding the book back in the US?
There's a huge difference in rankings Bayview but i think that's more to do with the humour being quintessentially British rather than any advertising techniques. To be honest if you take out the initial Facebook advertising to non writing groups i'm a member of, I really haven't done that much at all, i think i've just been lucky. Things really improved for me once I had a professional cover made and changed the subtitle. One thing i did find out was that all these facebook groups where people advertise their books are a complete waste of time. Theyre essentially writers advertising to other writers, but all the other writers are really interested in is their own work.
Yeah, I've found almost ALL advertising attempts are a waste of time, so I was hoping you'd found a way to reach your British readers so I could STEAL IT! But... you just wrote a good book that they want to read. Boring.
I know. Sorry Bayview One thing that did help was at the same time I changed the cover and subtitle I did a three day free promotion and gave away a few thousand copies. Apparently it doesn't always transfer to sales but i'm sure it helped me. That's with Amazon kdp though so not much help to you i'm afraid until you can escape your publisher.
