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  1. Kenny Baldwin

    Kenny Baldwin New Member

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    Let's Talk Marketing Strategies

    Discussion in 'Marketing' started by Kenny Baldwin, May 30, 2019.

    Hey everybody,

    I've recently launched a very small publishing label. We've only published a few books so far: a few recipe books, a couple of romantic comedy novellas, and a fantasy novel. We have several more in the works that should be out later this year.

    It's been fascinating to see how the marketing strategies for these books vary by genre, list price, etc. . .

    I've been working the Amazon Marketing Ads angle, a permafree angle, a reader magnet angle, a Facebook Ads angle, and a Book Bub ads angle (not a Book Bub feature, just the ads so far).

    With Facebook/Amazon Marketing my biggest issue is simple: I can't afford to bid high enough on keywords to get the volume of impressions I need to generate profitable sales. Can anyone relate?

    I've used a permafree angle for one of our recipe books, and that's worked really well for distribution, but buy through to other books by that author have only been so-so.

    Book Bub ads seem to work alright, it's just tough tracking whether their clicks actually do anything since they're not linked into the KDP reports on Amazon.

    Thoughts anybody? What's been working/not working for all of you?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 8, 2019
    MarcT likes this.
  2. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    are all these books your own or are you publishing for other people ?

    That aside in regard of amazon ads (and for that matter FB ads) bidding high is not the answer - since a good conversion rate is about 1:10 sales to clicks , you can't bid more than 35c and not make a loss on a 4.99 book - the key is to find keywords that work without costing too much
     
  3. Kenny Baldwin

    Kenny Baldwin New Member

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    The books are by me and other authors.

    You're exactly where I'm at with keyword bids. I'm using Kindlepreneur's keyword tool to dig up keywords, and I have probably anywhere from 600-1000 per title. But, with the bids that low I'm still having a hard generating the volume of impressions and consequent clicks I need.
     
  4. crocobee

    crocobee New Member

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    The only two strategies that you need ( or at least the only two which worked so well they almost doubled my profits ) were :

    1. Translating my book to another language (NOT for first-time publishers, despite the fact it pays itself off withing 2-3 months at most, this option is very expensive!!! don't go for it unless you're at least 99% confident in your book or have extra cash to invest).
    2. Leaving Amazon\any other publishing platform and creating your own landing page for your book. This requires a bit more effort than just sitting around and waiting for people to visit your amazon page, but highly profitable.
    pros - you can EASILY sell every copy at a higher price since there's no "suggested books" section full of 3$ eBooks you have to compete with.
    cons -
    1. you need to be very creative when it comes to reviews about your book, people won't trust on-page reviews (which can easily be faked) , you have to gather all of your reviews at a highly trusted third party (a facebook page for your book should do just fine).
    2. prepare to spend hundreds of hours marketing your book.


    good luck fellow self publishers :D
     
  5. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I'm sorry but that's terrible advice on both points for 99% of self publishers

    if your book is in English - or potentially Spanish, Chinese, or Hindi - then translating it into languages with smaller markets is not going to double your sales - and as you note translation is very expensive - there is no way it will pay off in two to three months. (if you are writing in a smaller market language translating to English etc may make sense but not in 2-3 months payback unless you happen to have a best seller)

    and while selling from your own site (most people integrate payhip and book funnel) is a useful option - leaving the other sales platforms which have much higher traffic is not advisable unless you have a very niche category that gets dungeoned on amazon

    When you say doubled your profits from what to what ?
     
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2019
  6. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    It sounds a little like you might be running a vanity press. I could be wrong, but it seems you know very little about the publishing world if you're struggling to promote the books you're publishing and the fact that you put this post under self publishing. I'm just wondering what you're really offering these authors that they couldn't be doing on their own. And you're obviously taking some sort of cut. Hopefully these authors are not paying you on top of that. No book deal is often better than a bad book deal. It just seems like you're entering the publishing scene before you really know what you're doing. So, I have to ask why are you doing this?
     
  7. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Location:
    Where cushions are comfy, and straps hold firm.
    I was a portly young man, and looked up to Mr. Ben Franklin.
    I saw the potential in hiring a ship full of inks, and then making
    very large books on 2418 sheets of the finest of papers. Though
    it takes ages to make enough copies for market, since I must
    place each letter in order per page to be printed. Must say with
    all these newfangled automatic printers, the old inkpress is
    not quite the efficient method it once was. (Sigh)....
    That and our customers have complained that our books are far
    less portable, and considerably heavier, than these new modern
    'Paperbacks" that can fit in one's pocket.
    :supergrin:
     

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