Do Free Promotions Work?

Let me start out with a little bit of honesty.

As much as we might not like to admit it, the indie author has low odds of being successful. It is an unavoidable fact that most indie authors only ever sell a handful of books, and most often only to family and friends. Breaking past that point and reaching a wider audience is the dream we all share, but we all know how hard it can be.

We have a limited number of tools in our toolboxes for achieving that aim. And there comes a time when shouting into the void of Twitter or Facebook becomes a little pointless. There is a hashtag floating around on Twitter that I'm growing to love #IndieBooksBeSeen, because after all, the best written book is irrelevant if no one knows it exists. Spreading the word and sharing the love amongst the indie crowd is essential. A big part of why this blog was created in the first place. But even all that shared love isn't enough. We have to find ways to get our books into people's hands.

Free promotions, putting the book for free for a limited time, is one of the tools we have, and it's one that sparks a bit of debate amongst the indie crowd.

A lot of people will tell you that giving your book away for free will only devalue it. A bit like when your Mum told you no one would buy the cow if you gave the milk away for free. Most people who are against free promotions will tell you that the people who download free books will never buy your book, in fact they probably won't even read it.

I'm not going to argue with them. They may well be completely right. But I think that there is more to free promotions than the people who actually download your book for free. It's what those downloads can do for your rankings. It's what it can mean in the long run once your book goes back on sale.

I decided last month that I was going to give the free promotion thing another try. I'd done it before and received some extra reviews from it, so it hadn't been a complete waste, but this time I was going to do it properly. Which included a little paid advertising. Not much, just a $15 outlay for being included in an e-reader newsletter. Not enough to break the bank, but enough to test the waters.

I'm now going to give you actual numbers and figures. My sales prior to this were low. Not embarrassingly low (after all, see above about the success rates of indie authors) but low enough that the results are pretty obvious. 

Prior to the free promotion days my sales ranking was somewhere around the #500,000 mark. Yup. That low. I would say I made at most 2 sales a week. (note that as I get paid almost as much for borrows as sales on the KU scheme I do count them as a sale). Not terrible considering The Last Knight has been out for over a year and a half, but not brilliant by any means.

The free promotion days ran from the 30th Jan to the 1st Feb, with the paid advertising falling on the 31st. Right in the middle.

The first day of free downloads was OK - but nothing more than that. 159 copies.

The second day the advertising kicked in, and things changed.

By the time the day ended I had over 2,300 copies downloaded.

The next day the downloads continued, but not at the same rate, another 800+ copies however.

But the big thing for me was not how many were downloaded, but what it did for my ranking.

At it's highest point I reached #72 in the free rankings. I'd started at around #18,000 the previous day.

I know what you're thinking though. All of this is irrelevant in a way, because I'm not getting paid for those copies and the people who downloaded them probably won't read them.

But you see, those free copies do matter. Because if I take away the free copies on the sales graph, I get this:

Now, it may not seem like much - but when you look at the whole of January, you can see what a difference has been made. Even taking the borrows (which I do tend to count as I mentioned above) I had six books sold in January. (Which was up on last years sales of...zero) But on the day the free promo starts the sales jump up. And they've gone up since this graph was taken. But even just with what is visible here, in 4 days I had 13 sales. Double what I'd had for the whole month. To me that is a huge increase.

And it in turn has had a massive impact on my rankings now I'm back in the paid charts.

 Remember up top where I told you my ranking before this was somewhere around #500,000?

Here's my little indie book ranked up there with a traditionally published book. (Yes I am just a little pleased with that!).

The fact is though, rankings matter. Success breeds success. It's a well known fact. Those free downloads, and the subsequent sales have boosted me up the rankings, which will in turn bring more sales.

I hope.

And this is where the waiting game comes in. I plan on doing a second post in about a week - to see if any of this has sustained itself. Then I might be able to actually answer the question this post poses.

But until then I'd love to hear what others make of these numbers. Do free promotions work? Do you think success (even if somewhat artificially created) can only breed further success (or sales?).

To be continued...

Cover to Cover: Tips for creating a top-notch design

So as ever I am going to draw on my own experience to find a topic for my blog this week.

Just yesterday I received the proof for the new paperback version of Chasing Freedom. It was my second time creating a paperback and it wasn’t any easier than the first, but I got it done. Other than a tiny error with the edge of the front cover it’s looking pretty good.

But it got me to thinking – how important is your cover? And what kind of thing should you be doing to make your cover look as professional as possible?

So to the first question – how important is your cover? Well, despite the old adage, never judge a book by its cover, your cover is actually one of the most important things about your book. Of course you want it formatted properly and you want to make sure the writing and editing is top notch – but the sad fact is that if you have a bad cover none of that will matter because no one will see it.

Unfortunately there are a lot of Indie authors out there who assume, I think, that because their book will be digital the cover won’t matter. It does.

So there here are a few tips I can give to making your cover as professional as possible:

·         Obviously the most obvious answer is to have it designed by a professional cover designer. Your cover will look professional, but on the downside, it can cost a lot of money, and not all of us have the cash to spare. If you are willing to make that investment then definitely go for it.

If a professional is out of your price range, then try a few of the tips below to really get that edge you need for a great cover.

·         Quality is essential when it comes to the artwork – whatever you do, don’t skimp on it. It might be really tempting to pay a little less and get the lower resolution picture – and it might work to a point on the small scale thumbnail on Amazon, but if you want a print copy it will need to be at least 300dpi or it’s going to look bad.

·         If you are designing it on an Office programme (which is possible) avoid all the standard fonts. They have a habit of making a cover look homemade – there are lots of more exotic fonts out there, and you can often find great ones online to download. Search around a bit to find something that works.

·         Play with placement. You don’t have to stick with the title at the top and your name at the bottom – it’s the most standard, but playing with different placements can really make something stand out.

·         Get a second opinion. Make sure you have someone whose opinion you trust look at it. Get them to tell you what works and what doesn’t. And listen to them. You don’t HAVE to change something they don’t like, but normally if something jumps out at them in the wrong way it will be the same for other people.

·         But most important of all, take your time. This isn’t something that can be rushed. If you rush it, it will show. You want your cover to be as good as it can possibly be and that will take time and effort. But at the end of it you should have a cover that you can be proud of.

What about other Indie authors out there? Do you have any tips for great cover design? What works for you? Do you love or loathe making covers? Comments below!

Have a great weekend!

My Top 5 Books Every Indie Should Read

Here at Rock The Book we review Indie books and we present tips, tricks, and tools to help Indies out. This post is going to mash up those two concepts with a look at books that have helped me on my Indie journey.  All of these books have been instrumental with my own self-publishing and are guidebooks that I reference again and again.

Let's Get Digital 

by David Gaughran

Goodreads

This is the book that started it all for me.  In this book, Gauhran gives you the reasons why you should self-publish and the tools you need to get your manuscript published. If you are siting on the self-publishing fence, this will give you a much needed kick in the pants.

Write. Publish Repeat 

by Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant & David Wright

Goodreads

This informative book tells you all about the wonders of product funnels and how to keep your readers coming back. Definitely not an introduction to self-publishing, this book helps you set long term goals for your work and gives you the motivation to stick with it and keep on writing. Check out my full review of this book.

Let's Get Visible 

by David Gaughran

Goodreads

Gaughram makes my list again with this book on selling your self-publish work.  He decodes the mysteries of selling rank, best-selling lists and the wonder of tags. If you have a title published and want to boost its sales, this is worth a look. Check out my full review of this book.

Book Marketing Is Dead 

by Derek Murphy

Goodreads

Book marketing often scares authors who would much rather write than market their work. In this book, Murphy breaks down the process into three stages that can be beneficial to a newbie or a more experienced author. When you finish this, you will have a plan in place of what to do to market your book. Check out my full review of this book.

The Indie Author's Guide to The Universe 

by Jeff Bennington

Goodreads

This book has a little bit of everything. If you are only going to pick up one title, this would be my pick. Because it covers just about everything from why to self-publish, how to self-publish and even some marketing tips, this books lacks a little depth. Then again, it covers everything! Check out my full review of this book.

So there you have my top five books on self-publishing. If you are an Indie, or are contemplating becoming an Indie, you can't go wrong with checking out these titles.

Do you think I missed a title?

Leave a comment and let me know!

To read reviews or not, that is the question...

I’ve seen conflicting advice on this recently, so I thought that I would add my two cents. You see, it’s very easy to read reviews when they’re good. They work as validation for the hard work we put in creating and crafting our books. It’s a real boast to read great comments about something we have put so much heart and soul into.

But what if the review is a bad one? What do we do then?

I know the standard advice is not to read bad reviews – after all, not everyone is going to ‘get’ your book, and reading the comments of someone who just doesn’t get it isn’t going to be productive in any way.

I agree with that, but only up to a point.

Sometimes a book just isn’t the right book for you. It’s not your ‘thing’. And those kinds of reviews wouldn’t be helpful or constructive. It’s best to just pass them by with a sigh.

On the other hand, how are we supposed to grow as writers if we don’t accept the criticism? If we only ever take the good feedback we’ll never be able to see where we are going wrong.

It’s my personal belief that we need the bad reviews, far more than we need the good. After all, if more than one person is seeing the same problem with your writing then the issue must be with you, not them.

So how do you deal with, and read a bad review without it knocking your confidence?

Here are my tips:

·         Don’t take it to heart. Read them, but don’t let them get under your skin. Develop the thick hide a writer needs.

·         Look for the positives you can take from it. Perhaps they don’t like the way the heroine responds to things. Ask yourself how you can make sure your next heroine doesn’t fall into the same traps. If you don’t describe enough, work at on the next book.

·         Work with the rule of three. If one person doesn’t like something it is probably just personal taste. If two people don’t like something take a good look at it yourself before deciding if they just aren’t ‘getting’ it. If three people don’t like something then you know you really need to address it. Once you start getting a lot of reviews you can multiply this – so 10, 20 and 30 for example.

·         Finally, accept that you can’t change the book you’ve already published (unless you want to put out a second edition with major changes), and that there will always be people who don’t like a book – and work doubly hard on making the next book the best it can possibly be.

Have a great weekend and happy writing!

Kitted Out - Author Tools That Rock: yWriter5

Here's another tool that all you Indie authors will fall in love with:  yWriter5!  It's awesome, it's free, and it's completely intuitive.

Awesome:

You can use yWriter5 to write your novel, which is pretty cool.  But it is not traditional word-processing software.  Instead of one loooooooooong document that spans the length of the page, yWriter5 gives you a dashboard where your novel is broken into chapters.  Within each chapter you can have as many (or as few) scenes as you like.  That's just the very beginning.

There are plenty of places to keep scene notes and overall project notes, which will definitely help when you're revising.  Each scene can be rated for relevance, tension, humor, and quality.  You can track your time line so you know exactly how much time has passed within your story.  Add goals, reference pictures, and so on.  There are tabs and windows for everything.  Simon Haynes, the creator of yWriter, is an author.  He designed this software to be an author's best friend.

I pretty much love everything about yWriter5.  I have used it personally for about seven years, and I don't imagine I'm going to switch to anything else.  The "items", "characters", and "locations" tabs are absolutely indispensable, especially if you are writing something epic.  My first project in yWriter was a fantasy novel with an endless slew of character races, objects that were unique to the world, and made-up indigenous flora and fauna, among other things.  I could have filled a notebook with all this stuff, but I would never have been able to find what I was looking for.  Instead, yWriter5 handles all this neatly.  Not only that, but when it comes time to write the sequel, yWriter5 will import all those notations into your next project so you are ready to go.

I also love that yWriter5 keeps track of your daily word count, and provides chapter and scene word counts in addition to the overall numbers.  Probably the best thing, though, is that yWriter5 automatically backs up your project on a regular basis.  No more *poof*, *scream*, *mental breakdown*.  It also generates log files, so if you need to revert to an earlier version of your work, you can.  Incredibly author-friendly.

Free:

Just head on over to Spacejock Software, where Simon Haynes offers yWriter5 (and some other cool goodies) for free!  It is a simple download.  Open it up, create a project, and start writing.  And there's no need to worry about added junk.  Simon Haynes, on his site, promises, "All my software is virus-free. No unwanted toolbars, trojans or other nasties."  Why does Simon build this awesome software and just give it away???  I don't know.  He must be awesome!!!  (You can make a donation, or buy his books, or spread the word about his cool stuff if you just can't contain yourself and you want to say thanks.)

Intuitive:

If you can use word processing software, you can use yWriter5.  Once you've downloaded it, simply go to Project>New Project Wizard, and follow the prompts to set up your project.  Once you have the empty project, everything is based off of creating chapters and scenes.  So, go to Chapter> Create New Chapter.  Then go to Scene> Create New Scene.  Everything you write will be within a scene, so you have to have a scene to write.  However, if you only want to have one scene within a chapter, that is just fine.

As for the rest of it, you can explore the tabs and see what you find.  Most of it is self-explanatory.  If you're having trouble, try Rowena Tayler-Henry's Quickstart Guide to yWriter5, or go to the yWriter5 wiki, or check out this yWriter5 video tutorial.

Alright, so what are you waiting for?  Get writing!

The Importance of Beta Readers

This is something I’ve been thinking about recently, as I am swiftly approaching the point (with at least one of my WIPs) where I will need to start recruiting a few new beta readers of my own. I believe they are one of the most vital parts of any Indie authors’ ‘toolbox’.

 

The simple fact is that for a lot of Indie authors, myself included, the amount of money spent preparing an MS for publishing is a big issue, and getting a professional editor simply may not fit into the budget. And if you can’t afford one the next best option is a beta reader – or more than one if you can find them.

 

One of the biggest challenges with editing a book is that often as the writer we are simply too close to it to see the errors. We know what we meant to say, so it’s hard to tell when we haven’t quite achieved our goal. The typos are invisible to us.

 

I know that first hand! I edited The Last Knight before I published it a million times (more or less) and never once noticed that I had the word ‘roast’ in place of the word ‘road’. A pretty glaring error you would think.

 

The same goes for grammar. Sometimes you catch the errors, and sometimes you don’t. Another set of eyes can be an enormous help.

 

But a beta reader is more than just a human version of spell check. Your beta reader is quite often the first person who will see the novel. They’re the first person to lay eyes on this baby you’ve created. And they should be able to tell you which darlings you need to kill.

 

Your beta reader is also a good barometer of how your novel is going to be received by other readers. Did it make sense to them? Did it make them laugh? Or cry?

 

But finding a good beta reader is more than just handing your MS off to the first person who offers to read it. You need to trust them. Not only because you need to be sure they’re going to give you an honest opinion.

 

A good beta reader is going to tell you to change things – quite possibly things that you might love. You need to be able to trust their judgement.

 

Here’s where it becomes helpful to have more than one beta reader. Personally I like three. That way I’m not relying on one person’s opinion. After all, reading is such a subjective thing. I like three because then if one person tells me they dislike something, or think something is a problem, but the other two disagree I probably won’t change it. If two out of the three agree then I know I need to take a serious look at the problem they’re pointing out. If all three of them agree then I don’t even hesitate to change it. It’s worked for me so far.

 

Here are the things I think you should be asking your beta reader to look out for:

 

The small stuff like:

 

Typos (Obviously)

 

Grammar

 

Missing words, sentences that don’t work etc.

 

The big stuff:

 

Plot, plot, plot. Does it make sense? Are there glaring holes? Overly confusing twists?

 

Dialogue. This is one of the hardest things to get right. And unrealistic dialogue can destroy an otherwise good book.

 

Overall feel of the book. If you’re going for something darker, have you created the right atmosphere? If it’s comedy, is it lighthearted enough?

 

Characters. Which characters do they love? Which ones drive them nuts? If you intended the character to be annoying that’s good, but if they’re finding your MC infuriating you might need to think again.

 

At the end of the day however your beta readers will only be able to make suggestions. In the end it’s up to you what you change and what you don’t.

 

Now go and rock on!