It’s been more than two months since my book, Death in the Tallgrass, was published through Amazon/KDP. I decided not to blog about my experiences until I had stored up some steps of significant learning regarding how Amazon bookselling works, anticipating that the longer I waited, the more steps I could report and the more glorious my accomplishments in book marketing would appear. I guess I haven’t waited long enough. My learning curve has been pretty much flat, with a few bumps of simple ignorance. Here’s the data: my Amazon report shows 26 units have been sold since the book was published on July 26th, all but one being sold in August. Eight of them have been electronic copies, while eighteen have been paperback. This doesn’t count the twenty-five copies I bought myself – the first ten being flawed and unusable, while nine have been sent to reviewers, entered in contests, or given away to family. I have six on-hand. There have been eight “customer reviews” and three ratings without reviews posted by readers on my Amazon book page, while I have posted three “editorial reviews”. I’m averaging 4.9 out of 5 stars for the eleven customer reactions. Amazon needs fifteen “customer reviews” before it considers an item to be worth promoting, so if anyone is planning on leaving an honest review, now is not the time to be shy. The reviews have been the highlight of my progress. For most of the last two months, the “editorial reviews” section of my book page, which posts reviews that I paid for in one way or the other, have not appeared because of technical difficulties. However, this last Monday, magic happened and they now do, which means all of my reviews can be read by the buying public. They are, without question, great reviews and I’m humbled with the praise they contain; you should read them for the fun of it. Of Amazon’s automated marketing efforts, the reviews are a success and I am especially appreciative of friends leaving reviews. I will be well-positioned once I pass the magic number. One point about “editorial reviews”: there are many websites that provide book reviews for authors or publishers. Some offer “free” reviews, but the majority provide a graduated scale of reviews for sale. That means they have a ready source of people who will read a book and write a review. The website will advertise the books across the reviewers and the reviewers choose what books they want to review. Since none of these people know the authors, I suspect that most everyone who works for a reputable website (there are ways of finding out) read the books and write honest reviews. When one is finished, the author gets the review, but it may or may not be automatically posted on Amazon or other sites (i.e., it may say “editorial review only”); it’s in the fine print. How the reviewer is compensated for their review, I’m not sure. Except for one case. I was able to see the resume of one reviewer working for an on-line company who posted a “customer review”. She wrote a wonderful review and is obviously accomplished at it. She should be – she’s done 742 reviews. A book blogger, she lists her reviews on a website and talks about it in her blog. At the bottom of each review, she is allowed to put a “BUY THIS BOOK” button, per agreement with Amazon, and if any of the readers click that button and buys a book, Amazon compensates her with a tiny share of the price. Given enough reviews and enough time, she’s probably building a pretty good business. Some review websites routinely reveal they cannot guarantee someone will be interested in writing a review, and some of them mention that they cannot guarantee the reviewer will actually read the book, if they do write a review. The website will then offer packages of 1, 3, 5, 10 or more guaranteed reviews for prices ranging from $79 and up. I saw one website advertise 1000 reviews for $999. Whether a thousand people actually read the book and write an honest review is suspect to me. Amazon will not publish reviews that involve payment to a reviewer, or have any possibility of undue influence between the author and the reviewer, which includes family. Anyone with my last name cannot post a “customer review”, even though I can post it as an “editorial review”. Amazon will not recognize it for any ratings in their algorithm, but it will show up on my book page, nonetheless. I’m okay with that. Another sign of progress is my entering book contests. This is not a usual choice for recent publications because contests require money up-front and are usually long-term in results. I’ve entered a half-dozen contests (Eric Hoffer Awards, NM/AZ Book Awards, SPUR Awards of the Western Writers of America, Readers’ Favorite Book Awards, and others). The contest winners will typically be some months down the road. I chose to enter contests because I’m vain, and because actually winning something is highly quotable. Some of them will even send me gold stickers for the front cover of my book! What I have not done is create on-line ads for my book. Amazon has an extensive advertising program, as well as Facebook. I hadn’t really paid attention, but I now notice highlighted ads in almost every corner of Amazon and Facebook that feature the front cover of a book, a small blurb about how great the book is, and a button to take me someplace that will happily place an order for me. Some of the ads are really impressive. However, ads cost money on a continuing basis; you typically pay per ad, or per week for a certain number of ads, or pay per click when someone wants to “learn more”. I am wary of anything that requires me to create a “marketing campaign” with a budget. It doesn’t mean I won’t do it, but not now. I also have not approached book reviewers at newspapers, book bloggers, or freelance reviewers. How’s my audiobook coming? Hmm…I don’t know. My voice person was to begin the first of October and be done by early November, but I haven’t heard from him. I know he had projects to finish before he got to my book, but I was, by October, supposed to be listening to chapters as he recorded them. I haven’t paid him anything, and there’s a higher organization I can complain to, so I’m not worried. Its time will come. It seems that I’ve been busy, but it may just be a level of attention that I’m not used to giving a book once it goes public. I may not be marching but only marking time. I spent a few hours on my next book, but lost enthusiasm for it. I think I’ll read for a while.
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AuthorDon Willerton has been a reader all his life and yearns to write words like the authors he has read. He's working hard at it and invites others to share their experiences. |