My Marketing Results and Why I'm Going to Spend More Time Writing.

As promised here's my blog on my marketing results I said I would do last month. In order to see any significant changes, I've allowed a month to pass from when I first started to advertise.

Are your hearts beating with anticipation? Do you think I'm going to reveal a site that's guaranteed to sell 100,000 copies of your book flat out in a week?

If you are you're going to be bitterly disappointed because I'm now going to say that despite my best marketing efforts with these relevant sites, I have not seen any significant changes in my sales results.

This does not mean I haven't had any sales at all. Far from it. It's just unfortunate that I can't see any direct correlation between sales and advertising.

Advertising with these sites might have had a slight impact on sales, so I'm glad I spent time promoting my book. But the results aren't high enough for me to be certain. One factor in my poor sales results is the sites I've used aren't big or well known. Perhaps I would have had better luck if I had used sites like BookBub. Unfortunately my book hasn't generated enough reviews to submit it to them.

And that's the problem. When you first release a book it can be near impossible to get reviews that are required for so many of these well known advertising sites. It's a Catch 22 situation. You want to use these sites to get the word out about your new release, but unless your book already has a certain amount of reviews you can't do this.

So what's the answer? Maybe I will try to get reviews before my next book is actually published. As of yet, I haven't gone down this route but I figure it must be worth a shot so watch this space.

I think until you have a few books out in the same genre it's pointless to waste your time and money concentrating on pushing just one book. Instead your time is better spent writing. After all, the majority of successful writers have quite a few books and a large proportion write in the same genre. Nothing sells books like writing more books - or so I've been told.

I'm going to listen to this advice from now on because it's all come from writers who have a large number of books.

I'm not knocking these advertising sites but I do believe I am not far enough along in my career to get the most out of them. To be a known writer you have to write more than one book. Then your readers will be more likely to take a chance on you because they will get to know your writing style and the book's content. Readers are more likely to take a chance on a writer who has a number of books.

Of course I could be talking a load of fluff for who am I to know what really sells books?

I'll wait another couple of months before I advertise again. Maybe my change in book cover will have some impact but who knows? Only time will tell.

This is where I'd love to hear your experience. What works for you when it comes to selling books?

My goal is to have readers who are loyal and committed just like my two dogs.