Jackie Weger is more than an author of great romance novels; she’s a tireless supporter of Indies, both on her own and through her eNovel Authors at Work group. Jackie has written a score of posts detailing her (rather extensive) marketing experience; you may have read some in the past, such as Promoting With The Small Guys? Jackie Weger Shares Her Experience and Call to Arms – Jackie Weger’s Take. She recently shared some great tips on How To Get Visible & Sell Books.
Tip #1: Network
Her first, pretty simple tip is this: New indie authors must network with authors in their genres. Read everything inside Amazon KDP. Click on every thing that surrounds your book.
Tip #2: Run an Amazon Giveaway
Price a book at 99c and engage in an Amazon giveaway. You can give away up to 50 books. Use “follow me on Amazon.” That way, you get the royalty plus new followers. This is very useful when you have a new release and Amazon sends out a dedicated notice to your followers. Amazon may also send a notice to those who have bought one of your books in the past. Check out my guide on setting up an Amazon giveaway to get started right away.
Tip #3: Run an Amazon Ad Campaign
Engage in an Amazon ad campaign. Keep it simple and impose on yourself a $3 a day limit until you learn the ropes. Google Amazon ad Campaigns and read all about it or check out my own post on the subject of AMS advertising campaigns.
Since your book will be listed on all 10 Amazon book venues (U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, China, and India), tweet your book using that specific country’s address or a universal link. Use Google Translate if you need to and translate the tweet into a new language.
Tip #4: Advertise with Other Sites
Use these starter inexpensive sites to promote your book: BookDoggy, AwesomeGang, BookScream, Ebookaddict, BookLoversHeaven, and authorsXP.com.
There are literally hundreds of more sites like these. Check out my own Call to Arms for help with choosing the right one for you.
Last, have a look at the original post. As Jackie points out, the savvy indie will click on all of the links in her blog!
Update:
In July, 2018, Jackie updated the information here as follows:
“Amazon has removed the Giveaway Button on our ebooks. We can do a Giveaway on our print editions. You can look at all of your completed giveaways and total up the number of entrants for a base figure of followers. Upon a new release, Amazon does send out a notice to one’s followers–-not as timely as in the past.
Sharing this: When I released Count the Roses, Amazon sent out a timely notice as I did in my newsletter and I saw 1044 downloads which put the book #1 on Hot New Releases. It stayed there for about 5 days.
Many who enter Giveaways unsubscribe or often use skewed email addresses. Before I name a winner in a Rafflecopter/Giveaway I run the entrant list through Bulk Mail checker. It’s critical that we nurture our subscribers and followers via our newsletters.”
From the authors themselves.
Great suggestions, thanks.
Does anybody have any data to confirm that Amazon followers lead to sales? Or that giveaways lead to sales (even reviews)? It seems obvious, but in my experience when people sign up for a giveaway they generally unsubscribe (literally or mentally) once the giveaway ends.
Sadly enough, I can’t imagine how you might get hard data on that, as Amazon is notoriously secretive with such things 🙁
#EllaBoca: UPDATE: Here it is 2018 and Amazon has removed the Giveaway Button on our ebooks. We can do a Giveaway on our print editions. You can look at all of your completed giveaways and total up the number of entrants for a base figure of followers. Upon a new release Amazon does send out a notice to one’s followers–not as timely as in the past. Sharing this: When I released Count the Roses, Amazon sent out a timely notice as I did in my newsletter and I saw 1044 downloads which put the book #1 on Hot New Releases. It stayed there for about 5 days.
you are correct that many who enter Giveaways unsubscribe or often use skewed email addresses. Before I name a winner in a Rafflecopter/Giveaway I run the entrant list through Bulk Mail checker. It’s critical that we nurture our subscribers and followers via our newsletters. Good luck. Jackie
Thank you, Jackie. I’ll update the post in accordance to your comment.
Other than a tireless supporter of indies Jackie is an avid researcher as well. She won’t blog anything unless she’s done an exhaustive search first, trying out all promo sites and emailing them back and forth till she knows what kind of people expect the $$$ from authors behind each site. Authors would do well to sign up for her posts both at the blog on jackieweger.com and enovelauthors.com. Her tips are unmissable.
They sure are. She’s also the most no-nonsense person I know, so there’s that as well 😀
I’m with Mary… not going to invest just yet until I have a better back catalogue. But when I do I’ll be coming back to check out your posts on Amazon ads. ?
Deal 🙂
Thank you for sharing the information, Nicholas! I’ll be giving some of these suggestions a try.
I’m so glad to hear that 😀
Hi Nicholas,
Thank you for posting Jackie’s tips. My first book continues to sell well using the sponsored ads. Yet, my second one is not doing as great. I’m not sure why other than the genre has limited readers and it has too much competition. I need to increase my following on my website and get more people registered. I’m considering doing an Amazon Giveaway. But I’m not sure I can do this way. For a limited time, I want anyone going to my website and registering, to receive my new book (e-book only). Of those that register, I will give away two autographed paperback copies. Is this something that can be done with Amazon Giveaway. Do you have any caution or concern with doing this? Afterwards, I hope the giveaway will help with promoting more sales.
You have been a wealth of information and I value your opinion. Thank you for your continued support.
Many thanks for the kind words, Chuck. I don’t know of any way to send autographed copies through Amazon Giveaways (AG). You can, however, give away ebooks through an AG.
As to my concerns, I understand why you want to do this; you get the person’s email and can choose what to promote with them. However, people may be more likely to open an email from Amazon than you.
On the other hand, Amazon only sends your followers news of new publications and you have no control over the process.
It’s really up to you, as both have pros and cons. You could do both and get the best of both worlds, of course 🙂
Thank you for the advise. As far as the autographed copy of my book, the intent was I would send one from home. After I wrote you, I went into Amazon and read the instructions. It appears Amazon does not give you an option other than follow on Amazon or Twitter. I like the idea of doing a promotional from my site and put it out on my social media accouts. I might try both. Thanks. 🙂
Thanks for the update, Chuck. Do let me know how it works out for you. There’s always room for a guest post if you want to share your findings 🙂
Hi Nicholas,
Just an update, I did a promotional sale for $.99 and sold perhaps a dozen books. But they did not result in one single review. I’ve sent out twenty to thirty emails to renowned reviewers and reviewers listed in my genre for reviews. I got one reply. I sent her a copy of the book buty yet have seen the review. I sent request for book listing at several of the similar sites Jackie and others list and also asking for reviews. Got nothing.
The only thing that is helping my sales are the sponsored ads and they are not producing any reviews either. Sales are down from a month ago too.
I do sound like ‘Dorra Doom’. It is just frustrating to spend all the effort and getting negative results. Unless you have another suggestion, I think I will stick with my sponsored ads, go back to writing my next book and blogs. If my books sell – great – if not – oh well. Thanks for all your support and advice.
Many thanks for sharing your experience, Chuck! It’s a Marathon, as I always say, but if sponsored ads work for you, just keep doing that–especially since that frees up time for writing. We sometimes forget we’re supposed to be writers first, marketers second 🙂
Thanks for sharing this helpful post, Nicholas. 🙂 — Suzanne
I am not ready to go big time as I only have two books to offer, but I am reading what you and others have to say and trying to learn the ropes so to speak. Thank you for taking the time make such good posts.
Thank you so much, Mary 😀
Very good information! Thanks for reposting this. I have some new things to try.
Useful tips as always. Maybe one day…
Best wishes, Pete.
For sure, Pete 🙂
Thanks for sharing, Nicholas! 🙂
A pleasure! I’m glad you found it useful 🙂