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I know I have so many other writers who follow me on Facebook and what I'd like to say is never be afraid to try something new. I was totally going to give up on writing paranormal romance. I just thought I'm no good at this and it will never take off for me, but what I learned was you just never know what will sell and what won't. Seriously I didn't even promote it more than a $5 a day Facebook ad. It got picked up by a ton of sites right now. (Believe me this is great and I probably will never know where exactly). Did I mention how hard it is to find sites that will put a book with any erotic content on their website? SO basically forget about ENT (Enews Reader Today) Kindle Books & Tips, and probably just about every other site that I regularly have advertised on. Except for BookBub, and this book won't make the word count and is too new. (News flash: if your book is performing well you don't need a BookBub ad anyway). What I did decide was that at 129 pages I'd leave it at $0.99 instead of raising the price even though it's worth the $2.99. My thought pattern went like this, maybe sales will build over time and they did. I swore I'd never go back into Select, but I did it anyway for an experiment if not for any other reason, making my book available in KU. The thing is you need to do the math when it comes to places other than just Amazon, and for my paranormal books they just weren't really selling enough to justify not trying it out. My firm belief that it's genre related. I have a cozy mystery in KU and don't really have enough borrows to justify it so will be taking it back out later this month. I'll let you know how it works out in a later post.
Right now I'm trying out pre-orders to see if it's something that will work for me or not. It's only been a few days and Ghostly Hijinks (My Agnes Barton Paranormal Mystery), is not burning up the charts, but I did wind up on #1 for ghosts and haunted houses, landing on the hot new release list for that category. At this point I just don't feel like I'll be able to hold that spot since sales go up and down.
Hmm, what else am I doing marketing wise? Writing and publishing more, but I'm sure that's something most of you know already. It's not easy for me and while you might think I'm inspiring, believe me I'm just like you. I struggle to write sometimes, but I have the drive and ambition to know that to maintain, I need to continue to publish good books that people love. Does everyone like my books anymore than anyone else's? Not a chance. Sometime you get lucky. My books don't get awards nor are they ever nominated for them, but I do have some great readers and have found some wonderful Facebook groups to interact on.
I have all these readers who love my Agnes Barton cozy mystery series and even when I published a new series, Target of Death, early this year, I swear I could hear crickets on Amazon. I've been told I need more books in the series, but how do you continue to write a series that bombed that bad. It's a great book, too, but my Agnes lovers just didn't latch on to it. That's totally up to you as the writer, to make the decision that suits you best.
If you decide to genre hop, this is what you're in for. You have to basically start all over again. Last year I published a sweet romance, Pretty and Pregnant and it bombed. Then came Redneck Romance and again, it just didn't sell, which I think has to do with the title, but it's a great story that was published by Tirgearr Publishing. I tried out paranormal romance and writing a serial and while it tanked, I was forced to continue to finish all three books in the series. The thing about serials is that no matter how it does, you're committed to finish it. Talk about some serious writers block. I found out for me, I just hate the serial format. I'm a novel girl so my next book was longer and a standalone. Somewhere along the lines I think I did something right and it's performed well and I'm writing another standalone sequel.
My advice to writers is this: write good books and the readers will come. It might not happen in the time frame you hope, but above all be you, be unique, and come up with your own plots that don't mirror someone else's.
Smiles :)
Madison Johns
Some people call me inspiring and it's not something I set out to do. I thought it might be interesting to spell out what I published and when. If you'll notice after I published Armed and Outrageous it took me nearly a year to publish my second book. What a waste of a year. I wrote my second Agnes book in August of 2012, but it took me a long time to get it to market. Somewhere in 2013 there was this writer who was constantly publishing books and I was in awe of her. It was then that I decided to up my game and start writing more books more often.
If you'll also notice I went from June all the way until November before I published another book. I didn't write for the entire summer much, and Redneck Romance was already in the mix. Amazon has different dates, but I have updated files so the dates I'm giving you is more accurate. I'll admit I had a rough personal life last summer and a day job. The day I put my first box set together was the same day my boyfriend died. I didn't give up, I then became a single mother and it drove me even harder. I quit my job in September, but my sales were starting to take off because last summer I did pay for promos. My first three Agnes books soared into the Amazon bestsellers list and stayed there. All of this was before BookBub. I'd be willing to say that Grannies, Guns & Ghosts paved my way. I didn't follow anyone's advice. I came up with my own strategy and used it. Overall I'd say that I've been extremely lucky. Things now aren't like they were, but they're better than where I was at the beginning of last summer. I struggle to write, I struggle to continue to publish books. None of this is easy for anyone. You have to love to write above all and write what inspires you the most. If it's not fun, it shows and probably won't sell.
There are two types of people, ones who talk about doing things and those that do them. If you want to become a writer know firsthand that it will suck up all of your free time in the beginning. You'll find yourself having to schedule you family time. You might find it hard to stay in a relationship. You might find it hard to sleep when your mind only wants to think about writing. It's a great sacrifice, but the greatest thing in the world is hearing from readers about how much they love your books, or it makes them forget about their troubles, or medical conditions.
How do I start you ask: Stop making excuses. Take out your computer or laptop and start typing. Work on the story that has the greatest potential, and above all ... finish them. What comes next is up to you, but believe me with that finished first draft the work has only begun.
Publishing history:
Coffin Tales Season of Death (November 30, 2011)
Armed and Outrageous (April 28, 2012)
Pretty & Pregnant (March 8, 2013)
Grannies, Guns and Ghosts (April 2013)
Senior Snoops (June 2013)
Agnes Barton Senior Sleuths box set, books 1-3 (September 2013)
Redneck Romance (Published by Tirgearr Publishing October 16, 2013)
Trouble in Tawas (November 5, 2013)
Treasure in Tawas (January 24, 2014)
Target of Death (February 28, 2014)
Pretty, Hip & Dead (April 4, 2014)
Bigfoot in Tawas (April 27, 2014)
Agnes Barton in Tawas box set (April 27, 2014)
Hidden, Clan of the Werebear serial book one, (May 13, 2014)
Discovered, Clan of the Werebear serial book two, (June 5, 2014)
I'm so bad keeping up with writing tips and advice, but life has given me a serious kick in the teeth September 7, 2013. In the mean time I have done the one thing I've been hoping for, getting onto Book Bub.
I must first start out by telling you that Book Bub is expensive, but going ahead with my 2013 goals to invest in my books—it was not without some trepidation. I was ready to put my money where my mouth was, but even I had to scrimp and save. With limited funds available how was I able to do it you ask? For one I had a wonderful boyfriend with whom I lived so not all of my resources were needed to keep a roof over my head. I had consistently made almost enough for my car note every month and I had a low paying job. Yes, I totally went without. Unfortunately my boyfriend passed away September 7th, but by then I was doing well sales wise. September went on to be my best sales month—ever—or so to date. If only Chuck was around to see it. But all of that was before Book Bub.
When it comes to Book Bub they have a massive email list and gear toward bargain books. Their ad price depends on how much you lower the price to. For instance free is cheaper than $.99, but each price higher also costs more. At this point I had three books in my Agnes Barton series and I could afford to take the risk, or so I thought. I researched highly about how other authors did with their Book Bub ads, but I really didn't find out any useful information to determine how my books would fare. I also submitted to them four times before Armed and Outrageous was accepted. They have their editing team look over your book before they accept of reject your book. I was quite bummed in the beginning, but when I was finally accepted I felt like I had just won the lottery. They don't say you need a certain amount of reviews, but it's my personal feeling that it must be a lot. Armed and Outrageous had over 100 reviews at the time.
What did it cost me? Well, an ad price for the mystery category is $500 for an $.99 bargain book, which isn't cheap. I was really biting my nails over this one. I mean what if I couldn't make back my money? October 7th was my Book Bub ad and their email blast didn't go out until after 1 p.m. So from the get go I didn't expect many Amazon sales, and in fact, they came in at a much slower rate, but Barnes and Noble was right out the gate. Now remember, Barnes and noble is a hard place to accumulate sales on. Prior to this I hadn't sold more than 25 books a month. My ranking rose to the top at Barnes and Noble and made it to number 6 overall. Not bad for a self published author. Amazon ranks took awhile to start changing, but Armed and Outrageous made it to number 21 overall with a number one rank in the cozy mystery category. I forget if it made it to number one in humor. In the end I not only made my money back, but sold thousands and thousands of book, two thousand on Barnes and Noble alone. Not only that, but all of the books in my series also sold well. Remember now these are the books listed full price.
In November I once again had a book listed on Book Bub with similar results only that Senior Snoops made it to number 15 overall on Amazon and number three overall on Barnes and Noble. I submitted this time around thinking it wouldn't be accepted and I scrambled to come up with the money to pay for the ad.
Overall having an ad featured on Book Bub has changed my life and taken me further than I have ever dreamed possible. I must add that mystery is a one of the hugest categories on Book Bub, meaning they have more subscribers interested in mystery and thriller books. I do think my results are very genre specific and ads with another genre might not fare as well. I just want to put that out there. It's also the reason I think I have done well on Kindle Nation Daily, when many other haven't. Cozy mystery is a huge genre right now and I'm so happy I chose to write in that genre. This wasn't as planned out as many might think. I just entered the publishing arena at the right time in the genre, not that others can't get there. We all have to write what inspires us and in the genre that excites us. If not a book will never be finished. I know because I have so been there, but right now is the time to inspire you to think wisely about marketing. To date my sales on Barnes and Noble haven't been better.
I'm not a marketing genius by any means I just hope that by sharing my experience it may be helpful to you. Writing a series is a great thing to do and there is a point where you don't have to work as hard to get your books out there. I no longer post on groups on Facebook like I used to. But there are many more things I'm not doing that I should be, like blog tours. I just don't have the time and energy. I think they are a great marketing tool. I've tried a few Facebook book launch parties, but I just haven't made any real sales from it so I have abandoned doing them. There are so many other ways to give back to your readers.
My primary focus these days is on writing and publishing more books. After all, this is what my fans and readers want. Thanks to all of my readers—without you I'd be lost.
Have a great holiday season and I wish you much success in the coming year.
