Before I get into that, though, let me reiterate what I’ve said and done before. I have a presence on every social media platform I could think of. I am constantly trying to think of new and potentially eye-catching ways of saying the same thing: my books exist; you should check them out.
Here are some links to examples:
This Thing of Darkness - YouTube
Here Is Immortal Treachery - YouTube
Santa 1 - YouTube
Immortal Treachery (@tarmunvykers) | Instagram
Immortal Treachery (@tarmunvykers) | Instagram
Immortal Treachery (@tarmunvykers) | Instagram
I probably dedicate at least half a day – Saturdays, usually – to marketing, but I check in EVERY day. You’re wondering what my sales are. Over the last ten years, I’d say I’ve sold or given away between three and four thousand books. Minus the giveaways, that’s less than one a day. Sometimes, MUCH less than one a day. My friend Charles Phipps – C.T. Phipps to his readers – says it’s more about the size of your catalogue than the success of any individual book. So, I’ve got some writing to do.
With all that out of the way, let me talk about the various book promotion services I’ve tried, because you’ll see all sorts of ridiculous offers and claims. There are websites that promote books, and I’ve tried so many, I can’t even remember them all. Word is that Bookbub has the most productive promotions, but they are very, very hard to get. Everything else is a bit of an also-ran. You’ll get virtually no sales from some promotions.
Once you come to the swarm’s attention, though, you’ll start getting emails and social media posts from a myriad of outfits (I don’t know what else to call them). Some are virtual book tours, like Silver Dagger Book Tours, which allowed me to pay what I felt was fair after the fact. That’s become my new standard with those who come a-courtin’. But let me explain how I got there.
Recently, I received a promotion proposal from BookTalk_HQ that was so outlandish that I immediately knew it was a scam. 3,800 sales in three weeks? Several hundred reviews, a few of which would be in major newspapers and magazines? I called B.S. on these folks immediately, but they kept insisting they were absolutely legit. They named a few “best-selling authors” who used their services. Oddly, I was unable to contact those authors…
Yes, I knew it was a scam, I tell you. And yet, I was impossibly curious as to how it all worked.
I talked their fee down from $500 up front to $375 before and $125 after (which will now never be paid). In three and a half months, they haven’t gotten me a single review or even a sale – as far as I can tell. And now, they don’t even answer my messages. As I worked my way up to Defcon Three, however, they kept telling me to be patient, that it’s all “organic marketing,” which turns out to mean “word-of -mouth.” Seriously. They convinced me to pay them nearly $400 for a word-of-mouth campaign that is dwarfed by my own social media effort. And the results speak for themselves.
Weirdly, though, at the same time I was wrangling with these folks, another group called Bookworm Writers’ Center pitched me a similar deal, using the exact same language in our discussions. Booktalk asked me before I even agreed if we were “good to go.” Bookworm did the same thing. It was as if their end of the dialogue was, I dunno, written by the SAME PERSON.
So, I said, “Okay, here’s my counter proposal: you sell my books, get me those reviews, and I’ll pay you the $500 (yep, identical initial amount) as soon as you get results. Afterall, we authors don’t get paid until we sell books…”
I never heard from them again.
In a book promotions group on Facebook, everyone was complaining about the sudden stampede of Nigerian marketing experts who want to offer their services. I have seen the same in my social media DMs. Even if I accept their claims of expertise, I still can’t see how they’re a good match to promote what I write. So, I’m steering clear.
What works, then? Networking, making friends, finding mentors and endless tenacity. My books have been book-of-the-day, book-of-the-week, and book-of-the-month, but never book-of-the-year. I’ve done podcasts, won contests and poured every penny I’ve ever made (and then some) in sales back into marketing. I got a screenplay rights inquiry from a talent agency in Beverly Hills about seven years ago, I replied (to their answering service) and never heard back.
And yet my stuff remains largely unknown.
Yeah, I’m frustrated as hell. But I’ve also got a gajillion more stories to tell.