December 1, 2023, the launch date for Evolution’s Hand Dying Breath, is rapidly approaching. How’s my marketing campaign going? Did I make any progress on Evolution’s Hand Book 4: Blind Exodus? Let’s take a look at the week’s numbers before we answer those questions.
Progress Report 2022 Week 45 By the Numbers
According to my rules, any week over 10,000 words is a success!
I had to take a step back plot-wise this week. I thought I’d finished Conrad’s pinch 1, but when it came time for me to write his midpoint chapter(s), I realized I wasn’t ready. In Executive Action and Dying Breath, there were times Conrad’s chapters presented a huge challenge — more than the other characters, which I felt was odd, given he’s the main character! But in Blind Exodus, at least so far, Conrad feels like he’s hit stride. I take it as a good sign that the character let me know I’d missed something.
I hope readers see how much he’s grown since Executive Action. He’s much more comfortable in his role as CEO. At the same time, he’s much more cognizant of his decisions’ consequences. I like the shift in focus for his character.
Dying Breath’s Marketing Campaign
I’ve uploaded Dying Breath to Amazon, and the ebook is accepting pre-orders. I’ll upload the ebook to Draft2Digital on November 28, 2022. The paperback manuscript is ready to go. That just leaves the marketing.
I fine-tuned the blurb for Executive Action on Amazon, and I patterned Dying Breath’s blurb after it. I also lowered the price to $4.99 for the first book and will launch the second at $4.99. I wanted to test if those two things together would help sales. I ran a single BookBub Partners ad for one day. I’ve run the same ad before, and the only difference is the blurb and the price.
How’d the ad do? It gave me a 15% conversion rate on clicks. That’s a lot better than I got before! Of course, that single test isn’t conclusive. But it gives me hope I’m on the right track.
Tomorrow, I’ll invite my mailing list to post a review of Executive Action to build social proof. Then, in two weeks, I’ll invite my mailing list to pre-order Dying Breath.
It’s almost like I have a plan or something! In all seriousness, I know I skipped a lot of steps for the first book. I’m also skipping steps for this one. But I find that if I try to do everything, I freeze up and get nothing done. My goal is to improve a little each time. Maybe by the tenth book I’ll have a good process in place!
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2022 Week 45
In the “By the Numbers” section above, I mentioned that I had taken a step back to add an additional chapter to Conrad’s pinch 1 plot point. Between that and the marketing campaign update, I think you see I hit my goals for last week!
This week, my goals are:
- Continue the marketing effort with an emphasis on building social proof for Executive Action
- Continue writing Blind Exodus: Try to finish Conrad’s and Butler’s midpoints and as a stretch goal, try to finish Duncan’s midpoint
What Do You Think?
How many books did it take for you to get a handle on your marketing plan? Do you struggle with it as much as I do? I’d love to hear about your experience! Feel free to share in the comments!
I think it’s quite easy to get caught up in the idea that you need to do everything, especially at the beginning. I still think the best advice I’ve heard is to write another book.
Once you have more books, it’s easier to market them. You can afford to sell the first really cheaply or even give it away for free. You can run higher-priced ads knowing that there will be some readthrough.
Obviously, there’s no definitive answer as we’d all be doing it.
I think that’s good advice, too — writing more books, I mean! If my writing connects with my readers, I can always refine my marketing.
Good point about pricing for the first book as I publish more books. I’m not sure I’ll ever give it away, but I’m not ignoring the possibility!
It would be nice if there was a single way to do this. What I’m finding out is that there are not only differences between genres, but within sub-genres. I was aware of different expectations about book length within some of the sub-genres, but trying to figure out the marketing bits is challenging.
A book is always new to a person when they discover it. And realistically, book one will be the focus of your marketing so there’s no need to hurry things.
It’s amazing how many variations to expectations there are based on the tiniest detail of your story. It’s almost like the book industry is actually a load of different industries mashed together.