I’ve been thinking a lot about marketing. Ever since The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning was number 65 (or maybe a little higher), I’ve realized something: I like the the feeling of a book selling well. I have some ideas that might improve the odds of that continuing. Also, the last few weeks have seen a lot of Real Life Family Events (RLFEs). How’d this week pan out? Let’s take a look at the key performance indicators first.
Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers
I consider any week over 10,000 words to be a success; so I’m really happy about 13,314 words!
I’m happy to say that last week was light on RLFEs. That was better for my family and better for my writing output! I think I’m also seeing the benefits of taking a few extra days to hammer out some plot details for Dreams of Deucalion Book 2: Flanking Maneuver. Things are clicking together well, and the characters seem to feel confident in their roles.
What I mean is that if I’m not really sure where I’m going with the plot, my characters will often act unsure or tentative. I can clean it up during subsequent drafts once I figure it out, but I find that if I have the structure clearly in mind, then the characters move forward without that tentative sensation.
I want to write stories whose plots hold together. I want the details to matter. That extra effort up front makes Dreams of Deucalion Book 2: Flanking Maneuver feel tighter. I think that translates to more crisp pacing. At least, that’s how it feels to me as the writer. I hope the readers like it!
Marketing with Two Series Available
The read-through from The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning to The Sword of Sirius Book 2: Collapse Zone and The Sword of Sirius Book 3: Firebreak convinced me to release my next trilogy all at once, too. But I noticed something else. Some readers read all three books, then went on to buy Evolution’s Hand Book 1: Executive Action and even Evolution’s Hand Book 2: Dying Breath.
The Facebook group “20 Books to 50K” talks about this. The whole idea of that group is that the more books you have, the more money you’ll make. But it’s more than that. Those books work together to sell each other. I’d read about that happening, but this was my first experience. And I liked it.
Now I’m thinking about a marketing strategy. The big promo sites I used generally make you wait ninety days before marketing the same book. The biggest difference between me marketing Evolution’s Hand and The Sword of Sirius is that I know more about Facebook ads now. I’m no expert. I still have a lot to learn. But my latest Facebook ads have performed a lot better than my previous ads. They’re moving books. It helps that The Sword of Sirius fits easily into its genre.
So I’m going to continuously run Facebook ads for The Sword of Sirius. I want to come up with a better way to articulate what Evolution’s Hand is about. Then, I’ll pick one major promo site a month and set up a rotation between Evolution’s Hand one month and The Sword of Sirius the next. My goal will be to understand marketing dynamics when I have two series available.
Three months before I publish Dreams of Deucalion, I’ll hold the promos, and then stack them like I did for The Sword of Sirius. And then I’ll get to learn how three series play in the marketing sandbox!
In the meantime, I’ll try to figure out how to make Amazon ads profitable. The more I learn, the more I understand how genre selection drives the bid price. The more popular genres have a higher bid price — but also the higher profit potential. Trying to figure out how to run profitable ads is the challenge here. So far, the challenge is winning.
Progress against Last Week’s Goals
Here’s how I did against last week’s goals:
- Finish Trent Raven’s Pinch 1 Part II: Done!
- Finish Jadwiga Janczak’s Pinch 1: Done!
- Finish Atticus Porter’s Midpoint: Done! It turned out to be two chapters.
- Finish the helper plot’s chapter I’ve called “Reckoning”: Done! This turned out better than I expected.
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2024 Week 44
Here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
- Write Jadwiga Janczak’s Midpoint (it’ll likely expand to two chapters)
- Write Trent Raven’s Midpoint
- Write Atticus Porter’s Pinch 2 (it’ll likely expand to two chapters)
- Setup November’s Facebook ads and promotions
What Do You Think?
Do you consider keyword bids at all when you select your next book’s genre? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!