I learned a couple of things this week. More precisely, the world reminded me of a couple of things I really ought not to have forgotten. Guess I should be grateful that the world has a way or jogging my memory! Also, in the tug of war between me and marketing, who’s winning this week? Let’s look at those questions after we look at the key performance indicators.
Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers
I had a couple of days of reduced output, plus one day when I could not write at all. I guess under those circumstances, 8,477 isn’t bad!
One of the things the world reminded me this week is that health isn’t a given. That’s sounds ominous, but really, I just found myself added to the roster of Those With Persistent Cough this week. Probably just a cold, which I didn’t help by switching allergy medications mid-week. The short version is that I lost Thursday night entirely. No output.
I also began to develop severe doubts about Trent Raven’s and Atticus Porter’s arcs. That told me my subconscious figured out I missed something. Fortunately, I only needed two days to add the necessary foreshadowing and early details, and now I think both arcs are back on track. For the most part, anyway.
One odd thing happened: Jennifer Harris and Raven came up with a scene that I honestly had no idea about before the words came out. That’s probably just the way a human subconscious mind works. Nothing magic; no “muse” or anything like that. But experiencing that a few times in Dreams of Deucalion Book 2: Flanking Maneuver helps me understand how some people wax poetic about their muse. It almost feels like a supernatural process. I hope it’s a good sign!
Another Round of Marketing
I re-evaluated my marketing plan last week. I’d been using Amazon ads for Evolution’s Hand Book 1: Executive Action. I even made a few sales, including one kind soul who bought all six volumes! But two things inclined me against continuing that ad.
First, I was seeing some read-through (I think!) from The Sword of Sirius to Evolution’s Hand. Not quite to the same level as the Amazon ad, but traffic from one series to the other is pure profit. Folks who had purchased The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning went on to read Collapse Zone and Firebreak, which was exactly why I published all three books of that trilogy at the same time. Most of that traffic came from the Facebook ad. Then, some went on to purchase Evolution’s Hand. For the cost of an ad for Red Flag Warning, I got nine sales. That’s like my dream scenario!
Second, funding an Amazon ad for Evolution’s Hand diverted money from marketing The Sword of Sirius. The latter is more easily marketed. It fits more snugly in a niche. I think for the rest of the year, at least, I need to focus on building readership for The Sword of Sirius because it’s more profitable. And if I’m honest? It’s more tightly written, too. I think I wanted to give readers too much value in Evolution’s Hand, and I may have overdone it.
Tracking page reads is new for me since The Sword of Sirius is the first series I’ve had in KU. I can’t complain about the rate, given that early October saw the massive promotion site ads, and everything after that was the result of Facebook ads.
The world reminded me of something during this process: patience is hard. Knowing when to cut back on one ad and throttle up on another is tough by itself. But trends aren’t immediately visible, and the length of time needed to see that trend varies by ad type (Amazon vs Facebook) and even by genre. People in 20BooksTo50K report some genres need weeks before you can really tell; others need a few days. Factor in the uncertainty after the election and the impact that’s had on sales, and, well, it’s a real mess. But patience helps me take the time to gather enough data to analyze, then make a decision I can learn from.
Progress against Last Week’s Goals
Here’s my performance compared against last week’s goals:
- Finish Trent Raven’s Pinch II Part II: Done! I also finished his Plot Turn 2, since I had to shuffle some chapters around to have produce a bigger impact.
- Finish Atticus Porter’s Pinch 2 Part III: Not Done! Some of the chapter shuffling meant I pushed this later in the timeline.
- Finish Jadwiga Janczak’s Plot Turn 2 (will likely be multiple chapters): Partly Done! I finished Part I.
- Continue to investigate how to measure advertising metrics: Continuing!
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2024 Week 47
Here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
- Finish Atticus Porter’s Pinch 2 Part III
- Finish Jadwiga Janczak’s Plot Turn 2 Part II
- Finish Atticus Porter’s Plot Turn 2
- Finish Trend Raven’s Resolution
- Continue monitoring/refining ad performance
What Do You Think?
How do you decide if an ad is performing well enough to keep it going? How do you decide if it could perform better and make a change? I’d love to hear about your thought processes in the comments!
