Six months of marketing The Soul’s Awakening, and I’m still trying to generate sales and reviews. Talking to my case manager recently — and seeing so many explanatory posts on Bluesky — made me realize there’s a wide gap between readers’ understanding of selling books and reality. I bet you think novels like mine sell like those of the big names. We publish. The books sell. We rake in the royalties. Ha! One café latté per month if I’m lucky!!
Marketing Is Expensive!
Back in the 1990s, I read an article about a debut Canadian author, the newest CanLit darling. Her publisher sunk half a million into marketing her book to make it fly off the shelves, get reviews in the papers, have her go on book tours, set up interviews, get the coveted high-profile face front placement in bookstores, etc. etc. Their PR staff have connections to all the newspaper and magazine reviewers; those connections are how they get their authors’ books reviewed.
Before a book ever hits the shelves, the marketing team works on the novel’s title, the cover, the back cover copy, and submitting ARCs (advance review copies) to the big editorial reviewers like Kirkus Reviews, Midwest, Publisher’s Weekly, etc. The title or cover first grabs a reader’s eye, the back cover copy is the second reader grab to get them to buy, and the last is the front matter like “praise” and editorial reviews, as well as the interior text design.
The publisher has to pay for all that. Indie Authors, too.
Except Indie Authors generally don’t have several hundred thousand dollars to spend on marketing.
We have to find readers in other, way way way less expensive ways.
BTW, so do midlist authors. Basically any traditional author who’s not a big name.
I was recently told by a marketing consultant I contracted through Reedsy — a site that serves Indie Authors’ needs from editing to marketing to business — that to grab readers, a book must have at least 20 reviews on Amazon. Yikes!
Some writers are lucky enough to have a network — and a network willing to buy their books on Amazon and then to review it, in sufficient numbers to reach that 20. But some, like me, don’t.
Not even one review, these days.
Review Services
Enter services that connect Indie Authors with readers who will review their books. We don’t pay for the reviews or for people to read our books. Instead we pay these services to include our books in their email lists or newsletters that they send to readers who’ve signed up to receive those emails or newsletters. Readers choose which book they want to buy — the services require authors to list their ebooks for $2.99USD or less — and purchase it on their own then submit a review. Other services send free ebook copies to those who select them. The readers then review it on the site(s) that the author has asked them to post their reviews on, such as Amazon, Goodreads, kobo, BookBub, Barnes & Noble.
Statistically not everyone who reads their selected books review them. Some services will guarantee a set number of reviews (though I have no idea what percentage of their readers will review) and/or will let the author authorize public release of the review. While others don’t guarantee anything but state what percentage of readers review and let the authors choose the maximum number of readers (the more readers, the higher the price).
Some will also set up and publish on their site a Q&A and provide press releases.
Authors Pay for the Service NOT the Reviews
But we authors don’t pay the readers. To do so would contravene Amazon’s rules. As a new Indie Author, you do have to check up to ensure these services comply with the rules, otherwise you’re streaming money into a giant vortexing void.
We authors don’t even know who the readers are until they review it. Even then, often a reader may review under their first name or a pseudonym. And, of course, the rule of Amazon reviews is you don’t comment on them! Like ever!! No matter how nasty and unfair their comments are!!!
Nasty comments, though, come from random readers.
The ones through review services are nice and usually make my day with their insights and comments.
Other Marketing Costs
Of course, trying to attract reviews is not the first step. The first is the cover. I’ve started paying for cover illustrations, while I do the text design. I’m paying because (a) there’s an art to cover illustration just like there’s an art to ad imagery. And (b) I’m tired. I pour all my energy into writing, and I have nothing left to work on the cover as much as I enjoy image work. I would love to spend more time on my photography, but my neuro-fatigue is still too much. And living alone for 24 years with a catastrophic brain injury while continuing to treat it has worn me down. I have to fight “why bother” every day. It’s almost like inertia keeps me going.
I decided to hire a marketing consultant to work on keywords, categories, the back cover copy (blurb), cover feedback, Amazon A+ graphics (those big, attractive, colourful graphics some products have on their pages), and setting up an ad campaign. I have to say choosing keywords and categories is a total headache. Every time I put a book out, I agonize over them. There’s so much that goes into choosing the right ones, and I just don’t have the skill set for that. It doesn’t help that I’m not a one-genre writer.
Working with Rodney Hatfield made me feel far less alone and confident that my book was set up for maxium salability. It’s too bad the Amazon Ad campaign fell flat for reasons that Rodney was unable to pinpoint, other than not having 20 reviews. (It couldn’t possibly be racism, and Canadian anathema to my books, eh? My readers are, like, almost all international.)
So here I am trying to get another 15 reviews for The Soul’s Awakening. What an impossible task! Rave editorial and reader reviews are just not enough to sell it when quantity ain’t there! I have until August 1st when people start to think about buying books again and I’m to restart the Amazon Ad campaign. (Apparently, Mother’s Day to August 1st is fallow time.)
Wouldn’t you like to help an Indie Author out and read a highly rated novel? Just click the button. Go read. Leave a review!
Time and Space Relaunch
And while you’re at it, don’t forget to pre-order Time and Space! Scroll down for the button.
I’m relaunching it with a brand-new professionally illustrated cover and have included excerpts from three of my other novels.
Thank you for reading! Please forgive any typos. I’ve run out of energy to proofread. 😳
