Monday, August 13, 2012

Release Round-up

Thank you so much to everyone who helped make my release week a success. You guys are awesome!

Here's some things I learned while promoting FEARLESS.

1) Blogs are the most powerful tools for promoting. Arrange a blog tour. Even just a shout-out from a blogger friend makes a big difference. I got a lot of positive comments from my interviews and guest posts. Also, the blogfest was a huge success. I never imagined the response I received. It was simple and fun. Something everyone could participate in. It linked to a theme in my book: monsters! That's attention grabbing in itself.

Speaking of the power of blogs, I have 360 followers. Welcome to all my new friends! I follow back if you provide a link.

2) Twitter was my second most powerful social media tool. I tweeted about my book and the blogfest a lot, but not so much it became spam. Friends retweeted my tweets. Thousands of people might have seen my blurbs for FEARLESS. I have over 600 followers on Twitter now. I'll still continue to promote my book on there at least once a day.

3) People like free things. If your book isn't free, have a couple of giveaways. FEARLESS is free on Smashwords. Here's how many copies I've sold on each site:
Kobo - 0
B&N - 0
CreateSpace (print) -  4

The figures very clearly speak for themselves. I'd love to see it price-matched on Amazon and see what it does to sales on there. Please, if you've a minute, copy the Smashwords link and paste it into the price-matching tool on the FEARLESS Amazon page where you see the link under Product Details. I'd greatly appreciate it.

4) FEARLESS on Smashwords is doing wonderfully. I found the site easy to use, and if you don't want to load your book up to any of the other sites, Smashwords eventually does it for you unless you opt out. I don't know if I would have seen that number if I charged for the book, but it's a fantastic way of getting myself out there and hooking readers in.

What I've heard is that sales should rise if you continue to promote and get more reviews. Also, sales will rise if you have more books out there for people to buy. Right now, series are very popular. They do help sell your books.

5) I sent FEARLESS to a bunch of review sites. I haven't gotten a review yet. I know they're very busy, and so if they do happen to do a review, it might take a while. If you are brave enough to get your book reviewed, send a copy to sites like Bitten By Books or Smexy Books a good couple of months before your release. Some of them do not take self-published books. Make sure to read their submission requirements before you send anything.

I hope what I've learned can help you too. If you have any tips, please comment and share them with us.

25 comments:

  1. Congrats on all of your success! Blog tours are really a lot of fun! :D

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  2. YAY, Christine!! I read Fearless on the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it!!

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  3. Wow, congrats on doing so well, I haven't been able to read it yet but it is on my kindle just waiting for me to get to it and I can't wait.

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  4. Congratulations on your success. Loving FEARLESS so far, and really enjoyed the blogfest.

    Thanks for the links for the review sites, I'll have to check them ouy. :D

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  5. I thought your release and tour was a big success! I believe in the power of blogging. And yes, if you keep yourself out there, sales will continue. Glad Fearless is in the iBookstore - appreciate that!

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  6. I could tell how hard you worked on your tour. The monster fest was really fun. I read so many great stories.

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  7. I'm glad your release and tour were so successful. Congratulations, Christine!

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  8. Congratulations Christine. I hope sales soar!

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  9. Way to go! Looks like your release week was a great success. Let's keep it rolling.

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  10. Usually, a self published author who has a couple of books out and lots of fans may be indulged...even book bloggers (the popular ones) clearly prefer printed editions and sometimes don't even accept the small press ones.
    We have to make do with what can we can find. I had a list of Top Indie book reviewers bookmarked, here it is
    http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers/

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    1. Thanks so much for that review list! :) It's awesome!

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  11. Glad your book has done so well on Smashwords :-)
    Speaking from experience, it definitely helps to have multiple titles. Free promotions are also great!

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  12. Hi, Christine,
    I wasn't sure I wanted to do a blog tour for my latest release, but another writer convinced me to have one. I do agree that it's one of the easiest ways to get our books noticed. Thanks for the tips.

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  13. Again, thanks for sharing all of your self-pubbing/promoting experiences with us. I'm bookmarking this post for future reference.

    How long do you plan on keeping Fearless free on Smashworks? What led you to that decision?
    Some Dark Romantic

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  14. I'm so glad your release is going smoothly. You're a networking powerhouse!

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  15. Congratulations! That is so awesome! I heard that libraries are now taking top Smashword ebooks and buying them for their collections, so maybe libraries will pick up Fearless, too!

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  16. Yay! I have other resources to get a free book out ... Feedbooks.com ... and then list at getfreebooks.com.

    The power of the blogs announcing our books is awesome. It does a lot. Your blogfest inspired mine. :D Thanks for that.

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  17. Congrats on the success.. and you're right, this is just the beginning... it will only rise from here. Great idea about getting it out there to review sites.

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  18. The free copies will eventually pay off in word-of-mouth sales. :)

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  19. Congrats on the numbers. It looks like Fearless is receiving good buzz.

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  20. Great promotional tips and congrats on the success of your blog tour! :)

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  21. Glad it was a success Christine :)

    ......dhole

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  22. Thank you all! I'm really interested in following the sales trends. I've seen people do it on their blogs, and it's amazing how the little things do help. :)

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  23. Yay! And there is definitely power with blogs.

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