Tryring to get water from a rock

It's been a couple of weeks since I tried a new approach to marketing my novel, Dylan's Prize.  And so far, as with everything else I've done, the results have been mixed. Recently, in addition to using social media, sites like GoodReads, and plain old word-of-mouth, I've actually started to spend what little I could and buy some advertising.  I started off with just a few places and hopefully will add more as I can.  But while it certainly has increased exposure of my book (if the stats I get are to be believed), it still hasn't translated into any increase in sales.  I'm starting to think that there's a little man in a hidden room somewhere whose sole job is to stop my book from garnering any success.  At this point, I really don't know what's left for me to do.  Dylan's Prize is a really great book that I'm very proud of, yet trying to get the world to see what a gem it is is turning out to be an almost impossible task.  I guess my only recourse is to keep plodding along and hope that something starts to click eventually.

I just listed Dylan's Prize as a giveaway over at GoodReads, a great site for readers and authors.  Winners will receive an autographed copy of the book sent right to their very door!
Good luck to everyone!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Dylan's Prize

by J.A. Brimingham

Giveaway ends March 08, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Looking for light at the end of the tunnel

Another week or so has gone by in my never-ending quest to promote my latest work, Dylan's Prize, and as usual, I'm finding that I still have much to learn.  Last week, in response to stagnant sales amid my furious attempts at promotion, I decided to take a different path and try a service called CreateSpace.  So far the results have been mixed.  It's nice to finally have my book in an actual paperback form, but at the same time, I'm still looking for more exposure.  Granted, it's only been a week and my book is showing up in more stores as every day passes, but at this point, I'm not holding out hope for an avalanche of sales just yet.

This week, I've discovered some of the useful tools at GoodReads, which is a social networking site for authors and readers.  There are millions of people who frequent the site and it seems like an excellent way to reach out to some of my prospective audience.  I can add videos, a link to this blog, start a Q&A session for my readers, plan marketing plans that are both self-run and paid services, and more.  Most of these things are free of charge. 

My hope is that all of the things I'm trying will come together at some point are start paying dividends.  Truth be told, I haven't spent a single dime on advertising or marketing at all so far.  But if what I'm doing on my own fails to yield any results, I'll be forced to take things to the next level, which for me is paying someone.

A change of direction

The quest to market my latest novel, "Dylan's Prize" continues.  But so far I've been met with limited success.  So, a couple of days ago I decided that maybe it was time to change gears and try something a little different.  It was time to consult one of the most extensive lists of helpful tools for the aspiring writer that I know of. 

Popular fantasy author, Piers Anthony, is emphatic in his support for new writers, and as such has devoted a large segment of his personal website to that end.  He has personally gone through the trouble of posting a vast array of resources and makes sure the lists stay updated and current (last update was Jan. 14th of this year).  It's a site that I go to and scan for anything I can find that might be useful to me.  And believe me, there's plenty there.  It was while sifting through the massive list of publishers available, that I decided that it might be time to try a new approach to my marketing. 

I've signed up for a CreateSpace account, which is a POD service.  They are an Amazon company (big surprise there) who specializes in putting print versions of books onto store shelves as well as offering those same books on various websites.  The basic service is free of charge, although they do have "professional" services that can cost several hundred dollars or more.  Based on what I've read about CreateSpace, it seems like a good way to go.  My book will be exposed to a broader audience and there will also be physical copies in bookstores all over the world.  They split the royalties with me for their service, which seems fair, and my book can be available in as little as 2-3 days.  Hopefully this will spark some much-needed sales.  We'll see how it goes.

Just another day

It's been a couple of weeks now since I embarked on my latest literary journey with the release of my novel, "Dylan's Prize", and I have to say that so far, it's been a learning experience.  I've said it before and it still rings true: Marketing my book has been at least as hard as it was to write it. 

Any author pours hours into their works.  They're labors of love that we richly enjoy and hope that those who read get to experience the passion we authors put into our craft.  But at the same time, we all want to be successful at it, as well.  That's easier said than done.  There are literally hundreds of thousands of aspiring writers in the U.S. alone, myself being one, but as far as who gets to rise to the top is a matter of great debate.  So far, what I've noticed is that is takes a great deal of marketing savvy, the ability to kiss the right amount of ass at just the right time, and some luck.

As of yet, my efforts have met with limited success.  I'm driving traffic to my books, but that's about all at this point.  Whether those who stop by and take a look are simply disinterested in what they see, or if it's something else entirely, I just don't know at this point.  I need to find a way to transfer that traffic into sales. I put over a year of effort in writing my novel and have already started the framework for the next book in the series.  I'll be damned if I'm going to see all that work go to waste.

And the quest continues...

I've spent the last week or so doing almost nothing but trying to market my new novel, "Dylan's Prize", in one fashion or another.  While I've been able to gain a good bit of followers on Twitter each day, not many of them seem to be driven to my Amazon profile.  From what I can tell, Twitter seems to be just a bunch of other authors advertising their works and a bunch of motivational messages.  The Facebook profile is still not getting much traction, either.  I'm certain that people are aware of the books at this point, but just aren't interested in clicking on the links.  I still plan on doing the best I can with it.  But if that still doesn't work, I might have to adjust my tactics a bit.  We'll see what happens.

On the plus side (sort of), I also ran a free book promotion with another of my stories, "The Auction", which did fairly well.  A good number of people downloaded it, but so far only two people have posted reviews as a direct result of the promo.  I've noticed that people flock to books that have a lot of good reviews, or a lot of reviews in general.  The idea was to use the free book to help promote my new novel.  I guess it's too early to tell anything yet, but so far it doesn't look like that happened much.

And so the quest continues.

And so it goes

A couple days in on the promotion now and things seem to be going good.  So far I've set up a Twitter account, a Facebook profile, Google+, LinkedIn, and used promotional tools on places like BookDaily, and Goodreads and a few others, and of course this blog.  The stream of new followers on Twitter is encouraging, whether that translates into more sales still is yet to be seen, however.  The Facebook profile hasn't garnered much attention yet, but it's still very early in the game.  I don't expect things to happen overnight.  It's going to take a good bit of work and sticktoitivevness for things to progress.  Hopefully all the effort pays off.

One of the other things I've been doing to try to gain exposure is to put my other story, "The Auction", on a special whereby it can be downloaded for free for a few days.  I'm hoping that this generates interest in "Dylan's Prize" as well.  The two stories aren't really of the same genres at all, but with any luck, those who enjoy one will enjoy the other.

Anyway, the quest continues.  More as it becomes available.