best-seller list
How to Grow Your Email List with InstaFreebie
I’ve been doing some new things to grow my reader email list recently, and together they’ve been adding between 30 – 50 new emails per day. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share what I’m doing.
For today’s post, let’s start with the simplest to set-up: A Giveaway through InstaFreebie.com.
The last I’d heard of InstaFreebie, it was a site where you could upload an epub file of a book you wanted to give to readers, then share the InstaFreebie link with the person you wanted to receive the free book. They could retrieve the file from InstaFreebie and sideload it onto their eReader. I have a different service I use to share ereader files for giveaways (I use BookFunnel and LOVE them, mostly because of their high level of customer support for my readers), so InstaFreebie hasn’t been on my radar for a while.
But I received a tip from a Facebook friend that InstaFreebie has a great little program to help authors grow their reader email list. That sounded like something to check out! Read the rest of this entry »
Three Proven Strategies for Marketing a New Fiction Book Release
I’ve been quiet on this blog over the past few months, as my life has taken a turn for the busy! With two new book releases and the birth of my third daughter, prioritizing has become a necessity.
But I’ve also taken the opportunity to spend focused time learning from some of the top teachers in the world of book marketing – experts like Mark Dawson (of Facebook Ads for Authors fame), Tim Grahl (teaches a fantastic course called Launch a Bestseller), and Nick Stephenson (Your First 10,000 Readers).
I applied many of the approaches I learned to my latest release (The Lady and the Mountain Call), and released the book with over 3,700 preorders. While not enough to reach the NY Times Bestseller list, these did give the book a nice kick-start as my baby entered the world. This was book 5 in my Mountain Dreams Series, and was available for preorder purchase on all the major sales platforms for just under 90 days (the most allowed by Amazon).
When I sat down to hold my launch post-mortem, the results were quite interesting! Over the next few weeks, I’ll share my data and observations about how each of my strategies worked, with the numbers to support each. Not sure what a post-mortem is? We’ll talk about that, too!
So stay tuned!
But before then, let me share a quick overview of the three main strategies that have proven successful for marketing a new fiction release.
The Scoop on Advertising: Part 5 ~ Lots of Options!
As we talk through paid advertising that works, let’s talk about some of the other miscellaneous advertising options that can be be very successful!
Social Media Paid Ads:
Facebook ads are the most popular, but most of the social media sites have this option. Twitter, Pinterest. Google+ (through Google AdWords that we’ve already discussed). Even Instagram announced this week that they’re opening advertising to a wider range of businesses (including authors).
The Scoop on Advertising: Part 4 ~ The Mighty Sword of E-mail Distribution
As we talk through paid advertising that works, we’ve finally come to one of the most successful:
Targeted email distribution.
This is one of my all-time favorite marketing methods, because this is the way I see the biggest spike in sales. It also works well with my introverted personality. 🙂 Read the rest of this entry »
The Scoop on Advertising: Part 3 ~ Pay-per-click Ads?
As we talk through book advertising options, this week we’ll move into paid advertising. In my opinion, one of the most under-utilized options out there are Pay-Per-Click campaigns!
What is it? This concept has been around for a while, and Google AdWords is probably the most well-known venue. Basically, you create an ad and attach keywords to the ad. When a user types one of your keywords in a search field, your ad competes in a bidding war with other ads that have the same keyword. The ads that are the highest bidder(s) are shown to the user, but you are only charged your bidded price if the user clicks on your ad. Basically, you only pay if they click.
So far, I’ve tried PPC campaigns on Goodreads, Amazon, and Google AdWords, so here’s a quick recap of my experiences: Read the rest of this entry »
The Ambitious Author 