return on investment
3 Things I Love About Book Cave
If you’ve read many of my blog posts about growing your email list, you’ve probably heard me mention the website MyBookCave.com. As I talk to authors, it seems there’s a bit of “Angst-of-the-Unknown” syndrome associated with the site.
Since some of my favorite group giveaways have been run through the My Book Cave, and almost all of their services are FREE, they’re definitely a site for authors to check out.
They’ve recently rebranded as “Book Cave” (drop the “My”), so I’ll refer to them by that name moving forward.
The site has a ton of resources for authors, but it can be a bit confusing at first, because both the Reader and Author resources are located on the same website. To help clear out the fog, I’ll share my three favorite parts of Book Cave, and how to navigate each of them. Believe me, it’s worth exploring! Read the rest of this entry »
Troubleshooting Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads can be finicky things.
Getting an ad to perform well (meaning actually sell books at a cost per click that doesn’t break the bank) can be a complicated formula. In theory, it should be simple:
- One part good ad copy (that’s attractive to your target reader)
- One part finding the right audience (again think about your target reader)
- One part good landing page (your Amazon book page or other sales page)
So if you’ve got all those things right, your FB ad should perform well! 
But what happens if it doesn’t? How do you know which part of the formula isn’t quite right?
Here are a few tips to troubleshoot: Read the rest of this entry »
Bookbub Strategy: Choose the Right Pricing Approach
I make no secrets of my respect (almost love) for Bookbub.com advertising. My first Bookbub ad is what really kick-started my book sales, back in January 2015. Since then, I’ve been blessed to have my books featured with Bookbub (6) different times. Through these, I’ve identified some clear strategies for obtaining and pricing a Bookbub feature. Over the next week, we’ll talk through these strategies! Read the rest of this entry »
The (3) Essential Parts of a Book Launch Postmortem
In the world of Project Management, a postmortem is a special meeting where the project 
team reconvenes after everything is complete. We talk through what went right on the project and the parts we’ve all tried to forget. It’s a “lessons learned” session; a review so we’ll all actually learn those lessons and (hopefully) not make the same mistakes on the next project. It’s easy for these meetings to become finger-pointing sessions, but a good project manager will work to make the meeting a “safe zone.” A place where results can be assessed honestly.
A book launch is, in itself, a project. A short-term undertaking with start and finish dates. So I love the idea of holding my own private postmortem for each book launch. As I work to make each launch more successful than the last, I can focus on areas that yield strong results and ditch the efforts that were a waste. Also, this gives me a good pulse on how book marketing is evolving.
So let’s take a look at the (3) essential parts of a good postmortem, and I’ll use my recent launch as an example. 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 Ambitious Author 