It’s tough being an author, whether you’re indie or trad published, or a hybrid of both like me. But whatever kind of publishing path you follow, self-promotion is a huge part of success. We have to let people know our stuff is out there if we want them to read it, and that’s a tough gig. Hopefully publishers will market your work as much as possible, but we have to do our own too. And a lot of it is free – just being online, active in the general reading community, is a huge part of it. It’s a privilege to pay for marketing, but that’s something worthwhile too. The trouble is, a lot of what you pay for doesn’t help. Paying to attend conventions is a good investment, as it gives all kinds of benefits and opportunities. (That’s a blog post in itself, really, so maybe I’ll address my thoughts on that at a later point.) But one of the ways paying for marketing does help is when you get on board with one of the big promotional newsletters. Bookbub is always the gold standard of these and holy shit, it is not cheap. But I decided to take a punt on it recently, desperately hoping I would at least make my money back, and hopefully get my book out to a whole slew of new readers in the process. I applied for a Bookbub promotion for THE GULP, which is one of my indie titles. I honestly didn’t expect to get it – far more miss out than are approved – but I did get it. Holy crap!
So the deal is that you reduce the price for a limited time and hope a whole bunch of people give it a shot when the newsletter goes out. A few days before the promo was due, I reduced the price of the ebook on all platforms to 99c and over the few days leading up to the Bookbub I mentioned it in different places, hoping that would kickstart a bit of a climb up the charts, especially Amazon. Then the promo ran and I’m incredibly grateful it went really well. My overall goal was to reach new readers, and I’m fairly confident I’ll manage that. Beyond that, I had three main secondary goals. I’ll definitely break even on the cost of the promotion, which was my first secondary goal. I’ll hopefully make a few bucks too, which was my second goal, especially as my kung fu school is closed again at the moment due to another Covid outbreak. And my third goal was to hopefully score a few decent ranks at the main Amazon stores – those being Australia, the US, and the UK for me. Maybe I’d even get a #1 ribbon. I’m pleased to say I did really quite well! I’ve never had a US store #1 and just missed out again this time too, but I did score a bunch of great ranks and a three #1 bestseller ranks in Australia, which is awesome.
Overall, I got the following positions:
Australia
#101 Overall rank
#1 in Occult
#1 in Occult Horror
#1 in Occult Stories
USA
#255 Overall rank
#2 in Occult Fiction
#2 in Occult Horror
UK
#691 Overall rank
#3 in Horror
#2 in Occult Fiction
#2 in Occult Horror
You can see all these things in the image below. Honestly, I’ve never had ranks anything close to any of those before. Amazing. I was never going to get the #1 spot in the US or the UK, as the Christopher Moore and Jim Butcher books holding those spots were hundreds of places high than me in the overall paid store rank. Honestly, those guys must be selling SO many books. Regardless, I’m over the moon with this result. I sold a lot of books and along with these immediate results, I really hope it does gain me a whole bunch of new readers. Massive thanks to everyone who got involved, either buying a copy or sharing the promo. I couldn’t have done this without you, so it really does mean the world to me.
The Gulp is still 99c for a few more days – find it here.
Now I’m going to get back to writing the second volume of Tales From The Gulp. The writing always matters most.
