It's now been ten months since I made the plunge of going Indie for Titan: The Midnight Hour and fro the most part I feel it has paid off. I am starting a series so I was always prepared to lay the groundwork and wait for it to start to pay off. So far the biggest obstacle I have encountered is creating the awareness to the public of my book and the series. I have been using several social media tool to promote the book, Amazon, blogger, facebook, biblioscribe, and goodreads, and briefly with Kindle boards which I have yet to fully explore.
Amazon, I found, actually offered a good array of tools that authors can use through Kindle as well as Createspace. I have not used my author page probably nearly as much as I should have so far, but it is a good tool to have. I am just not sure how much it helps in the long run. Do people actually check them? the biggest advantage has been the free promo days offered by Kindle. Yes, it is a bit of a double edged sword giving my book out for free, but it seem to slightly boost sales for a short span after the promo would end. I did seem to get some reviews out of it as well. as I stated, I am starting a series so some free copies to get some momentum built up is a small sacrifice to pay.
Blogger has been good, but I am not too sure just how the hits I received have yielded any increase in overall sales, bu the hits to my blog have been nice and steady in their growth since I started this.
Facebook has been much more disappointing than I had ever hoped. I was relying on it heavily to get some exposure for the book but it has been one of the slowest social Media outlets I have used. I am sure it all depends on a number of factors in getting any online buzz with Facebook, but so far I have had very little.
Biblioscribe seemed like it would be positive but once I started to explore the site I was very disappointed with it. I had many problems just getting an account set up. I tried creating some press releases and an author page and just found the site very glitch filled and not user friendly, and then just grew aggravated and tired with the site altogether. I have not used it at all in months now and likely will not go back.
Goodreads was a real wonder once I started with it, and it left me wondering why it took me so long to find it in the first place. the site is very multifaceted and easy to navigate. I have not been on long enough to see any positive results as far as my book sales are concerned, but it seems full of potential.
As far as hard copies go it takes a lot of good old fashioned hitting the pavement and getting yourself out there. I have approached numerous bookstores and am in close to ten now. I am in several public libraries and a couple of school libraries as well which have resulted from hard work on my part.
This just teh start. I plan on doing more for "Midnight Hour" after the holidays and seeing what else other authors are doing to support their work and then the new Titan book will be out by the spring of 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment