I cannot believe Fool for You is out and about in the world! I’m not gonna lie, it was a lot of work, but I really enjoyed the process. I’m definitely learning as I go, however, I have learned a few things that I hope will help some of you that are on the journey to publishing. The topic I’d like to focus on is book marketing and public relations.
I see some of you clenching up right now, but Dangit! *In best mom’s voice* you have to market your book!
I know, I know, some of you are thinking do I REALLY have to do it? I mean, if they build it, they will come, right? Umm…wrong! So very, very wrong.
Benefits of Publicity and Book Marketing
Whether you are traditionally published or self-published you’ve got to get yourself out there. If you can, allocate budget for a blog tour or hire a publicist. From my research on PR firms that specialize in the publishing industry, the price ranges from $175-$500 depending on services. I am working with the Barclay Publicity team and they are doing a fabulous job. So far, they have secured 44 bloggers to either review my contemporary romance novel, feature me as a guest blogger, or spotlight the book with an excerpt and an “about the author” section. I also opted to host a giveaway for a Kindle Fire which really impacted engagement and fans on Facebook and Twitter. Let’s hope they like me enough to stick around and I will report on this later.
Numbers Breakdown
If you didn’t know, my 9-to-5 is digital marketing so I’m very much so into analytics. I think it’s important to make data-driven decisions and understand the impact of a review, article, or campaign.
First, let’s take a look at my Facebook page. A few things to note. I had an RT.com spotlight feature on July 13th which impacted engagement on Facebook. Additionally, my debut novel launched on July 18th (two days ago).
From the screenshot below you can see that at the beginning of the month my Facebook fan count was around 120 and increased to 144 likes. More importantly, people actually wanted to “talk” to me. I’ve received a few messages, tagged mentions, or just dropping in to say hello. It was really a lot of fun meeting new readers.
Twitter followers have increased at a pretty fast clip to about 40 followers in a few days. I believe this was majorly impacted by a few giveaways that I was doing via my PR Team and a digital copy giveaway of my book with Harlequin Junkies.
Lastly, my website traffic increased by 90%! Okay, to be fair I didn’t have a lot of traffic, to begin with, so it went up from about 86 visits per month to 163 visits per month.
Ratings and Reviews
I worked with my PR team to create a NetGalley Post for advance readers copies ARC. ARCs are beneficial to get early ratings and reviews which ultimately impacts conversion. Or, the likelihood that someone will buy your book. Additionally, my publisher Crimson Romance posted on their ARC account they have within their media group. Fool for You has been out a week, and so far has received an average of 4 out of 5 stars on both Amazon and Goodreads, three reviews on Amazon and nine reviews on Goodreads…Not bad!
So I’m sure most of you are thinking – what about the sales, SHOW ME the MONEY!!!
Honestly, I don’t know yet. However, I will caution authors to focus just on the sales. When a user visits your website, follows and engages with you on social media, it’s an opportunity to meet and cultivate relationships. I hate it when people try to “sell” me on something and using the logic, it’s the same thing. If the book premise is interesting, they will download a copy or sample!
I hope my post was useful! I would love to hear what has worked for you.
