Month: May 2017
Is it worthwhile advertising your book(s) on Social Media?
Given that nearly every Social Media site is based in, and controlled from the United States where 25% of the population freely admitted that they haven’t read a book in a year, the jury is still out!
My old mate Derek Haines and I had a brief discussion on this very topic using Facebook’s only saving grace – its Chat feature, a few days ago. We both came to the same conclusion that as most sites are predominantly the playground of people who don’t normally read anything longer than a Tweet or the headline of a Facebook post, the answer appears to lean towards the negative.
Even though there are many book related groups on Facebook, in many cases, only writers ever bother to peruse and intereact usually by just ‘liking’ a post’s picture, while a few actually bother to click on and read the original article. But the number of people concerned with the latter practice is low in the extreme.
Of all the Social Media sites, always providing you are prepared to endlessly repost a tweet, you will get a response of sorts on Twitter. Usually this consists of other writers retweeting your contribution to their followers. About once or maybe twice a year if I’m lucky, I get a response in the form of a like for anything I post on Google+. I walked away from contributing to LinkedIn Why? Because despite what is said about it, it is a business networking site and nothing else. While I post to Pinterest, I don’t expect to find anyone has read the post on that site, as it is primarily for pictures.
One other Social Media site I post to from time to time is Medium. But as it is exclusively set up for Americans by Americans, the chances of anyone reading any of my posts is extremely low. Why? Because Medium specialises in childish dross for the home market.
Does any of what I have just said mean that all Social Media sites are a complete waste of time regarding book promotion? Well let me put it this way – Derek and I agreed that Social Media sites are today’s equivalent of the old sensationalist gutter press daily newspapers, just like today’s Social Media – full of mindless drivel. But with one fundamental difference. Unlike newspapers, you cannot reuse Social Media sites to wrap fish and chips up in to take home for your evening meal.
Nor can they be used as emergency bog paper if you run out of the real thing. The only thing sites like Facebook are any good for is keeping up with your friends. Just take a close look at whats on offer on Facebook. Its News Feed mostly contains family photographs, politics, pet photographs or total trivia like the utterly childish ‘Only 1 American in 10 will be able to answer these questions’ competitions, which the average non-American can easily answer if they’ve got nothing better to do.
To get back to the headline of this post – Is it worthwhile advertising your book(s) on Social Media? In our opinion (Derek’s and mine) – not really. But we both continue to do it anyway…
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Just Publishing Advice
Read the Reviews
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Top Customer Reviews
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Don’t forget there’s plenty of space below these reviews on the Amazon site of your choice to add your own. Two positive reviews is a good start…
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The Vandal
The reality of how Amazon’s Sales Rank Algorithm affects your book’s chances.
The second it detects no sales or reviews it begins to push your book down the list!
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A few days ago my latest novella Autumn 1066 became available for purchase via CreateSpace and on all Amazon outlet’s worldwide. The above graph from Amazon Sales Rank shows where it was positioned yesterday.
The current low ranking clearly demonstrates just how quickly a book will disappear from the public eye if it does not immediately appeal to the always fickle reading public.
A few days ago after its launch it reached the dizzying heights of thirty-two thousandth in Amazon’s Best Seller rankings, and forty thousand, seven hundred and eighty-seventh in the books/History category.
No matter how well written a book may be. No matter how much money you spend on promotion (money that you will never recoup from sales, unless its an instant best seller) reality dictates that if the public aren’t interested in reading your book despite it attracting glowing reviews, it begins its descent to the literary equivalent of oblivion, as the above graph clearly shows.
To help Autumn 1066’s chances, please click on the above cover and order your copy today.
Thank you
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Completely Underhand Sales Tactics!
Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore – New on the Shelves – 1066 by Jack Eason
More from Sally. 😉
This is the aspect of publishing I hate…
… particularly when you see your new book already on the slippery slope to oblivion while you wait for sales…
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I took delivery of six copies of my latest work yesterday, to hand out to friends here in the UK. I also took part in an advertising gimmick from Amazon to offer three people the chance to get themselves a free copy. While they were free to the recipients, they certainly weren’t to me. Not at US$11.40 each they weren’t!!! Was I ripped off by Amazon? Yes! will I be doing it again? No!
So far the only sales have occurred via CreateSpace. As yet my countrymen and women, the very people I wrote it for, as it’s our history, have yet to step up to the plate. What does that say about UK readers? From my point of view, not a lot…
As for actual sales, excluding the six copies I bought, so far the number stands at nine. Hardly riveting figures I grant you. But that’s still better than zero. Now if only people here would get their backsides into gear and buy themselves a copy. Meantime all I can do now is wait. I’ve never been any damned good at it, despite often being told to be patient! Oh, and the other old chestnut – hurry up and wait…
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Have We Had Help? 
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