Marketing Monday – Not What I Meant

Can’t Hurry Love. Or Marketing.

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Joel D Canfield

Since I started the focused marketing of A Long, Hard Look, giving away copies in exchange for reviews and to get attention on Goodreads, the total results (over a the past 5 weeks) have been underwhelming. A handful (that means 5, at most) of sales, a few of which were to people I know. A few reviews, mostly from people who read my blog or newsletter.

Like I said, underwhelming. (Not that I don’t appreciate that folks who know me buy, read, and review, but that isn’t a result of all this marketing, it’s a result of our personal relationship.)

There are a million sales tactics, and hundreds of people out there pitching their “sell a million copies” process. If only I could find the magic potion, the secret formula.

Thing is, I already have it, and it’s no secret, nor is it magic.

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Marketing, Promotion, and Publicity (Guest Post by Ed Teja)

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Joel D Canfield

A conversation with Ed Teja often turns educational. I wrote something about “marketing” and Ed responded very much like this:

There are numerous discussions, blogs, courses and (of course) books on things writers can do to sell their work—both better and at all. They are comprehensive, exhausting and often contradictory. Partly the problem is that we confuse the activities that make writers more visible and their books desirable purchases. So, after hearing various comments from writers online, I thought it appropriate to help clarify what are becoming muddy waters.

Writers are supposed to be wordsmiths, so let’s start with some definitions.

Marketing activities are things we do to sell books.
Promotional activities are things to help with discovery of a product (yes, even a book.)
Publicity is work done to gain mind share…to ensure readers are aware of and think about the writer—the person.

We tend to blur these together, resulting in a great deal of confusion. They are quite different. Note that you can squish a bit of this or that from one category to another. I won’t quibble over specifics. The important thing is that an effective business plan must address all three aspects. Although they overlap, they do different things.

Knowing the difference

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Goodreads Giveaway Wrap

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Joel D Canfield

I assumed that a giveaway ending October 27th meant at the end of the day, not the beginning. There’s one surprise to keep in mind with Goodreads giveaways.

The numbers surprised me as well: 731 entries for a single book. Of those, 401 unchecked the “Add to my reading list” box (that’s 55%).

But that means 330 new people have A Long, Hard Look on their Goodreads list. All for the price of a single book, mailed to (it turns out) Canada.

The fun news is that the winner entered on the very first day, and has it on their reading list.

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Goodreads Giveaway Gains Momentum

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Joel D Canfield

Over 200 people have entered to win the paperback copy of A Long, Hard Look in the Goodreads giveaway. That’s 209 people who’d never heard of the book, but now they have. (Since I have copies on hand, I’ll even make it an autographed copy.)

During the sign-up process, they’re offered a checkbox which says “Put this on my ‘to read’ list” which is checked by default. It looks like out of the 209 who’ve signed up, about 90 left the box checked. Whether this is because they missed it, or wanted it, there’s no telling. I’m not sure why those 100+ people want the book but don’t want it on their ‘to read’ list. I can’t imagine anyone thinking they’ll make money winning free books and reselling them. It’s quite the mystery.

But here it is, in case you’d like to join the teeming hordes.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

A Long, Hard Look

by Joel D Canfield

Giveaway begins October 19th and ends October 27, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

End date is next Monday, so I’ll have some nearly complete numbers on signups and reading list adds.

Goodreads Giveaway Going Live

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Joel D Canfield

My Goodreads giveaway goes live on Sunday, October 19th. Many of my readers use Friday’s newsletter as a trigger to catch up on posts, so they may not read this until Friday or Saturday; thus the Sunday start date.

I also used some statistical analysis to add more countries. Intuition said my fans were mostly in the US, Canada, England, and Australia. 72% of my readers are in the US. If I add Canada that bumps up to over 80%, but adding England and Australia makes it 90% of all the visitors to this blog in the past year.

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Goodreads: Making the Decisions

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Joel D Canfield

Onward with our experimental Goodreads giveaways. Yes, plural.

Here are the questions we raised in the last post:

When?

The sooner the better. A 1-week giveaway as soon as I can set it up, then a 1-week break, and another 1-week giveaway, to maximize the benefits of being on the “new giveaways” list and the “ending soon” list.

How many copies to give away?

One. This is an experiment. I see no value in spending more than the minimum until we learn something. The experiment with Story Cartel reminds me that even the perfect tool might not be perfect for me.

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Goodreads Giveaway: Gathering the Info

Posted on September 22, 2014 by Joel D Canfield

First step to doing a Goodreads giveaway is to upgrade your account so they list you as an author, not just a reader. It’s free. They give directions on the site. (Dear Goodreads: Please have a data specialist organize your site and make things easier to find. Thank you.)

Next, you’ll need to be sure your book is listed at Goodreads. If you just released it, you’ll have to fill out the form and wait patiently for it all to coalesce. They recommend searching for the book first, in case someone else has already added it. I recommend it too, because A Long, Hard Look was already there. (Perhaps Sue added it.)

Now, decisions about the giveaway itself. Here are the questions we’ll have to answer:

When?

As we learned from Catherine, a few short giveaways will be more effective than one long one. How many? And when? How much time between them? Goodreads sets no limitations except it can’t overlap itself, which seems logical.

How many copies to give away?

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Next Experiment: Goodreads Giveaway

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Joel D Canfield

Still learning little bits from the Story Cartel experiment: two new 5-star reviews — both from people in my own network, not Story Cartel. And their explanation of the “every download is an entry” is that making folks write a review is the legal equivalent of making them buy something to enter a sweepstakes, which isn’t legal in the US. I make no comment. Yet.

You deserve more of this wild entertainment, watching me flail my way through some forms of marketing I’ve never done. After reading a great article by Catherine Ryan Howard, who does not post nearly often enough Cath are you listening? I’ve chose Goodreads as my next skydive.

Best Beloved and I will research what’s involved in doing a Goodreads giveaway (hopefully in more detail than I “researched” Story Cartel’s process) and report what we do and how it works.

What do you know about Goodreads or giveaways? What would you like to know?

Story Cartel Just Doesn’t Add Up for Me

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Joel D Canfield

Short version: unless greater benefits roll in over time, I didn’t get anything from Story Cartel which I couldn’t have done just as well myself, without spending $25.

Update: maybe it was me —> Read more

Big Ol’ Nonsense Alert

Stop the presses and hold everything. Fellow writer Libi Astaire pointed out a line in the drawing rules I’d missed:

Every reader who downloads a book gets one entry.

They are rewarded for downloading your book, whether or not they have any intent on reading it, any interest whatsoever.

This violates my primary principle of free: it is not a price, it is a strategy.

“Here, download this” is not a strategy.

The founders of Story Cartel are authors. And they may be good at marketing their service. But they have a long way to go to be good at marketing our books for us.

Long version:

Your genre or network may deliver completely different outcomes, so this isn’t a sweeping condemnation of the tool. It does what it claims to do. My book was exposed to a wider audience, and I got reviews. It just didn’t add enough value to offset the cost.

During the experiment, I got two 4-star reviews from Story Cartel readers. In the same time period I got two 4-star reviews plus one 5-star review from my own network.

Some folks responded to my email to the 23 addresses Story Cartel provided. At least a dozen, more than half, didn’t participate in any manner beyond downloading the book. No review, no response to my two emails, nothing.

One old friend tried to download, couldn’t sort it out, and bought a print version instead. There’s a sale which may have been triggered by Story Cartel, but was consummated because he’s been a friend for 20 years. (I offered him a free copy, but he graciously wanted to reward me for my effort.)

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Story Cartel Home Stretch

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Joel D Canfield

The free downloads closed last week, with a total of 23 copies downloaded.

9 of those happened before I even started promoting it. These are clearly Story Cartel regulars who grabbed the book. One of them left a 4-star review of A Long, Hard Look so that’s super.

During the time it was free 14 more people downloaded it. I recognize 6 of the names from my newsletter or other places.

What’s not clear, or even possible to know without asking, is whether the other 8 downloads were the direct result of our promotion, or just more Story Cartel regulars who would have downloaded anyway.

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