Brian's Sales and Marketing Thread

[PaulineMRoss]

When five people say the same thing, I think I have to listen.

And next week, you might get five people saying how much they love your characters. You will never please everybody, and you really shouldn't try to (in my opinion). You'll drive yourself mad if you do. Reviews are for other readers, they're not for authors. Ignore them (easier said than done, I know!).

 

[ThinkerX]

Repulsive — I’ve been slacking lately, so there’s no way I’m getting this thing out by Nov 1. I could have it ready by mid to late Nov, though, but I’m reconsidering that strategy. Basically, nothing I’ve done has promoted this book at all. I think I’m going to finish this and stick in in a drawer for a while. My ultimate goal is to publish Gryphon in May 16, Repulsive in June 16, and Attractive in July 16. My plan is to run a Facebook ad in May offering a free short story related to Repulsive in exchange for signing up for my mailing list. If I can add a hundred subscribers who are likely to want to read Repulsive, that should give me a little bit of a boost when I release.

I had thought your earlier writing schedules to be a mite ambitious.

 

[BWFoster78]

Would you mind sharing some of your reasoning behind the decision?

Not at all.

When evaluating any feedback, the first question I always ask is, “From a standpoint of fundamental Writing/Story Telling theory, is the critique valid?”

Let’s say that someone states this: “I love zombie unicorns. Your story doesn’t contain zombie unicorns. Therefore, I hate your story.” It’s impossible to fulfill every reader’s personal preferences. Adding zombie unicorns based on even multiple comments would be idiotic.

An actual example of this kind of issue is a complaint about my characters using modern language. I made the decision from the start that my characters would act and talk like they’re from Dawson’s Creek instead of Westeros. Some readers aren’t going to like that decision. Maybe in retrospect it would have been better had I chose differently, but at this point, my reaction to that comment is, “Oh well …”

Doe the likeability issue, on the other hand, represent a fundamental flaw in my writing? If I’m being honest, I have to say, “Abso freaking lutely.”

Chapter 3 of my book shows Xan to be self-conscious and desperate for affection as he interacts with Ashley. I think that that chapter will cause a segment of my readers to empathize heavily with Xan and find him highly likeable. The fundamental flaw comes in when you remove this reader reaction from the equation. Quite frankly, I failed to establish character likeability strongly enough for those readers unlikely easily develop that strong empathy.

Let’s divide my readers into three categories:

Cat 1 Readers — Those that find Xan likeable/relatable. My book is written for these readers, and I think they’re likely to purchase the following books in the series.

Cat 2 Readers — Those that abhor my book on a fundamental level. No matter how good you are at writing and storytelling, every decision you make risks turning off some segment of the population. No book ever has pleased every reader. These people are not going to buy any more books in my series no matter what changes I make.

Cat 3 Readers — Those that don’t dig Xan from Chapter 3, but quite possibly (based on other feedback), they find my plot and writing to be pretty good. These people are on the fence about continuing the series.

Ultimately, my decision to make revisions is based on two factors:

1. Emotional — My characters are likeable. The fact that they’re being viewed as unlikeable by so many people is a result of my failure to communicate clearly. I hate, hate, hate having my book out there with such a visible flaw.

2. Analytical — There is absolutely nothing I can do to convert the Cat 2 readers, and it would be hard to screw up what I’ve established with the Cat 1 readers. The question thus becomes, “Can I do anything to win over more of the Cat 3 readers.” Yes. Readers who make it through a first book are naturally inclined to want to read the rest of the series. The number one thing I can do to make them continue is to not annoy them. Right now, the characters are annoying a relevant percentage of the readers, and I feel that this annoyance is correctable without seriously altering the story.

As an example: After Xan is rescued from prison, he kinda says “thanks,” but that’s glossed over in favor of increasing conflict. Just adding a couple of sentences later where Xan expresses his gratitude to his friends for rescuing him would help make him more likeable. After all, what kind of freaking jerk doesn’t even thank the people who risked their lives to save him?

I’m paying a guy who betaread Repulsive $150 to make targeted suggestions for improving likeability. The goal is to do a quick (less than two weeks total) run through that does not change the character’s personalities or alter the story. Basically, I want to make a few tweaks here and there that emphasize the characters’ strong traits and downplay their flaws a tad while still keeping them real.

Some numbers for your consideration:

- By the end of the month, Rise is on track for around 200 reads at full price
- On a $40 budget, I was able to generate almost 1100 downloads of a novella
- If I end up with 5 books in the series, purchases of the four sequels will get me $14 a reader

I do not think it is unrealistic to think that 5000 people will eventually read Rise of the Mages. If only 11 of those readers continue my series based on my changes, I’ve made my $150 back. 11 out of 5000 (.2%) is an extremely realistic number to achieve. What if I have 10000 people read the book? What if the conversion rate improvement is much higher than .2%? Could I get 100 more purchases? What if the series runs to 7 books (another $7 per reader)?

Ome concern would be handling reviews. Are there public reviews that say the MC is unlikable, and is there a way to respond to them and say you've fixed that, or wll you have to just leave them as they are. I can't imagine you'd have an easy time getting a reviewer to reread the story and rewrite their review.

What I want to do is make some kind of comment or statement that the work has been edited based on reader responses to my ARC. Almost universally, however, the advice is not to engage reviewers publically and not to draw attention to your changes. Though I don’t fully understand that advice, I’m probably going to adhere to it. I’ll simply upload the changes and let it ride. Based on the experience of other authors, later reviewers will come along and say, “The reviewer who said that the characters were unlikeable was obviously on crack.”

One other sticky situation, though: Some bloggers have promised reviews of the book, and they obviously haven’t gotten to that point in their queue yet. Since I clearly indicated the version I sent them to be an ARC, I don’t think it would be out of line to forward them an updated version.

 

[BWFoster78]

I had thought your earlier writing schedules to be a mite ambitious.

The thing is that, if I'm going to achieve my goals, I need to adhere to that kind of a schedule.

The combination of some recent adverse life events and those early reviews has really thrown me off my game. I've got to get back on track! The quantity of early sales of Rise really tells me that I can do this. My goal is visible; all I have to do is reach out and grab it.

EDIT: In my initial post for this month, I put my over/under at $150. My "I'd be surprised if I exceeded amount" was $200. I'd have told you that $300 was crazy talk.

This morning, I'm well over $500 total.

 

[Russ]

As I reader I can tell you Xan was not particularly likeable for me. I wanted more of that Chapter 3 stuff that made me want to cheer for him. In fact he has become some powerful by the end of the book it cries out for him to have weaknesses to put any outcome tension or sympathy for him back into play.

Quite like your numbers though.

 

[BWFoster78]

As I reader I can tell you Xan was not particularly likeable for me. I wanted more of that Chapter 3 stuff that made me want to cheer for him. In fact he has become some powerful by the end of the book it cries out for him to have weaknesses to put any outcome tension or sympathy for him back into play.

Quite like your numbers though.

I think this comment illustrates my point above nicely.

My numbers at the moment are only telling me that the combination of cover, pitch, and sample are drawing in customers. I have very little data that indicates one way or the other if customers will buy the sequel.

As stated above, I do have data from a certain demographic that says, "Hey, I don't like your characters." Other demographics don't seem to have that issue, or if they do, don't have that issue to nearly the same degree.

I have a choice:

1. I say, "Oh well, that demographic just isn't going to be my audience."
2. I try to make the book more palatable to that demographic.

Every fiber of my being tells me that the right call is to go for choice 2.

EDIT: I misspoke in the line above. There's actually a fiber in my big toe that thinks I should go with choice 1, but every other fiber of my being ...

 

[BWFoster78]

My commercial "success" continues, inexplicably, to climb. When I checked this morning, the book is in the low 6000 range for all paid Kindle books. Yesterday, I had 7 sales (a good, but not record day; I've gotten a few 1-2 days, but mostly I'm in the 6 range with my best day being 11). Reads, though, are still trending steadily upward. For the last week, I've averaged 5000 a day. Yesterday, I hit over 9000.

Though I still feel pretty hammered by the negative comments about my characters, I am seeing some positive signs other than the much higher expected sales and borrows:

1. I got another organic list sign up - a great indication of a positive response to my writing.
2. A slew of new ratings on Goodreads that are mostly in the 4 and 5 range. Note that Goodreads ratings are typically lower than Amazon rating. A 3 on Amazon is generally considered to mean "I don't really recommend this book" whereas a 3 on Goodreads usually means "This book is pretty good overall." So 4's and 5's on Goodreads indicate a really positive response.
3. Though I've had 0 new sales of Abuse, I'm trending way upward in reads compared even to when it was a new release. Since the book is buried in the rankings, I can only assume that people are reading Rise, searching out my other books, and reading Abuse. That's a really, really good thing.

 

[skip.knox]

I just wanted to say that I both admire and appreciate your willingness to be so open about the whole publication process, including the difficult parts. This thread is far more informative about what it means to publish than most books I have read on the topic. Good on ya.

 

[BWFoster78]

I just wanted to say that I both admire and appreciate your willingness to be so open about the whole publication process, including the difficult parts. This thread is far more informative about what it means to publish than most books I have read on the topic. Good on ya.

Skip,

I'm glad it's helping someone. Prior to finding kboards, I really wanted factual information saying, "Hey, I did this and this is what happened." I've gotten a lot of help from this board and others, so I'm glad I can give back a little bit.

 

[BWFoster78]

I just hit "Save and Publish" on the revised version of Rise of the Mages, and I'm content that I did the right thing.

Reading over the developmental editor's comments (I used him for Repulsive, but he hadn't read Rise.), it's obvious that, in my zeal to increase conflict, I really overemphasized (and repeated way too much) certain negative character traits and didn't accentuate enough positive traits. Every conversation became an argument and every argument a physical fight.

That's great for conflict, but not so great for establishing likeable characters.

Truthfully, I don't think that every reader is going to like my characters, and that's okay. The point was to make the characters more likeable than they were, and I think that I accomplished that without major revisions to either plot or personality. I did add a few minor scenes, but mainly I deleted a lot of gratuitous over-the-top hostility.

 

[Russ]

Odd question, as a prior purchaser of "Rise" does amazon send me the updated version or am I stuck with my original?

 

[Steerpike]

Odd question, as a prior purchaser of "Rise" does amazon send me the updated version or am I stuck with my original?

You should get a notification that it has been updated, though I have to admit if I bought a book and read it and then it got substantial substantive updates afterward I wouldn't be very happy about it.

 

[BWFoster78]

Russ,

To the best of my knowledge, you are stuck with the original. I'd gladly email you a .mobi file of the new if you wish, though.

 

[FifthView]

Odd question, as a prior purchaser of "Rise" does amazon send me the updated version or am I stuck with my original?

I've received a few updated versions of my purchases, on Kindle, over the last however many months. I was a little surprised because I didn't know that could happen.

 

[BWFoster78]

You should get a notification that it has been updated, though I have to admit if I bought a book and read it and then it got substantial substantive updates afterward I wouldn't be very happy about it.

According to the thread linked below, ebooks published by indie authors are not updated.

This is how to Push Updated Content to Already-Owned Ebooks

I haven't tried it myself, though ... It's possible this could have changed.

 

[Steerpike]

Looks like some conflicting information there. Still, I know major substantive edits would both me as a prior purchaser, and I don't use highlighting or any of those features that might be thrown off if the changes are significant. On the other hand, fixing typos and grammatical errors seems like a good idea (or making major substantive edits before the sales numbers run too high).

 

[BWFoster78]

Looks like some conflicting information there.

My understanding (though I scanned the thread rather than reading it comprehensively) is that traditionally published books absolutely do update. If one wants to existing customers to receive an update as an indie author, however, special permission must be granted by Amazon.

 

[Steerpike]

My understanding (though I scanned the thread rather than reading it comprehensively) is that traditionally published books absolutely do update. If one wants to existing customers to receive an update as an indie author, however, special permission must be granted by Amazon.

Yeah, but it looks like some people said they still weren't getting the updates. If the update goes through, I assume the reader would get a chance to be notified, but it looks like if they have auto-update on it just goes to them.

 

[BWFoster78]

A little bit ticked at Amazon at the moment. I heard from two different ARC reviewers today that they posted glowing reviews of my book right after I published it. Neither of the reviews showed up.

I've asked both to repost. We'll see.

 

[kennyc]

No wonder I never get glowing reviews.