Wednesday, January 23, 2019

What is the Most Successful Thing You have Done to Boost Book Sales?

There are so many things, both big and small, short term and long term, that can be done to help boost book sales.  It can sometimes be overwhelming to think about and to research.  Whether you're a newbie writer or have been in it for the long haul.  I thought it would be easier for readers to break it down to this....

What is the most successful thing you have done to boost book sales?

As a long-term writer, I would have to say that the most successful thing I've done to boost book sales was to make one of my books perma-free.


The Wife of a Lesser Man, the first in a police procedural trilogy, has been permanently free since 2014, and has been reigning in consistent downloads, averaging about 350 per month, since then.  Ranking has changed in time, of course, since many more books in that genre have been made perma-free, but the downloads are still as strong as ever.



Downloads have turned into sales of the other two in the trilogy pretty consistently, too.  Some months are stronger than others, like December, which was one of the best months of organic sales I've ever had.  But all things considered, readers seem to be checking out my back list in the back matter of that book, and have gone on to purchase my other books.

If you don't know how to make a book permanently free, read on.

Books can be made permanently free on most platforms, simply by changing the sale price to zero.  Unfortunately, on Amazon, you are only permitted to put your selling price as low as $0.99.

So, it takes a little canoodling to do this...


If you set your selling price to zero on all other platforms (Kobo, Nook, Smashwords, Google Play), Amazon does price matching.  So tell your friends or family members (or some author friends) to report the lower selling price to Amazon via the 'would you like to tell us about a lower price?' link at the bottom of the book's page, where the product details are, Amazon will allow the customer to purchase the book at zero cost.  If that happens often enough, not sure of  the time it takes (some of my books have been permanently free on all other platforms since 2017), Amazon will make it permanently free.




What is the most successful thing you've done to boost book sales?  Help fellow authors out and share below!







Sunday, January 6, 2019

Createspace to KDP...How Easy Is It?



KDP’s Paperback Tool

For those of you who have used Createspace in the past, I’m sure you’re aware that your paperbacks are being encouraged to migrate over to KDP.  At first, I was reluctant, because, let’s face it, it sounds like more work.  But in reality, it really isn’t more than a few minutes to send your titles over to where your ebooks are anyway. 

If you already have your books in paperback format as well as ebook, you’ll find the transition very smooth.  It’s just a matter of linking your ebook to your paperback.  Many of my titles, however, are only available in ebook. 

Yesterday, I took the opportunity to see how easy it is to create a paperback from an ebook, and compare the ease from Createspace to KDP.

If you use the 6” x 9” template (which is the most common paperback size), and copy and paste the ebook into the paperback, the only real legwork involved (if you’ve already formatted your ebook properly) is to set your chapter breaks to the next page after the previous chapter ends.  You’ll find that the chapter title wants to migrate to the middle of the next page, and its anchored there, so you can’t fix it.  To remedy this, go to format-paragraph-line and page breaks-and deselect ‘window orphan control’ and ‘keep with next’.  Then, you should be able to place your chapter title anywhere you want on the page.  Also, don't forget to remove any live links you have in your book's front or back matter, as they won't work in the paperback version.

The cover is so easy anyone can do it, and the best part is, you don’t have to fiddle with Myecovermaker and pay the $5.00USD time and again until Createspace is satisfied with the formatting of it.  You don’t even have to convert to PDF, KDP does that all for you. 

When you utilize the Cover Creator, all you have to do is upload your ebook cover, fit it to size (which they give you a nice red template to follow, so all you have to do is drag the image until it fits properly), and copy and paste your author bio image, bio information, and your book blurb.  You’ll also need an ISBN, but KDP can also supply you with one. I prefer to use my own, but that's an individual preference.

The worst part was waiting for the files to convert and save.  Some of them took upwards of a half hour or more, and some I had to cancel and re-do. 

Overall it was easy and much better than the Createspace process.

Great if you’re a working writer and a mom like I am, and don’t have the time to invest fiddling, which is one of the major reasons why I haven’t made many of my ebooks into paperback.  That’s all going to change!

Have you found any other time-saving strategies for self-publishing?  Are you also a working writer?  Please feel free to share your tips below.

I'm working on a self-help book geared for first-time or established authors who need tips on how to write that book in limited time frames.  If you're interested in knowing when it's available, please subscribe to my newsletter, and/or follow me on BookBub.

What is the Most Successful Thing You have Done to Boost Book Sales?

There are so many things, both big and small, short term and long term, that can be done to help boost book sales.  It can sometimes be over...