One thing that baffles me is how people find my books. If I had the answer, it would make marketing a whole lot easier.
If had a big name like Stephen King or J.K. Rowling, I could understand it. An appearance on Dr. Phil with his endorsement would be a sure way to the top of the best seller list. A multi-million dollar media blitz would bring in the readers. But I don’t have any of those things working for me.
Listing a book on Amazon or Barnes and Noble creates a needle in a haystack. One way to get noticed is keywords. Someone searches Tween Mystery and PENELOPE AND THE BIRTHDAY CURSE pops up. But if that were the case I’d have sold right off the bat. Instead my sales took off sluggishly. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the dam broke. My sales for December exceeded what I had sold for the rest of the year, and I didn’t run any 99 cent specials during that time.
I attribute part of the sales boom to the holiday. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I’ve found that kids don’t buy books, parents do. My books are children books and they were given as gifts. But now after the holiday season is over, sales still trickle in.
Going into the new year and preparing to publish a new book, I wonder how to get the most bang for my buck. Blog tour? Social media blitz? More giveaways? Rubbing my lucky rabbits foot (which wasn’t very lucky for the poor bunny)? I’ve been watching some writers who have put out video trailers, but I think that creates the same dilemma, another need in a haystack somewhere else.
I would love to know: how do people find books?
Ron D. Voigts is the author of Penelope And The Birthday Curse and Penelope And The Ghost’s Treasure, both available at Amazon.