Unprofitable Fun

Let's face it; my marketing is going absolutely nowhere, but why sink into the doldrums over it? How would that make me feel any better? 

I Googled around some more yesterday, specifically for "the best book promo sites no one knows about", which in retrospect is kind of silly, because if they were the best, everyone would know about them. In truth, I was only looking with the purpose of scoping out new sites to see how bad they were. Did you know that most promo sites actually lose money? That was a tidbit I learned in my search. But I digress.

Many of the articles I found screamed, "affiliate", because the author was pushing sites that clearly didn't stand a chance in hell of being worthwhile, and some of them are well known scams. (Shame on the writer.)

I did chance upon a site, though, that likely isn't profitable (for it or for me), but it's interesting. It's called AuthorsDen. Its philosophy is creating an interactive space between authors and readers, and by the looks of its interface, it's not the most appealing site; and it doesn't boast its readership. (I did find that it only has 273 followers on Instagram.) Be that as it may, taking advantage of all its bells and whistles was a nice diversion. I admit I paid $29.00 for a yearly membership in order to add four books, but really, that's not a huge investment; a little over $2.00 a month, and I won't renew. Shoot, I spent well over that amount for a one-day ad on other sites. 

I suppose the fun part for me was creating all the promotional material for each of my four books. The site asks for detailed information, including reviews (it has room to post three reviews per book, I believe), and three out of my four books actually meet that criteria. (Yea, that's kind of a signpost to my failure, but it is what it is.) An author can also upload a sample chapter, which involved some work on my part, converting snippets of my books to PDF, but I had nothing else to do, so why not? Of course, since three of my books are novellas, they don't have chapters, per se, but I grabbed sections of them to post anyway. There's also the requisite author interview, plus a review program that is optional. I went with it for Running From Herself. I would be surprised if anyone chose my book to review, and I'm wary of reviews to begin with, but hey, I've got nothing else going on. For my membership fee, I can also activate two book ads. I admit, it's just fun exploring all the options. One can also post short stories and poems, etc., which doesn't apply to me, but the site is certainly comprehensive. Oh, and stats are available (I've had two clicks so far; one of them mine ~ typical.)

I've decided I'm all about the fun now. I'm brainstorming ways to promote my novel to music lovers, and I haven't figured that out yet, but I'll keep thinking. Find your target audience, they say. I'm still on the fence regarding BookTok, but I could create a TikTok account as a first step, just to explore. I've done some reading on BookToks, and I learned that one doesn't have to plaster their face online; that there are a lot of other creative options, which could be fun. It's time consuming to get up and running on an unfamiliar social media space. X is a no-brainer for me, but I've been a member for twelve years, and it sounds like TikTok has a myriad of BookTok hacks, whereas with X, you just post. An article I read from Kindlepreneur kind of over-promises. The author amassed a thousand followers in two months, and I've never gotten a thousand followers for anything, much less my books (as if). Still, I have nothing to lose.

I'm also changing my mindset regarding discounting. I can't do anything about that until all my promos have run, but I may reduce my price after that, at least for a while. 

I have absolutely nothing to lose at this point. My (awesome) novel has been an experiment in failure, so I may as well exploit it for fun and (not) profit.

Work with what you've got, I say.