How I'm Structuring My August Push

Because Running From Herself somehow managed to score an ENT book of the day slot for August 17, I need to lower my book price to 99 cents by that date. Sure, I'll only earn 34 cents for each unit sold, but it's a fair tradeoff. Book of the Day is very competitive, since only 365 slots are awarded per year. (I still think it was my cover that did it.)

I was told I'd receive an email reminder to change my price 2 - 3 weeks in advance, but I haven't, so I just went ahead and did it. Why wait, really?

Since this is one of my last big pushes for this novel, I decided to take advantage of the low, low price and schedule some concurrent promotions. Promo sites love 99-cent books.

Thus, I've booked the following:

Book Raid for August 17 ~ pricing dependent on number of clicks (20 cents per click). 

Fussy Librarian for August 18 ~ $22.00. 

Bargain Booksy for August 19 ~ $30.00.

Then I received an email from AuthorsXP regarding their "99 cents on the 9th" promotion ($10.00), so what the heck? (scheduled for August 9, obviously.)

Granted, the only sites that moved books for me in the past were Book Raid and Bargain Booksy, and the numbers were minimal (very minimal), but I don't believe I'd priced my book this low at the time.

Since I've already applied my cut-rate price, I decided to give an X post a try. As a free user of X, my infrequent posts receive no algorithm boost, so I'm essentially invisible there. But I figured that maybe with relevant hashtags, this one might pop up in a few people's feeds.

Along with my book link, this post just barely fit the maximum character length:

Love Ella Langley’s raw country sound? 🎙️Dive into RUNNING FROM HERSELF, a gripping new novel about the fierce reality of the Nashville music scene.👉 Download your copy today! LIMITED SPECIAL 99¢

#countrymusic #singersongwriter #Nashville #ChoosinTexas

It's gotten 23 views.

(Do you know how to create a cents symbol in Word? I didn't. It's Alt+0165. I needed to conserve my character count.)

I could pay $8.00 a month for X Premium, but really? That would boost my visibility, but how many times am I going to need to be visible? I've been fine all along going incognito. I rarely create an original post; the most I ever do is reply to other people's. Research tells me that I could cancel at any time, so if I only want my book "ad" to be seen, I could theoretically cancel Premium after a month, and $8.00 would be the cheapest promo ever. My fear is that I'd forget to cancel, and I can't afford even more subscriptions. Plus, I've never found social media conducive to selling books. Of the 23 people who saw my post, no one bought.

This month will be the end of the line for marketing. If I manage to rack up a few sales from all of the above, that's all I can ever hope for. Unfortunately, this novel is basically unmarketable. I don't care how many "experts" weigh in. Maybe they're addressing authors who've already had luck in the past. Maybe they're addressing authors who write what people want. Writing this book for "me" shows that I'm a unicorn. 

It is what it is.