[PROGRESS THREAD] ChickenHawk's Self-Published Fiction EBooks

[ChickenHawk]

I feel like I'm addicted to both yours and MTF's posts and every time you submit something I can't help pushing the like button.

Right back atcha, @SinisterLex!

 

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[Rawr]

I've been checking out this thread waiting for the update, thank you CH for your continuing transparency and genuineness.

Funny, I feel the same way, so we're both hacks! And oddly enough, this isn't only because of the money. (Although, who am I kidding? It's definitely the primary reason.) Still, in terms of impact, it's nice to provide value/entertainment/whatever to lots of people, as opposed to just a few...or worse, only to myself.

Here is where I'm going to write something, and I might sound like an a**hole, but this has served me well. When you look at a person, you must evaluate him or her specifically. When you look at a crowd, you must judge. And you must use your instinct and your experience to make that judgement. When I look at what the top books are in Romance, with titles such as "Pucked Up" (not bad), or "Wanting my step sister" at #1 spot, I judge. When I look at my facebook fan's profile pictures, I judge. I get an idea of who's the one that 'sells' the fantasy, and who's the one that will believe it, without saying 'what, this isn't good, or realistic, or.." I believe that I could tell what this crowd wants by looking at what sells.

So in your case CH, I'd be more selfish with your future books, as you've learned reader desires are one thing, smart strategic choices are another. I'll likely never release follow ups to my first two books, even though both end on a cliffhanger and some readers emailed for sequels. 1. It would take better editing on those 2. 2. Market might be hotter elsewhere. 3. I'd have to go back and create the rest of those worlds I might not want to. For you as you mentioned, it was much harder to write his perspective because you already wrote the story, so it was no longer creative process, but a math checking process.

Another thing I'd point out that, correct me if I'm wrong, but you took your time resisting the KU train up until 'his perspective' book? Another lesson learned, although it was worth the try and I wish it was easier to make money wide.

For new fans, have you considered doing a free days promo? I get around 300-600 downloads with $5 advertising and this is with old stuff that's been free before. You might benefit from trying it once, stacking it with $20-50 worth of free promos to get fresh blood in.

On writing fast - there is concept known as Flow, which states that doing something when you're going fast and paying attention almost instinctively, you're doing your best. Imagine hitting a tennis ball, first, relaxed and not thinking about it, and then, trying to think about every muscle in your body. The latter is going to fail. https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow

Anyway, when I wrote my 3rd book, I was on a deadline, and coming off just a month after I released my 2nd. I flowed. I wasn't sure if it was any good, none of us can be while writing, but I was 'feeling the flow', meaning I was just feeling that I'm flying through the actual process of killing those pesky words a bunch at a time. Well my editor said it was my best book, although I didn't think much about the plot either. I would say that this is actually why my book 4 is not finished - I am at 0 flow writing wise, but am obsessing over each char and scene. Masturbation at it's finest. So let's all of us write fast and get it out there, and then write the next one, and enjoy it.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Here is where I'm going to write something, and I might sound like an a**hole, but this has served me well. When you look at a person, you must evaluate him or her specifically. When you look at a crowd, you must judge....So in your case CH, I'd be more selfish with your future books, as you've learned reader desires are one thing, smart strategic choices are another.

There's lots of wisdom on this, along with the rest of your post, @Rawr. Great insight, seriously! This is a lesson I've definitely learned this year. I've pleased my "super-fans" but lost opportunities/money in the process.

In spite of the fact that you're probably right, in that I should've abandoned the series that wasn't selling, I can't fully regret finishing it (just because credibility is a big thing with me, stupidly or not). But I can definitely regret that I promised it in the first place. And I can regret that I didn't cut the second book short. These are big lessons, which I'll definitely put to good use as I move forward.

Another thing I'd point out that, correct me if I'm wrong, but you took your time resisting the KU train up until 'his perspective' book?

About KU, I had some books in and out of it, so I was trying to split the difference -- build an audience wide while benefiting from KU. I made a ton of money off KU last year. But this year, I started out by releasing my new book wide. Probably, it hurt me with ranking out of the gate, but I can't be 100% sure.

Mostly though, I think what you're recalling is that I DID resist KU 1.0, back when we were paid a flat rate per borrow, and actually, I'm glad I did. Because I write full-length novels, KU 1.0 was hugely unfavorable to me. By waiting until the terms became more favorable, that gave me the opportunity to bring those books back into KU later on, and make a nice amount of money when all was said and done.

Anyway, when I wrote my 3rd book...but I was 'feeling the flow', meaning I was just feeling that I'm flying through the actual process of killing those pesky words a bunch at a time. Well my editor said it was my best book...So let's all of us write fast and get it out there, and then write the next one, and enjoy it.

Amen to that!

 

[ChickenHawk]

Oh hey, a funny side note... Last night, I went through my sales history and discovered something funny. One of my "failure" books has already made over $10,000 so far this year, with no advertising or followup effort on my part. It just quietly delivered loot to my bank account while I was off doing other things. How awesome is that?

I must add, though, that this book was loosely related to my breakout books, so no doubt, it benefited from their success and advertising. Still, I find this dynamic to be encouraging. A rising tide lifts all boats. Plus, as we all know from @Vigilante's awesome posts, those passive-income deposits are quite addicting!

 

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[RHL]

One of my "failure" books has already made over $10,000 so far this year, with no advertising or followup effort on my part.

Fastlane.txt

 

[ChickenHawk]

Just a brief progress update, along with a warning for Facebook advertisers... (Note Scary Red Text for emphasis.)

The Good: Sales have been pretty decent for my last book. While not an Amazon top 100 seller or anything, it's making steady income, boosting the sales of prior books, and netting me new readers. Right now, I'm selling around 100 books a day, and averaging around 90-100K daily page reads in Kindle Unlimited. When I adjust for advertising, this gives me a net income ranging from $400 to $600 a day and sometimes more. (So thankful!)

The Surprise: One neat thing about this last book is that it didn't have a big dropoff from the initial release. In fact, sales have been fairly steady, which gives me hope that it will provide steady income for a while.

The Bad: Over the last couple of months, I've fallen into a few time-sinks that I didn't anticipate. I ran into some problems with my Facebook ads, and had to decipher what I was doing wrong. Basically, Facebook started pulling my ads for unspecified violations, and fearful of losing my Facebook advertising account, I spent an obscene amount of time chasing my tail, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. (Were my ads too sexy? Were my books considered porn? Was it something with my links? My wording? My author page? What????? Arrrrggggh!!!!)

I still don't know 100% for sure, but I'm fairly certain this is the issue: Redirects. Facebook is cracking down on them. Basically, I was running Facebook ads that linked to my book(s) on Amazon. But rather than linking straight to Amazon, I routed this link through my Website, so I could pick up an Amazon affiliate link and gather data via the Facebook tracking pixel. Now, I no longer do this, and have since pulled all of my ads with this redirect. Unfortunately, it took me a while to figure this out, and then, I had to create new ads, which had zero social proof. Ugh!

Also, while I was desperately trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, I spent a frustrating amount of time and effort changing things that, as it turned out, probably didn't need to be changed -- book covers, descriptions, ad designs. Sheesh! Like I said, it was a big time sink. However, it does have a silver lining...

The Interesting (aka the silver lining): These Facebook advertising problems reinforced my need to diversify my advertising, so I took the steps necessary to begin advertising on Amazon itself. One reason I hadn't pursued this earlier was because my covers were considered too risque for Amazon ads. However, armed with a newly redesigned cover, I actually had an ad approved. So anyway, I'm now directing some of my advertising dollars into that, which shows some promise.

Here's a funny thing though. According to Amazon metrics, I'm spending $1.30 to get each $1.00 worth of sales. Fortunately, I have a good sell-through rate, which means that even if I lose money on the first book-sale, I make it up on sales of future books. Plus, I also make a decent chunk of money through Kindle Unlimited, which doesn't show up on Amazon's advertising interface. In summary, my ads are profitable, even if they don't look like it. But I'm not sure how profitable they'd be for someone with only one book. So hard to say!

Where I stand now: I learned a ton over the last few weeks, but unfortunately, lost some precious writing time. So now, I must beat myself with a stick and chant my usual mantra -- must write faster!

 

[CvsC]

ChickenHawk, thank you a lot for taking time to post such a thorough analysis of your experience! Well, if you feel like beating yourself with a stick for not writing fast enough, I think I should start cannonading myself with rocks)

Sent from my C5303 using Tapatalk

 

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[Vigilante]

This is one of the best threads on the entire forum. Thank you for posting the update.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Just a brief progress update, along with a warning for Facebook advertisers... (Note Scary Red Text for emphasis.)

The Good: Sales have been pretty decent for my last book. While not an Amazon top 100 seller or anything, it's making steady income, boosting the sales of prior books, and netting me new readers. Right now, I'm selling around 100 books a day, and averaging around 90-100K daily page reads in Kindle Unlimited. When I adjust for advertising, this gives me a net income ranging from $400 to $600 a day and sometimes more. (So thankful!)

The Surprise: One neat thing about this last book is that it didn't have a big dropoff from the initial release. In fact, sales have been fairly steady, which gives me hope that it will provide steady income for a while.

The Bad: Over the last couple of months, I've fallen into a few time-sinks that I didn't anticipate. I ran into some problems with my Facebook ads, and had to decipher what I was doing wrong. Basically, Facebook started pulling my ads for unspecified violations, and fearful of losing my Facebook advertising account, I spent an obscene amount of time chasing my tail, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. (Were my ads too sexy? Were my books considered porn? Was it something with my links? My wording? My author page? What????? Arrrrggggh!!!!)

I still don't know 100% for sure, but I'm fairly certain this is the issue: Redirects. Facebook is cracking down on them. Basically, I was running Facebook ads that linked to my book(s) on Amazon. But rather than linking straight to Amazon, I routed this link through my Website, so I could pick up an Amazon affiliate link and gather data via the Facebook tracking pixel. Now, I no longer do this, and have since pulled all of my ads with this redirect. Unfortunately, it took me a while to figure this out, and then, I had to create new ads, which had zero social proof. Ugh!

Also, while I was desperately trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, I spent a frustrating amount of time and effort changing things that, as it turned out, probably didn't need to be changed -- book covers, descriptions, ad designs. Sheesh! Like I said, it was a big time sink. However, it does have a silver lining...

The Interesting (aka the silver lining): These Facebook advertising problems reinforced my need to diversify my advertising, so I took the steps necessary to begin advertising on Amazon itself. One reason I hadn't pursued this earlier was because my covers were considered too risque for Amazon ads. However, armed with a newly redesigned cover, I actually had an ad approved. So anyway, I'm now directing some of my advertising dollars into that, which shows some promise.

Here's a funny thing though. According to Amazon metrics, I'm spending $1.30 to get each $1.00 worth of sales. Fortunately, I have a good sell-through rate, which means that even if I lose money on the first book-sale, I make it up on sales of future books. Plus, I also make a decent chunk of money through Kindle Unlimited, which doesn't show up on Amazon's advertising interface. In summary, my ads are profitable, even if they don't look like it. But I'm not sure how profitable they'd be for someone with only one book. So hard to say!

Where I stand now: I learned a ton over the last few weeks, but unfortunately, lost some precious writing time. So now, I must beat myself with a stick and chant my usual mantra -- must write faster!

This sounds like a pain in the butt.

At the same time, it's a valuable lesson for everyone else. Even at higher levels of success you can never really be complacent. To stay ahead you have to adapt and overcome and be ready to change with whatever the world throws at you.

For some, a Facebook hiccup like that might be the end of the road. For you it's just an annoyance. Even if you couldn't advertise on Facebook at all, I suspect you'd still find a way to succeed.

You see a weakness in your approach and instead of complaining about it, you search for ways to strengthen it, forging it into a new approach that might turn out stronger than before.

It's a great reminder because it's so easy to get comfortable once we find something that works.

 

[Andy Black]

Just a brief progress update, along with a warning for Facebook advertisers... (Note Scary Red Text for emphasis.)

The Good: Sales have been pretty decent for my last book. While not an Amazon top 100 seller or anything, it's making steady income, boosting the sales of prior books, and netting me new readers. Right now, I'm selling around 100 books a day, and averaging around 90-100K daily page reads in Kindle Unlimited. When I adjust for advertising, this gives me a net income ranging from $400 to $600 a day and sometimes more. (So thankful!)

The Surprise: One neat thing about this last book is that it didn't have a big dropoff from the initial release. In fact, sales have been fairly steady, which gives me hope that it will provide steady income for a while.

The Bad: Over the last couple of months, I've fallen into a few time-sinks that I didn't anticipate. I ran into some problems with my Facebook ads, and had to decipher what I was doing wrong. Basically, Facebook started pulling my ads for unspecified violations, and fearful of losing my Facebook advertising account, I spent an obscene amount of time chasing my tail, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. (Were my ads too sexy? Were my books considered porn? Was it something with my links? My wording? My author page? What????? Arrrrggggh!!!!)

I still don't know 100% for sure, but I'm fairly certain this is the issue: Redirects. Facebook is cracking down on them. Basically, I was running Facebook ads that linked to my book(s) on Amazon. But rather than linking straight to Amazon, I routed this link through my Website, so I could pick up an Amazon affiliate link and gather data via the Facebook tracking pixel. Now, I no longer do this, and have since pulled all of my ads with this redirect. Unfortunately, it took me a while to figure this out, and then, I had to create new ads, which had zero social proof. Ugh!

Also, while I was desperately trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, I spent a frustrating amount of time and effort changing things that, as it turned out, probably didn't need to be changed -- book covers, descriptions, ad designs. Sheesh! Like I said, it was a big time sink. However, it does have a silver lining...

The Interesting (aka the silver lining): These Facebook advertising problems reinforced my need to diversify my advertising, so I took the steps necessary to begin advertising on Amazon itself. One reason I hadn't pursued this earlier was because my covers were considered too risque for Amazon ads. However, armed with a newly redesigned cover, I actually had an ad approved. So anyway, I'm now directing some of my advertising dollars into that, which shows some promise.

Here's a funny thing though. According to Amazon metrics, I'm spending $1.30 to get each $1.00 worth of sales. Fortunately, I have a good sell-through rate, which means that even if I lose money on the first book-sale, I make it up on sales of future books. Plus, I also make a decent chunk of money through Kindle Unlimited, which doesn't show up on Amazon's advertising interface. In summary, my ads are profitable, even if they don't look like it. But I'm not sure how profitable they'd be for someone with only one book. So hard to say!

Where I stand now: I learned a ton over the last few weeks, but unfortunately, lost some precious writing time. So now, I must beat myself with a stick and chant my usual mantra -- must write faster!

Can you send FB ads to your own landing page where you link to the book on Amazon?

Or better still, you get their email address and THEN link to the book on Amazon?

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Can you send FB ads to your own landing page where you link to the book on Amazon?

Great question! Yup! I definitely could. I experimented with that early on, when I was just starting Facebook ads. Unfortunately, the click rates of these ads were a ton lower than when I was featuring an Amazon link. Basically, it seems people are comfortable clicking on a link that says, "Amazon," but are reluctant to click on a link that says, "AuthorName.com."

Lately though, I've seen a small handful of authors using this approach (where they link to their own sites), and I might experiment with it again at some point, especially if I start selling books wide again (meaning on Barnes & Noble, etc., too, not just Amazon). The reason I don't experiment with it now, is because my books are all Amazon exclusives at the moment, so there'd be just one button to click on -- the Amazon one. Under this scenario, I believe I'm better off just linking straight to Amazon to preserve my click rates.

Or better still, you get their email address and THEN link to the book on Amazon?

I could definitely see that approach, but my theory is that people would be reluctant to provide their email address on their first pass through my Web site (assuming I understood the question correctly), and alas, Facebook pixels don't provide email addresses. They just store the data for themselves, to be used in future campaigns. So while I'd LOVE to be able to do that, I think my sales would be quite a bit lower under that scenario.

The whole thing is such a balancing act, that's for sure!

 

[Andy Black]

Great question! Yup! I definitely could. I experimented with that early on, when I was just starting Facebook ads. Unfortunately, the click rates of these ads were a ton lower than when I was featuring an Amazon link. Basically, it seems people are comfortable clicking on a link that says, "Amazon," but are reluctant to click on a link that says, "AuthorName.com."

Lately though, I've seen a small handful of authors using this approach (where they link to their own sites), and I might experiment with it again at some point, especially if I start selling books wide again (meaning on Barnes & Noble, etc., too, not just Amazon). The reason I don't experiment with it now, is because my books are all Amazon exclusives at the moment, so there'd be just one button to click on -- the Amazon one. Under this scenario, I believe I'm better off just linking straight to Amazon to preserve my click rates.


I could definitely see that approach, but my theory is that people would be reluctant to provide their email address on their first pass through my Web site (assuming I understood the question correctly), and alas, Facebook pixels don't provide email addresses. They just store the data for themselves, to be used in future campaigns. So while I'd LOVE to be able to do that, I think my sales would be quite a bit lower under that scenario.

The whole thing is such a balancing act, that's for sure!

Yeah, it's a balancing act. It could well be sacrificing a few sales now to grow your email list so you can win bigger later on.

I'll let you know how I get on when I have a go at this.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Yeah, it's a balancing act. It could well be sacrificing a few sales now to grow your email list so you can win bigger later on. I'll let you know how I get on when I have a go at this.

I can definitely see that logic, and can't wait to hear how it goes!

One thing I DO need to do is run a campaign for mailing list signups. Aside from the dreaded time-crunch, one thing that's been stopping me is I don't have a freebie to offer, and don't want to attract freebie-seekers to my lists. But I'm mulling over the idea of putting together a "book" of deleted scenes, book trivia, etc. This way, it would appeal mostly to current fans, as opposed people who just want a free book.

Right now, I'm getting a small handful of list signups every day, anywhere from one to three people a day. The nice thing is that all of these are organic, so they've joined purely to be updated about new releases. But I know I could do better in this area, that's for sure!

 

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[MTF]

one thing that's been stopping me is I don't have a freebie to offer

Take your worst selling book out of KDP Select and offer it for free to your subscribers while still selling it on Amazon and other platforms if you don't want to make it permafree.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Take your worst selling book out of KDP Select and offer it for free to your subscribers while still selling it on Amazon and other platforms if you don't want to make it permafree.

That's a wonderful suggestion, and I definitely see the wisdom in it. Alas, it's not quite an option for me because of the way my books are interconnected with cliffhangers and such. But if I wrote standalones, this would probably be the ideal solution. I appreciate the wisdom though! Even if I can't quite capitalize on it yet, it's definitely food for thought in the future!

 

[MTF]

Alas, it's not quite an option for me because of the way my books are interconnected with cliffhangers and such.

Use the first book of the series then. Or offer the entire non-performing series. Or write a short standalone. Come on, @ChickenHawk, you're super smart and you know you absolutely need to build your list.

Please don't take it as me being a condescending smart-a$$. I just know that if you put your mind to it, you could have a solid freebie within a week or two and instead of getting 1 to 3 subscribers a day, you'd be getting 10-30, if not more.

"Sign up for my newsletter to get updates about my new books" is boring. There's pretty much no incentive here to sign up. "Sign up for my newsletter to get a free book from a bestselling author whose book you've just read and loved it"? Count me in.

Yes, you will get freebie seekers, but you'll also get some awesome people who will buy your every release. Moreover, it's not like you're giving people an iPad for subscribing to your list. They'll subscribe because they'll be interested in reading your book after reading your other book(s), which means they'll be high-quality leads.

There's virtually no downside to spending a week or two writing a short standalone just to grow your list. You probably spend more time on Facebook Ads, and this stuff will never be as passive and long-lasting as a big list of people interested in your books.

Here's what you wrote in my thread in July 2016:

I've been debating running a mailing-list campaign, but have hesitated, because I read somewhere that organic sign-ups are more profitable, and I always hesitate to do anything that takes away writing-time. But still, it's pretty darn tempting sometimes!

You had 3,900 subscribers then.

Let me do a quick calculation...

It's been six months of 1-3 optins a day, so let's assume you have about 4,440 subscribers now (assuming 3 optins a day for 180 days). If you decided to act in July, today you'd probably have anywhere from 5700 to 9300, if not more, subscribers.

I know how hard it is to make it big in fiction. Most people here probably don't grasp what it takes to reach and maintain your level of your success. However, when you're talking about building a list, I mostly see excuses:

• "I read somewhere that organic sign-ups are more profitable"
  
• "My books are interconnected with cliffhangers and such"
• "I always hesitate to do anything that takes away writing-time" (yet you run ads on Facebook so I don't get this one)

Again, I only have good intentions here. I want to give you a good-natured virtual kick in the butt to help you grow your business. I know I could sometimes use a kick in the butt from somebody else, too. Whatever you decide, I wish you a prosperous 2017.

 

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[Digamma]

One thing I DO need to do is run a campaign for mailing list signups. Aside from the dreaded time-crunch, one thing that's been stopping me is I don't have a freebie to offer, and don't want to attract freebie-seekers to my lists. But I'm mulling over the idea of putting together a "book" of deleted scenes, book trivia, etc. This way, it would appeal mostly to current fans, as opposed people who just want a free book.

My two cents as a marketer: you are right on wanting to convert your readers to subscribers, instead of strangers.

However.
People don't act without a carrot to pursue.

I can assure, 100%, that a lot of your readers like your books, would subscribe, actually want to subscribe.
But then they don't.

You need a lead magnet to get them off their lazy asses.


Write a novella. 20k words, 30k tops.
Make it good.

Make it sexy as hell.
You know, those covers people salivate over.. it's not on Amazon, so you can go nuts with the racy stuff.

My bet is that your subscriptions go up 200% easy, minimum.


Look at it from a marketing standpoint.
If I remember correctly what I just read, you have around 1-3 subscriptions a day, while you sell around 100 copies a day.

Let's suppose 70 of those sales are not already subscribers. Let's say 2 subscription a day.
That's a 2.8% conversion rate to subscribers.

These are qualified leads. People who already bought your stuff.
People who probably like it.
People who consume lots of content in your genre and are more than used to mailing lists.

You should be converting 15%+ at least.
That would be 10+ subscribers a day.


Think about the ranking power a list three, four times what you have now would have on new releases.

Do you hear the ka-ching? I hear the ka-ching.

 

[ChickenHawk]

I can assure, 100%, that a lot of your readers like your books, would subscribe, actually want to subscribe. But then they don't. You need a lead magnet to get them off their lazy asses. Write a novella. 20k words, 30k tops. .. My bet is that your subscriptions go up 200% easy, minimum.

Excellent insight and motivation! Thanks for that! While it's not something I can do tomorrow or anything (due to my writing speed, etc.), it's definitely something to add to my to-do list. I'll keep you posted!

 

[ChickenHawk]

Again, I only have good intentions here. I want to give you a good-natured virtual kick in the butt to help you grow your business. I know I could sometimes use a kick in the butt from somebody else, too. Whatever you decide, I wish you a prosperous 2017.

Excellent insight, all around, and you're absolutely right! Thanks so much for this. I really appreciate it!

 

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[Rawr]

So you guys say there should be a free book, sent to the people's emails after they sign up - so, hence, not listed on Amazon? I don't like that too much, as more visibility is more visibility, and my gut tells me you can get away with a free book across the channels and still send that same book to readers- or actually a link to it, so the rankings keep climbing.

On downside, more freebie hunters so list quality is down. I know @HeldforRansom did a freebie list, and then said it wasnt working, and other authors were pruning their lists to remove the freeloaders and cut costs of paying for large lists.

Maybe the collective brains here can come up with a slogan that would drive people to sign up, but they'd understand they aren't getting a free lunch, that they're CONNECTING with the author and want to PARTICIPATE. It needs a step on their end, to make them jump and get the reward. Maybe a 1-2 question survey about which of your books they loved the most? What'd you add to MTF's slogan ?

 

[Matthew Duff]

So you guys say there should be a free book, sent to the people's emails after they sign up - so, hence, not listed on Amazon? I don't like that too much, as more visibility is more visibility, and my gut tells me you can get away with a free book across the channels and still send that same book to readers- or actually a link to it, so the rankings keep climbing.

Here's an idea:
1. Put your "free" book on the Amazon marketplace for whatever price you believe it would normally be worth. ($0.99, $2.99, etc)
2. Let readers know in the description that they can get the entire book for free, but only if they subscribe to your mailing list.
3. Profit? (You either get a new email subscriber or money)

This way, you won't compromise visibility, as the book will still be on the market, but you also won't be listed with the free books, which means you avoid any "freebie hunters" unless of course, they're hardcore and manage to sniff it out. (But even then they'll need to subscribe to your list to get it for free)

I'd like to note that I'm only in the process of writing my first book, so I am by no means experienced in the Kindle marketplace. Let me know if you think this would work? The only thing I would stress is that you would need to be very clear about the book being available for free if they sign up. Otherwise, you might get poor reviews by people who are unhappy about spending a bit of money on your book, instead of a coffee or donut.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Thanks again, everyone, for all the wonderful insight and suggestions on offering an incentive for list sign-ups. I really appreciate it!

Here's what I decided to do: Create a small ebook of bonus material, consisting of book trivia and deleted scenes. This is something designed to appeal primarily to those who have already read and enjoyed my books. When this "book" of bonus material is completed (hopefully, very soon), I'm going to do the following:

1. Give it to my list as a "thank you."
2. Modify my "sign-up-for-my-list" blurbs in my books, so readers know they'll be getting this bonus content for free if they sign up for my mailing list.
3. Advertise this offer on Facebook, targeting audiences who have already received lots of ads promoting my books. The only way to get this "book" will be to sign up for my list. My theory is that this bonus content would appeal primarily to those who have seen those ads, and hopefully read my books. If someone has not read my books, even after all the ads targeting them, this freebie will likely not appeal to them very much. I'm fine with this, since these people are unlikely to be buyers, anyway.

The goal of this approach is to identify true fans and give them that extra nudge to sign up for my list. At some point, I may also look at offering a regular freebie book(s), but I'm going to test this bonus-book approach first, just to see if I can get a good, quality list-boost out of it.

The downside: The usual, drat! Between proofing some audio stuff, compiling this bonus material, and some unexpected things around the house, I'm once again behind on my writing goals. It's such a frustrating dynamic. With every book I release, I have a harder time keeping up with everything -- the ads, the correspondence, the tracking, the necessary updates. But in cheerier news, there is a wonderful upside -- with every book I release, my passive-income potential increases accordingly.

I just wish I didn't feel like I was always behind all the time. It's making me more than a little crazy. (Or at least, that's what the voices tell me.)

 

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[Rawr]

1. Advertise this offer on Facebook, targeting audiences who have already received lots of ads promoting my books.

What do you select for this under targeting, this is a good idea!

I just wish I didn't feel like I was always behind all the time. It's making me more than a little crazy. (Or at least, that's what the voices tell me.)

Maybe try separating your days? Fri halg day, Sat,. Sunday off. Thursday ONLY business side of it. Other days 2-3 hrs writing.

 

[Rawr]

Here's an idea:
2. Let readers know in the description that they can get the entire book for free, but only if they subscribe to your mailing list.

Can't do this. Against amazon TOS as you're giving a book for lower price than listed w them. Good idea though.

 

[Matthew Duff]

Can't do this. Against amazon TOS as you're giving a book for lower price than listed w them. Good idea though.

Well, that's unfortunate. But also very good to know, thank you.

 

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[MTF]

Can't do this. Against amazon TOS as you're giving a book for lower price than listed w them. Good idea though.

As far as I know they don't care unless it's another major retailer.

 

[Rawr]

As far as I know they don't care unless it's another major retailer.

How do you know this?

 

[MTF]

How do you know this?

They don't even bother to price match if your book is available for a lower price on a smaller retailer like Kobo. Asking them to price match usually only works if you send them links to iTunes, B&N, or Google Play.

 

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[MrHall]

This thread has officially become my new head fake!

After prioritizing some of my business venture ideas, I decided that I wanted to try a hand at self publishing a few of my scripts into books. By some magical force I found this thread today and instead of reading it once and getting started, I've probably read this at least 5 times.

Your success is addicting, but I'm sure it's not nearly as addicting as mine will be once I start writing.

My Mantra: Must START writing!

PS: That was a weird way to say: THANK YOU for sharing your successes and your failures!

 

[MTF]

Hey @ChickenHawk, how is it going? Any updates?