Create If Writing

A Tale of Two Book Launches

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Two book launches, one month apart. Both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene. Oh, enough Shakespeare. Let’s dive into the nitty gritty of two different launches I had this fall.

Book launches don’t just come in one size. That’s something I’ve found in my own experience. AND in listening to other authors and watching launches. I’m always testing, always trying, and never think launches should go JUST one way.

The takeaway from this post should NOT be: follow my launch plan that worked better. But I DO want to lay out the differences between these two launches a month apart and break down some things for you to consider when making your launch plan.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 196 – A TALE OF TWO LAUNCHES

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app!

Links Mentioned in the Show:

Are you ready to dive into a tale of two launches? Let’s do this!

First up, let’s take a look at our contenders.

A TALE OF TWO BOOK LAUNCHES

Book #1 – Secrets Whispered from the Sea

Genre – Women’s Fiction

Length – 85k

Series – #1 in Sandover Beach Books (a spinoff series from another four-book series)

Retailers – WIDE (see my post on wide vs exclusive to Amazon if you want more on that)

Price – full price at $4.99

Preorder – yes (sold 42 at $4.99)

Date launched – September 18

Book #2 – Falling for Your Best Friend’s Twin

Genre – Romcom

Length – 65k

Series – #1 in Love Cliches

Retailers – EXCLUSIVE to Amazon in Kindle Unlimited

Price – on sale at 99 cent

Preorder – no

HOW IT WENT DOWN: THE NUMBERS

Secrets Whispered from the Sea total earned from Sept 18 – Dec 3: about $1,500

Falling for Your Best Friend’s Twin earned from October 11 – Dec 3: about $12,000

Um, HELLO. That’s … quite the difference.

On paper, you might think that this data means that a 99-cent launch in KU is the best. BUT THAT’S NOT THE WHOLE STORY. Let’s break it down a bit more and I’ll give you some things to consider as you plan your launch.

BREAKING DOWN THE TWO LAUNCHES

Launch #1 – A Disheartening Bust

For Secrets Whispered from the Sea, I planned to piggy-back off my popular Sandover Beach series and go in the women’s fiction direction. I kept a strong romance subplot and used characters from that original series as well. Paired with a strong trend in women’s fiction, this book SHOULD have done well. I had Bookbub Featured Deals on my other Sandover series recently, and thought that might help this one launch strong.

My other Sandover series has been wide since the beginning of the year, so I decided to try a wide launch at full price, which was my highest price point at $4.99. (The book is around 85k, a bit longer than my romance books.) I planned to run Facebook and Amazon ads from day one and when book two came out in this series, apply for a BookBub Featured deal on Secrets Whispered from the Sea.

From the start, my launch just lacked juice. My own audience (which is pretty strong) didn’t really show up. Which makes sense… as I’ve built up an audience used to reading in Kindle Unlimited. AND this wasn’t a 99-cent sale. It was $4.99.

My ads also underperformed. By A LOT. The cost per click was low, as I’ve learned how to run ads effectively and built up some audiences on FB who like my other beach books and buy wide books. The cover was right, but the blurb wasn’t, so I rewrote it. Twice.

After a few weeks, I jumped the wide ship and put the book in KU. My reasoning? I didn’t plan out what I needed to for a wide launch. My current readership probably WOULD read the book, but hadn’t done so because of the cost. That helped a little, and my ads started performing better, but still not stellar.

You know what else? I didn’t enjoy writing the book.

While women’s fiction is a great genre, during this year of hard things, writing about more emotional things WAS NOT FUN. We were also dealing with virtual school (which was a nightmare for us and our five kids).

Launch #2 – A Delightful Surprise

For Falling fro Your Best Friend’s Twin, I actually had NOT planned to launch. I started writing this series (I’ve worked a little on multiple books and another romcom in a related series) in October 2019. I’d been saving it.

When I finish a book, I usually hit a creative depression where I feel low. Starting another one helps. So, I pulled out the 5k I’d written on this book, and finished the 65k book in two weeks.

On the heels of such a poor launch, I figured I might as well push this one out with no preorder, no warning, and no launch plan. I had it proofed, had my ARC team read it, got another romcom author to critique it, and then took a deep breath and hit publish.

While I had no launch plan, I HAD been planning to launch romcoms, just in a slower, more coordinated way. I had studied the market and was able to design covers and hire illustrators for the people (check out Melody Jeffries Designs for the first two series covers and I have Simply Dylan Designs doing two more). I bought a font from Creative Market, created a template for the five books in the series, and there we go.

I decided that I would do what has worked well for me in the past: launch into KU (which I’d planned to do with this series anyway) at 99 cents. Then I could take a three-pronged ad strategy: start with email newsletter promos (find out more about those HERE), set up and test Amazon ads, and set up and test FB ads, ramping both of those up as the email promos ended. That’s what I did. I don’t crunch numbers often, but I’ve spent about $3500 total in ads, starting small and going bigger.

While women’s fiction HAS been doing well (and still is) and a lot of clean romance is trending to look and be more women’s fiction-y, romcom is also having a moment. And I think CLEAN romcom is a pretty underserved market. Add to that a year in which we ALL want to laugh, and my book struck a chord.

I will also say that even though I wrote the book in a short time, it’s some of my best work. It IS funny, not just witty, as evidenced by the reviews. (It now has more reviews than any of my other books.) I think overall, the cover hit all the right notes, the writing is strong, and the timing is right. Add in ads that work and BOOM. The book has been in the top 500 in the whole Amazon store for over a month.

WHICH BLOWS MY MIND.

WHAT DO I TAKE AWAY FROM THESE TWO LAUNCHES?

The easy answer might look like a 99-cent Kindle Unlimited launch. But I do NOT think it’s that simple. Let’s talk about some of the factors!

PRICING CONSIDERATIONS

I feel like sometimes there is this sense that if you have “arrived” as an author, you have full-price launches. At least, I get that impression. Here’s the thing: I try not to be precious about things. I want to make money. I want to find new readers. I don’t need to care about what my launch price is. Whatever makes the money, that’s where I’m at.

Which is why my romcom is STILL at 99 cents. Because I’m in KU and so many people are reading in KU, I’m making wayyyyy more than I could if I were only selling ebooks at 99 cents. If I were launching wide, a 99-cent price point wouldn’t be making the money it’s making. (Though other platforms allow you to make more money on a 99-cent book, while Amazon makes the royalty rate 30% rather than 70%.)

Which brings us to the next thing to consider.

WIDE VS KU

Wide and Kindle Unlimited are both choices you can make. I’m not going to weigh in on one being BETTER and people have many reasons for making these choices. (Read more on these decisions in THIS POST.)

But if you ARE going into Kindle Unlimited, those readers might be more willing to try a newer author or a genre that you’re new to writing in. Some genres also are very KU-heavy. It’s often an easier start.

If you’re wanting to go wide, you need a strategy and you need to consider the long game. It can be a lucrative strategy and keeps you from being beholden to Amazon. It also means that you need to be a bit more intentional and realize that it might take a bit more time to gain momentum.

For these launches, I had NOT intentionally built up the audience I needed to in order to support a full-price, wide launch.

YOUR CURRENT AUDIENCE

Do you have an audience yet? A 99-cent KU launch might make the most sense if you’re new. It gives buyers AND Kindle Unlimited an easy way to give you a chance. But how you start also sets expectations. There’s something to be said for staring the way you want to finish. If you know you want to go wide, it might make sense to play the long-game and start wide, growing a wide audience and collaborating with other wide readers.

My audience has a large number of older women on fixed incomes. If they don’t read in KU… they don’t really read. I understand that. I also read in KU, and so it felt like a smart decision to move my book into KU– at least for now. I do plan to move it back to wide in the future.

CURRENT TRENDS

Women’s fiction is currently doing well, and as I said, a lot of clean romance is starting to shift that way. The covers look more like women’s fiction. Lines are getting a little blurry. I already had a beach series that was popular, but was clean romance. I thought I could piggy-back off that series, follow the trend without breaking from my norm too much, and find success.

It just didn’t work out that way. Maybe there were already too many other beach series to compete with. Maybe I didn’t position it as well as I needed to. Whatever the case, it just didn’t make the splash I thought it should.

While romcom is not a quick trend but more of an overall genre, it’s for sure doing well right now in the steamy world. And there are not as many authors who are writing clean books (without sex, without cussing) who are writing romcom. There’s breathing room. And, clearly, a hungry audience.

I also intended for my book to stand up with the steamy romcoms… but without the steam. I’m targeting a lot of those authors and wanted to see both clean and steamy readers enjoying. Because there are not TONS of romcoms, I think my book stood out.

There’s a wide range when it comes to comedy–from witty banter and lighthearted books to slapstick, laugh-out-loud books. I aimed for the second, and I don’t think as many books attempt or hit that mark. Many of the clean romcoms tend to fall a bit more on the other side of the spectrum with the humor being more quirky characters and witty banter.

In Facebook groups and other places, I sometimes see authors sharing success stories a lot without explaining that they happened to write in a genre that was HOT. Maybe they didn’t realize that was some of the reason for the success, or they just didn’t want to share about the genre. But you can’t take a hot trend out of the factors when it comes to book sales.

I believe that my book succeeded for more reasons than that, but I think the reason it’s done SO well is the hot genre, solid writing and positioning, and the ads strategy I’ve used to support it.

TO SUM UP: IS THERE A “RIGHT” WAY TO LAUNCH A BOOK?

What did I learn from this? A few things.

There are many ways to launch a book. And the launch isn’t the only important thing. My other beach series has sold more copies this year (while moving wide) than it did in the two years prior. They were older books. The newest one is one year old, yet they’ve sold more copies THIS YEAR.

Books are digital assets. If your launch totally bombs, you still have a book that you can sell for years to come. Maybe you can get a new cover later and it will work better. Maybe it will find itself in an emerging hot genre and you’ll be ahead of the game.

Write a good book and you’ll have a digital asset you can lean on for years, no matter what it does in launch.

For me right now, I’m confident in my 99-cent, Kindle Unlimited strategy. Do I care that 99-cents is sometimes seen as a “starter author” price. NO. Because I’m making money. This is working, and I’m going to lean into that. I might price my books up. I might launch at full price when I continue to build my romcom reputation. I’ll probably continue to test.

But I’m also not going to try and fix what’s not broken. It’s working. I invested heavily in ads, then kept upping the budgets and building.

If you want to know exactly what I did, I have a detailed case study inside my Ads Extravaganza course (check that out HERE). 

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR YOUR LAUNCH

  • Here are some questions to consider as you plan out your launches:
  • Should you go wide or exclusive to KU?
  • Should you go full-price or on sale?
  • What’s trending and how close is your book to a hot niche?
  • How big is your existing audience?
  • How much money do you have to invest in ads?

 

OTHER LAUNCH RESOURCES: 

A Simple Launch Framework

What Happens When Your Launch Fails 

Big Launches vs Low-Key Launches

How to Stop Wasting Money and Time on Book Launches

 

 

 

Why Isn’t My Book Selling? A Checklist.

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This is a question I hear and get a lot: Why isn’t my book selling? In this post, we’ll dive into a simple checklist to help you look at why your book isn’t selling and how you can get those sales moving.

Maybe you’ve been there.

You put in the hard work and wrote a book. You carefully picked a cover and wrote a blurb and did all the things to push your baby book into the world.

And… crickets. Or, at least, not the sales you hoped for.

Let’s look at some very simple reasons your book might not be selling by way of a checklist. Ready?

LISTEN TO EPISODE 194 – WHY ISN’T MY BOOK SELLING?

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app!

WHY ISN’T MY BOOK SELLING?

This is a common question for authors to task, but a hard one to answer for your own book. We’re too close to it. Too passionate.

I see people asking in Facebook groups all the time, and often the advice is mixed. One person says one thing and another person says the opposite. That can be super frustrating and leave authors feeling hopeless.

The problem with asking in big groups (even though that can have great value!) is that you don’t know who is answering your questions.

Does that person actually know the genre?

Do they make any money selling their own books?

What’s their experience level with writing and marketing?

I’m all for asking for help, especially with things like blurbs and covers. (We’ve got a Create If Critiques group just for that if you want to join!) But wouldn’t it be nice to have a checklist to use for yourself??

graphic with the post title, why isn't my book selling

WHY ISN’T MY BOOK SELLING – THE CHECKLIST

1. Cover

While I know many authors hate this, we HAVE to start with the visual image that represents your book. It MATTERS. It’s either the gateway or the barrier to people reading the words inside. Your book might be holding back sales if it’s:

  • Not professional – It HAS to hold up to the standards of other books selling well.
  • Not genre appropriate – It NEEDS to immediately represent the genre clearly to readers.
  • Not on trend – This one isn’t a MUST because trends change, but it’s good to align somewhat with current trends. Or… at least not look like what was popular in your genre in 2003. 😉

Other posts with helpful cover tips:

2. Blurb 

Why is it that we have such a hard time writing blurbs when we can write a WHOLE BOOK? It happens. To have an effective blurb, it can’t be:

  • Confusing – When you try to give too many specifics, too many proper names, or make every concept clear in the blurb, it can hinder clarity.
  • Boring – This is an issue when you try to cram the whole plot into the blurb or don’t get to the conflict.
  • Not genre specific – Each genre has nuances with their blurbs. First person? Third Person? Dual POV? Read a lot of the bestselling blurbs in your genre so you can be clear.

My blurb book recommendations (affiliate links!):

 

3. The Writing 

Some people think this doesn’t matter, but I argue it does. Word of mouth spreads for good books. And people DO use the look inside feature. I’ve bought books because of it and NOT bought books because of it. I asked in a few reader groups and got an overwhelming response that people DO use this feature. Plus, as people read good writing, they tell others. You might lose out on sales if your book isn’t:

  • Well-edited – If your book is plagued with typos, it’s an automatic turn-off for many readers.
  • Well-written – Good writing is subjective. That said, our work needs to be and read professionally.
  • Fitting genre expectations – Know your genre. Know what your readers want, then overdeliver in the best, most creative way you can.

More helpful links:

Writing to Market

Writing to Market vs Writing to Trend

Niching Down a Notch

 

4. The Marketing

Books won’t sell without eyeballs. Organic reach will only take you so far. I only know a few authors who actually sell a lot of books without using paid promotions. I consider them unicorns.

The issue with a unicorn is once that no-marketing approach stops working for them, they might not know what to do. Don’t try to be a unicorn. Be a clydesdale, a nice working horse.

There are really only two categories here:

  • Free promotions – This includes things like newsletter swaps and posting on social media, or content marketing via your blog.
  • Paid promotions – These are things like Amazon, Facebook, Bookbub ads or email promotions through paid newsletters.

But this goes back up to the top– if your book doesn’t have the genre-specific things, it’s not going to sell. Don’t set your money on fire by paying for ads when your book doesn’t have the other things all lined up!

More posts to help with the marketing side of things:

THE TRUTH: SOME BOOKS AND GENRES ARE JUST REALLY HARD TO SELL

I think most successful authors these days have written at LEAST one book that just doesn’t sell. No matter how many covers they try or how much they market. Some books and genres do not sell well. The end.

I don’t want to be defeatist here. But you might need to take a step back and realize that you’re writing in a genre that’s either flooded with traditional books and really hard for indie authors, or you’ve written a book that’s a passion project for you but no one cares. Maybe it’s a mix of genres. Maybe the storyline isn’t exciting.

THIS HAPPENS TO AUTHORS ALL THE TIME.

Don’t give up. Write another book. Don’t waste your marketing dollars on a book that doesn’t sell.

Leave it up for sale, and maybe over time your superfans will love it because they love you. maybe it will become a cult classic. Or maybe it will continue to sell just a handful of copies.

MOVE ON.

BE WILLING TO LISTEN AND BE HONEST ABOUT WHY YOUR BOOK ISN’T SELLING

Sometimes authors ask for help and then get totally defensive about their books. I get it. We love our books. It’s hard to ask for help and it’s hard to receive it.

But if you want to sell more books, you have to be willing to listen. You also have to know whom to listen to.

 

I hope that this simple checklist is a helpful start as you try to identify why your book may not be selling. I will suggest again the Create If Critiques group that I run, which is still small enough to work well and also has some helpful rules in place.

Hang in there, and above all, KEEP WRITING.

Should You Publish Your Book Wide or Go Exclusive with Amazon?

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When you’re publishing your books, you have a big choice to make: Should you publish your book exclusively with Amazon or put your book up on all the retailers? We’ll break down the options in this post to help you make the right choice for yourself. 

Are you wide? Or exclusive?

Uh, I’m … unsure?

These terms (wide and exclusive) are often thrown about in author groups, and I get asked about them a lot. Since I have books published that are exclusive to Amazon and ones that are available on wide retailers, I thought I could give an inside look at what these two choices mean, and why you might choose one over the other.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 193 – SHOULD YOU PUBLISH WIDE OR EXCLUSIVE?

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app!

WHAT IS WIDE VS EXCLUSIVE?

I’ll do a quick breakdown. Most indie authors put their book up for sale on Amazon–and you should. It’s the largest book retailer. You can be on Amazon and not exclusive to Amazon.

If you choose to enroll your book in KDP Select, you’re making the choice for your ebook (not print) to be exclusive with Amazon for the duration of your contract (which is 90 days in Select).

WHAT DOES EXCLUSIVITY WITH AMAZON ENTAIL?

This means a few things. You can sell digital copies on Amazon and get paid that way, but also have readers who subscribe to Kindle Unlimited “borrow” your book.As those readers read through the book, Amazon tracks the pages read and pays you accordingly.

And by “accordingly,” I mean that Amazon makes up a rate that they think is fair and pay you that rate. They set the rate. They track it. They pay you.

If you are enrolled in Kindle Select, it’s a 90-day contract and you cannot offer your ebook anywhere else–libraries included. It must be exclusive to Amazon.

Being wide simply means that you make your book available multiple places and it’s not enrolled in the Kindle Select program.

WHY AUTHORS MAKE THE WIDE VS EXCLUSIVE CHOICE

I’m going to explain some of the factors that authors might take into account as they’re making the wide vs exclusive choice so that you can have ideas of what

Ethics

I’m starting with ethics, because for many, the choice on whether you go wide or exclusive is one of ethics. Some people take issues with various things about Amazon, from the size to the massive stake in the market to the fact that they set the prices in Kindle Unlimited.

Many people don’t want Amazon to own them and don’t like how Amazon can set and change the rate that they’re paid for pages read. There are also things happening like scammers hiring click-farms to scroll through their ebooks in KU, making bunches of money. Others find ways to inflate page reads or stuff books withe extras–which is a bonus to readers who might buy a book and get ten, but it’s a violation of Amazon terms and a way to game the system.

Often, Amazon doesn’t do anything about that. In short, many people don’t want to give Amazon exclusivity for personal, ethical reasons.

Money-making

You can make money being wide and you can make money being exclusive with Amazon. You can actually make a LOT of money with select, even thought each “page” is a fraction of a penny to Amazon. It’s also possible that you can promote a 99 cent book and get the visibility from the sale, but make MORE than that through the pagereads.

Personally, I used to be about 80% income from Kindle Select (pages read) but as I’ve moved one of my series wide this year, that number has moved up to being more than a 50/50 split with more on sales–JUST on Amazon. I’m still making more money on Amazon than other retailers, but if I toss in that money I’ve made on retailers like Apple and Barnes and Noble, I’m making a bit more now outside of Kindle Select and the exclusive books.

a graph showing sales on amazon

Ease

Many people recommend that authors start out in Kindle Unlimited and being exclusive because this gives readers a reason to try a new author, since they can just borrow the book. That’s a great point.

Some genres also tend to read more in Kindle Unlimited, but I’d like to point out that I’ve seen all genres represented in wide sales outside of Kindle Unlimited. You CAN be in a hot KU genre, but still make money wide.

Kindle Unlimited can be a great place to start with, particularly in certain genres, so often this is something people will say to new authors. Being in Kindle Unlimited does NOT mean that you don’t have to promote your book though. There are TONS of books in KU, so you still have to promote.

Going wide really is a different mindset. It takes a bit more work, and some longevity. It means finding and connecting with other wide authors for cross-promotion, and look for promotional opportunities that aren’t just for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

Other platforms often have promotions and things that you can take advantage of as an author there, but you’ve got to do a little digging to find them.

Culture

This might sound odd, but there are certain cultures of readers. This is a massive sweeping generalization. But often, the KU readers are voracious and hungry, but they may not commit as much to being a superfan of one author. They want to read and they want to read NOW! They burn through books quickly and can be a little undiscerning. (I’m a KU reader, by the way, so I’m cool pointing this out, even though it’s also not necessarily true for me.)

I’ve found personally that a lot of KU readers (of mine) are older, or are on fixed incomes. They won’t dip toes outside of KU. They only read what’s in there.

Authors often talk about the wide readers being more discerning, more willing to stick with one author and even pay higher price points because they LOVE that author and their books. Snag a wide fan, and you can snag a fan for life who will stick with YOU and read YOU because they love YOU, and not just because you are a faceless entity on KU.

Again, generalization. But this is something I’ve seen authors talk about. I have also seen rabid fan bases for both KU and wide authors, but I’m pointing this out as something to consider. Kindle Unlimited is like Netflix and encourages bingeing of books and that type of behavior.

Long-term goals

This is the one I want to highlight. I’m all about finding your why, considering ROI, and looking at it all in terms of the long-term goals. I said when I started writing clean romance that I wanted to build and Emma Empire. I’m well on my way.

Kindle Unlimited has helped me get started. I used the ease of it, and the fact that my genre is very hot there, to make a name for myself and build a readership.

Long-term? I’d love to be wide. ALL wide. I’ve started with one series, where I saw a pattern of success already in wide books, and I was able to secure my first two BookBub Featured Deals for those, which helped me launch those books wide. (It’s why my sales right now are beating my pagereads.)

One important thing to realize (that I’m all-too aware of) is that how you start is how you train your readers. If you START in KU and build a KU fan-base, that’s going to be a hard sell to people who are used to your books being “free” in Kindle Unlimited.

The series I took wide was an already established one of mine. When I just launched a book wide for the first time and at a higher price point… it did not go so well for me. Many of my fixed-income, KU readers just couldn’t hack a $4.99 price point.

HOW TO MAKE THE CHOICE

I’m not going to make the choice for you or say that one is better. We’re all on our own journeys, and I feel confident saying that authors should make the best choice that suits their needs and their goals.

Take into consideration the factors above. Look and listen in Facebook groups to authors who are making the journey. Think about your long-term goals and also your short-term goals. Consider your genre. Think about how you feel being exclusive to Amazon.

And don’t let anyone make you feel guilty or weird about your choice! This is just a business decision you can make for your own reasons. I don’t agree with everything Amazon does. I’m also grateful that they opened the doors that make this current indie publishing world so accessible.

TIPS FOR GOING WIDE

I think if you’re going to go wide, you need to hang out with wide authors. Get in the mindset. Study what works for them. Network with other wide authors. Wrap your mind around the mindset shift.

The best place to do that is in Erin Wright’s group, Wide for the Win. As I suggest with ALL Facebook groups, don’t hop in there and start asking questions about your own journey or how to get out of KU. Read and listen first. See the culture and group rules. There are tons of helpful people and lots of files and pinned posts with answers to many of the questions you might start with.

Other resources: 

  • Listen to Erin Wright talk about being wide on Joanna Penn’s podcast HERE.
  • One author’s wide vs KU case study
  • My Facebook group (wide AND exclusive are welcome)

Big Book Launches vs Low-Key Book Launches

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I’ve talked before about book launches and share a simple book launch framework. But I wanted to focus here on the tale of two launches: the big, splashy book launch and the low-key, chill book launch.

But wait, isn’t there just one way to launch a book? Go big or go home?

No. I’m not really into one-size-fits-all for most things, and book launching is one of them. I’m going to go over some reasons why you might choose one over the other and end with some encouragement no matter which launch plan you choose.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 192- BIG BOOK LAUNCHES VS LOW-KEY LAUNCHES

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app!

BIG BOOK BOOK LAUNCHES

The idea of big book launches comes from traditional publishing. It’s how book launching has been DONE. It’s how it’s still done, for the most part, in the trad pub world. Many indie authors choose this method as well.

When it comes to a big book launch, it means that you’ve got all your ducks in a row to have the best first day and week possible.

You’ve got the print book ready. Possibly already sent out to bookstragrammers and reviewers, if you send hard copies.

You might even have the audio version ready.

You’ve been building your platform, priming your readers, doing countdown graphics and cover reveals and so on.

You’ve stacked promos. You’re running ads.

You have Facebook parties and takeovers scheduled.

The day of your big launch comes, and you’re online constantly for days or a week. You might not be sleeping. You’re hitting refresh on sales, you’re checking the ranking. You’re checking reviews.

You’re on social media, posting your books, posting links in groups, telling everyone and anyone and their mother’s brother about your book.

You email your list. You check open rates and click rates.

You are celebrating wildly, or you are in despair. It’s exhausting, and it’s also exhilarating. It’s your party, so you can laugh or cry if you want to. Then you might sleep for a week after.

(You can also do a more bootstrappy version of the big launch where you’re still focusing on all these moving parts and having them ready on launch day or launch week, just with more focus on organic reach and less on ads.) 

That is a big book launch in a nutshell. Did I miss anything? Let’s move on to a low-key book launch.

low key book launch image with fireworks

LOW-KEY BOOK LAUNCHES

A low-key launch is one that doesn’t necessarily focus on the first day or week of a book launch being a huge spike or explosion. The Writing Gals call this a slow launch–watch this great video on that for more. 

Your book publishes, and you probably remember. (I have honestly had a preorder launch before and I totally forgot. Maybe that’s TOO low-key.) 

You email your list. You might post in your Facebook group. You remind your review team to review.

While you might do all the things listed above in terms of promoting, you’re doing so at a different pace. The focus is NOT the first day. Or even necessarily the first week.

You aren’t focused on the first day or even first week of your launch. Your goal is to sell books more slowly, building up, and hopefully becoming sticky. (As in, you’re holding your rank on Amazon.)

Overall, the actions are similar, but the timing is a lot more flexible.

 

WHICH KIND OF LAUNCH IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

Only YOU can answer that. But here are some factors to consider in your decision on your launch plan:

  • Where you are in your author career
  • The money you have to invest
  • Your goals
  • How often you publish new books
  • Your mental state and how you handle stress

 

WHO SHOULD RUN A BIG BOOK LAUNCH

Okay, I’ve given you some factors to consider as you decide what kind of launch to have. Here are some of my personal recommendations.

Big launches work best when:

  • You are a traditionally published (but indies can rock a big launch too!)
  • You publish 1-4 books a year
  • You have the time and money to invest in a big launch (you can still bootstrap one big launch, but it’s not AS effective)
  • Your goal is to make a giant splash or hit a bestseller list
  • You can handle the pressure and intensity mentally and emotionally

WHO SHOULD CONSIDER A LOW-KEY LAUNCH

Here are some considerations if you are thinking about a low-key launch. These work best when:

  • You’re an indie author
  • You publish more frequently (big launches exhaust your list and audience)
  • You have a flexible budget (you can invest a lot or a little)
  • Your mental state doesn’t benefit from the pressure of a big launch

FINAL WORDS ON LAUNCHING

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all launch. Choose what works for YOU. Take into account your budget, your goals, your time, your publishing schedule, and your mental health.

One big thing to remember? Writing a book is a long-term investment.

I’ve made the most money this year on a series that was written starting two years ago. The latest book is almost a year old now. But the series is bringing in the most money.

a look at my book sales

What does that tell you? 

Launching is great. But your book is not just valuable during launch week. Your book is a digital asset. And once it’s published, you have a lifetime where you can earn money on that book. I have NOTHING against a big launch, but often, there is a lot of pressure and focus put on launching. Your books can sell for weeks, months, and years to come.

Check out this graph. The two big spikes toward the end are BookBub Featured Deals, but you can see my sales ramped up. I changed covers and started running Facebook ads to this series to a wide (not just in Kindle Unlimited) audience.

Be encouraged. Launching is great. Launching matters. But once your book is out in the world, KEEP WORKING TO SELL IT. Your income doesn’t end launch week. Neither does promotion.

So… chill out about your launch. Go big. Go low-key. But don’t go home. Your book has a longer footprint than it’s launch. If you don’t hit your goals, don’t freak out. Your book can still sell and make you money over time.

Want more launch resources?

I also have a whole paid workshop on launching if you want to go all in. CHECK OUT THE WORKSHOP!

How to Choose the Right Book Cover

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In a recent post, Nate Hoffelder shared four mistakes you might be making with your book covers. Because book covers are so important, I wanted to create a companion post on how to choose the right cover and give some recommendations. 

Why do we need to are about book covers? We’re writers!

Right. But if you want people to READ your words, you need to get them in the door. The book is the MAIN way to get them in the door. The blurb, cover, ads, and other things factor in, BUT the cover is the very first thing.

Did you know that humans process visual information in thirteen milliseconds? That’s less than a blink of an eye.

So, as we dive deeper into book covers, I want you to be thinking of your book cover in a blink.

Listen to Episode 190 – How to Choose the Right Book Cover


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Learn how to choose the right book cover and why it matters

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT BOOK COVER

The genre needs to be clear at a GLANCE.

Back to that whole thirteen milliseconds thing… your book cover is sending information at a rapid rate to your potential readers. They won’t even REALIZE it. Mostly, that first look is subconscious.

Readers need to immediately and subconsciously identify with your cover for the best results. Because in a scrolling world, you want them to stop that scroll and go for the click.

Each genre has symbols and often even colors that are associated with it, even at a level you might not think about. Billionaire books have a man in a suit. (If they DON’T, that’s okay, but they may not be conveying the right thing fast enough.) A lot of paranormal romance or urban fantasy (yes, very different things, but also some blurred lines in the indie world) will have certain colors (like a turquoise or purple) and magic floaty elements. (I’m sure there’s a technical term.) Space opera likely needs a spaceship of some kind. Find out those elements and make sure they’re properly conveyed.

 

It should look like other INDIE books. (Usually.)

It CAN work to go by traditional publishing if you’re targeting books in a genre where it’s clear even in traditional publishing what the genre is. (Ex: Women’s fiction) Some genres (like YA or literary) don’t have enough of the same signals consistently. And they don’t NEED to as much in trad pub.

Why?

Because they have a bigger budget and different tools than we might have as indies. Trad pub doesn’t have to be as clear at a glance. They have the ad dollars and the bookstore real estate to push books that you can’t tell from a glance. We don’t have that kind of time. We have a blink, remember?

I’ve seen some indies really successfully target those traditionally published books and do really well. But, you need to consider if your books can stand up next to them in your cover, style (aka: quality of writing), blurb, price, AND ADVERTISING. You’ll for sure need ad dollars to have your books even SEEN next to those books that you’re considering as comps.

If you’re not sure that would work for your genre, then look to indie books for comps. These are the books you’re not necessarily competing against (readers often read so much that I think of this as comparable books, not competition books) but want to target in advertising. You want to signal to those readers that they’ll like your book as well. Look on the bestseller lists and check out trends and covers that are doing well in the indie space.

 

It should convey the IDEA rather than the LITERAL story.

Overall, you’re trying to capture the readers for a genre. They’ll get the literal story inside the pages. The cover gets them in the door. Conveying the genre is more important than your specific story.

Caveat: Readers might get annoyed if you use a redhead and the person is a blonde. For romance, sometimes I’ll find the stock photos before I actually choose how they look. Don’t have the money for a custom shoot or the time for hours on Depositphotos.

 

Should stand out in the RIGHT way.

Authors often talk about wanting to stand out.  Being DIFFERENT or CREATIVE isn’t necessarily good. You want to look like the other covers in terms of the genre (am I hitting that point hard enough??) but you can stand out by having an attractive and eye-catching cover that’s professionally designed.

That’s where you stand out. Not by being the only cover in a genre that looks like X.

 

Make sure it’s CURRENT. 

Trends change. Even in the past few years in clean romance, I’ve seen changes in the kinds of fonts used and the kinds of images. Check to see how trends change.

Make sure you’re not using an older (but still bestselling) cover as your main comp. I’ve seen some older books with meh covers doing well. Either they’ve got lots of ad dollars or a great story or millions of superfans. Or a combo. Don’t make that the book you use as the basis for your covers.

 

Don’t try to squeeze too much TEXT on the cover. 

Readers will be seeing a thumbnail. If possible, make sure they can read the title and author name. If they can’t, the kind of font should at least convey the genre in a small size. Most of the time, taglines and subtitles and series titles aren’t visible.

A note about subtitles and Amazon’s metadata guidelines: There is some debate about whether your subtitles need to be on your cover. I had a print book issue where the rep from Amazon told me it was being rejected for that. Then they sent me the guidlelines, which said the subtitle does NOT need to be on the cover. But if you USE a subtitle somewhere (like the title page), it needs to match what you enter as you upload the book in your metadata.

As an extra side side note: I personally like subtitles that make the genre more clear can help the reader experience, that is, if they aren’t too crazy with like 500 keywords jammed in there. Amazon DOES say on the print version that they don’t want genre descriptors in the metadata, so use at your own risk. On the ebook terms of service, however, they say that “a subtitle is a subordinate title that contains additional information about the content of your book.” Uh, okay. Super clear. Some things are more blatant in terms of violation, like using twenty keywords or advertising type phrases like “the best romcom of 2020!” Use these at your own risk.

 

 

TIPS FOR ASKING FOR FEEDBACK

Big groups, especially where it’s mixed genres, are not the best place to ask. 

You’ll get varying opinions, some from people who aren’t authors and don’t know your genre. It’s hard to tell who people are, what they’ve published, and whether they have any real KNOWLEDGE of your genre.

Try to find a smaller, genre specific group. That’s MORE helpful, but you still also might be getting advice from someone who is struggling to sell their books or never written a book or who has NO idea.

  • I’ve got a smaller critique group that IS mixed genre, but have more specifics about what you need to post with your cover or blurb, AND how you should frame responses so people know who to listen to. (Hopefully.) Join Create If Critiques!

 

Your readers are NOT always the best.

They’re already your superfans. Often, they’ll buy whatever you write. They will not usually be super helpful with their responses to your book covers.

It CAN be great to have readers join in if you’re debating between a few that would both work well. Then they have some ownership. But overall? Not the best help.

 

TIPS TO FIND DESIGNERS

Ask friends writing in the same genre who they use. Look at bestselling books on Amazon, then check the look inside and see if they thank their designer on the title page.

I also lurk in cover design groups with lots of designers sharing premades. You’ll see the various styles of different designers.

Even if you don’t buy a premade, you can know who to hire for custom covers based on the work the designers share. I personally love getting a premade and then hiring them to do a series in that same style. It works really well!

The first in this series was a premade, and I asked the designer (Evelyne from Carpe Librum) if she could make it a series. DID SHE EVER!

Here are some of my favorite designers and FB groups to find designers:

THE FINAL WORD ON CHOOSING A BOOK COVER

Overall, go with what will SELL over what you LIKE. This isn’t an art competition. (Though I do LOVE a gorgeous cover…) Don’t base this on emotion if you want to sell books. Base your choice on what will sell more books.

Here’s a glance at the original and the updated versions of my books with E.C. Farrell, the Supernatural Reform School Series. Before… I liked them. (And they were like $30 each.)

But the new versions are SO MUCH MORE SUITED TO THE GENRE AND EVEN THE NICHE OF ACADEMY BOOKS. They were still reasonable at like $150 for print and ebook. But so much more on target. They immediately picked up in sales.

The new ones were done by T.M. Franklin of Bargain Book Covers. Amazing. I’ve gotten a few others from her that I love!

 

So… you got this? Hook them with your book cover in a blink.

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