In this post I’m going to talk about how to keep consistent book sales over time. You might also want to look at my post, Sustaining Your Book Sales… and Yourself, as well as my latest episode about getting a Bookbub ad, which will tie into this information. 

So … you’ve written a book. Congratulations! For real. It’s a big undertaking, and you should be proud of yourself.

Then you launch the book–time for more celebration! (And if you need a simple launch plan, check out my post on a Simple Launch Framework.) Launching really is hard work. Definitely something to feel good about.

And then comes the sales slump.

Or maybe your launch didn’t go BOOM. It just quietly happened … with a handful of sales to show for it.

How in the world do you sell books and then keep sustaining those book sales over time? Because the reality is this: if you don’t promote, your books will continue to fall in the rankings until they’re just lost in the Amazon (or whatever retailer) store. Let’s talk about how to combat that.

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188 – HOW TO KEEP CONSISTENT BOOK SALES

… and so on. I have a big calendar on the wall in my office, and I try to plan one big thing per month that I put some funds towards, combined with the daily lower-spend ads I’m usually running in the background.

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WHAT IF I DON’T DO ANYTHING TO PROMOTE MY BOOKS?

I mean, it’s totally a choice to put your book out there and hope people find and read it. Maybe they will. Maybe your book will have JUST the right keywords and somehow word of mouth gets things moving and it seems to sell on its own. I do know authors who put out a book and … that’s about it.

But they’re unicorns. That’s not the norm. And usually it means they’ve built a reputation and a readership that shows up.

Without some kind of promotional plan over time, your books won’t continue to sell.

It’s also harder when you have fewer books. Those books may need a stronger, harder launch push. Or you might really need to figure out and test ads to keep effective ads on them because you won’t have the option for BOOMS with other books if you don’t have all that many books.

Getting one BookBub Featured Deal won’t make your sales last forever. It will have an impact. But it will die down if you don’t continue to take actions that create consistent book sales over time. Those sales every day add up.

Continue to grow your readership, because those people will buy your books. Not one book, but ALL YOUR BOOKS. So, while you’re investing in your BOOMS and blooms, also invest time and money into your reader base, whether you’re doing that via email (my big focus) or in a Facebook group or somewhere else.

WHAT IF YOU HAVE NO BUDGET?

I hear this a lot and I really, really get it. If that’s you, I know this is frustrating. I will say that when I started out, I didn’t have much budget. I was making other money in other ways (primarily through this podcast, affiliate sales, and courses), so I put ALL that money toward my fiction. I also put all the money I made BACK into the business.

I bootstrapped and got the best cheapest covers I could and spend maybe $100-200 on paid email promos, which are the best bang for your buck if you don’t know how to run Facebook or Amazon ads. That money MORE than came back to me, by the way. It got my new books visible as a new author. That DOES matter. I did newsletter swaps and Facebook group things and whatever free things I could.

The money started to grow over time, and over time, I increased my budget. I also lost money as I figured out what worked for me and what was a waste of time.

Start small. Start where you can. Do what you need to in order to have SOME money to invest in your books. It’s really going to be hard to make any money if you have none to invest. But take heart, you can start small.

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Want to start small with FB ads?

You can snag my FB ads minicourse for $75. It’s got a two-hour intro workshop, plus multiple tutorials on how to set up Facebook ads on a budget, and a case study watching an ad over the course of a week to see how the ranking and sales went.

I recently secured my first BookBub Featured Deal! There are a few options with BookBub–ads, new release featured deals, preorder alerts, and featured deals. Featured deals must be applied for and are the most expensive and most effective–or at least, they have been in the past. Are they still effective? Let’s take a look!

Applying for a BookBub Featured Deal can feel sometimes like an exercise in futility. And frustration. Especially when you see some of the books that DO get chosen. Books that might have fewer reviews, weird or bad covers, or stinky blurbs.

After feeling the frustration and mostly forgetting to apply, I applied for book 1 and book 2 of my beach series. I got one rejection (for book 1) and one acceptance (book 2)! I’m going to break down the expenses, what else I did, and how the numbers played out.

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LISTEN TO EPISODE 187 – Behind the Scenes of a BookBub Featured Deal

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

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I’m going to break this down for you in honest terms and with some facts and figures. For things I don’t KNOW (like how to secure a Bookbub Featured Deal), I’ll give you my best guesses and let you know that they’re guesses.

HOW TO SECURE A BOOKBUB FEATURED DEAL

To apply for a Bookbub Featured Deal, you need to apply within 31 days of the date. You’ll simply sign into Bookbub, then look at the bottom to Submit a New Deal.

Common advice is to make the deal competitive–99 cents or free. Books that are wide (as in, available on multiple retailers, not just Amazon) tend to have better chances, but books in Kindle Unlimited (exclusive to Amazon) do still secure deals. Professional covers and reviews are a part of it, though I’ve seen some meh covers and books with low reviews. If you get rejected, you’ll need to wait four weeks to submit that title again.

• Bookbub has some great tips for submission that you can find HERE.
• And if you want the nitty-gritty specifics, you can look at those requirements HERE.

How did MY book get selected? 

I can’t say for SURE, but here are some of my thoughts.

COVER. I recently recovered my whole Sandover Beach series to have more pretty, traditional-style covers that are working really well for traditional and indies right now. They’re GORGEOUS. I was able to secure a great deal with a premade that I had built into a series of covers from Evelyne at Carpe Librum Book Designs. She’s fabulous!

WIDE vs KU. I’ve applied with my Kindle Unlimited, Amazon-exclusive books and not gotten a Bookbub. I’m guessing it helped that this series is available on other retailers like B&N, Nook, and Kobo.

NO RECENT SALES. My book 1 was not accepted, though to me it seems to make more sense to promote a first book in a series, but book 1 had a recent sale before I took it out of KU. Book 2 had no recent sales.

REVIEWS. I’m not sure if it had any bearing, but my book 1 had two low reviews. A one-star from someone who didn’t realize that the book had changed titles and purchased it twice. (As an author, it stinks, but sometimes we need to update books and people not on our email lists or FB groups may miss that memo!) The two-star review was from someone who apparently thought it was super boring. 😉

Overall, who knows. I think that these factors played a part, but otherwise, who knows? Do your best to listen to their guidelines. Keep submitting!

HOW TO AMP UP A FEATURED DEAL

Many people talk about stacking advertising around a BookBub. That may seem… wild. Since you’re already spending money, why spend more? But adding some other newsletter swaps or social shares, or even getting other paid promotions can help your book get visible and stay visible, earning you more income. This is called stacking ads.

What did I do to amp up my deal?

I didn’t have huge goals (like hitting a bestseller list) so I set up one promo the day before. I also set my book 1 to 99 cents. This helped my ranking for both books jump up so that when the BookBub hit, my ranking was already in a good place and got even better. Both my book one and book two broke the top 1000, with book two hitting 121 in the whole Amazon store, my best ranking for a book ever. It stayed there for the better part of day, which rocked. I was also #23 in the whole Barnes & Nobles store.

I didn’t have time to set up swaps, but I did ask for social shares and shared in the groups I’m in that allow promo, and in my own reader groups. I also paid to boost a FB post. Usually, I stick to ads, but I wanted to have a few different things going on at once. I had ads running, the FB boost, FB group shares, and I emailed my own list.

SO … WHAT WERE THE NUMBERS?

I’m just under a week out from the BookBub Featured deal. My sales have started to return back to a normal number already, so here’s a breakdown of how things went. First, for that one book, then the series, and then that pen name as a whole.

THE DAY OF THE DEAL

Cost of the Featured Deal: $480

Sale on Book Two on Amazon: $377

Sale of Book Two on Other Retailers: $235

Sales on Whole Series on Amazon: $698

Sales of Whole Series on Other Retailers: $303

Sales on ALL of My Books (not just this series): $1082

If you’re just looking at day one, there is barely a profit on the book that was featured. I spent $480 to make $612. But if you add in the whole series and then the books from my pen name (almost all of which got a bump), we’re seeing bigger numbers.

Let’s back up and go even wider to see the impact, including the day before, when I started my promo with the other, smaller promo sites.

 

A FULL SIX DAYS–STARTING THE DAY BEFORE

Cost of Bookbub (Featured Deal US & International in Christian Fiction): $480

Two other promotions: $90

Facebook Ads (which ran to the series): $219

Amazon Ads: $75

Total Expenses: $864

 

Total Sales on Book Two on Amazon: $597

Total Sales on Book Two on Other Retailers: $310

Total Sales on Whole Series on Amazon: $1487

Total Sales on Whole Series on Other Retailers: $495

Total Sales on ALL Books: $2576

TOTAL PROFIT: $1712

reminder- expenses: $864

 

How about the week before’s profit on all books for that pen name? Let’s just see what the norm is.

Total Expenses (Amazon & FB Ads): $282

Total Sales on ALL Books (all retailers): $894

TOTAL PROFIT: $612

reminder- expenses: $282

 

 

The margin of profit the week before was BETTER, though not by much. I made more money, but spent more to do it. Both weeks, my expenses were about half of the total profit. 

NOW, let’s scoot back and look at the bigger picture of the whole series, and then my pen name overall. 

As I mentioned, because this was book two, I figured making book one also 99 cents would help. It did. The other two books are $3.99 each and I did have the next preorder up, though Amazon hadn’t connected it to the series page, which hurt. I also have another related beach series. I ended up getting 23 preorders (at $3.99) on the fifth book in this series and 13 (at $4.99) for the related beach book.

The big thing that the money doesn’t show is the number of NEW READERS I have hopefully gained. I sold almost 2500 copies of my four beach books. That’s … massive. The week before, I sold a little over a hundred copies.

And while freebie seekers don’t always read the free books they download (there’s a whole stockpile mentality), people buying books seems to be more likely to read. I’ve seen already a handful of new reviews on the first two books.

WHAT IF YOU WANT TO HIT A BESTSELLER LIST?

I know some people hit the bestseller list with a BookBub. To clarify, I’m NOT talking about the bestselling books in smaller categories on Amazon, but something like the USA TODAY Bestseller’s List.

To hit something like that, you’ll need closer to 7,000-10,000 book sales, including at least 500 on one retailer other than Amazon. Those are the basic numbers people throw around, and based on the fact that I’ve hit one of those lists and am currently in a group aiming to hit, those ring true.

If you want to hit a bestseller list piggy-backing off a BookBub, you’ll need to stack a LOT more ads, ramp up your other ad income, and do a lot more to be visible. The “week” for that runs starting on Tuesday. So you’ll want to make sure you’re hitting on the right day as well. My BookBub was a Saturday, which I would GUESS is less effective overall, but for sure wouldn’t help me hit a list. (I wasn’t aiming or expecting to, for the record.)

MY BIG TAKEAWAYS…

BookBubs are big, splashy, and can make your book look pretty awesome. They DO connect you with new readers. I hit the top in a lot of bigger categories, reached my highest ranking ever, and am on track to make more money this month than I did last month, though this won’t be my most profitable month this year.

What do I really care about?

While orange bestseller flags and even just GETTING a BookBub Featured deal are pretty cool, I’m about the bottom line. I want money, and I want longterm readers.

I did make a profit when you take into account the whole series, and the boost to my pen name. I moved thousands of books, which will hopefully garner me some long-term readers. I’ve also heard it’s easier to get a second BookBub after your first, so I’ll try again and see how we do.

The thing to remember about a BookBub is that it’s one blip on your overall radar. Securing Featured Deals isn’t a sustainable model for promotion, because you can’t control when they’ll say yes or no. To sustain book sales, you need to consider how you can add more blips (aka: one-time, limited promotions) or how you can set up consistent daily promotion.

For me, I’ll take more BookBubs if I can get them. But I’m also relying on the daily FB ads to keep my income up. It’s a combination of big promotions (like launches or sales) with the daily and consistent sales that work to make a steady income.

Want to learn more about affordable Facebook ads to keep your books selling? Check out my Facebook Ads Workshop!

It’s affordable, and you’ll walk away knowing how to create and test ads that make you money without breaking the bank.

 

Formatting your book — sounds boring, right? Turns out there are a lot of things to know when it comes to formatting your ebook and print book. This post will break down what you need to know!

Formatting doesn’t have to be scary, complicated, or expensive! So, let’s find out what you need to know.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 186- HOW TO FORMAT YOUR BOOKS

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

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Formatting might sound boring. But it’s super important and can be very simple. Let’s dive into the whys and hows.

First of all, formatting is usually the last thing you’re doing, after your book has been edited or proofread. If you’re sending ARC copies to a team of reviewers, you might need to format before this stage in order to send to them in a format they can read on an ereader. (Read more on beta and ARC readers.)

Formatting stresses us out, but it doesn’t have to. So… what really matters? Ultimately, reader experience is king. Your main goal with formatting is to keep your readers centered in the story. The end. Readers want simple. Not distracting. Not fancy.

Don’t think it has to be more than simple. Our goal should be to keep our readers in the story. Weird formatting or mistakes can pull the readers out and distract them from being lost in the fictional dream. Or, in the case of nonfiction, it might pull them out and undermine your authority.

Wherever you write your book (Word, Scrivener, Google Docs), you need to be able to export it into a mobi file for amazon and an epub file for the other retailers. There are lots of ways to get a finished product.

• If you WANT to get fancy (for some genres, like epic fantasy, this might be more fitting), I’d recommend Bookly Style for custom images for chapter headings and more.

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WHERE TO FORMAT EBOOKS AND BOOKS

Formatting can be as simple as using Word, or as complicated as adding different images for each chapter. There are a lot of options, and they don’t all have to expensive. Whatever works best for you and comes up with a clean and simple format readers can read–that’s what you should use!

It does NOT have to be expensive. It does NOT have to be complicated. Sometimes–dare I say often–simple is best.

Formatting your ebook with Word

Word is simple. It can be used to write and format simply (with chapter heads, spacing, etc) before using another program to put it into a mobi, epub, or PDF. You should make each chapter a Heading 1, while the rest of the document is Normal. Simple. Easy. And you can go straight from Word to your final document, or go from Word to one of the programs we get into next.

• Check out this simple Word formatting tutorial

Formatting your ebook with Kindle Create

I haven’t used Kindle Create, but this is a great program. It ONLY works to format for Amazon, but can be great for their platform. It’s also a good way to finish out your formatting in Word to get things like the Table of Contents (which is tricky).

• How to format your ebook and book with Kindle Create

Formatting your ebook with Draft2Digital

Draft2Digital allows you to format even if you don’t distribute with them, which means a free tool. When you upload a book with D2D, you can set up the formatting on the third stage. Basically, their tool allows you plug in a Word doc and spit out a finished mobi or epub. You can’t make changes within their porgram, so everything has to be done in the Word doc before you get there.

Formatting your ebook with Vellum

Once I made $300 a month, I made it my reward to purchase Vellum. For $250, you can get the format for ebook and print. Vellum works on mac, or you can use Mac in the cloud on PC. It makes every part of formatting incredibly easy. I would NEVER go back.

Here’s a video I created on some of the differences between Vellum and Draft2Digital:

• Check out this book on formatting with Vellum

Formatting your book with a third party

You can always hire the formatting out. If you are talking about a simple text book, this should NOT be expensive. Because, remember? Formatting is about user experience and whatever will not distract the reader and pull them out of the story.

If we’re talking cookbooks or books with tons of images, it’s a totally different animal. Poetry books, again–different.

If you hire out formatting, make sure you’re not spending hundreds for simple text formatting you could do with Word. Formatting of a simple book or ebook that is all text should NOT cost a lot of money.

HELPFUL LINKS

• KDP formatting guidelines
• KDP ebook manuscript formatting guide

WHAT YOU NEED TO CONSIDER WHEN FORMATTING YOUR BOOK

Here are some things to think about when it comes to some basic–and some odd–formatting things you might run into.

Text messages, emails, or social media

Increasingly, we need to consider modern forms of communication in contemporary books. There are many options for these. But I have a few questions you need to answer as you’re making your choice:

• How will it look in various formats and devices?
• Will it distract the reader?
• How will it translate to audio?

I’ve seen some very distracting options for texts and social media. Using too much italics and bold fonts are distracting and hard to read. No one wants to read a lot of communication in bold or italics, and if there is no name attached to the text, it can be confusing who is talking. Small caps or trying to use other fonts can be annoying and are best avoided, though I’ve seen that as well.

Personally? I would make the case for the name (in bold or not) with a colon and then the text. That makes it clear who is speaking (for audio), looks good across devices, and isn’t distracting to readers. Don’t make it artistic. Make it clear and readable.

This works best (IMHO) for a text conversation or longer texts. Every so often, sharing a single text might work best without the break. In something like the following example, I would set it up like dialogue, but use italics rather than quotes. I would not suggest this for longer communications.

EX: Jake pulled out his phone to see a single text from Shelby, which said, I’m waiting out front.

One setting you might have to adjust if possible (in Vellum, it is) is how the text after a little break like this looks. In the above image, the text acts like a scene break, which you probably don’t want, in order to avoid the way “Jake didn’t want to respond” looks.

In other programs you might not have the option, but in Vellum, you can make the text an alignment block and delete the extra space after that would cause this, or change the settings about how the text starts after a break.

Images in books

If you’re planning to format and upload your books for Amazon and other retailers, images aren’t always the best idea. They can cost more in deliverability, and also don’t look the same across devices. Unless you HAVE to have them, images may not serve your book well.

If your book is image heavy, you should consider delivering via PDF on your own website or utilizing a platform like Lulu, which might have more print options than Amazon print.

Justifying text

When you format, you can choose whether to justify the right side. If you choose to justify, that means that the right side will be even along the edge. A lot of traditional publishers use this and it’s definitely the choice for print books.

In ebooks, however, choosing to justify can create readability problems. E-readers allow for the reader to choose the size of the text. This can create issues as the reader struggles for justify the text and make it even, resulting in weird spacing. Just this week I had a reader email me about issues in my book, which were really spacing issues because I’d accidentally chosen the justify option. (Usually I don’t.)

Here’s one that I accidentally justified. An ARC reader sent me the image, thinking it was a mistake.

 

This one isn’t even a horrible example, but you can see the extra spaces in the first few lines. It’s also showing you how using drop caps to start new chapters (even a smaller drop caps) can affect reading. In this case, it’s quite distracting.

While many authors want to do what traditional publishers do, I’d prefer to stick to the reader’s ease of reading. Some may prefer justified, but when it comes to odd spacing, I would rather stick to non-justified. Totally up to you, but consider how it will look at various sizes and on different devices.

Paragraphs and indentation

For fiction books, paragraphs should have an indentation, with no white space between the paragraphs. Leaving extra spaces is a trick used by page stuffers, who aim to make books longer to get more page reads out of Kindle Unlimited.

Even if that’s not your goal, if you’re adding extra spaces in your book, that might distract readers and get you flagged from Amazon.

Nonfiction books can either format with the indents and no spaces, or have no indentation and a space between the paragraphs, like this blog post. Your choice.

You can also choose to start a chapter with drops caps or not in a lot of the programs. There are also other options like small caps or no indent for the first line of a chapter, or after a break. I do like something different at the beginning of a chapter, but in that last example, every so often, that kind of formatting creates weird results.

 

For any of these considerations, if you’re choosing a traditional publisher, you should see what their house style is and what they prefer. You might end up creating a sort of house style of your own where you know how YOU like your formatting to be.

QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN FORMATTING

I’ll leave you with some questions to ask yourself when it comes to formatting. These might help you make different kinds of decisions that you have to make.

• Does it serve the reader?
• Is it distracting in the text?
• How much does it cost?
• What are the guidelines for the publisher you’re using?
• What is the industry standard, or the typical usage within your genre?
• Will it translate for audio when you go down that path?

and, last but most important:

• WHERE COULD I BETTER SPEND MY TIME AND MONEY? 

Formatting matters. But mostly in the sense that it shouldn’t distract and pull readers out of the story. It shouldn’t take you tons of time or cost a lot of money. It should be basic. Basic and readable is better than fancy and distracting. Your formatting should serve the reader’s experience in the story, not be clever or fancy for the sake of being clever and fancy.

 

 

 

I wanted to do a quick post talking about the two big ads platforms most authors use: Facebook and Amazon ads. There are some major differences between them, and it takes some work to figure them out. This is by no means a big overview, but a few key differences as well as some things they have in common.

A lot of people will debate the merits between one and the other. Usually people don’t champion both, but find one that works for them and then use that. For me, that’s mostly Facebook ads, though I’m starting to see some traction with both.

This post contains affiliate links!

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LISTEN TO EPISODE 185- KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FACEBOOK & AMAZON ADS

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

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Key Differences Between Facebook Ads and Amazon Ads

Facebook will spend your money. Amazon MIGHT.

If you give Facebook a budget of $100 a day, Facebook will spend that. If you give Amazon a budget of $100 a day, your ad may or may not get served at all.

On Facebook, when you say you want them to spend an amount per day, they believe you. Amazon ads are really different in how they’re set up and what that budget means. If you’re setting a higher cost per click on Amazon ads, you might spend that. I know people who set up ads and accidentally put a decimal in the wrong place, spending a LOT of money very quickly.

Be really careful when you’re setting up BOTH kinds of ads, knowing that you could be really losing a lot of money if you’re treating those daily budgets the same on both platforms.

You can’t target all the authors and books you want to on Facebook. You can on Amazon. 

Facebook doesn’t have the massive list of available targets that Amazon does. Amazon is a bookseller. You’re able to list the ASIN numbers of specific books and target them, which means you can really nail down a super specific audience to a particular book, author, or series.

Facebook only allows targeting people who like certain pages or interests, and this usually doesn’t include indie authors. There are very few indies that you can actually target, so that might make things harder. It means you might target someone like Nicholas Sparks (along with everyone else targeting him) rather than that indie author friend of yours who sells lots of books but may not be well-known.

Of course, on Facebook, you can target for things like behavior, and obviously, target people NOT reading on the Amazon platform, so there are more criteria you can target for, but creating an audience might be a little different since many of the books you want to target may not be an option.

You’ll need to focus on images and ad copy WAY more on Facebook.

The Amazon ads platform uses book covers for your ads, so you don’t need to worry about images. On Facebook, the image is arguably the MOST important part of the ads, and book covers don’t always convert. This means that you’ve got to do a bit more prep work in setting up your ads by finding the right image.

The ad copy is also a bigger deal. You can run ads on Amazon with no ad copy whatsoever. On Facebook, you not only need some text, but a headline. So, you’re going to need more skills here. You CAN work on your ad copy and test it on Amazon, but you could get started right now on Amazon ads without having to seek out images or write copy.

 

BIG SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE AD PLATFORMS

They can BOTH sell books for you.

When you figure out how they both work (just in general) and then test what works for YOU, both ad platforms can be fantastic. I know people making great money with Amazon ads. I’ve made money with Facebook ads. (And I’m getting there with Facebook ads too.)

Don’t listen to someone who says only one works for them. That’s true for THEM. And maybe you’ll settle on one that works best for YOU, but don’t think that one is better. They aren’t the same … other than the fact that they can both sell books for you.

They’re both ridiculously hard to gauge results.

The hard part of using the ads is tracking what is actually working. Why is this an issue?

On Amazon, their reporting dashboard is notoriously wonky. So a lot of people don’t even use that dashboard and look instead at their KDP dashboard and sales reports, or look at whatever they’re using for tracking sales, like Book Report.

On Facebook, it’s hard to know because you can SEE the cost per click and lots of data, but you may not be able to tell what sold on Amazon. Some ads people will tell you to use Amazon affiliate links to see what sells, and while that CAN work, it violates terms of service in a few ways. Some people use readerlinks or Books2Read (Draft2Digital’s universal link option) or landing pages or other things, but sometimes FB ads get finicky and they don’t like the links to other places and won’t approve or will shut down the ads. Some people use them just fine.

I always name my campaigns with the ranking on them, because that at least allows you to see how a book is ranked at the start of a campaign and then as they work, but there are sometimes other factors. Like random organic sales, newsletter swaps, readthrough as people read your other books. So many factors.

Neither platform will sell your book if your cover, blurb, and book aren’t solid. 

This is just the basics of EVERYTHING. If you don’t have a professional looking cover that’s genre-appropriate, a blurb that hooks readers, and a solid book, you’re going to struggle to sell books. These are things you need to make sure you’re getting RIGHT before you delve into ads. Period.

It can be really hard to tell sometimes. We are biased about our own books. We don’t always see the market correctly or understand the nuances of these sales. If you need help here, check out some of these resources:

• How to Increase Your Sales Rank on Amazon
• Niche It Down a Notch
• Writing to Market

SO, WHICH ADS SHOULD YOU USE?

If you’re just starting out, neither. Not yet. I highly recommend starting out with the paid email promo sites like EReader News Today, Robin Reads, and the like. Typically, you’ll have to discount your book for a set period (1-2 days) and can schedule your sales around that. Or keep your book at a lower price for a longer time and stagger those promotions. These sites are more reliable because they have built up massive email lists of people who want books. You don’t have to gauge them the same way and they’re less of a risk.

• The Best Promo Sites from Kindlepreneur

But, you should be learning Facebook ads and also Amazon ads, testing as you learn and then figuring out what works best for you. Learn as you go, then keep investing more and more into your ads as you find what works.

• Kindlepreneur’s free Amazon Ads course
• Help! My Facebook Ads Suck!

You can also check out my workshop on Facebook ads that will help you set up low-cost Facebook ads on a budget and learn to gauge your results. I’ve taken a number of Facebook ads courses and workshops, tested a LOT, and tried these methods with several books and genres. It’s the best FB ads resource you’ll get for this price. Trust me on that.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE FACEBOOK ADS WORKSHOP! 

You can join me live on June 16th, or purchase the replay + bonus resources afterward.

Author collaborations can be fantastic … except when they aren’t. In this post, we’ll look at how to avoid bad author collaborations and the questions you should answer before you dive in!

It’s no secret that I’m into collaborations. I wrote a whole book on working with others called Creative Collaborations.

And yet … I’ve had some bad ones.

I still recommend working with others, but I’ve learned a lot and am way better at choosing good projects and good partners. I hope this helps you avoid those bad author collaborations!

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LISTEN TO EPISODE 183 – HOW TO AVOID BAD AUTHOR COLLABORATIONS

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

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KINDS OF COLLABORATIONS

First of all, if you haven’t worked with other authors, you might be wondering about the kinds of collaborations you can have.

Really, the sky is the limit as far as ways you could partner up and support other authors or work together. But here are some of the common ways authors work together all the time.

• newsletter swaps (sharing other authors’ books in exchange for sharing yours)
• joint author box sets or anthologies
• series or shared, connected worlds
• co-writing a book
• group promotions through Bookfunnel, Story Origin, etc
• running a giveaway together
• joint Facebook groups
• co-hosting a podcast
• interviews (on blogs, Youtube, etc)
• and so many more!

Authors work together in all kinds of ways and it can really benefit everyone involved to work together and expand reach or share readers.

But … you can also end up getting burned. You might lose time, money, or relationships. Or, you might just derail your forward trajectory and momentum when you make a group project your focus.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO CONSIDER BEFORE HOPPING INTO AN AUTHOR COLLABORATION?

So, someone posts in a Facebook group about a box set. Or an author friend emails you about co-writing a series. Or doing a group giveaway. How do you decide if you should go for it? Here are things you need to consider.

LEVEL OF COMMITMENT SHOULD EQUAL YOUR LEVEL OF TRUST

The kinds of collaborations I listed above have varying degrees of commitment. With a joint promo on Story Origin, you might run everything through the app and never “meet” the other authors. With a co-writing project, you’ll be communicating a LOT throughout the process.

The level of commitment a collab requires should equal the level of trust you have in the person or persons. 

I don’t need a ton of trust in the people in a join promo. (Though even then, you might want to know that the content in the books they’re sharing is solid.) You need an enormous amount of trust in a co-author. You’ll be sharing words and also somehow splitting up the income. You’re creating digital real-estate for YEARS to come.

On the flip side, if you sign on for a large project with a friend that you trust, can you stay friends if things go south or you come to a disagreement?

It’s not just about how they are to work with, but their reputation. Because collaborating with other authors can mean that their reputation impacts YOUR reputation.

I signed on to a joint project and a few people signed on after me that are not people I would have worked with. If you’ve been around, you know that I am always talking about avoiding smarmy behavior. Well, some of the people on the project were smarmy. And my name got dragged around (to some degree) with theirs.

Make sure you know who is signing on to the projects. I wouldn’t give a final answer if you don’t know. Especially in the nonfiction world, where your authority, expertise, and reputation are the currency. Being tied to someone who does shady things makes you look bad.

So… how do you go about finding out if some random author on the internet is trustworthy?

The more I hang out in author groups, the more I see authors and how they behave. That behavior is a good start. But when it comes to signing on with a bigger project, I might ask around if I can see who was in another project with them.

I don’t want to promote gossip and backstabbing, but you could ask something like this: I know you worked with Awesome Author in the past on This Great Project. I’ve been asked to do This Other Great Project. Would you recommend it? 

Do what homework  you can on the other authors you’ll be partnering with.

BE SURE OF THE GOALS

Before you hop into a project, know its goals. And not just the goals for that project, but how those goals align with YOUR goals.

Often, multi-author projects can help newer authors get exposure and be seen. Especially if you’re working with authors who have been around longer. But sometimes, taking your focus off your OWN goals and your OWN brand to do these can actually slow your momentum.

I was on a steady income increase with mostly organic reach. (As in, no or low ads.) Then I did two multi-author projects I had planned months before I knew how things would go. It TOTALLY derailed my progress and, to be honest, my income never hit that track again but stayed lower.

Maybe that would have happened anyway (just with changes in the market I’ve noticed), but I can’t help but wonder if I’d stayed narrowly focused on JUST my own series that was doing well, if maybe things would have continued on that upward swing.

Be sure whatever the group goals are, they will fit with your personal goals and really help you reach them.

Now, let’s talk about different goals why it’s important to know them, using box sets as an example. A multi-author box set or anthology could have the goal of making sales, gaining exposure for authors, or hitting a bestseller list. Each of those goals is going to have different actions needed to get there.

In one group anthology I’m in, some authors weren’t clear on the goals. A few thought it was for getting our names out there to a new audience and leading them into our new series. Others thought we would make a profit. (FYI- Just realize that with a group anthology or box set, it’s much harder to make money because you’re splitting it…) The differences in opinions led to a challenge when it came to how to price the book and whether or not to run certain kinds of promotions.

Even with the same goals, you might have different actions. I’ve been in two groups with the goal of hitting the bestseller lists (USA TODAY, Wall Street Journal). The first group worked one way (and yep, we hit the list) and the second one is totally different in terms of how we’re going about it and the time required.

Which leads me to the next big thing…

HAVE SOLID COMMUNICATION AND REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

It’s important to make sure that there is good, clear, consistent communication for the project. You should also know HOW you’ll communicate. I’ve signed on to several projects that I didn’t realize would use a new form of communication that I don’t like or didn’t want to use.

Will the group talk via email? Phone? Voxer? Trello? Facebook group or messenger? Make sure you ask!

Before you sign on, make sure you also understand what you’ll be doing. How much time is involved? How much money? What kinds of activities?

As I mentioned with the two box sets aiming toward hitting a list, things have been totally different. Not good or bad, just different. Would I have signed on to both, knowing the different things I’d need to do? Probably. But I wish I’d known beforehand and didn’t ask all the questions I should have. My expectations were way off!

You should also know who is making the final decisions. Is one person in charge? Do you all get a vote? If there is one person running the show, you need to have maximum trust. I’ve heard stories of authors paying to buy into a group project and then the person organizing ghosts. Or… doesn’t give a clear accounting of money.

If there’s money involved, you need to have a really detailed (or pretty detailed) accounting. How will profits be split? Who covers which costs? Who decides on how much money you’re investing in covers vs ads or editing and other costs?

Often, I’ll hear general things like: the money goes towards ads and expenses.

Okay. But… how much? What expenses? Is the organizer getting paid for time? How are they tracking that time? How much is going into ads? Does the person running ads know HOW to run them? If you are putting money IN, you need to know where it’s going, how it’s being spent, who makes those decisions, and how you’ll get it back.

With that in mind, here are some final warnings of what to watch out for…

FINAL TIPS FOR AVOIDING BAD AUTHOR COLLABORATIONS

Don’t get scammed. Scammers exist. Often you can identify them, but not always, especially if you’re newer. Ask around in trusted author groups. (Are you in the Create If Writing group? Definitely a trustworthy place.)

Ask for an accounting when money is involved. Make sure you know how much money goes in, what it’s going toward EXACTLY, how they share the accounting (screenshots or are they just telling you how much was made/spent?), and if you can outside audit if needed. Some projects are super low to no buy-in. But those that involve money, ASK. oh, and…

Have a contract. And ask a lawyer to look at it. This may sound extreme. I don’t do this on all projects. Ones that involve a lot of time, money, or rights, YES. And I learned the hard way that I don’t know what to look for in contracts. I signed on once that looked reasonable to ME, until I had a problem and then realized some of the things baked into the contract that were not good. OH, and what I was told over email was not what was in the contract. Legally, they were held to the contract. Trying to fight for the promises made in the email when I’d signed something different in the binding contract wasn’t worth my time or money fighting it, as I likely would have lost.

• NEED SOMEONE TO LOOK AT A CONTRACT? For my legal stuff, I like to use Danielle Liss. She’s fabulous and even has some templates and contracts you can purchase for common things. Find her at Liss Legal. or check out Businessese.

Be super wary about your rights. Does the project give up your rights to the book and content? In what way? For how long? When do you get them back? Do you get them back FULLY? Make sure you know all those answers. (Which, again, might mean looking at the legal stuff.)

Know your OWN weaknesses. I can be a TERRIBLE person to work with. I tend to take charge. I have opinions and knowledge. If I don’t feel like the person in charge is doing their job or making smart decisions, I lose it. I know this about myself. So, when I’m signing on to a project, I have to have a talk with myself about it. Do I REALLY trust the organizer to make decisions even if I don’t like them? Can I express my opinions without being a jerkface? You should really take ownership for how you might negatively impact the collab.

WHAT TO DO IF AN AUTHOR COLLABORATION GOES BAD

Before you sign on, try to have an exit strategy. Look to see if there’s one in the contract. If something gets weird, can you get out? What will you lose if you do?

Sometimes there’s no loss. Other times you’ll lose money or a percentage. But a BIG thing you might lose is the relationship. I’ve stayed in something that felt like a sinking ship to save relationships, because those were more valuable than what I was losing staying in.

Other times, I trusted and knew the authors well enough to ask to be set free. I was able to do so without hurting the project or their feelings, and all is well. But this was a multi author series that didn’t involve money or much time, so it was easier to get out of.

The more things (time, money) invested in a project, the harder it may be to get out.  

 

OVERALL, ARE THEY WORTH IT?

Yes. I still firmly believe in author collaborations, even though I’ve had some pretty rough experiences. I can look back and say that if I’d had this post, I either wouldn’t have signed on, or would have been more cautious. I hope that it helps you with the decisions!

Working together can help you build your career, find new readers, and gain expertise, authority, and even money. Just make sure you’re saying YES to the right things.

Links mentioned in the podcast:

Stay Home Story Summit

FB ads workshop