And apparently I suck at it
So I released my self published book on September 15th, 2023. And shortly after release, I needed to get ten Amazon reviews, with a high average star rating. I was able to acquire these reviews through a method I’ll share in another post (so look out for that). But I needed those reviews in order to start advertising.
I pulled out a number of adverts over the past two weeks, and here are the places I went to. BookBub, CraveBooks, BKNights, Buck Books, and Amazon.
With around $250 spent overall, what were the results of my ad campaigns?
I’ll be generous and say I got 10 sales. I know only 1 sale has come from my Amazon ads (because they offer analytics), though I don’t know which of my other campaigns contributed to my sales. Amazon is pushing my paperback over the e-book, and the single sale was for the paperback, so that’s definite a positive. But I’ve spent ten times more on Amazon ads than a single paperback sale.
I’ve decided ads are not the way to go for me. Now there’s a number of factors that might contribute to my low numbers.
(1) My book is general fiction/horror. It’s possible that horror doesn’t do well for ads. Maybe self help or non fiction does better.
(2) I don’t have the most engaging title for my book. Intersection is not a flashy book title. This is something I’ve known for a long time, but it’s the title I’ve chosen.
(3) I have no editorial reviews. It’s possible this factors into things, though I’d never heard of editorial reviews until preparing to release my book, so it also might not be all that well known.
Conclusion? I’ll stay away from advertising in the future. It was a good test, so I don’t think I wasted my money. At the very least, it got my name/book out there. Going forward, I’ll be working on building my author platforms: Twitter (X), Instagram, this website, and YouTube. Hopefully I can find a readership in those places.
If you’re interested in checking out my book, here’s a link.
Next time I’ll share about how I got my Amazon reviews.
Until then, I hope you have a wonderful day,
Colin J Switalski
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