Hello writers! You probably know by now that I try to share information with fellow authors whenever I can. Today, two pieces of info when it comes to marketing and promotion that you may find interesting:
1. Make sure you have a newsletter. Time and time again, I have read this piece of advice as one of the best. It costs very little (even free, depending on the subscription service you use and how many subscribers you have) and it's a great way of connecting with readers. I recently switched from YourMailingListProvider to MailChimp (cost reasons) and have been happy with how user-friendly MailChimp seems to be. I also recently ran a contest through Fresh Fiction, on the recommendation that it was a good way to gain subscribers -- I had 985 people enter the contest/subscribe to my newsletter, and when I sent out a new edition this past Monday, a few things happened:
A. 2 addresses bounced as spam (I had been warned about this but was relieved to see that the spam addresses were so low).
B. 28 people unsubscribed. That's not great, but that still means that I have over 900 new subscribers for my newsletter.
C. I had a nice sales bump of Cocktail Cruises yesterday and today, which I will attribute at least in part to the newsletter mention and also to my second point of today's post...
2. Don't hate the bad reviews. I'm running a blog tour right now of Cocktail Cruises, and while most readers have really enjoyed it, yesterday's did not love Sex on the Beach (#2 in the series). Among other things, she didn't like the heroine (even though she admitted that once the heroine started to change thanks to the hero's influence, she liked her a lot more). At first, I cringed. I mean, we want everyone to love our babies, right? But then I thought, OK, well everyone has an opinion. And when I had a sales boost yesterday, I thought perhaps at least some of those purchases came from people who read the review and maybe wanted to see for themselves. Remember, readers often buy books just because other readers are talking about them -- not necessarily saying good things, but just talking.
Write on, friends!
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