Writing Tip #21 - Promotions

 I feel like I might have talked about this before, but there are certain marketing strategies that can help your book sell. These strategies might seem a little counter intuitive at first, but trust me, they can be useful.

One is called loss-leaders. You publish your first, maybe even the second, and make the book free. Bear with me. I know that you’ve spent lots of time on this and all you want to do is make a living. But charging for your first book will get you some buyers, but not nearly as many as you could get. Here’s why. People will take a chance on a new author if the book isn’t all that expensive. Free books are even more enticing. Give your readers a reason to pick up the book, so make the cover interesting, have a good description, the whole deal. And then sweeten that by making the book very cheap, or even free. If your writing is interesting and you keep them going, they are more likely to want the next book. This one can be sold at a discounted price, or even free. By the third book, your reader should be hooked.

If you don’t have a series, it’s still a good idea to do this. If a reader reads one of your books and likes it, they’re more likely to buy another from you.

Another option is promotional. Make the free book a promotion, for a limited time. Bundle your books together for a discounted price. As long as your readers are saving money, they will be more likely to at least try your books.

That’s all for the writing tip, but I have some personal news. We in the Scribbler Collective have published again, the compilation that I’ve been promising. Jillian opted to call it Screenshot, and it’s available on Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes and Noble and several other booksellers. It’s currently only available as an ebook, but Amazon will soon follow, and then it will be out in print. Here’s a link, if you’re interested: https://books2read.com/u/3LRZPw. As I suggest in this post, the book is $0.99 USD and will go up to $4.99 USD on July 4th. Depending on several personal factors, I might just make this a permanent thing, but we’ll see.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this and have a good week!