A bad week for sales - I think I need to push my book a bit more

Pride comes before a fall and I was proud - or certainly pleased at any rate - to have sold four books last weekend. What have I sold since? Erm, norra lot, as Cilla Black might put it.

So it's somewhat disappointing. Actually my sales flurry last weekend was largely due I think to a regular holidaymaker at Abersoch who came across my book, bought it, told all his friends about it, and three of them also bought it on his recommendation.

But that is exactly the way a self-published ebook like this will either stand or fall in the end. It isn't enough to just upload it onto Amazon's bookstore and leave the rest to Google. Writing a book is just half the battle - marketing it is at least as difficult and I haven't done anywhere near as much as I should.

You cannot get a better accolade than when a complete stranger like Paul comes across the book and he and his young daughter like it so much they recommend it others who then also buy it. This is absolutely the way to do it. On that basis, and considering I deliberately haven't knowingly sold any to friends and family, I should be pleased to have 43 buyers so far. I need to keep pushing it and I am keen to write another - in fact at least a couple more, one of which will be a sequel to Smugglers at Whistling Sands and will also be based at Abersoch / Llyn peninsula using the same core characters: Jack, David, sister Emily and their friend Lou.

I did say that if I were to reach 50 sales by the end of Sunday, October 9, I would guarantee to write that sequel. I am all but relieved of that pledge now by the fact that there is no way I will get seven sales over the next 48 hours. However, I still want to write it - but it may not be my next book. This weekend I am going to think hard about which direction I now wish to take. I have half a mind for my next book to be pitched directly to the adult market, but I'll have to see which way my muse takes me!

Marketing my Kindle ebook feels like a tough call

You know how it is when you're trying to roll a boulder uphill? No nor me, but I would guess it feels something like I do now. I just feel like I don't really know how to market my book and any attempts that I make are like cries in the desert, unheard by anyone.

Yesterday I adopted a direct marketing approach to pushing Smugglers At Whistling Sands. I contacted around 50 people with connections to Abersoch via Facebook. I didn't spam them by saying "please buy my book, it's just 86p." I would like them to, of course, but above all I just wanted them to know of its existence and that it is set in a place they know and probably love. Furthermore, I didn't choose them at random, but rather because they seemed the right sort of people whom it was worth contacting. Perhaps, if they tell others, news of its existence will spread by word of mouth.

So far, I have no reason to think that this approach will be successful however, indeed it might backfire, so I probably won't continue with it for now unlessI feel it does yield something positive. I have had no responses from anyone, but on the other hand, I've not had any complaints either.

The other thing I looked into today, was offering my ebook for free via Amazon's Kindle store as a limited promotion, on the basis that at this stage it isn't royalties I'm after, but readers. There are, after all, quite a number of pretty interesting looking books which are available via Kindle for free. But this is not an easy route to go down, I have discovered.

Kindle Direct Publishing does not allow authors to offer their books for free. You must charge the minimum of 86p (75p +VAT) on Amazon.co.uk and its equivalment on Amazon.com and Amazon.de. The reason a number of books appear on Amazon for free is because the company is committed to beating or at least matching the lowest price, so if Amazon finds your work is free elsewhere, it chooses to reduce your price to zero. But you can't do it yourself.

Maybe that is a route I should not be tempted down anyway. I spent a lot of time writing the 45,000 words to be found in Smugglers At Whistling Sands. I'm only asking 86p for it in any case. I've just got to keep finding strategies of driving people to my book.

Anything that works for me, I will gladly share with readers of this blog. In exchange, let me know what is working for you - I do hope something is!