Should you advertise your book?
Probably not.
I’ve never been a big supporter of running ads to my books because:
A) It’s easy to spend lots of money without seeing results.
B) I didn’t think it would work on stand-alone novels.
Most of the people making serious money with ads have a completed series – so they advertise the free first book or run ads to get people to sign up on their list for a free book (and then sell them the others).
Without a series, I don’t think paid ads are a great idea.
BUT ALSO – almost all authors aren’t ready to be advertising yet. They probably have critical problems with their basic platform (cover design, weak sales description, less than 20 reviews), which means the money they spend advertising will mostly be wasted, because it won’t convert very well.
HOWEVER…
Awhile ago I jumped on a webinar with Joanna Penn and Mark Dawson about Amazon (AMS) ads and learned two things that kind of blew my mind. I’d been playing around with AMS ads but couldn’t get them to take my money (unlike Facebook ads, it’s actually difficult to get Amazon to spend the daily budgets you set. While I still think it’s better to have a completed series before you start running ads… actually you can see great results with ads even on a single book as long as your basics are set up right.
In my case, I’m still doing a lot wrong, but I have a few books that stick well and earn consistent revenue with very little promotion. But by using the tweaks I learned from Mark and improving my ads, I’m seeing a boost in sales rank, page reads and revenue… I love the idea of just upping my budget, spending $50 a day to make $500 (then spending $500 to make $5000!).
I’m not an expert at ads, because like I said, I’m really waiting until I finish some long series and then I’ll start advertising the first book hard. On the other hand, I do think – if you want to sell more books – learning to advertise on Facebook or Amazon can be very powerful and cost effective… you can start running ads for only a dollar a day until you see results, then spend more for bigger earnings.
Mark has a course on advertising for authors (you’re probably already aware of it, everybody’s talking about it right now). It’s not cheap but I’m comfortable recommending it because I know it could really make a big difference, especially if you’ve been wasting time or money on marketing and are looking for something simpler and faster.
I wasn’t going to share it with you, because I’m also working on a course on book marketing (21 day author platform) and I don’t want you to have to choose between them. I’ll also be talking about ads and advertising, but in less detail. Mainly, my course focuses on getting the basics right, including the design, and includes everything you need to publish successfully – but it won’t go into as much detail on ads as Mark’s course. But I also wanted to let you know about Mark’s course, just in case it’s exactly what you need and you hadn’t heard about it yet.
So here’s the deal…
If you’re interested in Mark’s course and want to sign up, if you use the link in this email, I’ll give you free access to my new course, the 21 Day Author Platform, as well. I may make this cheap or even free later, but it will be unsupported. But this first round will include real personal feedback on your author platform (video review) and help editing your blurb or advertising copy, so spots are limited.
If you’ve been on the fence about Mark’s course, maybe this is the offer you needed to push you over the edge. I think the combination of my courses with Mark’s will pack a powerful punch, as we have different styles and focus on different things.
>>Click here to check it out Advertising for Authors<<
Again, my course covers all the basics – the essentials that will get you in the green quickly (but that most authors are doing wrong!). Mark’s course focuses JUST on advertising, but if you do learn to advertise well, it can be a lot cheaper, faster and easier than most other forms of book marketing.
If you sign up to Mark’s course with my link below, just email me a copy of your receipt and I’ll give you free access to my course when it’s ready.
>>Click here to check it out Advertising for Authors.<<
PPS) If you don’t know who Mark is…you should read this Forbes article about how Amazon pays him over 450K a year! (Years ago, it’s a lot more now I think). I got to hang out with him at the London book fair a couple years ago and am a big fan of how he runs his publishing business.
I’m a philosophy dropout with a PhD in Literature. I covet a cabin full of cats, where I can write fantasy novels to pay for my cake addiction. Sometimes I live in castles.
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