By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I thought I’d share my efforts at better marketing and for thinking on more of an international scale with my work. Here’s what I’ve been doing:
Newsletter: Sharing the Signup Link
I’ve mentioned before that I was very slow on the newsletter bandwagon. I read…oh… dozens of posts on the importance of email (newsletters) as a marketing tool for writers. Finally, about a year and a half ago, I started a newsletter for readers.Continue reading
By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I had to answer a questionnaire for self-publishers recently and several of the questions stumped me. I have a feeling that this isn’t a good thing.
One of the questions was ‘How many books have you sold (not given away)?’ I had absolutely no idea. And this information is not exactly as easy to come by as you might think. There is no way on your KDP dashboard to find lifetime sales.
I also had no idea how many books, total, I’d given away.
Another question was ‘What is your strongest selling title? How many units have you sold?’
Hmm.
In my defense…I have been very busy writing several series. My self-published books number six which, although not a huge number, certainly adds a bunch of lines and some complexity to each month’s KDP excel sheet.Continue reading
By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Not all writers are introverts, of course. I’m one of the more introverted ones. My introversion can veer into shyness around readers…I’m not a shy person otherwise.
There are definitely things I’m more comfortable doing than others. I hate readings and signings. But I don’t mind signing stock in bookstores or (now), telling people that I’m a writer. And there are things I don’t enjoy doing that I now just suck up and do.
Even introverted writers should consider:
Wattpad. This online publishing platform is a good way to get our work in front of a younger/different audience. Yes, we’ll need to interact with readers there.
Newsletters. It took me years to get to the point where I’d “bother” a reader with a newsletter. I’ve only been sending them for a little over a year. Even though readers signed up completely voluntarily to be on my newsletter list. Each time I send them, my numbers on Amazon get better.Continue reading
By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I had my tax appointment with my accountant on February 2nd. This is really not “my thing,” but I feel a lot better now that I’ve got a CPA helping me. Although, as I walked into her office on the 2nd, I said, “You know, taxes really make me anxious” and I promptly dropped all my receipts and papers on the floor. Apparently in an attempt to show, not tell.
But after all the trouble and the figure-finding and the paper shuffling, I found that I actually had some pretty interesting data. Here’s what I found out about tax year 2014:Continue reading
By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Sometimes I get surprised reactions both from non-writers and writers that I’m self-publishing in print as well as in ebook format.
I know some think print is dying out. From my observations, there aren’t nearly as many people purchasing in print as they are digitally. After working with my accountant on my taxes last week, it was very clear on the 1099-MISCs that my print sales for self-publishing were a tiny fraction of my ebook sales.
Would I turn this money down, though? Of course not. And the initial investment in print formatting and cover design has long paid for itself. It did take me a very long time to branch into print and I’m sorry I waited as long as I did.Continue reading
