Most authors bemoan the inability to quantify good marketing efforts beyond sales numbers. The idea is to get sales but to also remain a thought in a reader’s head past closing the book. When a reader is asked to name her favorite author and your name is the first to come mind, that is proof your hours spent writing and promoting have paid off.
Rarely does an author get to see or want to see how ineffective her/his marketing efforts are. The obvious indicator is low sales. Nothing drives home the message like a tiny royalty check. Sometimes though there are other ways to tell.
For instance, 01 July I took part in the #IndieBooksBeSeen promotion started by Mark Shaw on Facebook and Twitter. My hubby took a picture of me holding the covers of Serenity and Kristar. I came to the promotion late and didn’t think much would come of it but what could it hurt, right?
Imagine my surprise when a reader commented on my fanpage stating she’d been waiting for the release of Kristar.
*blink blink*
Kristar has been out in ebook since December 2013. It hit 3rd party retailers in January 2014. It’s been in print since late May. Since I got the cover late November 2013, I’ve been posting about it because I knew how many readers wanted to read Chigaru’s story.
Goodreads, Facebook (my fanpage and several promotional groups), the Siren Yahoo group, headline ads on The Romance Review, cover ads on The Romance Studio (website, blog, newsletter, and release party site), guest blogs, promotional spots on blogs, almost daily tweets from Cover Reveals that I retweet, tweets from my first chapters promotional blog, four separate new release announcement newsletters, updates on my website, updates on this blog, a street team, a promotions company… The list goes on and yet that comment still remains.
How effective are my marketing efforts for gaining new readers when someone waiting for the book didn’t even know it had released? I’m shouting into the crowd and unsurprising enough, very few people hear me.
So here’s the question to those reading this now: Before this post, did you know Kristar is the sequel to Serenity? Did you know Kristar is available for purchase in ebook (Bookstrand | iBooks | Kindle | Kobo | Nook) and print (Amazon | B&N)?