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My Results Using Ads and Specials by Kitty Bucholtz

April 10, 2014 by in category Archives tagged as , , , , , ,

Most writers are curious about what is and isn’t working for other writers when it comes to selling books. I’m grateful for what others have been willing to share, so it’s only fair to share in return. Even though my results are a bit embarrassing.

I’ve only bought ads three times. I bought an ad last year with The Wordsmith Journal Magazine (online) for Little Miss Lovesick. After one month, I had zero new sales. Ouch.

In August, while Unexpected Superhero was enrolled in the KDP Select program (meaning it was only for sale on Amazon for the first 90 days), I took advantage of the program’s free days option and made the book free for five days in a row at the end of a conference I was attending. I also bought an ad from BookBub that appeared on the first day of the promotion.

There were a whopping 17,561 free downloads during those five days! Over 10,000 copies were downloaded the first day, which I attribute primarily to the BookBub ad. During the next two weeks, I sold only 24 more copies when the book went off sale (back to $3.99). Then the sales dropped back to the 0-3 per week average that has been more common for my books so far.

A month or two ago, I dropped the price of Unexpected Superhero from $3.99 to $2.99 to see if I could see a change in sales. There might have been a slight increase. At 0-3 sales per week, it’s a bit hard to say. 🙂

My third promotion-with-paid-advertisement was last week. I dropped the price on Little Miss Lovesick and promoted it with 19 other lovely romance authors and their books last Friday. I also took out a then-free ad from eBookSoda, a newer email list like BookBub that advertises free and reduced-price books. (The ads were free, then $5, and I’m sure they’ll keep increasing in price as they grow their list. The problem with this ad is that I don’t know if it went to 100 people, 1000, or 20,000.)

I dropped the price from $2.99 to 99 cents a week before the promo with Smashwords so it would be 99 cents at the other outlets by the day of the promo. I decreased the price on Amazon two days before, and it went into effect the day before. I saw that I sold one copy on Amazon a day or two before the promotion, then two more copies total during the weekend of the promotion and ad.

That’s it – 3 sales. At the high end of “usual” for me.

Little Miss Lovesick got a new (second) cover a few months ago, but it’s barely changed the sales. Unexpected Superhero got a new (second) cover at the end of March, too early to tell if it has affected sales yet. I took out another eBookSoda ad (the free ad that went to $5 when I did it this time) for Sunday, May 4 (my third choice date, Fantasy category, same as last year’s BookBub ad). I’ll leave Superhero at its current $2.99 price and see if anything happens when it’s not on sale but advertised.

And that’s about all I know so far. My second superhero book was to be ready next week for WonderCon, and which I expected to help sales of the first book. But my husband’s motorcycle accident and injuries trumped anything and everything that used to be on my To Do list. 🙂

I’ll keep you updated so you get a well-rounded view of self-publishing and advertising. (It’s less embarrassing to write about your successes, so there are a lot more of those stories out there.) It would appear that my experience underscores what other successful writers have said about success coming after you have several books out. Unfortunately, “life” has thrown a wrench in making that happen soon, but as the Brits (used to) say, Keep Calm and Carry On.

And keep writing! 🙂

Kitty Bucholtz decided to combine her undergraduate degree in business, her years of experience in accounting and finance, and her graduate degree in creative writing to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher. Her novels, Little Miss Lovesick and Unexpected Superhero, and the free short story “Superhero in Disguise,” are now available at most online retail sites. Superhero in the Making will be released this summer.

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Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

April 6, 2014 by in category Events, Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , , ,

by Linda O. Johnston

I’m sorry to say I won’t be at the OCC meeting this month.  But I’m happy to say that the reason is an event I really enjoy: the L.A. Times Festival of Books.

 
The LATFOB is a two-day event.  This year, those two days are Saturday, April 12, and Sunday, April 13.  I’ll be there both days, which means no OCC meeting, and, as it turns out, no Los Angeles Romance Authors meeting either, since it was changed to the second Sunday of the month rather than its usual third Sunday, which this month happens to be Easter.
 

I often try to schedule everything I want to do at the LATFOB on the same day, but that didn’t work out this year.  I’ll be signing at two mystery booths and helping to staff the Mystery Writers of America booth, and the schedule worked best for me to do some on Saturday and some on Sunday. 
 

Fortunately, I live not far from a Metro stop, so I can take the subway and train to the USC campus, where the festival is now held.  It was at the UCLA campus for many years but that changed a few years ago.

 

I keep hoping for more of a romance presence there, too, but sponsoring booths is expensive.  Harlequin had a presence last year but I don’t see them on the list of exhibitors this year.  I know there was some talk of a bunch of us contributing to sponsor a booth, but I don’t think that materialized, at least not this year.

 

Even if you’ll be at OCC this month, come to the USC campus on Sunday and say hi and check out the many wonderful booths.  There are also speakers, although you generally have to sign up in advance for those programs.  But why not plan ahead?  And, yes, there is a romance panel on Saturday that includes some OCC members!
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Convesations with Barb and Jann

April 2, 2014 by in category Jann says . . . tagged as , ,

 Au naturel                
 Most of you probably don’t have this issue, but I know many do. We will not go out in public without makeup, perfect hair and the right clothes. Now, I’ve been known to occasionally leave the house to pick up a quick item hiding under big sunglasses, my Sedona hat and wearing a pair of slightly worn sweats, but today I woke up with a different attitude.
After over forty years of avoiding au naturel in public, I decided to do the unthinkable. I got up, showered, dressed in yoga pants and T-shirt, tossed my hair around, grabbed my laptop and headed to Corner Bakery to write. I didn’t want to stop the freeing feeling I was experiencing of just get up and go. I didn’t want to take an hour to get ready, read emails or answer questions from family that would start a “to do list” and clutter my mind before I even got out the door.
So, I arrived, no sunglasses or hat, casually dressed. People in the parking lot and patio area outside CB didn’t turn into stone, leaving a garden of statues in my wake, as I made my way to the entrance. I was shocked. Customers inside didn’t gather together to point and whisper. The girl at the counter didn’t look at me with sympathy wondering why I didn’t look in the mirror before I left home.  Instead, I ordered my coffee, found my perfect place to settle in (with electrical plug close by) and got started. My mind free and clear – open for inspiration. It was a beautiful day outside and I felt the same way myself.
Jann RyanHave a beautiful day, 
Jann Ryan

Jann Ryan grew up with the smell of orange blossoms in Orange County in sunny Southern California, where she has lived her entire life and dreamed up stories since she was a young girl. Never an avid reader, she was in her thirties when she picked up her first romance quite by accident. She fell in love with happily ever after and has been reading romances ever since.

Wanting to put pen to paper, Jann joined Romance Writers of America. Currently, she is working on a romantic suspense series set in Stellar Bay, a fictitious town along the California central coast to fulfill her publishing dream.

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OCCRWA’s April Class: Social Media for the Confused and Terrified, with Elena Dillon

April 1, 2014 by in category Archives tagged as

On April 14th we’ll kick off an online class taught by our own Elena, Dillon, and she’s with us here today to talk about the class. Take it away, Elena:

So, I’m a little bit of an information junkie. I love technology. I love gadgets and I love learning new things. When Social Media came about I knew I’d found a new love–all the stuff I’m enamored with in one place.
When a new Social Media platform launches I want to check it out. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram. My kids are horrified. “Mom, that’s not for you. That’s for young people.” Hmmm. Not so much. Really the only new one I haven’t started using is SnapChat. I value my sleep and I know my children will be sending me SnapChats all night if I get an account there. 
Besides I really don’t have time for any more, I have books to write!
This April I’ll be teaching a class for Orange County RWA called “Social Media for the Confused and Terrified”.  If you couldn’t tell by the title it’s for anyone who is a beginner at Social Media, anyone who has been putting it off because they don’t want to go to the trouble of figuring it out, and anyone who isn’t tech savvy.
The class is geared for Romance Writers but anyone can use it. I have tons of resources, videos and podcasts to learn from step by step. I will be teaching as much as I can about as many platforms as I can fit in.  The class is going to be more of a workshop format. None of this “sit back and just absorb the information”! We’re going to be doing. We’re going to be helping each other and building our audience.
Don’t be overwhelmed. Don’t be scared. If you need to learn how to manage your Social Media marketing and platforms, this is the class for you.
We will be using each platform but we’ll be doing it together. So sign up. No excuses. I’m going to make it easy. And we’re going to have fun doing it.
Thanks, Elena. Sign up, everyone! No excuses, it’s easy, just go here.
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Why I buy Organic milk

March 24, 2014 by in category Archives

I buy organic milk.  There.  I’ve said it.  And it’s true.

But I do not buy organic milk because it’s organic.

I do not buy organic milk because of its lack of pesticides.

Nor do I buy it because it’s fashionable and others will admire me for my thoughtful and responsible choices.

In addition, I do not purchase it because I know that my milk choice will, in some small way, Save The World.

In fact, let me say this right up front: there is only one thing I really am interested in with anything ingestible: Does it taste good? Well, actually, the question really is ‘do I like it,’ because “goodness” is clearly self-defined.

And in terms of self-definition, I have little taste memory, so my assessments use the scientific A/B method on everything—that is I taste things back-to-back to try to determine which I like better, or indeed, if I can tell any difference at all.

I also need to confess that I am a tea drinker and have both milk and sugar in my tea.

Thus I must have milk available every day, and it has to last.  It is inexpressibly sad to see a kelp bed of white curdled milk streamers appear at the top of your mug as you milk-up first thing.

And I like fat milk, a creamy taste.  I call it Boy Milk, i.e. whole milk, Vs Girl Milk, which is skim (as I child I thought was called ‘skinned milk.’ Really not too far off).

I was initially intrigued by organic milk by the remarkable sell-by date—often a month away.  Given the issues around the allowed sell-by date (in New York City, the allowed date migrated to 5 days later, so milk that used to last for a week past the sell by date expired in two days, totally messing up my arithmetic) this swath of time was seductive.  I was seduced.

Then an odd thing happened.  I found the organic milk not only lasted longer, but tasted better, sweeter, creamier, I could have 2% and it tasted as good to me as regular whole milk (yes, I verified this in an A/B taste test).

There’s a fair bit of information out there as to the whys and wherefores, but the most compelling explanation for me was in Scientific American.  The article’s focus is on the long shelf life of organic milk.  It notes that organic milk processing is different from regular milk, as it is heated to a higher temperature (UHT), which kills more bacteria and enables it to last longer and hence travel further.  There are fewer organic farms and the product ships longer distances.  The high temperatures slightly caramelize the trace sugar in the milk, giving it a sweeter taste.  Yum.

I have not found non-organic UHT milk, and do not care for the taste of Parmalat, so I’m just paying the price.

And happy to.

Do you have things you do or buy for all the “wrong” reasons?

Isabel Swift

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