Thursday, June 13, 2013

What do I get for my efforts? Anything measurable?

It seems like all I do everyday is Market: donating copies of books for giveaways, making contact with potential readers and other authors, and networking through my blog.  It's paid off though, I'm Author of the Month on Love, Lust, and Lipstick Stain's blog, I've been nominated for the Sunshine Award, I've made friends I don't want to lose.

How does this translate into selling books, though?  I honestly have no idea.  It's like shooting at a target three hundred yards away, open-sighted.  According to Amazon and Barnes and Noble, I'm not selling much.  But Smashwords only sends me quarterly reports and they distribute to Amazon and Barnes and Noble as well.  I have absolutely NO clue how that works.  But last quarter, my Smashwords sales were ten times what my Amazon sales were, and thirty times what my Barnes and Nobles numbers were

I can only assume this quarter's numbers will be better, for a multitude of reasons--

  • I've released an additional book.
  • I think I've got a handle on the marketing thing.  If nothing else, I at least have a routine...
  • My name (brand) is in more places that it was during the last quarter, and if I keep doing what I'm doing, it should be in more places.


My big plan as far as marketing goes is to just get my name in as many forums as possible.  The more people are exposed to my name, the more sales can be expected, right?

But at the moment, sales are measurable to me.  And I have no idea how to predict what my quarterly sales will be...

I can't help but obsess about sales and money.  I'm back at the dentist's office.  *sigh*

2 comments:

  1. Welcome to the world of the online marketer of their own books! This is a SLOG that never seems to end but if you really believe in what you do (aka love: writing) then it's all so worth it in the end. I wish you tons of success & kudos on the awards!

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  2. Thank you, Jen. It is a slog, isn't it? Thanks for the new word. I will incorporate it into my vocabulary immediately. I'm trying not to get bogged down in the marketing though, it's so easy to sink into the quagmire (which is what the word slog brings to mind). But Holy Jeez, this social networking is the biggest time suck!

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