Saying now: FEEDBACK APPRECIATED!
I have two books gearing up for release.
Catalysts is a horror novella that I wanted to put out on or near Halloween. Minimal marketing here because I need to save money for the big one. Probably tweets, a blog post, and a midday FB post on the sites that allow horror. It seems a lot of promo sites don’t touch horror. Anyway, I have everything set up and am trying to decide if I want to debut ON Halloween or a day or two before. People might be too busy on Halloween to buy an eBook.
Then we have Legends of Windemere: Allure of the Gypsies, which is setting up for an early November debut. Cover art is near completion and final edits are being done when time permits. I have all the blurbs ready for Goodkindles, Amazon, and AskDavid. So, I’ll be able to submit to all the sites within a day. I’m going for a $2.99 price, which has me nervous because it’s a big step. Still, I have some pre-hype confusion.
The questions to sum up are:
- Do I release Catalysts before or on Halloween?
- When setting up the blog blitz for Allure of the Gypsies, do I have people post the do before or the do of release? The day of release means I can send everyone the Amazon webpage or they can get to it or they can get it off my morning ‘It’s Here!’ post. This isn’t a call for volunteers though since I want to have a plan first.
- What do I do for pre-hype on my blog? I have Sari poems for a day and I can post an excerpt on another. I want a week of stuff or at least 5 days. Maybe a post about family, which is an important factor in this book. I can set up an ‘Ask a Character’ for Sari if anyone is interested. I’d be happy to hear suggestions.
This is what is driving me nuts today while I try to get editing done as well. Again, I would appreciate any suggestions.
Legends of Windemere 
Reblogged this on Andy Kaufman's Kavalkade Krew and commented:
Charles is wondering about pre-hype for his book. I say Pump up the Jam!
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My Steve Boylan Halloween webisode releases on Saturday the 26th cause that’s when I get most views.
Reblogged ya, while I boogie to Pump up the Jam!
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Thanks for the song. I was wondering about a weekend debut, but ebook sales tend to be weak on Saturdays and Sundays. Interesting that webisodes do better on weekends.
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Really? People buying ebooks at work? haha.
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Maybe preparing for the weekend?
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Could be, hehe.
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Certainly plausible.
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Guess I’ll find out though. Never thought Halloween was a big sales day. The day after is the big one with discount Halloween candy as far as the eye can see.
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Yeah, lol.
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God I wish I could help you. I think I would go bonkers trying to do two book releases at the same time. I would fear people would go into mental blocking from over stimulation. I am such a lazy writer that I don’t know that I will ever have this problem. I do think that I would shoot for Halloween for Catalysts…and save Allure for later (but only because I haven’t actually gotten to Prodigy yet).
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I can’t wait too long on Allure, so I’m thinking first week of November. Catalysts won’t have much behind it, so I don’t think over-stimulation will be a big factor. Benefit of two different genres, I guess. My whole confusion is mostly around the hype before Allure’s release. Papizilla wants to do a Week of Yallowitz too, so I need to figure out a bunch of stuff.
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Well for #1, I would probably do it the day before, although downloading an ebook on Halloween is a 30 second process…not too taxing in my opinion. #2 I would probably do on the day of so that you have the link available to the Amazon page, this just saves people steps. For #3, why not post a few paragraphs each day from chapter 1 as a teaser. I know that once I start reading a book, if it catches my attention, I want to read past chapter 1 to find out what happens. In addition, you should post some poems and family history to rev-up the excitement. All this of course comes from someone with no marketing experience so take it for what it is worth. I certainly wish you the best of luck with both of these endeavors. 🙂
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Good idea for #3. Maybe take one day to post the opening section, so it isn’t really a spoiler. It’s just how the book begins.
I haven’t had much luck with the poems, but the family history would be smart. This is the story where people meet the Callindor family, so I can write about them for a post. I have some Sari poems too. Probably should do something about the new villain as well.
Day or evening before for Catalysts sounds like a good idea. Thanks for responding.
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I’d go with before Halloween, but it’s hard to say. End of October can be a slow time. But if the end of October has a little extra business for Halloween, you’d like to start building your customers-also-bought referrals and whatnot early.
Price is another toughie. Ordinarily, I’d say $2.99. You have a long series though. At $2.99 each, it’s going to get expensive. 99 cents makes one volume at a time an impulse buy, and the whole series affordable. But then again, each volume is worthy of a $2.99 book price and will last a while. The big question is if you think you’d sell 6 times more books at 99 cents than $2.99; otherwise, financially, you’re making more money at $2.99. (But maybe exposure is the greater concern; having more people get to this volume may lead to more future sales, too.) Then what happens if you drop the price? Will the $2.99 supporters be upset? (Well, we pay extra to be the early bird.) Maybe that’s the thing. If $2.99 isn’t working, you can always change the price later. You’ll also get some data to help you judge to what extent price affects sales rank.
I’m not so good with advice unless I see a clear advantage. I can argue each of these both ways, which isn’t any help at all. 🙂
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Thinking the day before Halloween, so it will be live for the entire holiday.
The pricing plan right now is the first 2 books stay at .99 cents. They’re the incentive. The 3rd book will be at $2.99 where I can adjust if necessary, but I’ll get a 70% royalty from that. The plan was always to start making the later books at the higher prices and use the first to pull people into the series. The novella is going to be .99 cents due to size and it being an experiment.
I am sure I could sell a lot of books at 99 cents, but I have no way to tell if it would be that much without trying a $2.99 book. This will be a test of the marketing plan too. I wouldn’t do a price drop unless I get a long streak of silence, but even then I’ll try to do other things before doing a price change. It’s playing it by ear.
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I was thinking a few days before Halloween for the Catalysts (great title, btw)…it’s pretty festive that entire week – even this coming week end. Not sure though…just a thought into the pot.
Ellespeth
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I was thinking Tuesday or Wednesday because the weekend seems to be weak for debuts. I’m not going to push the book a lot, so maybe get it set up Wednesday morning and people can buy it by the afternoon.
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I would launch Catalysts on Monday morning or Sunday night.Then post on your horror forums. Price is $2.99 permanently. Don’t devalue your work. Damn good book that should bring you at the minimum $2.99 and probably should be at $3 or 4.99.
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Monday has typically been slow sales at the beginning for me, so maybe that night or afternoon. Only reason I thought Tuesday or Wednesday is because those have been my better sales days.
I don’t know any horror forums and I’m not going to do a major push on this beyond a day of tweets.
Not sure which book you’re talking about. I feel a novella should be .99 cents and this is an experiment in a genre I know very little about. The $2.99 will be for Allure of the Gypsies. Going for the tier pricing on the series. That appears to be the safest route.
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Allure of The Gypsies. I can peek around for some horror forums for you.
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That one is definitely going to be $2.99 unless the price ends up being a severe mistake. If it goes for a month with no sales then I’ll have to make a change.
Honestly, I’m already phasing over to Allure of the Gypsies marketing. So, pushing Catalysts is becoming an after-thought. Tempted to do with I did with Bestiary and do a few days of minimal marketing then walk away. I’d like for word of mouth to be a stronger force on it, but that’s going to be a challenge.
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I will do what I can, the longer it is out before Halloween I think the better. Some people may read horror only on Halloween. I would stay the course with Allure’s price. If you bounce it up and down, people will just wait for the inevitable drop to get it. Or if you get desperate enough to make it free. Make them come to you.
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I’ll have to play it by ear though. I should have enough of a footing with the first two books at 99 cents to make good on 2.99, but stubbornness will only hurt me.
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