I'm still amazed at how many paperbacks I sell. In the beginning, I only did ebooks, and I thought doing paperbacks wouldn't make a difference, but it really has.
Interesting that you don't have ads running except during promotions. I've been operating on the assumption that it's a good idea to run Amazon Ads all the time. I'd like to hear more about your approach in terms of the best use of Amazon and Facebook ads. And thanks for all the great information you are continually providing.
It's all laid out in great detail in my book Amazon Decoded. I'm not so strong with Amazon Ads otherwise I might run them all the time - it's certainly the most suitable platform for that, and can act as a nice safety net for your rank, if you can crack them. But generally I don't focus on always-on advertising and like to focus any push - whether that comes from ads or something else - at strategic moments.
@@DavidGaughran Thanks! I read Amazon Decoded quite a long time ago. I'll give it another look. I can't say I've cracked Amazon Ads. I try to run them constantly at a break even level and mostly I do. Willing to do that and/or suffer small losses to keep visibility and rank from descending too steeply. My series is four books with one on pre-order and as I get more published I'm hoping ROI increases accordingly.
Love your videos David! Are you familiar with low content publishing? I'd like to propose an affiliate partnership deal about a tool. Where can we get in touch?
You said it wasn't easy and it isn't, but the clarity and advice given is welcome, David. It's a rollercoaster rather than a linear progression because my previous release got off to a much better start than the new one (Nothing Man, R J Gould) despite the same tactics. Here's a question re The Deals Springboard. I know and have used the recommended USA-focused promo sites but my writing is heavily geared towards the UK market. Any suggestions for getting deal visibility in the UK?
Relative size of the UK market vs. the US means that any site owner looking to set up a deals website is naturally going to choose the US over the UK. Similar issue faces Canadian and Australian authors, particularly those with books of more local interest. I personally find BookBub Ads best of all for reaching those international readers, and Facebook as well. Not so many deal sites (bar BookBub) which will bring in many UK readers, but many of them will tend to bring you a handful of UK sales.
Hi Dave, I have a recently discovered you and l love your content and you have really helped me start to glimpse the wood the trees in the whole marketing thing! Thank you 👍 However you do sound like you are have recorded this one in some sort of cell! 😁😎
So are you saying that if you sell more paperbacks than ebooks, it's not worth doing Facebook ads? I haven't tried them yet. My books are non fiction and contain recipes and I think I've sold 2 ebooks.
I have ran campaigns for paperbacks on Facebook with limited success, but that's at least partly down to my focus on ebooks. I do know others whose sales lean more towards print and they have had some success with Facebook Ads - you just have to factor in those higher prices, and the effect that will have on all your metrics. In short, you'll need a lot more clicks to generate a sale, so make sure you're making enough royalties per sale so that the numbers work for you.
Perfect advice. Absolutely impossible to follow! "Make sure your presentation is on point." Great. How, exactly, do I do THAT? I'm doing my best here, but I have already failed miserably at one launch (with plenty of professional help BTW) and I'm teetering on the brink of failing again. I have NO WAY to judge my efforts. There is NO feedback (short of "Publish and Pray" and when you fail, try again). How can I tell whether the problem is the blurb, (I bought one from Brian Cohen) or the title (I researched other titles in my sub-genre and met as many of the tropes as I could) my cover (pro designer with romance novel experience)? HOW DO I TELL? Again, the hardest most accurate direct critique is failure in the marketplace. BUT failure is not particularly detailed feedback. Was it the blurb? The sub-genre I chose to write in? The title? The cover? WHAT, exactly do I need to change to succeed? I have searched long and hard for any forum that provides critical feedback at a reasonable price. I've used Pick Fu. But, it's a blunt instrument because I can't get detailed feedback that I need, I can only ask this-or-that or yes-or-no questions. I try to talk to other authors, but unless you are an author writing sweet, clean, Regency romances, you may not be clued in and many times successful authors are blind as to the REASONS for their own success. HOW DO I MAKE SURE MY PRESENTATION IS ON POINT!?! I can not figure out a way to find out. I CAN"T afford to keep buying book covers until one of them "hits." I can't just republish over and over and over again. If I don't make it this time, I won't make it. Period. I don't have it in me for another try. I have to sell almost 5,000 books to BREAK EVEN at this point and I can't keep going. I can't. I have no hope of making a profit on this book, and vanishingly small hope of even recovering a substantial portion of the time and money I have recklessly squandered on this totally stupid idea (the idea that I a previously unpublished author could find success through self-publishing). I have exhausted my resources and myself. I'm buggered if I know whether my presentation is "on point." I did my best, but I DON'T KNOW! I can't find out in advance of hitting the "publish" button, either. The ONLY feedback available is total and complete failure. With no idea why. Ever. So, thanks, but no thanks. I can't do what you say to do. I can't. I don't know how and your vague generalities are no help. THERE IS NO WAY TO FIND OUT! IF MY PRESENTATION IS ON POINT! How do I do that? How?
Hi Linda, if you look at the description of this video you will see a link to my free course Starting from Zero which has an entire module on learning your niche and how to present your books in a way that readers should respond to. Here's the link again though - courses.davidgaughran.com/courses/starting-from-zero - but if you want my opinion, I don't think Bryan Cohen's blurbs are very good and you would be much better off reading this book and getting advice from someone who actually is a copywriter and who knows the basic principles of copywriting: www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZB5NJLL I just want to add that you shouldn't be too disheartened - plenty of unpublished authors find success in self-publishing - in fact that describes most successful self-publishers. Most of us started as unpublished authors. For some, success came quickly. For others, there was quite a bit of struggling (and exasperation) first. I am a little concerned though that you might be spending too much money trying different things, given your mention of having to sell 5,000 books to break even (especially if the answer might simply be to write more books - very few people are successful before they have several out).
Hi Linda, I empathise so much with your frustration. The truth is that indie publishing is a long game. No one "makes it" with just one or two books. Write, publish, repeat. Keep going. Find ways to bootstrap it so your costs aren't so high and take David's free course - it's a good one!
@@HollyLyne Thank you, Holly. I took David's course. It didn't help much. His course assumes that the student is a "normal" person with a Facebook page and a website with backlinks and some email followers only a dozen or so but some, or that you have several titles. I am so heartbroken about this that I don't want to write anymore. After a lifetime of writing nearly every day. I can't face the keyboard. The only way I made it through my last chapter was by promising myself that I will never have to publish it. Never. again. Dear God, make the bleeding stop! Why the hell do I have to be the creative marketing genius of the damned internet? I hate this launch. I used to love my book. Now I hate it. I am continuing with it because the only certain guarantee of 100% failure is to quit. I at least have a chance to recover some money if I publish. Not much money because I can't even get reviews. Not from Net Galley, or Reedsy Discovery, or Books go Social, or Story Origin, or Book Tasters, or Book Sprouts. Nope. None. So I know I screwed up again, but I don't know how to fix it. I'm 67 years old. I don't have the strength (or a pension large enough) to publish again. So, THAT's not happening. Basically, you're advocating that I repeat this unmitigated 60-hour-per-week torture three of four more times in order to break even. Great. I think I'll come up with another way to earn enough money to go home. This ain't working. Thanks for trying, though.
@@lindacgrace2973 No, I'm not advising that. You've done several things I wouldn't advise, particularly when it comes to spending on certain things I would not recommend. Sorry I couldn't help though, and best of luck whatever you do next.
@@DavidGaughran Where did I go wrong? I thought I was headed in the right direction! Please let me know what you wouldn't advise. Honest to God, David. I'm deeply depressed but I'm always willing to learn. What did I do wrong? Is there anything I can do to fix any of this? How do I let people know that I exist?
Yes, I had noticed the way Amazon show the price difference between ebook and p/back-and how they make it look like a discount. I only have one book published at the moment and I'm actually thinking about dropping the price from $3.99 to $1.99. I'm having trouble getting reviews for the US store, as I'm in Australia and all my ARCs were sent out here in Oz. Do you think it might be worth spending money on ads if I reduce the price-even though I have no reviews (yet) on Amzn US? I'm thinking I can always increase the price again if it does start to sell well.
I think it's much easier and cheaper to use deal sites instead - but you'll have to go a touch further and reduce to 99c. Here's a guide to the best deal sites: davidgaughran.com/best-promo-sites-books/
@@DavidGaughran Thanks, Dave. How much am I allowed to play with the price of my book? I've finished the first 90 days of KU. I'm still seeing KENP figures, does this mean they've rolled it over? I tried to check the current status on Amzn but couldn't find it.
@@thomasgreenbank7580 on your kdp dashboard, click the three dots on the right hand side of your book then select KDP select info. You can set up another deal and check the status of your KU
@@nonscreenactivitiesforkids Thanks for the reply. I didn't realise I'd checked the box to automatically re-enrol. Which is fine, as I'm happy to leave it at that. I don't know if others find the same, but I'm earning slightly more from page reads than from sales. Mind you, neither are setting the world on fire at the moment. Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey, as they say.
RUclips has a feature which automatically generates subtitles - and I have that switched on for all my videos but it seems to be acting up and only working about half the time I test it. But if you try again it might be working for you.
![Tee Grizzley - Robbery 8 [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/34_vkNV6wrU/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm still amazed at how many paperbacks I sell. In the beginning, I only did ebooks, and I thought doing paperbacks wouldn't make a difference, but it really has.
good clever common sense.Great!
E-book, paperback and audiobook are the holy trinity of self pubbing, and I'll be getting my books done in each format.
Love your videos
"When he...discovered something in his bathtub."
You have such a way with words! XD XD XD
That was great. As always, you have the best hair.
Love the information, though I find the subtitles a crack-up. ;)
Interesting that you don't have ads running except during promotions. I've been operating on the assumption that it's a good idea to run Amazon Ads all the time. I'd like to hear more about your approach in terms of the best use of Amazon and Facebook ads. And thanks for all the great information you are continually providing.
It's all laid out in great detail in my book Amazon Decoded. I'm not so strong with Amazon Ads otherwise I might run them all the time - it's certainly the most suitable platform for that, and can act as a nice safety net for your rank, if you can crack them. But generally I don't focus on always-on advertising and like to focus any push - whether that comes from ads or something else - at strategic moments.
@@DavidGaughran Thanks! I read Amazon Decoded quite a long time ago. I'll give it another look. I can't say I've cracked Amazon Ads. I try to run them constantly at a break even level and mostly I do. Willing to do that and/or suffer small losses to keep visibility and rank from descending too steeply. My series is four books with one on pre-order and as I get more published I'm hoping ROI increases accordingly.
I sell my book at full price too.
Thank you so much. You are a great teacher.
Love your videos David! Are you familiar with low content publishing? I'd like to propose an affiliate partnership deal about a tool. Where can we get in touch?
You said it wasn't easy and it isn't, but the clarity and advice given is welcome, David. It's a rollercoaster rather than a linear progression because my previous release got off to a much better start than the new one (Nothing Man, R J Gould) despite the same tactics. Here's a question re The Deals Springboard. I know and have used the recommended USA-focused promo sites but my writing is heavily geared towards the UK market. Any suggestions for getting deal visibility in the UK?
Relative size of the UK market vs. the US means that any site owner looking to set up a deals website is naturally going to choose the US over the UK. Similar issue faces Canadian and Australian authors, particularly those with books of more local interest. I personally find BookBub Ads best of all for reaching those international readers, and Facebook as well. Not so many deal sites (bar BookBub) which will bring in many UK readers, but many of them will tend to bring you a handful of UK sales.
@@DavidGaughran Thanks for the reply. If only I could cut down on the irony in my writing!
Awesome! And I love the beard.
Wonderful advice! Thank you!
Great info David, thank you for taking the time to make those videos
Hi Dave, I have a recently discovered you and l love your content and you have really helped me start to glimpse the wood the trees in the whole marketing thing! Thank you 👍 However you do sound like you are have recorded this one in some sort of cell! 😁😎
Typo alert that's "wood from the trees" 🙄
Very interesting thank you. Do you think Amazon are more likely to promote books that are at full price because they make more money for Amazon too?
So are you saying that if you sell more paperbacks than ebooks, it's not worth doing Facebook ads? I haven't tried them yet. My books are non fiction and contain recipes and I think I've sold 2 ebooks.
I have ran campaigns for paperbacks on Facebook with limited success, but that's at least partly down to my focus on ebooks. I do know others whose sales lean more towards print and they have had some success with Facebook Ads - you just have to factor in those higher prices, and the effect that will have on all your metrics. In short, you'll need a lot more clicks to generate a sale, so make sure you're making enough royalties per sale so that the numbers work for you.
I think he said fulcrum. 🙂
Perfect advice. Absolutely impossible to follow! "Make sure your presentation is on point." Great. How, exactly, do I do THAT? I'm doing my best here, but I have already failed miserably at one launch (with plenty of professional help BTW) and I'm teetering on the brink of failing again. I have NO WAY to judge my efforts. There is NO feedback (short of "Publish and Pray" and when you fail, try again). How can I tell whether the problem is the blurb, (I bought one from Brian Cohen) or the title (I researched other titles in my sub-genre and met as many of the tropes as I could) my cover (pro designer with romance novel experience)? HOW DO I TELL? Again, the hardest most accurate direct critique is failure in the marketplace. BUT failure is not particularly detailed feedback. Was it the blurb? The sub-genre I chose to write in? The title? The cover? WHAT, exactly do I need to change to succeed? I have searched long and hard for any forum that provides critical feedback at a reasonable price. I've used Pick Fu. But, it's a blunt instrument because I can't get detailed feedback that I need, I can only ask this-or-that or yes-or-no questions. I try to talk to other authors, but unless you are an author writing sweet, clean, Regency romances, you may not be clued in and many times successful authors are blind as to the REASONS for their own success. HOW DO I MAKE SURE MY PRESENTATION IS ON POINT!?! I can not figure out a way to find out. I CAN"T afford to keep buying book covers until one of them "hits." I can't just republish over and over and over again. If I don't make it this time, I won't make it. Period. I don't have it in me for another try. I have to sell almost 5,000 books to BREAK EVEN at this point and I can't keep going. I can't. I have no hope of making a profit on this book, and vanishingly small hope of even recovering a substantial portion of the time and money I have recklessly squandered on this totally stupid idea (the idea that I a previously unpublished author could find success through self-publishing). I have exhausted my resources and myself. I'm buggered if I know whether my presentation is "on point." I did my best, but I DON'T KNOW! I can't find out in advance of hitting the "publish" button, either. The ONLY feedback available is total and complete failure. With no idea why. Ever. So, thanks, but no thanks. I can't do what you say to do. I can't. I don't know how and your vague generalities are no help. THERE IS NO WAY TO FIND OUT! IF MY PRESENTATION IS ON POINT! How do I do that? How?
Hi Linda, if you look at the description of this video you will see a link to my free course Starting from Zero which has an entire module on learning your niche and how to present your books in a way that readers should respond to. Here's the link again though - courses.davidgaughran.com/courses/starting-from-zero - but if you want my opinion, I don't think Bryan Cohen's blurbs are very good and you would be much better off reading this book and getting advice from someone who actually is a copywriter and who knows the basic principles of copywriting: www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZB5NJLL
I just want to add that you shouldn't be too disheartened - plenty of unpublished authors find success in self-publishing - in fact that describes most successful self-publishers. Most of us started as unpublished authors. For some, success came quickly. For others, there was quite a bit of struggling (and exasperation) first. I am a little concerned though that you might be spending too much money trying different things, given your mention of having to sell 5,000 books to break even (especially if the answer might simply be to write more books - very few people are successful before they have several out).
Hi Linda, I empathise so much with your frustration. The truth is that indie publishing is a long game. No one "makes it" with just one or two books. Write, publish, repeat. Keep going. Find ways to bootstrap it so your costs aren't so high and take David's free course - it's a good one!
@@HollyLyne Thank you, Holly. I took David's course. It didn't help much. His course assumes that the student is a "normal" person with a Facebook page and a website with backlinks and some email followers only a dozen or so but some, or that you have several titles. I am so heartbroken about this that I don't want to write anymore. After a lifetime of writing nearly every day. I can't face the keyboard. The only way I made it through my last chapter was by promising myself that I will never have to publish it. Never. again. Dear God, make the bleeding stop! Why the hell do I have to be the creative marketing genius of the damned internet? I hate this launch. I used to love my book. Now I hate it. I am continuing with it because the only certain guarantee of 100% failure is to quit. I at least have a chance to recover some money if I publish. Not much money because I can't even get reviews. Not from Net Galley, or Reedsy Discovery, or Books go Social, or Story Origin, or Book Tasters, or Book Sprouts. Nope. None. So I know I screwed up again, but I don't know how to fix it. I'm 67 years old. I don't have the strength (or a pension large enough) to publish again. So, THAT's not happening. Basically, you're advocating that I repeat this unmitigated 60-hour-per-week torture three of four more times in order to break even. Great. I think I'll come up with another way to earn enough money to go home. This ain't working. Thanks for trying, though.
@@lindacgrace2973 No, I'm not advising that. You've done several things I wouldn't advise, particularly when it comes to spending on certain things I would not recommend. Sorry I couldn't help though, and best of luck whatever you do next.
@@DavidGaughran Where did I go wrong? I thought I was headed in the right direction! Please let me know what you wouldn't advise. Honest to God, David. I'm deeply depressed but I'm always willing to learn. What did I do wrong? Is there anything I can do to fix any of this? How do I let people know that I exist?
Yes, I had noticed the way Amazon show the price difference between ebook and p/back-and how they make it look like a discount.
I only have one book published at the moment and I'm actually thinking about dropping the price from $3.99 to $1.99. I'm having trouble getting reviews for the US store, as I'm in Australia and all my ARCs were sent out here in Oz. Do you think it might be worth spending money on ads if I reduce the price-even though I have no reviews (yet) on Amzn US? I'm thinking I can always increase the price again if it does start to sell well.
I think it's much easier and cheaper to use deal sites instead - but you'll have to go a touch further and reduce to 99c. Here's a guide to the best deal sites: davidgaughran.com/best-promo-sites-books/
@@DavidGaughran Thanks, Dave. How much am I allowed to play with the price of my book? I've finished the first 90 days of KU. I'm still seeing KENP figures, does this mean they've rolled it over? I tried to check the current status on Amzn but couldn't find it.
@@thomasgreenbank7580 on your kdp dashboard, click the three dots on the right hand side of your book then select KDP select info. You can set up another deal and check the status of your KU
@@nonscreenactivitiesforkids Thanks for the reply. I didn't realise I'd checked the box to automatically re-enrol. Which is fine, as I'm happy to leave it at that. I don't know if others find the same, but I'm earning slightly more from page reads than from sales. Mind you, neither are setting the world on fire at the moment. Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey, as they say.
Is there a way to have subtitles?
RUclips has a feature which automatically generates subtitles - and I have that switched on for all my videos but it seems to be acting up and only working about half the time I test it. But if you try again it might be working for you.
Just checked - should be back working now, Corinna!
My myth!!!