Marketing

We Have Your Results and the Test is Positive!

/ lisaemme / 3 Comments

(Pssst! Looking for the Jingle Book Blog Hop? Click here.)

So about a month ago, I told you about my experiment to improve my sales on Amazon. Basically, I moved my book, Dead and Kicking, from a category that had tens of thousands of other books listed to one that fit my book but had a significantly smaller number of books listed. The idea behind this is to improve a book’s ratings and by improving the ratings, increasing sales. The lower rank a book has, the easier it is for readers to find and therefore buy.

Here’s what I mean:

Before I made the change to Dead and Kicking‘s category, it was ranked (at that particular moment) #5740 out of 307,344 books in the Parnormal & Urban category on Amazon.com.  A person would have to be really persistent to go through the Amazon top seller’s list twenty books at a time to get to 5740, so basically unless a reader knew to look for it, they weren’t going to find Dead and Kicking.

After the change, I noticed an improvement in my rank almost immediately. The next day in fact, Dead and Kicking was ranked #140.  Not too shabby.  And it only improved from there, breaking into the Amazon.com top 100 in just a couple of weeks.

Things were even better on the Amazon.ca side of things.  The day after the change in category, Dead and Kicking sky-rocketed to #27!  That meant a reader only had to decide to click over to the next page once and my book would be visible in the top sellers list.  Three days later I hit lucky #13 on the list.  In other words it was on the top screen in the list so it would be immediately visible to a prospective buyer.

Lucky 13 Nov 24 Amazon.caSo did a better rank equate with increased sales?

YOU BETCHA!

I wish I could say it was a dramatic increase, but it wasn’t. It was a noticeable change, however, especially on Amazon.ca where my book was ranking higher.

As you can see from the graph below, sales were pretty steady before the change (the left side of the green line).  I was making sales but the numbers stayed pretty consistent.  After the change (as indicated by the green line), I saw steady growth in sales and momentum is continuing to build.

 

whitespaceIncreased visibility = increased sales

change in sales after category switch

The other thing I noticed immediately after the change is that my rank didn’t fluctuate as dramatically as it did when it was in its original category. When Dead and Kicking was first released, the rank would jump all over the place from the thousands to the hundreds and back again over the course of an hour or two.  With the new category, the fluctation is much slower and the rank usually stays constant for several hours at at time, if not the entire day.  That isn’t to say it doesn’t fluctuate at all, but the up and down swing is much shallower.

On Amazon.ca where my rank has been the best, there is a steady momentum towards the top five.  Hopefully it’s only a matter of time before it hits #1!  It was #4 all day yesterday 🙂

So, the moral of this story? Pick the categories for your book carefully. It does make a difference!

 

 

 

The Jingle Book Blog Hop Continues

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The-JingleBook-Blog-Hop

Get in the holiday spirit by hopping along with me on the Jingle Book Blog Hop.  Check out my post on Christmas Spirit for all the details.  Don’t forget there is a Grand Prize giveaway for a $25 Amazon Gift Card.  I’m also offering a chance to win one of five digital copies (epub or mobi) of Dead and Kicking.  Just comment on the original post and your name will be entered in the draw. Sign up for my mailing list (here) and get an extra entry to the draw.

Jingle Book Blog Hop and Giveaway

/ lisaemme / 20 Comments

The-JingleBook-Blog-Hop

To help get you into the holiday mood, I’m participating in the Jingle Book Blog Hop, hosted by Fire & Ice Book Promos.  Join me on this hop around the internet as fellow writers and bloggers share their ideas on Christmas Spirit.  There is also a Jingle Book Blog Hop Grand Prize giveaway where you can win a $25 Amazon Gift Card (see the ‘Enter to Win’ link below).

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Christmas Spirit

Christmas is a great time of year whether you are religious or not. What better time to don the holiday spirit and spend time with friends and family? With our hectic lives and busy schedules, it might not always be easy to get into the swing of things, so here’s a few ways to kick things off.

Watch a Christmas movie. There are plenty to chose from including:

  1. A Christmas Story
  2. The Polar Express
  3. Elf
  4. National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
  5. How The Grinch Stole Christmas
  6. A Charlie Brown Christmas
  7. A Christmas Carol
  8. It’s A Wonderful Life
  9. Miracle on 34th Street (my personal favourite – the original 1947 version)
  10. The Santa Clause
  11. Home Alone
  12. Frosty the Snowman
  13. Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer
  14. White Christmas.

Call a friend or loved one. Say hi to someone you haven’t spoken with for a while. Maybe they need help getting into the spirit too.

Read a Christmas themed book. You can’t go wrong with classics like How the Grinch Stole Christmas or A Christmas Carol, no matter what age you are. For the younger set, one of my favourites is Auntie Claus by Elise Primavera.

aunty claus

Decorate! Ornaments, Christmas cards, popcorn strings, lights, garland. Visit the dollar store if you’re on a budget.

Send out Christmas cards or email greetings. You have to send a letter to get a letter, my Gramma used to say. What better way to get into the holiday spirit than to lift someone else’s? And, who knows? You may just get a card in return.

Buy a countdown/advent calendar. Did you know they have ones with chocolate in them? They even have ones with alcohol (check out this Whiskey Advent Calendar)! I realize it’s already partway through December, but think how much fun it will be to catch up!

Listen to Christmas music. Yes, I know the malls are filled with muzak, but there are a lot of great Christmas songs out there.  Here’s a few to listen for:

  • Merry Christmas Everybody – Slade
  • Wonderful Christmastime – Paul McCartney
  • I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday – Roy Wood and Wizard
  • Walking in the Air – Aled Jones
  • Do They Know it’s Christmas? – Band Aid
  • I Believe in Father Christmas – Greg Lake
  • Rocking Around the Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee
  • White Christmas – Bing Crosby
  • Happy Christmas (War is Over) – John Lennon
  • Sleigh Ride – Pentatonix
  • Step into Christmas – Elton John
  • Mistletoe and Wine – Cliff Richard
  • Mary’s Boy Child/Oh My Lord – Boney M.
  • Fairytale of New York – Pogues and Kirsty MacColl
  • A spaceman came Travelling – Chris De Burgh
  • Last Christmas – Wham!
  • All I Want For Christmas is You – Mariah Carey
  • Jingle Bells – Bing Crosby (other versions exist too)
  • Christmas Lights – Coldplay

Be generous. Donate time or money to those in need. Volunteer at your local food bank or soup kitchen. Give to a local charity that collects to help make Christmas better for those less fortunate.

Say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays to everyone you meet. Even if they don’t celebrate, they will probably return the greeting with a smile, and you should too!

Bake some treats. We all have a favourite treat that we only make on special occasions. No time like the present to dust that recipe off. In fact, I’ll share one of mine. When I was a kid, we called this “Christmas Slice” because you only ever saw it at Christmas.

Nanaimo Bars recipenanaimo-bar

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Looking for the perfect gift for the reader in your family?  There’s still time to order them a copy of Dead and Kicking, book one in the Harry Russo Diaries. In fact, there’s no better time than now to read Harry’s first adventure, with book two, Tooth and Claw, set for release on January 5, 2016.

As part of this hop, I am offering a chance to win one of five digital copies (epub or mobi) of  Dead and Kicking just leave a comment below and you are automatically entered.  Sign up to my mailing list (here) during the duration of the hop and get an extra entry. Everyone who signs up will also get a sneak peek at the first chapter of Deadlocked, book three in the Harry Russo Diaries.

DK small version cover

Available in all digital formats!
Amazon
Kobo
iTunes
Barnes & Noble

Also available in print!
Chapters
Createspace
Barnes & Noble
Amazon 

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What’s a girl to do when her date is D.O.A?

Angharad ‘Harry’ Russo is just your ordinary twenty-something, with one exception – she’s a witch with an out of the ordinary gift.  When her blind date goes sideways and she ends up face to face with a dead body, her life starts to go sideways too.

Harry soon finds herself right in the middle of the mayhem, dealing with Cian Nash, a homicide detective that is as aggravating as he is sexy; the biggest, baddest vampire in town; and a parcel of pesky zombies that keep popping up everywhere.  It’s all connected to her date’s unfortunate demise, or is there more to it than meets the eye?

 What people are saying about Dead and Kicking:

…I can’t wait to read more.
–KaleidoscopeHeart Book Reviews

I have to say, there just aren’t as many new Urban Fantasy series out there as there used to be, so it’s kind of exciting for me to find one that I enjoyed. I read this debut by Lisa Emme in one sitting.
-Jen, Red Hot Books

5 stars….I read the whole thing in one go, I loved her characters and her story line, I was completely engaged…
–Jen Winters

wreath

Read an excerpt from Dead and Kicking

whitespaceComing Soon!

Tooth and Claw

Available for pre-order Now.  Check your favourite online retailer!
Amazon
Kobo
iTunes
Barnes & Noble

Available in print January 2016

 

 

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merry xmas tree

Jingle Book Blog Hop Grand Prize Giveaway.  

Follow this link to enter the Grand Prize Giveaway and continue on the rest of the hop.

Enter to Win!

 

And don’t forget to check back on December 27th for the Crazy Canuck New Year’s Blog Hop.  Fill your new devices with Canadian authors with a chance to win a fantastic grand prize!

Do You Pin?

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Have I mentioned I have a Pinterest account? I’ve created boards for the first two books in the Harry Russo Diaries as well as for my upcoming romantic suspense, Home Again.

There are sneak peeks, some of Harry’s wardrobe choices and other props. Want to know what kind of Harley Nash drives? What does the infamous McQueen dress look like?  There’s even a board for Harry’s store, Contain Yourself.  And let’s not forget some of Harry’s favourite recipes, or at least one’s she hopes to convince Isaac to try!

Stop on by and follow me. I’ll be adding new boards as the series progresses. Visit me on Pinterest!

pinterest page

A Needle in a Haystack

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As promised, I’d like to tell you a bit about the experiment I’m trying on Amazon to see if it increases my sales (as touted by the free video series by Nick Stephenson that I watched – more details and sign up here).

A search engine browser window with a magnifying glass

Amazon is basically a huge search engine. In fact, it is the second largest search engine on the internet next to Google. To increase your sales on Amazon, beside having lots of helpful (as determined by Amazon users that read the reviews and mark them as helpful) positive reviews, you need your book to filter to the top of search results so that people can actually find and buy your book. And that’s the hard part.

The trick is to figure out what category and keywords that result in a smaller search results base best fit your book. For example, I orignally placed Dead and Kicking in the category “Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Fanatasy -> Paranormal & Urban”, a category that yields almost 39,000 results. Talk about a needle in a haystack!

So after watching the webinar, I spent an hour or so exploring categories on Amazon to try and find a better fit, i.e. a category that still applies to my book but that has less competitors. I finally settled on “Mystery & Thrillers -> Suspense -> Paranormal” which only has about 3000 books listed. Much better! What makes it even better still, is this happens to be a category on Amazon that will then use your keywords to further filter the genre. So, by adding Vampires as a keyword, suddenly the results set is 730 titles. Use the keywords Werewovles & Shifters and it’s reduced even more to a much more manageable 509 titles. The chances of a reader finding my book just got a lot better.

Will this have a noticeable result on my sales?  I sure hope so.  It’s too early to tell right now, but I will definitely keep you posted.

 

You’ve Published Your Book – Now What?

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Well, it’s been a little over a month and a half since Dead and Kicking was released. So, what have I been up to? Mainly stalking my book on a regular basis on all the online retailers and trying to learn the ins and outs of marketing.

So far, I can’t really say I’ve learned all that much…

 

i-have-no-idea-what-Im-doing-meme-27

Really the only thing I can say for certain.

 

It’s basically been trial and error and hit or miss. I’ve tried a couple of things in the way of promotion, but as of yet nothing has really paid off. Luckily, I’m starting small – $10 promotion type things. I have another one coming up in December with the Fussy Librarian, which I hope will result in sales. I guess we’ll see.

Being able to even try the Fussy Librarian promo hinged on getting reviews. Something that continues to be difficult. It’s hard when you know your book is out there but don’t get any sort of feedback. I’ve sold several hundred books by this point, but the reviews are coming in at a trickle. What does that mean? Does it mean anything? Beats me.

I’m truly thankful for the reviews I have so far. If you took the time to write a review and posted it somewhere, I can’t tell you enough how much I appreciate it. If you could take the review and post it to a few other places (like Kobo, Barnes & Noble and iTunes where I really need some reviews), I’d appreciate it even more. Reviews are so important in getting you exposure and, of course, the more exposure you have the more books you will probably sell.

arrowIn my next post, I’ll tell you a bit about the experiment I’m conducting on Amazon to try and increase sales. Stay tuned.

Reviews are Essential!

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This was originally posted over at Precipice Books a couple of years ago but still applies.  I’m really trying to get my foot in the door on Amazon and especially on iTunes.  Apple iTunes is a huge potential market for ebooks. The more favourable reviews and likes I have there, the better my chances of getting noticed.

If you have already left a review at an online retailer or Goodreads, thank you! Please consider going to Amazon and iTunes (you have to log on to the iTunes store) and leaving a review there as well.  It will really help me out.

Help an Indie

Goodreads Giveaway Results

/ lisaemme / 2 Comments

So as part of my launch week marketing for Dead and Kicking, I decided to try using a Goodreads Giveaway. The Goodreads Giveaway system is pretty simple.  Basically you don’t have to do much except tell Goodreads how many copies you want to give away, where you’re prepared to mail them, and when and how long you’d like the giveaway to run. The good folks at Goodreads take care of the rest. They run it, pick the winners and send you their addresses, freeing up time for you to do something else like obsessively stalk you book and see how many entries you have.

I had read a great article with tips on using the giveaway that suggested the shorter the giveaway the better, so that’s what I went for.  I chose one week, which seems to be the shortest time allowed (I originally tried to set it to 3 days thinking I’d have several giveaways instead of just one, but it wouldn’t let me) and offered up 3 signed copies as prizes.

Since it irks me when I try and enter a giveaway only to find out it is restricted to the US only, I tried to open mine up to as many countries as possible and then crossed my fingers and hoped the winners were in the US which would be the cheapest for postage (it’s actually cheaper to mail a book to the US – a different country! – than to Saskatchewan, the province right next door to mine).  I fully admit to omitting some countries from the draw because I thought the postage would be horrendous and the likelihood of the book actually arriving low.

Now the goal of a giveaway is not to gain reviews.  In fact Goodreads states that only 60% of your prize winners actually read and review your book (and the author of the article I mentioned earlier thinks it’s actually much lower).  I hope that my winners are in that group and do leave a favourable review, but I’m not counting on it.  The real goal of a giveaway is about getting your book on the virtual shelves of fellow readers.  The real goal is SALES.  You want Goodreads users to add your book to their ‘To Read’ list so that in the future they will spot it and go ‘oh yeah, that looked interesting’ and then buy your book. The more entries you get in a giveaway, the more people there are that have seen your book and shown an interest in it.

GR giveaway resultsAlthough I don’t have any sales numbers to back it up, I would have to say that my giveaway was a success.  I more than surpassed my expectations for the week.  Over one thousand people saw my giveaway and entered the draw.  That’s one thousand plus potential buyers.

My three winners were all located in the US, so postage was reasonable.  Because I decided to give signed copies away, I wasn’t able to send directly from Createspace, but it also allowed me to write a personal note to each winner.  I’m hoping the personal touch might help get a review or two for my effort.  Time will tell.  As to sales, well, time will tell with that too, but overall, I would definitely consider the Goodreads Giveaway a worthwhile tool in the indie author’s marketing toolbox.