It's been nearly two months since I first published my book. I have tried several things to sell the book, but so far what has worked best is personal contacts. However, this will only get an author so far, as you need the book to sell beyond your friends and family to be successful. I am still working at it but here is what I have tried so far: Google Adwords, Kindle Select, Blogads, and emails to book reviewers.
I get hits on Google Adwords, but not many buys. I've spent nearly $50 but have not come close to that number in sales with the service. At least I signed up for a free $100 in advertising and so in the end it has yet to cost me anything.
Kindle Select as I have previously stated allows the author to list his book for free for up to five days. Over the five days I listed my book for free over 700 copies were picked up, but to date, it appears I have not received a single review from any of those copies.
I spent $48 on Blogads to run for one week on two websites. You can track how many times the ad has appeared (impressions) as well as how many people clicked on the ad. With over 200k impressions I only generated 21 clicks. That was coming from several different advertisements as Blogads allows the user to rotate through a variety of ads so he can see which language works best. I did get some sales from Blogads, but not enough to cover the cost of the advertisements.
I have read from many websites that it is good to find individuals on Amazon that love to review for the sake of reviewing. I tracked down a dozen or so that I thought would be interested in my work and never heard back from the majority. The responses I did get were the reviewers were already inundated with too many books to take on another. I did post an ad on Craigslist offering the book for free if someone was interested in giving a review and one popped up that way. I've also contacted several bloggers that review books, but have yet to hear back from any of them.
Gaining traction is difficult. I have a few ideas that I am pursuing and if any pan out I'll be sure to post the results.
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