OK, I'm Published. Now What???

[qwlauren35]

I have heard that 250 copies is average. It's been a week, and I'm up to 38. I am SURE that 20 of them were friends and family. I have about 400 Facebook friends, and some friends shared. About 600 people saw this on DU. I have an e-mail list of 100 friends, and some of them forwarded. I have tried those "promotion" thingy's and had my book put into lots of e-mail boxes. But mine is "niche". Choose "African-American fiction" or "Contemporary Fiction" or "Women's Fiction" or "Short Stories"... but it's not thriller/horror/romance/mystery. And I'm pretty sure it's going to be the only one I write. It took me 15 years to write all of those stories. They don't just roll off my fingers.

I have chosen not to spend money on "Secrets of Selling 10,000 books". I have chosen not to spend money on BookBub ($300), and BookSirens rejected me. I tried Pubby.co and got ONE review. (Five stars). I tried Book Bongo and Bargain Booksy and It's WriteOn, and BookRaid. And sold 18 books. I have posted a description of my book in 30 groups on GoodReads, and there are about 20 people who have my story on their "plan to read" list. Next week I try Bookgoodies, Free&Discounted Books, and Booksprout. I have 5 reviews, all 4 and 5 star, and I need 10 in order to try The Fussy Librarian and eBookSoda. There are 15 people who are doing ARC/Beta reads for me, and I'm hoping to have more reviews by the 11th.

I have chosen not to pay Kirkus for an editorial review. They are pricey. ($600). Someone tell me if they are worth it.

I have fixed my 10 categories in Amazon. I'm down in the thousands. No where near best seller. I did not pay for Book Rocket. I have done TONS of keywords.

I have an Author Website and a press release coming out next week. I hope to have a second press release going to black media companies around the 19th. Google is optimized by SEO. Frankly, if this doesn't do it, I give up.

What works, people????

[wryter2000]

1. I was in Bookbub twice

It's the only thing that works, as far as I can tell. One book got to #250 and #2 in Regency romance because of BookBub. I made a few thousand dollars on that book. It was a Kindle Scout selection, and Amazon promotes the books they publish. (Kindle Scout is dead now, sadly.)

The other book was a contemporary romance and got to about #39 on Amazon and made the USA Today bestseller list at #101. I made money on that book.

However, as you can tell, I write romance, so I don't know if it would work the same for you. I do know it's hard to get into BookBub. The publishers did that for me.

[MLAA]

3. Cool! If you don't mind posting or direct messaging me the names your books I'd like to buy one 🙂

[wryter2000]

5. That's very sweet of you.

I’ll reciprocate.

[MLAA]

6. I enjoy regency romance 😊

[wryter2000]

7. I'm so glad

My favorite is historical romance of all kinds, but the market is so bad for them now, I end up writing contemporaries.

[Tetrachloride]

2. Consult a local screenwriting group. Find out what is easy to adapt

and to which genre

pay a small fee for their time.

[qwlauren35]

4. Hmmmm...

What an interesting idea!