Oh look, I sold some books!
I don’t really know how it happened, but in the past week, a bunch of people spread somewhere across this planet bought some of my books. Mostly ebooks, yet even some real paperbacks versions too. Now I’m not talking millions of copies in seven days, but enough to bring me a great deal of satisfaction. If I compare this past week with many weeks that have passed before it, I would have to say that it was a very, very good week indeed.
Being such a good sales week, I thought I should investigate why it was so, and try to find the magic element or elements that created this phenomenon. Then of course endeavour to repeat what I did right and have a good sales week again next week. So here’s a little rundown of my book promotion actives for last week.
I was bored to death with Facebook so I didn’t bother posting anything at all last week. In fact, I only clicked on my Facebook profile once to see if my daughter might have posted a new photo of my grandkids. She hadn’t.
When I checked Twitter early in the week, my direct message inbox was full of spammers inviting me to go to, buy, try or invest in a whole pile of crap. I wasted ten minutes deleting them all. However, I did invest another few minutes checking my new followers and followed back a few interesting humans. The other few hundred I ignored because I had already wasted ten minutes deleting all their spam from my direct message inbox.
I went shopping and bought some very nice rosé.
At the beginning of the week, I had a great idea for a blog post. I set a reminder for myself to write it the next day. The next day I postponed the reminder to the following day. And then the next day too. On Friday I killed the reminder. It was annoying me.
My students occupied my time for a good part of the week and kept me at a wonderfully safe distance from any device that could access the Internet. In between classes I read a book.
I spent a lot of time during the week walking my dog and talking to people I met along the way.
Apart from the above and the hours I spent eating, drinking and sleeping, I happily wrote stuff. Probably clocked up 25,000 words for the week.
Now I wonder, which one of these elements drove all those people to buy my books?
Yes, the mystery of marketing continues. I worked as admissions director of a small independent school for several years and it was the same. We could do some outreach campaigns, hold open houses, send out letters and postcards or we could let the word-of-mouth thing happen. Neither one made any difference – the numbers were pretty much always the same. There were some ups and downs that had nothing to do with what we in the adminsitrative office did or didnt do. (For example, a highly-praised teacher whose reputation spreads in the community is much more effective than tweets saying come to my school – just as readers’ words about a marvelous book spreads too.)
I’m guessing it was a number of factors coming together for you to generate those sales, Derek. Most likely a confluence of word-of-mouth. Which titles were the bigger movers? Which title do you typically recommend for people who’ve never read your work?
Didn’t you learn never to ask ‘Why’? Whatever the reason(s) just relish and enjoy!
Congratulations! Your new readers are in for a treat! :)))))
Obviously, you’ve found the secret formula. Now, if you could only figure out the language it’s written in . . .
Many years ago with my first business I learned: a) you cannot control the market, b) you will never know what is in the mind of the masses, and c) you cannot control the market. Then I learned d):
just enjoy it
That’s all. :D
I agree with the previous poster. Just enjoy!
Love this post. Chuckled and then sobered and reread. Now will apply to my own marketing plan.
Congrats on your sales! So much of business is a mystery, why do books sell like hotcakes at one time and not anther, why do books sell through one bookseller (e.g., Amazon) and not another. And a big high-five on your 25,000 words, I’m envious.
None if it. It was the toilet paper eating pup’s picture.
It’s an enigma. However, the Rose sound like a step in the right direction…
The rose… Mr Pinot and Mr Grigio are a writers best friend
Nice one I agree u become more in touch with yourself and your thoughts but not too much mind
Was I one of those interesting humans? Anyway, great job. Were the sales from US or elsewhere? Maybe someone out in Internet Land posted a review for you. Thanks for sharing.