This will be a short blog piece. It can be summed up in this sentence:
My recent sales figures have sucked!
I mean really sucked. With exception of the sales of my most recent novel distributed through my publisher, my sales have been non-existent lately. I know people use that phrase non-existent to mean, only a few, but I mean I’ve had no sales is three weeks on my backlog of ebooks.
Now, to be honest, I have a novella and a handful of short stories along a flash fiction collection there. The novella has been my best seller -- up to now.
What can I attribute this to?
Lack of exposure. Besides my novel, (published in late July), I’ve had nothing new to promote. Now, that doesn’t mean I have nothing to promote and that’s the rub. I’m missing the fact that I have material to promote, but I’m just not doing it and that’s my problem.
I’ve been locked too much into the “one-and-done” marketing syndrome. I release an ebook, I market it around once and let that be it.
That being said, there is a tenuous balance between marketing and spam. You certainly don’t want to annoy people with spam, but shooting up one flare of promotion isn’t going to cut it.
Pepsi and Coke don’t run one ad, they constantly advertise. Again, having a small product line, I don’t need to be as aggressive as Pepsi or Coke, but I can’t let a single promotional effort be my total promotional effort.
So, look for more promotional efforts from me. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
