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"I finished reading ACOTAR book 2 last night and my book is terrible in comparison!"
But, it's also nothing like my book; it's aimed at a completely different target audience, is non-spice, inspired by Greek mythology and doesn't include faeries at all...
I remember writing that in my journal on May 12th 2024 at 9pm after reflecting on the second book in Sarah J Maas's A Court of Thorns & Roses series. And after further reflection four months later, I'm laughing at how much I put myself down for comparing my high fantasy YA series (with absolutely nothing in common with ACOTAR) to another author's work.
This went in my 'success' journal. It isn't really about success but progress, documenting everything* about the re-release of my series 'The Chronicles of Pandora' to see just how far I've come, what I have achieved, and what I've survived.
I hope it helps you (or at the very least entertains you!). Perhaps you can prepare for or completely avoid the mistakes I made.
*Yes, these entries are real, but I've edited out some of the more personal and private information for obvious reasons. I hope you understand! I will also not mention the names of people, companies or shops I've encountered in a negative way. It's only my experience, so it would be unfair of me to name them when others may have had a fantastic experience.
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12/05/2024 21:00 hours & 14/05/2024 - This was a mixed entry, as were the days that followed. So, I've summarised a few of them here to get across the main points without having to explain each note I made.
A Youtuber stresses the vital things I needed to have for my book to be successful.
I start using TikTok to promote my book, and my love of other books.
A few local social groups have booked me to speak at their events, inspiring them to write and to tell them about why and how I became an independent author.
Discovering TikTok
"I filmed 2 short TSAW vids and one is on TikTok—the matching bookmark one. I have also filmed the stack of proof copies. It is saved to drafts. 185 views in 5 mins and counting. 1557 by 21:14."
TSAW is my novel To See A World.
As a user of mostly Facebook for connecting with friends and family, and Instagram to lovingly stare at other people's beautiful journal spreads, TikTok scared me to begin with (and still does a little). I'm not used to being on the camera a lot, and haven't really kept up to my YouTube channel since having my son a few years back. Mostly, because I haven't got time to edit the content. So when I discovered my target audience were all over on TikTok, I decided I needed to try. I have absolutely no idea if the above figures are good for a TikTok video viewing, and part of me has to admit I don't care all that much (sorry!). All that matters to me is that my videos reach people genuinely interested; 1557 views is good because it does mean all those people have seen the content and it is potentially 1.5k book lovers, right?. But... I highly doubt all 1557 then went on to look at the book, purchase it, etc...
The art of social media and how to get a video trending, the use of hashtags and the various dances and popular sounds etc overwhelms me. Totally. If anyone reading this can give me the heads up how to reach more real viewers, then e-mail me! I'd love to know the insiders tips and tricks for TikTok, and how to get my ideal target audience to see my content and engage with it. At the moment, and certainly when I wrote this, I was toying with the platform and experimenting with what it could do, and what the baseline of viewers would be with the minimal effort.
What does my book need to have to be successful?
A Youtuber with, supposedly, a million-dollar indie author career shared a list of what books absolutely had to have to be successful. I wrote them down in my journal:
Professional Cover Design
A+ Content
More Reviews (20-50)
Market the Book
Show the Inside of the Book on TikTok
Now, frustrating as it is and you'll know because in one of the previous posts in this series, I talked about low-content books... this author produces either ghost-written books or low-content journals and colouring books etc. So I took all of this with a pinch of salt.
My cover designs are not purchased through a professional (but they are designed by a professional... me). So I ticked that one off. Why pay somebody to rip me off when I could create something unique and uphold my 100% indie goal? The A+ content again is not professionally designed, but I created and uploaded this to give an extra little taste of the book's themes on Amazon. I ticked this off too. The reviews... I was already working on using the platform (that I'm not naming) to gradually increase the number of genuine readers. I ticked that off, because on Amazon US, I'd surpassed 50 reviews already. UK not so much, because the users of the platform turned out to be mostly American. Marketing the book - don't get me started. To me, every little thing I note and try is an attempt to market the book, and in the months to come I'll talk more about that. Finally, as you read above, using TikTok. Tick.... sort of.
I'd argue that having all the above does not make my book 'successful' with a steady stream of readers, all buying the book every day from Amazon having seen me on social media. Define successful first of all. But I think 99% of indie authors will tell you that it doesn't matter how many formulas you try to re-create, or how many 'rules' or lists you follow, sales do not happen like this and certainly not overnight.
Sorry Mr. YouTuber, but.... that's easy for you to say.
Bookings are a Good Sign!
The next day, on May 14th 2024, I reached out to a full page of contacts via email and socials and even snail mail to offer them talks and workshops.
Inspiring people to write, especially children, is really important to me because it's how and where I started. So back to defining success... if I can convince one or two people a month to pick up a pen and express themselves, I've achieved something worthwhile. On that day's entry, I counted 10 emails sent to new contacts.
A few bookings did come in, which was a good sign that what I have to say and share on the subject of writing a book is of interest, and important to others too. I also had a local free magazine confirm they were running a free piece for me this month, so I'd be able to introduce myself to people in my area with a love of books. The book reviewer contact he had was too busy to help me out (fair enough, I feel their pain) but Amazon reviews were creeping up slowly, so I wasn't too bothered.
15/05/2024 - The same YouTuber released a new video, so I made some notes to see if he could help me figure out my Amazon and Facebook ads problem.
Here are my notes from that day (perhaps even though they didn't really help me, they will be of use to you!). If you're not running ads, this may not make sense to you as you won't have seen the screen they get you to fill in, so feel free to skip it.
"Begin with a manual keyword campaign and a manual product campaign. UK, US and/or CAN too. 2 weeks later, you can switch it to auto targeting. This will help to ID the best keywords. Focus on paperback only or paperback and e-book together. For dynamic bids, select down only. High content - custom bidding should be at 65c (52p) and low content 30c (23p). Only use broad keywords. Do this before you click to add the keywords, so the settings for those you enter are the same. Use the 7 high demand low competition keywords on Amazon that you have already researched when publishing your book, then use the Amazon search tool for other suggestions. Amend it once you get 1k impressions or 10 clicks, then optimise it. £10 max per day or £4 if you're strapped."
This is the part that meant the most to me:
"Clicks but no sales - looks good but then they are turned off for some reason.
Impressions but no clicks - looks poor from the start."
Breaking Down Amazon Ad Advice
Basically what the above means, in a nutshell, is that when running an Amazon ad, this YouTuber recommended you manually enter the keywords you want your book to appear in for shoppers. He wants us to give it two weeks to let Amazon's algorithms learn about our book and the shopping habits of others interacting with it before we let Amazon take over and do that automatically for us. He recommends using the keywords you've already given Amazon KDP when publishing your book to start with and to try and aim for a £10 per day spend at first, or as low as £4 if you're a bit strapped for cash.
The outcome? If you get 'impressions' meaning the book appears in front of people, but nobody actually clicks it, then it doesn't look good enough to grab their attention. If you get people's attention and get people to click on the book (costing you money) but they don't buy the book, then it disappoints them at some point between the click and the sale.
Got a headache yet?
Yeah... me too.
16/05/2024 - In this entry, I note something important that I didn't think would be important at the time. I want to talk about it here as it's evidence that you shouldn't give up, and that attempts however small are worth the effort because they do pay off, just maybe not straight away.
"I have sent the details of Elemental Ascension to [store name] as they posted on Facebook asking for tarot card non-fiction. I thought I would try my luck."
EA is my novel Elemental Ascension.
Little Things Mean A Lot
This is important because the Facebook post wasn't about fictional books. Yet, I decided to risk it and emailed them anyway because EA features a full tarot card spread, and is all about a seer predicting the future of the hero, and him following his path because of it. I didn't hear back straight away and realised perhaps I had overstepped and been deleted or ignored because they only wanted non-fiction, but later down the line I got a really enthusiastic reply asking to stock the book, which was fantastic news. It also led to a potential event running in 2025, which we are still organising as I write this.
"I watched a movie about a 16y/o Australian girl who sailed around the world. It was her dream and inspired others. I shouldn't give up on mine, but it is so hard!"
The next few days in my journal were rather boring, as they included mostly editorial notes for OHAWF (my novel, Of Heavens and Wild Flowers) and lists of things I needed to check and images I wanted to include etc.
I pick back up on the 20th, where I have a meaningful and painful rant to myself about the struggles of being an independent author, and how sometimes it feels like the only person in the universe who cares is me.
It's daunting, but I'll cover it next week for anyone feeling a little like that right now. It's a feeling that comes and goes, but when it passes, in its place is this surge of motivation and determination.
Hang in there.
Please stick with me for the 5th instalment in this series coming soon...
Rach x
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