Surprise, surprise, this week I’ve been tangling with Facebook Ads! I’ve also been reviewing my marketing in general and made a few changes as a result. Plus BEFORE THE END is out on audiobook!

Marketing Review

As I have been having fun and games with my Facebook advertising I’ve been listening to a great book by David Gaughran. Strangers to Superfans – A Marketing Guide to the Reader Journey. The book talks about all aspects of how you can fail to get people to buy your books. If you’re an author and you want to sell then it’s worth a read.

I will be coming back to the book a little later on but my initial takeaways have been about generating traffic. This has led me to make a few changes to my Facebook ads and narrow down the targeting of my audience. There’s plenty of other things I need to do that will help but I will get to them when I can.

I’ve also built a super complex spreadsheet which tracks my sales in much more detail, along with marketing / Facebook spend. This will help me to get more confidence as to whether my ads are working or not. They include more accuracy on the money each channel is making. It varies so much. So far I am on a net 12% return.

I have also rejigged my release schedule to bring forward the writing and release of my novella in the world of IN THE END. This will be a FREE reader funnel book to guide people to my mailing list and hopefully my series. I plan to bring it out either a month before or a month after the release of AFTER THE END.

So I have started work on the new novella this week, shelving a 60% complete MS of the Carrie Harris novella. At least I finished the plot outline. I’ve also decided to then work on finishing the Carrie Harris series of books that I’ve already written and just need editing, before I work on the last two of the James Fisher series. This will allow me to concentrate marketing on finished series sooner.

I’m going to let the new release schedule rest for a little while and by next week I will confirm and publish it on my website.

I’ll leave this top by saying that in the two days since I made the targeting change, sales have been strong. Time will tell if that is just a blip!

BEFORE THE END AUDIOBOOK

It’s out. Whoop whoop. It’s finally out. It seems like it’s taken an age for Amazon to approve but I also hear that from other authors too. At least it is out now and I can hopefully start recouping the costs….If it sells 🙂

I have offered free audiobook codes for both IN THE END and BEFORE THE END on my mailing list today and I will have more codes available if anyone else is interested. Just sign up to my mailing list and reply to the welcome email. All I ask is for a review or rating when you’re finished.

If you want to check it out then here are the links:

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/B085G71ZZS

https://www.audible.com/pd/B085FZ23V5

Reading Signing Event!

Tomorrow is my latest signing event and I couldn’t be more excited. I Just hope the coronavirus doesn’t keep everyone in their homes.

I’ll give you a full report next week, including how much hand sanitiser I get through.

If you’re in Reading, Berkshire on Saturday 7th March then why not pop along to WHSmith on Broad Street and say hello!

That’s about it from me, other than to say I was meant to be off today doing loads of writing, but unfortunately I double booked myself with a day job appointment in London, but at least I have two days off next week instead!

Comments and suggestions are welcome as always!