Boom! Publishing Like Beyoncé
A bit over a year ago, Beyoncé surprised the music world by secretly dropping a new album onto iTunes with zero advance promotion. Her release made news a) because it was Beyoncé and b) because the strategy was something new and different.
Recently in the publishing world, there’s been grumblings or suspicions that traditional marketing events like months-in-advance cover releases weren’t generating the excitement they used to. Some book bloggers have flat-out said they’re no longer interested in hosting cover reveals. “What’s the point,” others said, “when there’s no way to take advantage of that attention with a buy link yet?”
Good question. What’s the point of gaining eyeballs if there’s no “call to action”?
I don’t know about you, but with ebooks so cheap, I tend to purchase a story that interests me when I first hear about it, and I have a hard time remembering whether I’ve already bought a title or not. (One of my main reasons for buying from Amazon is because of the “You purchased this product on…” banner. That’s saved my wallet more times than I can count!) So when a book is mentioned that I know I’ve heard of before, I might not check it out, thinking I’ve already grabbed it.
That’s the danger of promoting in a long run-up to release. By the time we have buy links, people might think our book is old news.
So with that in mind… *smile*
Boom! I’m a Published Author!
Some of you might have heard the news when I announced this yesterday, but for the rest of you, I know what you’re thinking. Half of you are probably going, “Wait, weren’t you published already?” And the other half of you are saying, “Geeze, it’s about time!”
Believe me, I know. *grin* It took me a long time to get to this point, and I’ll be sharing the details here on my blog in the weeks to come, but let’s get to the announcement stuff first, and then we’ll talk results down below.
I decided to go into stealth mode about my publishing plans and not even hint at what I was working on. No buy links—no point in mentioning it. Now I have two books out in some shape or form now, and they’re both part of…
Paranormal Romance / Contemporary Fantasy Romance
Each standalone story in the series can be read in any order and ends happily(!), as mythological beings—from shapeshifting gryphons and dragons to unicorns and gargoyles—find their perfect match (who are more than up to the job) among humans.
- The series kicks off with a short story, Unintended Guardian, available for free at some retailers.
- The first full-length novel, Treasured Claim (winner of 3 Grand Prize/First Place RWA chapter contests), is available for pre-order at a special sale price.
First Up… Unintended Guardian (Out Now!)
Cursed to darkness,
he makes a wish for freedom.
She shows up instead…
A shapeshifting gryphon cursed to eternal darkness…
Sunlight shouldn’t be deadly to Griff Cyrus. Determined to break his curse, he follows an oracle’s bizarre instructions to have a magical package shipped to his apartment. Since when do brown trucks deliver mystical cures?
A lonely woman craving the spice of life…
Kala Kaneko’s social life couldn’t be more bland. When a strange parcel arrives at her door by mistake, she seizes the excuse to introduce herself to the intended recipient, her mysterious neighbor.
Fate has a twisted sense of humor…
Griff expects the package to free him from the curse, but opening the box unleashes a mythical creature bent on Kala’s death. Yet if Griff follows his instincts to protect her, he could sacrifice his last chance at freedom.
*****
Welcome to the Mythos Legacy!
Unintended Guardian is the short story introduction to the Mythos Legacy series. An excerpt of Treasured Claim, the first full-length novel in the series, is included at the back of this book!
Available at:
Amazon | Apple iTunes | Barnes & Noble | GooglePlay | Kobo | All Romance eBooks | Smashwords
(Click here for the latest links)
To give you a taste of the Mythos Legacy world, Unintended Guardian is listed for FREE everywhere except non-U.S. Amazon stores. I’m still working on the Amazon international stores, but if you live outside the U.S., feel free to “report a lower price” to them. *grin*
Next Up… Treasured Claim (Pre-Order Sale)
Desperate for treasure,
a dragon resorts to thievery,
but a knight steals her heart…
A shapeshifting dragon on the verge of starvation…
For Elaina Drake, sparkling jewels aren’t a frivolous matter. Without more treasure for her hoard, she’ll starve. On the run from her murderous father, she’s desperate enough to steal—er, acquire.
A modern-day knight seeking redemption…
Disgusted by his father’s immorality, Alexander Wyatt, Chicago’s biggest corporate titan, is determined to be a man of honor. Yet the theft of a necklace, stolen by an exotic beauty at his latest fundraiser, threatens to destroy all his charitable work.
A predator made prey…
Passion ignites between thief and philanthropist, sparking a game of temptation where jewelry is the prize. But when Elaina’s exposure jeopardizes Alex’s life, she must choose: run again to evade her father—or risk both their lives for love.
*****
Available at:
Amazon | Apple iBooks | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
(GooglePlay and a print version coming soon—click here for the latest links.)
Treasured Claim is currently priced at $0.99, just for the pre-order sale. Its normal price will be $2.99, so order your copy early. *wink*
The Results: How Did a No-Teaser Release Work?
I’m not a numbers person (hence all my auto-math beat sheet worksheets *smile*) because numbers like those are easy come, easy go. I don’t want to become obsessed with checking my sales figures or ranking.
(In fact, my beta buddy Angela Quarles teased me about being the first author she knew who didn’t check their sales numbers. Impatient for me to “get around to it,” she looked up my numbers for me. *grin*)
I’m sure the numbers I saw last night aren’t going to make it through today. (I might be a Pollyanna, but I’m also pragmatic about reality.) But what I saw yesterday convinced me that I didn’t hurt my release by not talking about it in advance ad infinitum.
When I braved looking at the Amazon rankings last night, Unintended Guardian was at #28 in Kindle Short Stories, #60 in the Hot New Releases for the Fantasy and Futuristic Romance category, #94 in the Hot New Releases for the Paranormal Shifters Romance category, and broke below 8,000 in the overall Kindle Store.
Treasured Claim landed somewhere in the Top 100 of the Hot New Releases for Fantasy and Futuristic Romance too. I saw it at #75, but it was lower earlier, when I didn’t have a clue yet how to look it up to know the actual number. As a debut “nobody” with no promotion other than my friends from here, Twitter, and Facebook, I’ll take all of that. *smile*
I’m extremely lucky and blessed that my nearly 5 years of blogging and being on social media gave me a platform that most don’t have. If I didn’t have that support, no strategy would have made a difference.
And that’s what I really took away from the chaos yesterday: Either people are excited about our book and/or about supporting us, or they’re not. No amount of false rah-rah promo is going to get someone excited about our release.
Might we be able to create an image of excitement? Sure. But that sounds like too much non-writing time and effort to me.
Others’ mileage may vary, of course. As we’ve often mentioned here on my blog, the right choices for us depend on our goals. For me, I’d rather get back to the work of writing than spend time pasting promo onto Facebook every other day.
Speaking of getting back to work, I want to share two events with you:
- A couple of days ago, Ava Louise interviewed me for her The Road to a Dream blog. Come see me admit how messy my desk is and what stage of editing drives me the most crazy.
- This upcoming Sunday (March 1st) at 7pm Eastern (4pm Pacific), I’ll be hosting a Twitter chat on “Structuring Your Story” at the hashtag #RWChat. We’ll be talking tips and advice about how to reliably create well-paced, interesting stories. (If you’ve never participated in a Twitter chat before, they have a Chat 101 post too.)
So… Do I have any grand advice based on my one measly, less-than-24-hours experience? Nope.
However, as I mentioned at the outset, the high rate of information turnover online might mean that if we talk about a milestone too much in advance, the news might “sound” old by the time the event comes to pass. Besides, with how busy I was, trying to get two books ready at once, I didn’t need the stress of pre-release promo too. *smile*
Do you still get excited by cover reveals? Do you tend to think news is old if you’ve heard it before? Has this impression affected how you think of book releases? What do you think would be the perfect release strategy—and why? If you disagree with my perspective about pre-buy-link promo, please share your thoughts!
P.S. If you want to hear about my next release as soon as I announce it, make sure you’re signed up for my New Release mailing list. Sign up for one or both of my newsletters (New Blog Posts and/or New Releases) on the sidebar, or if you already receive my blog posts by email, click the “Edit your subscription” link in the footer to add the New Release list to your subscription.
P.P.S. If you’re super excited about my releases and want a Backstage Pass, request a GOLDen Ticket here to get access to exclusive content and information.
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Or it might actually BE old, particularly if life kicks the author in the teeth and throws the person off-schedule.
Those combined items seem to nail what’s been niggling at me, lately, regarding announcements and news. Thanks for helping me ID that. 🙂
Hi Carradee,
Very true! In the traditional publishing world, publication dates are moved back all the time, and in the indie publishing world, many an author has missed their self-imposed deadline. So not announcing a book until it’s live with links is one way to combat that problem as well. 🙂 Thanks for sharing that insight!
Congrats!!!
I’ve been wondering lately too about announcing things too early. I, unfortunately, didn’t start seeing that advice until AFTER I’d set up a 3-month pre-order for my 2nd book. I was just so excited to have a cover and I did have links to buy, but still, I think it might have hurt me. I think having the pre-order links helps mitigate it somewhat, but I might narrow that time down next time around.
I saw someone take an informal poll and it seemed to land on about a month out before people forgot that it wasn’t a pre-order and then started assuming the book was already out when they saw the cover again at launch time…
Hi Angela,
The jury is still out on how long of a pre-order is too long. (And admittedly, I’m going the long, 3-month route because of how I’m planning to daisy-chain the first 4 books.) But at least with a pre-order, the links exist. There IS a call to action.
For me, at the actual launch date, I’ll be launching the print version as well. So at least I’ll have some “new” news. LOL!
But what I suspect doesn’t help us is the cover reveals or ARC releases when there are no pre-order buy links. I’ve seen plenty of tweets with squeeing about an ARC or a cover, and if I can’t turn that into action, any excitement they’ve created in me simply goes away.
That’s just my opinion, of course, but it’s based on my own behaviors. 🙂 Thanks for the comment!
“Call to Action’ That sounds about right. Isn’t that what marketing harps on? -having something actionable, RIGHT NOW for the consumer to do?
I think this becomes even more vitally important in this digital, info-overload age!!
Hi Jennifer,
Yep, that’s marketing speak, but it makes sense. 🙂 As you alluded to, we might only get one chance of grabbing someone’s attention, and we want to make sure we’re able to make the most of it. Thanks for the comment!
Hi Jami,
Got both books. BTW, I certainly didn’t mind paying $0.99 for Unintended Guardian. I know you’re a great writer, so I fully expect more the $0.99 of short story goodness!!! 🙂
Good luck,
Kerry
Hi Kerry,
LOL! Aww, thanks. 🙂 Now I just hope that people enjoy them. *trying not to stress* Thanks for stopping by!
Double congrats! And yes I thought you were published. I’m facing the dilemma now with an upcoming June release. It’s already up for preorder. I’ve posted the cover on my website and social media but don’t want to over saturate people so that they’re over it by the time the book releases. Yet it’s hard to know who many people even see what I’ve posted. One of the FB blog groups I’m a member of only shows half of the forty members saw the post. Best of luck! I’ll be checking out Unintended Guardian 🙂
Hi Dani,
Thank you! I hope (*fingers crossed* for my own sake too–LOL!) that pre-order links aren’t nearly as counter-productive as no buy links.
But yes, we have to be careful of over-saturation. I could name a few people who post promo to multiple Facebook groups over and over, every couple of days. I just delete those notifications when I see their name in my email. Probably not the reaction they intended. 🙂
Plus, with FB groups, many people have them set up to only notify of posts from their friends, so posting again won’t necessarily pick up the remainder. Instead, it might just keep showing the same thing to the same group of people.
Again, everyone’s mileage might be different, so I can understand those who feel they need to post every other day in their groups. A woman in my local writing group falls into this camp actually, and she’s been doing this for years, so I’m not going to dismiss or argue with her perspective. 🙂 I’m just sharing my insights based on my own behavior. Thanks for stopping by!
Congratulations! I was surprised your entry into the rank of published authors is so recent. Mostly because I think your writing and your knowledge of writing is wonderful, but because I already saw your books on Amazon. I regularly check to see if people who talk ABOUT writing actually practice what they preach. (Such as avoid cliques.) And yesterday, after reading your blog, I looked up Jami Gold in Amazon and THERE YOU WERE!!! (Also, avoid all caps and exclamation marks.)
Well done. We are all very happy for you.
Hi Robert,
LOL! Aww, thank you. 🙂 My blog has been on Amazon for a while, but this is the fiction work I have there. And yes, now I’m nervous that everyone’s going to read my stuff and think I write like crap. (A writer’s life is never sane. 😉 ) Thanks for the congrats!
First off, congratulations Jami! I knew something had to get you to the next step eventually. For me, unless I was contractually obligated, there was no way I could keep selling “GABRIEL” in 2012 to myself for too long after I signed the contract with my publisher, that was nearly a decade of my life, and I do think sometimes the pre-release build can help, especially if in my case you’re going to launch a crowdfunding campaign to aid in upping the quality of the publication process. I want a really nice cover and illustrations for my book (Children’s) and since neither my publisher nor I alone can fund it, I’m turning to crowdfunding so I can hire a great illustrator and have my character visually depicted which I can use for PR down the road as I near launch. I have a plan b if I need to use it, but as scared as I am to do something like this, having been part of other campaigns where I not only contributed money but also helped with the PR as much as I could, I know how it feels to help be part of something that might not exist without you and countless others. I knew in my heart that if I didn’t do this, even if I don’t succeed, I’d regret it, and while I’d intended to do it sooner, I needed to better build my community, I wanted to have enough support before I launched that I… — Read More »
Hi Taurean,
Great point! We might have good reasons for wanting to build early buzz, and that’s why I tried to emphasize the YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) perspective too. 🙂 We all have to do what makes sense for our situation, and as you said, trying to build name recognition and interest for a crowdfunding campaign requires that early build up.
Good point too about how whether cover reveals are effective greatly depends on our point in our career. For authors with great name recognition and legions of fans salivating for the next book, a cover reveal can keep their name top of mind–especially if it’s a year between releases. That’s another situation when pre-buy-link promo might make sense.
So again, this isn’t a one-size-fits-all recommendation. Heck, this isn’t a recommendation at all. LOL! Just an observation and a sharing of how I reached my decision. 🙂
And yes! Your suggestion DID make it into the blurb! 😀 (It’s always easier with others’ stories, isn’t it?) Thank you again!
Jami,
It was an honor to introduce your stories to my readers! Thank you so much for guesting on my blog. I agree with you wholeheartedly about liking Amazon’s message that I’ve already purchased a book! It has saved my wallet, too. With it possible to list books MONTHS in advance, I forget which books I have pre-ordered. If my To Be Read “stack” was in paper form, I’m sure I could wipe out a few acres of forest! Thank goodness for e-readers. Your book has been moved to the top of my stack though, and I’ll be sure to leave a review when I am finished. Congratulations on a successful launch.
As always,
Your Faithful Reader,
Ava
Hi Ava,
Yes, I thought my stacks of books around the house was bad (and it is!), but my TBR pile on my Kindle is truly out of control. 🙂
Thank you so much for the invitation to your blog and for the kind words! *hugs*
Congratulations, Jami. You really did tighten up that query of yours into a nice synopsis. And sometimes, cover reveals are also good for lifting your own spirits too.
Hi ChemistKen,
Thanks! And good point–sometimes we might want to announce a date that everything will be ready for our own sake (or to give ourselves a deadline). 🙂 Thanks for the comment!
Congratulations, Jami!
I’ve learned so much from you and so grateful that Kristen Lamb digitally introduced me to you, that I’m excited to read your books! 🙂
Interesting marketing idea! I keep hearing that ‘traditional marketing’ for books isn’t as effective anymore. However, us Indies seem to be trying to duplicate the Traditional marketing methods anyways…
Hi Jennifer,
Thank you! And LOL!–good point, why follow what doesn’t work anymore, right? 😉 Thanks for the comment!
Congratulations! Off to check it out…
Hi Laurie,
Thank you for the congrats! 🙂
First off congratulations.
Second, i have just read unintended guardian. I never usually read romance. But, I’ve followed your blog for a while and wanted to see your amazing writing advice reflected in your own work. I was so gripped by Griff, that I just enjoyed reading. I really hope there is more from Griff later.
I’ve pre-ordered your novel and cannot wait to read it.
I wish you all the best Jami. Your work is brilliant, thank you for sharing your world. 🙂
Hi Sarah,
Aww, thank you! I think that’s the first review I’ve seen. 🙂
Believe me, I’ve been terrified that people would hate it and then think my blog must be crap too. LOL! All writers are this neurotic, right? 😉 Anyway, thank you! *hugs*
Congratulations, Jami! 🙂
Thanks, Tracy! 🙂
OMG Jami!! I’m SO excited for you! Now it all makes sense. When you tweeted that Lisa Green shared your book birthday, I wondered what the heck you meant. Congratulations!
Hi Julie,
LOL! Yes, this! And thank you! 🙂
Jami, congratulations! I am a day late to the party, but I saw that Amazon still hadn’t got a clue as far as price-matching your story, so I handed them one. LOL. Hope it helps. I’m looking forward to reading it.
By the way, as a non-Kindle ebook reader, I appreciate authors that go multi-platform instead of Amazon exclusive, so thank you. 🙂 All Romance is an especially fun place to shop. I only discovered it recently.
Hi J’aime,
Thank you for the congrats! 🙂 Yes, I really hope Amazon decides to price match soon–thanks for trying to give them a clue. LOL!
Good point about wide distribution. I should do a post about how I made some of the decisions I did. 😉 Thanks for the comment!
Congratulations! 😀 Got my copies. 🙂
I did it up big for my debut, ’cause you only get to do that once, but for the next book it will be a much softer release. All that cover revealing and release announcing was fun, but it was a LOT of work that didn’t net me many sales.
Hi Melissa,
Thanks for those insights! Yes, for me, this first one is just a short story, so it’s really the first novel coming out this spring that I’m excited for. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Woo-hoo! I’ve been looking forward to this, so a big congratulations on publishing.
I’m also one who does not check sales numbers. I wish there was some program that would just aggregate it all for me and shoot me the highest ranking I got to. (Anyone know of one?) Besides, I’m personally a fan of what I call the snowball release more than the splash — that is, the most successful books (and writing careers) seem to build like a snowball gaining more and more momentum, whereas big book launches can make a splash and then fizzle. (Of course, the splash-and-snowball would be perfect, but if made to choose…)
All the best, Jami! Keep writing great stuff.
Hi Julie,
Thank you! 🙂 I know of the site Booktrakr (Angela Ackerman has talked about it before), but I don’t know if that one shows rankings. It might just show sales.
I love the term “snowball release”! 😀 And that’s my attitude here–that I’m in this for the long haul of book after book, so the numbers of a single short story (that’s free!) is not what this is about. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Congrats on the releases! Way to go!
Thank you, Gloria! 🙂
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Congrats, Jami! I pre-ordered Treasured Claim. Can’t believe I have to wait until May to read it, but I’ll just have to be patient. 🙂
Hi Denise,
Thank you! I have a reason for the delay, which I’ll explain in future posts. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
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