Lesson 31

Writing Class 101 by Rick Kurtis
 Advertising II. Lesson 31
 Good day to you all. This week went by fast. How about for you? Today I want to touch on advertising. What works and what is a waste of money.
Many have said Facebook and author groups are a waste of time. Groups are all there for the same thing, to showcase their own book. It does make sense. Why would they want to buy your book when they are trying to sell their own book? Facebook is mostly friends and family, and they don’t want to see any advertising.

They just want to watch funny videos and post their own gripes. I’m really not keen on twitter, or Instagram, because I still have a dumb phone. I refuse to spend $100 a month, and pay for a $600 phone just to post pictures of myself, or tell people what kind of coffee I just made.
LinkedIn is great for connecting with people in our same business, but they want to help you open your pocketbook and give you their services, which I don’t knock that. There are a lot of editing people and cover designers, along with other authors, and people in video and production and advertising. All great connections.
There are so many other sites, and if you have had success on any, let us know. I have a friend who makes leather biker jewelry, and she has a lot of friends on Facebook. When she posts a sit-down video just to express herself, 800 to 1200 people tune in to watch, and she isn’t even pushing her product. She will have more likes than she has friends, and more comments than viewers. How is that possible? She also gets shares. Can you believe that? I post a video and get 3 to 5 likes from relatives and friends, maybe one comment, and one share from my cousin. My point is, I have a lot of relatives and over 1,000 friend connections.
If you have an author page on Facebook besides your personal Facebook, I have found out that even though you have 100 friends, only a handful will be able to view your post. Facebook wants you to pay for a wider audience, which I have done. They will keep track for you on how many people view your post, then they will ask you to advertise some more. 1000 likes does not make a sale. 10,000 likes do not make a sale.
I signed up with Bookbub and posted three of my books for 60,000 emails each to be sent out each month. I ran my ads for three months, December, January, through February. Christmas, and Valentines. On my first day, one book received 11,600 views. Another book had over 6000 in the first month. (Basically, a like.) Views do not mean sales. During this time I had a radio interview for my book with over 10 million listeners simulcast in fifteen different states. So, out of 10 million listeners plus 720,000 emails sent as individual ads I sold… Drum roll, please… “ZERO!” Maybe if my books were priced right, or for ninety-nine cents, or for free, I would’ve sold quite a few. But free is not the sale. And .99 cents, $1.99 doesn’t make you enough to pay for your ad cost let alone all the money that you put into your book. Remember, the average author only sells 250 books the first year. I am nowhere near average with maybe a total of thirty sales in four years with four different types of books. I am not on Ellen, and Oprah would rather endorse sex and violence with ‘Fifty Shades of Gray,’ instead of something wholesome for the whole family. I guess sex books are the way to go. Stop! Back to class.
I have tried Google ads and had a ranking of thirty-seven percent response, but again, no sales. They say you need at least a seventy percent response if not higher which in turn may generate three percent in sales.
Next I will try Amazon ads. I heard talk and thought if all my books are on Amazon and that’s where I get my sales from, they might do something and it might be worth my while. I will let you know how that turns out.
Your best bet is to post as much as you can for free. Buy your own books and stand on a street corner, or put them in places of business like I suggested in my other lesson.
All the promises in the world does not sell books. They line other people’s pockets. My books are on Amazon, advertised in Canada, Germany, Netherlands, and England on book site webpages. Does anyone really look at those? Do people really buy from those? I have Facebook friend's in over twenty states, India, Japan, and Australia, and yet, I can’t even get a share.
I will continue to write, and so should you. Until next week, enjoy, just being alive, and writing down your thoughts. Maybe I need a half-naked bombshell to interview me once a week on Facebook in order to push my website.  Hey, what a novel idea. I recently saw public figure follows on facebook and they have over one million fans and only get 70K likes and a few share or 40K comments. It all is a trickle down thing. Search for yourself and you will see, the more you post, the better you are noticed.
 
Happy Writing from rickkurtisbooks.com