What I Wish People Would've Told Me Before Doing A Promotion

This is my first week promoting Lokte, my debut novel. It has been a very interesting process so far. Lowering the price to $0.99 was easy, but I never would have guessed how hard it'd be to find good, cheap promotional sites (I did mention cheap, right?). Here's what I have learned:

1. The only good promotions site for under $5 is Bknights on Fiverr. I've met authors who have had some fantastic results from him. I only got 5 sales, but then again, I only have one review so far, so that's probably why. And I got zero sales from my other free promotions. I'll try him again next time around.

2. $0.99 does NOT perform as well as free. My free short story, Unlocked, has been selling copies daily. Lokte, even at $0.99, not so much. If you put your story or book for free, people will buy. Problem is, you won't be making money off it, so at least put it in a series or something.

3. Don't expect friends and family to buy it, even at $0.99. Though I have had some people I know download it, the vast majority haven't, even people I consider myself close to. It stings at first. You question why they won't spend a measly dollar to help you achieve success. But don't worry. The feeling will pass, and they aren't your target audience anyways.

4. You've got to do everything yourself. Sadly, for authors either self-publishing or with small publishers, you can't really rely on anyone else to get your book out there. This means interacting on forums, messaging readers, and seeking out your target audience. All of this, writing novels, and keeping up with the day job you probably have. Yeesh. We don't catch a break, do we?

5. Finally, get reviews. Reviews, reviews, reviews. That's all the promotional sites that actually work care about (ENT, Bookbub, etc), and it's also a big deal to readers. If you have zero reviews, they're hesitant to buy. I'm still working on this. However, I will try to submit to reviewing bloggers, antagonize the family who has actually read it- whatever I can do, because reviews are everything.If you are a reader, I implore you, review the books you read! It has the power to help a lot of starving writers out there.

That's all for now, but I will keep you all updated. Here's the link to Lokte in case you want a dollar book. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NHY8K8A God bless!