Today, author Rebecca Dahlke (R.P. Dahlke) tells us about her All Mystery Newsletter.
So
I put the website in mothballs, but kept the Facebook site, the yahoo group (which
is where authors meet to talk about promotion, and readers come to see what
authors are talking about.) and Good Reads group for Indie and small press
promotion, and a Twitter account.
Since then, I have
put four mysteries up on Amazon/Kindle, and because I understand that this my
book is a product, I also began a six month quest for the best, and most
effective, form of advertising my books.
The results were exciting! I discovered that with a combination of
inexpensive paid and free promotion, I could sell more books. I thought the
results of this were interesting enough to share with my writing friends. So
the first thing I did was put together a 7 page handout and speak on this
subject with my local Sisters in Crime chapter in Tucson. The handout was
necessary because I had a lot of powerful, and helpful information to share,
but cautioned my grateful listeners with the following: The only thing I could
guarantee about this information was that some of it would change.
That was in June, and sure enough, things have changed… again.
One of the sites I listed as smart and creative just bit the dust, and another
site, Digital Books Today, has taken a giant leap after only 18 months in the
business. Eighteen months? Gee, All Mystery e-newsletter
had started before Digital Books Today… so that meant… but wait! There's
more!
In a recent e-mail from the founder of Digital Books
Today, Anthony Wessel, he says, and I quote: "Traffic on our Sites: March:
8,000, June 16,000" and in their "The Top 100 Best Free Kindle Books
List: November 2011: 600+ and June 2012- 10,000+ with 38,000 click outs to books on Amazon."
It is obvious that Indie and small press authors are now
using paid book marketing as part of a successful campaign to sell their books. I know, because I was using
them too, and the results have been gratifying—except for one thing. As a mystery writer, all of the best
e-newsletters had mystery squished in between vampire and memoir.
It didn't take me much more than a nano-second to see
that All Mystery e-newsletter was needed.
I ticked off the possibilities for resurrecting this
e-newsletter against the fact that it might take some time to gain momentum.
Then realized I already had all of my requirements for a good promotion site:
Facebook page, Yahoo and Good Reads groups, and Twitter with a small army of
Re-Tweet pals.
The website is now up and running. Better yet, September
is already SOLD out, but I am accepting submittals for October through December
2012. And, yes, the ad insertions for this e-newsletter are reasonably priced: $10.00 a book insertion.
Here are links to All Mystery
e-newsletter places:
Twitter handle: @allmysterynews
Last but not least, for those of you who would like a
copy of my updated copy of that 7
page hand-out for both free and paid promotions for authors, send me an e-mail
with "promotion handout" in the subject line and I'll send you a PDF
copy. E-mail: rp@rpdahlke.com
Rebecca Dahlke (R.P. Dahlke) is the author of A DEAD RED OLEANDER, A DEAD RED HEART, A DEAD RED CADILLAC, and A DANGEROUS HARBOR. She has been writing since 1994.
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