Week 2 Update - Failure to Launch ?

After a very exciting first week, well, all that momentum has disappeared, and sales have crashed. In this second week, my Amazon rankings have dropped significantly, day after day. The book still appears with decent rankings in niche categories under "Hot New Releases," but from what I've seen from other books' overall rankings and placement in these lists, I'll probably appear on the first and second pages for the next 2-3 weeks at best. And if sales are dead at that point, it'll just be another self-published book on Amazon that disappeared into the ether, never to be seen or mentioned again.

If that's the case, I'll join the ranks of millions of others with similar experiences. I hope that my tale will be different. I'm confident that I will continue to be a successful short story writer, and I'm not going to give up on my novel-writing ambitions. I've written three thus far (Sex Robot is my third, and the first I've published), and I know that they're good, and that I'm a good writer - though of course I'm aware that almost every writer overestimates their abilities.

Despite the dreary update thus far, I am absolutely not giving up on this book - far too early for that. It's out there in the world, so it's certainly possible that people who have bought a copy will have enjoyed it, and shared it with others, and so on. Perhaps that momentum can start building again after positive reviews roll in. And I'm thinking at the beginning of December, I'll knock a few bucks off the print and e-book editions and run a sort of "on sale" ad campaign for the holiday season.

Speaking of ads, I'll relate how that's gone for me thus far. The last campaign ended earlier today.

Facebook (mostly Canada, then USA, a touch of UK):
13,200 views
1,150 link clicks
~a dozen positive reactions (like, LOL)
~a dozen negative comments (all USA)

Amazon (Canada only):
15,000 impressions
47 clicks
0 sales

I have to say that despite the lack of translation into sales, for roughly a $130 spend for ads over a 2-week period, that's a pretty solid rate of exposure and clicks. Clearly the title and cover art are working, so I have to wonder why this engagement isn't resulting in more sales. My guess is the price in combination of my being a relative nobody in the literary world.

I've learned a lot from this launch. I think the main lesson is that one really does need to have an existing network of friends and acquaintances on social media, just like so many of the agents and indie publishers were telling me in their query forms. Looks like I was a bit naive in thinking the title, cover, and opening lines and first chapter would be enough to get things cookin'. 99% of strangers Do Not Care about some random guy posting on Twitter about their book or running ads on Facebook.

Things will probably get better once I have other novels out there in the market. I've still got a full request out with an indie publisher for my second novel, and if they reject it, I just might self-publish that next year. The enjoyment of one will lead to more sales of the other.

​Well, that's about it. Thanks for reading. For me, it's back to the short story grind for a bit !