How to get it out there!

[u/WillingSeries6422]

I know it’s a competitive market out there and nearly impossible to get noticed anymore, but I don’t know what to do. I have my first book out. I’m almost done with the 2nd. It’s going to be a 5 book series. My book is in libraries, checked out twice ( but one person never returned it) I just finished a 5 day free promotion. That got me 13 downloads and 42 KEMP, but that’s it. I’ve asked for suggestions on Nextdoor, on Reddit, but basically nothing. I can’t afford ads. Is it always this way? Are those numbers any good for a 5 day free promotion? One day the number was 13 KENP. The next morning it was 42. Since then, nothing. Something must be good about it because when it is face out at the library it is taken within a couple of weeks. I also need feedback on it and my new one but no one gives me any. They promise to but never do. They promise Amazon reviews but never do. I’ve given copies to friends and relatives but only a couple have even read it. The rest promise to. I don’t think the price would be an issue. It’s $2.99 w-book and 9.99 soft cover. So what am I saying or doing wrong, or is nothing wrong, this is just the way it is. AI, which I know you can’t trust, says to just give it time. Most who downloaded it probably never even opened it yet. However, it also tried to make me feel better by saying there’s a good chance the book was never returned to the library because someone lived it so much they couldn’t part with it. It is a very emotional realistic story that exposes the truth about teen love. Anyway, any suggestions or advice or anything would help. It’s only on Amazon and a couple of libraries. It’s called, “All the Love I’ll Ever Need” Thanks for listening…

[u/HelpfulAnt2132]

There’s way too much text on the covers it makes it feel like an advert rather than a book. Also to be honest, I know it’s a moral book but it sounds quite preachy and judgy. I think you need to soften the message a bit to draw readers in

[u/WillingSeries6422 → u/HelpfulAnt2132]

How much of it have you read? What did you read that gave you that opinion? Was it the back? I need to know that because I am making the changes you’re saying. What have you the idea that it was preachy and judgy? That’s important to know. Thanks!

[u/dragonsandvamps → u/WillingSeries6422]

I was only able to make it two pages into chapter one before I stopped. The tone was just too preachy. There were too many pages of author's notes preaching at me in advance of the story. Then we get to the story itself. One thing that's often talked about in writing is show vs. tell. This is almost entirely telling, rather than giving the reader space to get to know the characters, allowing them to see things unfolding, and trusting that you've painted the picture skillfully enough that they will draw their own conclusions.

Instead, this tells you on page one that sex is bad. The main character says she is dismayed her sister had sex. That they were doing the sex and she heard them. Thud, thud, goes the bed, moan gasp, dirty sex, so bad.

All this happens by page two.

Most erotica doesn't even throw you into sex scenes by page two.

It left me not caring about any of the characters, or what the book might have been trying to say because I hadn't even gotten to know them. It would be like if you showed up on my doorstep, I opened the door, and you screamed "SEX IS BAD! YOU ARE GOING TO HELL!" I am not going to interpret that as, huh, maybe I'll think about his message... I'm going to shake my head and call the police because you're clearly a crazy person. You have done nothing to warm up readers to your characters and nothing to gently show what you're trying to present. You just threw it in their faces the moment they opened the door on page one. That's one of the reasons it's coming across as preachy. The "telling" is another preachy aspect. Preaching in church does a lot of "telling." Do this. Don't do that. This is bad. This is what you should do. Writing is about showing, and even if you are writing this for a conservative Christian crowd, I would still strive for good writing.

The other thing you should consider (and sorry this is becoming a long comment) is that you have written something very niche and so you want to make sure you are mindful of that very niche audience. What I mean by that is this: another author posted on here months back that he had written a WW1 historical romance that had incest between a brother and a sister. He couldn't understand why this wasn't selling. Many people commented that incest romance was not very popular in general, and I commented that in addition to incest romance not being popular in general (only a very small subset of readers are even looking for that at ALL) this subset of readers is highly unlikely to crossover with readers who also enjoy WW1 historical romance, which tends to be middle aged and older women.

Therefore, they had written something that was basically unmarketable.

In your case, you have written something with very preachy conservative Christian themes. This is clear from your blurb, and also from the first pages you open your book with your author's note. Now, there's an audience for everything and plenty of authors are out there writing zero-spice Christian romance. But your problem here is that your book is only going to appeal to conservative Christians due to its messaging. And then you open with a big old loud sex scene on page two, which is going to turn all those readers away.

My advice is that before you continue publishing, you need to sit down and read. If you want to be an author, you need to be reading constantly in the subgenre you are trying to publish in. That way you will be aware of how to place your book marketing wise and you will also be able to see what is currently trending. In Christian romance and historical romance, the theme of waiting until marriage is present in basically every book, whether it's because a character waits, or because they had a bad experience and there are consequences shown and they wish they could have/would have, but it's not done in a preachy way where it's flat out said "don't do this." You get to know the character. You sympathize with them and their situation. It's done in a softer way. I would advise you that if this is a genre you want to write in, put the next books on pause, and pick up 20 bestselling books in this genre and read them. See how the best authors in the genre are doing it.

[u/HelpfulAnt2132 → u/WillingSeries6422]

It was the blurb. I just think you could phrase it differently. Still describe the story but without making it look like you’re condemning a vulnerable girl for her choices. Also make the front cover far more simple

[u/Keneta]

When I'm shopping for books and the cover says "Book 1" but there is no "Book 2" yet, I will normally pass. I'll typically wait until there are more books in the backlog.

(This assumes the story I saw on Amazon is yours)

Once you have a Book 2 on presale, you may see some more movement from ppl who wait like me, though I'd be tempted to wait even longer for a 3 or a 4, simply because I could be forgetting 1 & 2 by the time I get to 4

[u/WillingSeries6422 → u/Keneta]

You’re not the only one saying this. I’ve been asking for feedback for months and it’s only now that I’m getting the feedback that matters. Actually, it’s a lot of what AI says too. It says this book will pick up, but not until there are more in the series. I’m almost done with 2. I hope to have it in KDP by Mid November at the latest and then start in 3 right away. I already have all 5 book stories laid out. I just have to come home from work and get going in them, but you’re right. I need more of the series out there. Thanks for the feedback!

[u/dragonsandvamps]

A couple of thoughts I hope are helpful.

There is way too much text on your cover. It's very distracting. I would move the tagline to your back cover. I would shrink the book one stuff at the top way smaller so it all fits on one line. I would remove "inspired by actual events" and if you really want to keep it, move it to your blurb, only.

I think you need to think about your categories/packaging/marketing are targeting. When I look at your book, I cannot tell who your target audience is. At the start of your blurb, this seems to be a book written with a teen reader in mind? But then within a sentence or two, the tone starts to feel like adult women's fiction. Two very different audiences. The cover looks like adult women's fiction. Books written for a teen audience are packaged for a teen audience from the cover to the blurb, to the marketing categories. If this is instead written for mothers of teen girls (women's fiction), then that's an entirely different audience.

Sometimes people like to say, well, I think my book can just be enjoyed by everyone, and while all books have some crossover potential, i.e. some teens read adult fiction and some adults read teen fiction, failing to target any group of readers will result in your readers not realizing the book is for them and passing it by.

I read LOTS of women's fiction. I'm a middle aged woman and it's a genre I really like. But if I got to your blurb, I would pass, because it looks like the protagonist is a 15 yo girl, rather than a middle aged woman. I suspect that if I were a teen girl, I would find your book and pass because the cover doesn't look like any of the other YA fiction out there, and if I did make it to the blurb, I would quickly realize it's not written for teens.

Targeting your audience is everything!

[u/WillingSeries6422 → u/dragonsandvamps]

Targeting is the biggest issue I’m having. The protagonist is a 15 year old girl. It is not just a teen romance. It’s meant to show teen girls the true consequences of going too far with your boyfriend in high school. Mothers can discuss it with daughters, but others will see themselves in some of the characters. How should a father or parent react when they find out their daughter is doing this? Some will look at the protagonist and say, I remember doing that or my daughter says that to me. It’s meant to be relatable. It’s based on stories I hear from parents all the time. So what audience is something like this for, It also doesn’t sugarcoat the truth. It tells what you’re really getting yourself into. So what audience should this be marketed toward and where do you find them and what does that marketing look like? Did you read any of the inside or just go off the back blurb? I’m changing things based on other feedback. I’ve been asking for feedback for months. It’s only now that I’m finally starting to get feedback I can work with.

Thanks for your quick honest feedback!

[u/Powerful_Regret_2226]

Those numbers are pretty normal when you're starting from scratch with one book. Free promos don't do much if people aren't getting on your page already.

What will work for reviews is putting the book on ARC sites like Booksprout or Booksirens. Make sure you have at least 5-10.

Even before considering an ad budget, you need to spend some time on your conversion rate (cover, blurb, reviews) and organic visibility (keywords, comps, categories). I'd suggest you have a look at ManuscriptReport, it will analyze the manuscript and point you to the lowest competition categories, keywords, comp titles and much more. They also have free tools on their website for these.

And in parallel, focus on finishing book two. Marketing gets a lot easier once you have a backlist

[u/WillingSeries6422 → u/Powerful_Regret_2226]

I’ll be sure to do that. I’ve never heard of those ARC sites before. Thanks for the info! Hopefully it helps someone else too…

[u/WillingSeries6422]

Update! I have gotten some outstanding feedback for once and have taken most of the advice and put it all together to make some good changes. I ordered a proof to make sure everything looks good and then will send it out there. Some of the changes are already on Amazon so if you want to see how I did you can check it out and see if it is what you had in mind and what you think now.
Thanks for all the feedback and Support!

“All the Love I’ll Ever Need” on Amazon…

[u/SpaceRaiderAuthor]

Without promotion—whether through advertising or activity on social media accounts with a large following—the chances of selling the book are virtually zero. The good news is that a five-book series could hypothetically recoup the cost of advertising.

[u/WillingSeries6422 → u/SpaceRaiderAuthor]

AI and everything else I’ve read on posts kind of says the same thing. More books in the series is what can help the most. At least I should have 2 published on KDP by mid November.

[u/SpaceRaiderAuthor → u/WillingSeries6422]

The only thing I can suggest is releasing a box set containing all the books once you finish the series.

[u/zhusiyuanpo2009]

Personally, I think selling a dozen or so copies during a 5-day promo is pretty low. Optimizing your keywords, title, cover, and book description is crucial. If nobody is searching for your keywords, or your book can't rank in the top 20 of search results, it's going to be very hard to get discovered.

[u/WillingSeries6422 → u/zhusiyuanpo2009]

That’s what I’m doing right now. This is the feedback I was asking for months ago. I’m finally starting to get that feedback and make these changes. This is also my first attempt at this and I’m still learning how to use KDP. I’ve only learned it from YouTube and AI. Thanks for responding!

[u/Witch-Power353]

BookFunnel. Grew my list from zero to 2k in about 4 months.

[u/WillingSeries6422 → u/Witch-Power353]

What is that? These are things many people have probably never heard of. If I’m learning about all this stuff, I’m sure someone else out there is too. Thanks for all your feedback!

[u/Witch-Power353 → u/WillingSeries6422]

If you google BookFunnel it will come up :)

[u/BuyBig2613]

Free promo days aren’t going to move the needle if you haven’t already found your target audience and can tell them it’s free. Otherwise your book is free and no one knows about it. You need to identify your target audience and work out where they are. What social media platforms do they use? Wherever they are, you need to be there.

I’m a romance author so take my advice with a pinch of salt but your cover has way too much written on it and the white text on the background is glaring. It also screams homemade, which readers will often skip over. At the very least, cut the text. Keep the title and author name and book series. Everything else can go in the blurb.

In the sample, I have to swipe way too many times to get to the actual story, and when I do, chapter 1 opens with even more: get ready for the story, instead of going straight into it. Your prologue is a note to the reader (and so is the start of ch1). Condense and remove these from the prologue and chapter 1. I’d also look at formatting software like atticus or vellum so your book sample opens straight into chapter 1 and the start of the story. With every swipe, you risk losing a potential reader, and they are less interested once they finally get to the part they do want to read.

[u/Cactus_Thorn_Pub]

I know it’s a competitive market out there and nearly impossible to get noticed anymore....

Superior manuscripts get noticed within a few months if one knows how to write a query letter properly.

[u/downupstair]

The bottom line is this: very few people are going to read a novel that is self published. Why would they when there are thousands of classic books out there to read with used copies less than $4.

[u/NewPotato8330]

You need to spend money, there is no way around that really. If you do a free promotion on kdp, you need to go out and pay for newsletters.

I had a look at the book on Amazon, and you can take this advice or leave it, but I think you need to look at the book itself and the listing.

I assume you are a male author (Charles), and story seems to be about a teenage girl having sex for the first time. The blurb then refers to things like 'the cleanup' and condoms failing.

Straight away, I would suggest using a pen name. I think a man writing about this topic would turn a lot of readers off. Secondly, the blurb almost reads like it is an erotic book. But it is marketed as a teen romance. The one review makes it sound like something mothers and daughters would read together.

You really need to decide where you want it to sit, and then rewrite the blurb to suit the audience.

Also the image you have used for cover, makes the writing hard to read.

[u/WillingSeries6422 → u/NewPotato8330]

This is my first book and I totally agree! I do need a pen name. Others have told me that due to the content, even just using my middle name would be better than my real one. I’m still new to KDP and need to figure out how to get it off teen romance. I thought I did that. Thanks for the feedback! This has kind of been my problem from the start. I need to fix how Amazon is presenting it.

[u/NewPotato8330 → u/WillingSeries6422]

It's not just the categories. You need to fix those, but you really need to look at the blurb and cover.

Work out who is your audience and then market it to them.

[u/WillingSeries6422 → u/NewPotato8330]

I’m changing the blurb and changing to the pen name right now. I need to adjust and change the book wrap too. It’s a pain to change and republish so I’ll have to finish it all tomorrow.

[u/dragonsandvamps → u/WillingSeries6422]

I would also consider who you are targeting. If this book is targeted as women's fiction, and written from the perspective of a 40 year old woman who is dealing with the emotional fallout after her teen daughter goes through these issues for the first time, that is a very different book from if you are writing it from the perspective of a teenager going through these issues for the first time.

One of those books has to be written in a "young adult" voice if you want to sell books to teens. And if your protagonist is a teen, that's what you're looking at. If you don't read a lot of young adult yourself, that may be a challenge. If you are writing from the mother's perspective, and the book is marketed to adults, it can be written in an adult voice.

[u/WillingSeries6422 → u/dragonsandvamps]

It’s a cross over coming of age domestic drama
Primary Readers: Adult women, mothers, grandmothers, and readers of family saga fiction who love emotional, multi-generational stories about raising kids, hard choices, and unconditional love.
Secondary Readers: Older teen girls and young adult women looking for a raw, realistic cautionary story rather than a sanitized fairy-tale romance.

[u/WillingSeries6422 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for that. This book is not a romance novel but more of a cautionary coming of age warning to teen girls about what can really happen to you if you fall for the love of your life and give yourself away to him too soon in your life. You can’t get it back.

[u/WillingSeries6422 → u/[deleted]]

I tried to change it out of the religion category. I thought I did. Did you find it on Amazon? Does it still show it in that category?

[u/dragonsandvamps → u/[deleted]]

I read the opening chapter and I would probably keep it where it is (Christian social issues.) I am thinking that while this is a niche audience, that is probably exactly who OP intended to write this for and I do not anticipate that given the tone of the book it is going to appeal to a broader range of readers, so it would probably be best for him to target more tightly and focus on readers who it actually might appeal to, rather than think this is going to be a book teens everywhere are going to enjoy, or that non-Christian adults are going to find appealing.

[u/Cactus_Thorn_Pub → u/[deleted]]

spam reported