The month of November was another interesting learning experience in my self-publishing journey. I accomplished a lot of things, and I had my best month of sales.
Here’s a wrap-up of November activities:
Kindle Countdown Deal: I ran a Kindle countdown deal in the US and UK. I sold my highest number of books over a 5 day period, including one day of selling 100 books.
Blog Tour: The countdown deal coincided with my blog tour with Rachel’s Random Resources. I got some really great reviews and networked with a lot of great book bloggers. The blog tour/promo week was definitely the highpoint of the month for me. I generated some true momentum and felt very successful.
Amazon ads: I outsourced my Amazon ads to a provider recommended on Kindlepreneur. So far, the jury is still out on the success of this one. I guess I was hoping for some sort of magical jump in sales and reduction in costs once I got someone who knew what they were doing running my ads, but that has not yet proved to be the case. I’m still spending a lot more on ads than I’m making. At the moment, I have made the decision to let it ride, as I am focusing on keeping the ranking up. My book has consistently ranked in the top 1200 in the UK and the top 8000 in the US for the last 30 days. I have made the decision that at the moment, the ranking boost is worth the advertising expense. Again I’m reviewing this and may decide to do something different in the short to medium term.
Cost management: I must say I’m not doing great on managing my costs. While I was employed as a lawyer, it was fine to spend, spend spend. But now I’m cutting that back and have to keep working at running my writing career as a business – something I am determined to improve at. This month, I started the process of taking a hard look at my finances – stare those red numbers in the face. My goal for December and going forward is to really get on top of what I’m spending, and budget what I want to spend going forward. I find this quite difficult and uncomfortable, and it’s still a work in progress.
Book Covers: I have up-levelled my paperback cover from the standard KDP cover to a designed one. It looks a lot better and I am really proud of it. I also commissioned a cover designer for my kids’ books – these rights have reverted to me and I will self-publish them next year.
Facebook ads: I am still running these with mixed success. I am getting really good at it, though, as I am doing weekly calls with a Facebook ad specialist. Nice of Facebook isn’t it – to make sure I keep spending money and don’t get too frustrated. Actually, I’ve developed a rapport with my ad rep now. How’s that for a little scary?
Oh yeah, I also did some writing… I’m sure there are lots of other things I’ve done, but that’s the lion’s share for November. Did I mention that I’ve also been writing? I NanoWriMo’ed 50k words of a new kids series and am now revising another of my adult books. I also sent another book off to a book doctor. So… never a dull moment when it comes to investing in the future.
Daily Mind Management
The most important thing I’ve done for the month of November can’t be calculated (yet) in book sales and pounds and pence. Every day without fail I have sat down and done my work to manage my mind. Thought downloads, models, letters from my future self.
I have stopped checking my amazon ranking more than once a day, and I am determined not to let my mood be influenced by my amazon ranking (OK – another work in progress). I have begun to look on my first self-published book as one of many in my portfolio that I will write in the future.
The thing I’m most proud of for November is the time I’ve spent ‘inhabiting my future self’ – imagining myself as the successful writer that I want to be and being that person now. What would Future Me do in a given situation? How would Future Me feel? Would she be worried about this or that problem? Or would she just get on with her work? I believe that this will pay great dividends going forward and long-term.
Last but not least
As December unfolds, I had an epiphany...
I am no longer the disempowered writer I once was. The one who relied on her agent and publisher for everything, blamed others when things went wrong, and beat herself up when results weren’t as expected.
I am never going to be that person again.
I have evolved into a new more empowered version of myself, and I’m loving it!
Happy holidays!