Bouchercon Advertising...
When you go to Bouchercon, you must not go expecting any big boost in sales from anything you do - except possibly getting arrested... or dying. All the doo-dads go on a series of doo-dad tables - pens, postcards, bookmarks, fliers, buttons, etc. They get picked over and maybe a sale or two is generated. Certainly the author can at least say "hey, I tried."
I tried.
I put my doo-dads on the tables - twenty shirts, embroidered and screen printed. All meant to drive traffic towards my Kindles. Mind you, shirts are expensive. Imagine the cost of buying a shirt at a retail store (as opposed to say, a gas station) and multiply that by twenty.
So how did that turn out for me?
Well, you recall (if you read this blog slavishly and have pretty good recall...) that I was on track to sell four Kindles this month for a total of about $1.40 in my pocket. I checked my numbers before leaving for Bouchercon, and I had already sold four. Now, several days after the end of the convention, I find my efforts and investment have indeed paid off.
Amazon reports that I have now sold a fifth Kindle, netting me 35 more cents. I've now surpassed my expectatios for the month of September and, in fact, were I a more numbers oriented person I'd say I'm running at 125% of early projections. I'm not sure the math is right, but it certainly looks impressive.
Oh well.
I tried.
I put my doo-dads on the tables - twenty shirts, embroidered and screen printed. All meant to drive traffic towards my Kindles. Mind you, shirts are expensive. Imagine the cost of buying a shirt at a retail store (as opposed to say, a gas station) and multiply that by twenty.
So how did that turn out for me?
Well, you recall (if you read this blog slavishly and have pretty good recall...) that I was on track to sell four Kindles this month for a total of about $1.40 in my pocket. I checked my numbers before leaving for Bouchercon, and I had already sold four. Now, several days after the end of the convention, I find my efforts and investment have indeed paid off.
Amazon reports that I have now sold a fifth Kindle, netting me 35 more cents. I've now surpassed my expectatios for the month of September and, in fact, were I a more numbers oriented person I'd say I'm running at 125% of early projections. I'm not sure the math is right, but it certainly looks impressive.
Oh well.
posted by Steven at
4:45 PM
3 Comments:
This makes me worry about putting out a book of stories when no one knows my name.
I never saw the shirts or you.
Hey Steven,
I researched doing some targeted advertising, and received the prices back today. Hmm. How many books would I have to sell to earn back $2000?
Stephen
Patti,
You're much better known than I am and your blog has greater traffic by far - no chance you don't sell more. Also, you won't sell any at all if you don't put them out there.
Stephen,
If you're selling at 99 cents like me, 6,000 copies. At $2.99, then only 1,000 copies. But I think you can do that without targeted advertising.
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