The AmWritingFantasy Podcast: Episode 2 – Why you HAVE to use paid ads in 2019

The Am Writing Fantasy Podcast

Book marketing can be so incredibly frustrating. It's difficult and many authors sees little to no results despite all the efforts.
The market is shifting and there's no way around the fact that you HAVE to use paid ads in 2019 if you want any visibility.

In this episode, I explain why and what you should pay attention to when your running paid ads on your books. I also recommend what to do when you're first starting out.

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LET'S CONNECT!
Closed Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AmWritingFantasy/
Blog and Courses: https://www.amwritingfantasy.com/
Jesper on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SchmidtJesper
Autumn on Twitter: https://twitter.com/weifarer

Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion).

Jesper (12s):
I find that marketing can be so incredibly frustrating. It's certainly not because there is a lack of ideas on how to market your books. I for one have read tons of articles on this very topic over the past few years, but did any of it make any difference? Nope. Not for me. So this is the first video of 2019 and what better topic to tackle them?

Jesper (44s):
One, all we authors struggle with, if you are, I am struggling with book marketing, chances are that you have already made it big and if you're watching YouTube for the fun of it, then welcome here for the rest of us. Let's talk about the 2019 principles that needs to lie behind your book marketing I I predict that without this you will be wasting your time and effort. If you are fantasy author, then you've come to the right place.

Jesper (1m 15s):
My name is Jesper and together with Autumn I post this channel between us. We published more than 20 novels and our aim is to help you in your writing and marketing endeavors. As I said, this is the first video of 2019 and I should not forget to say welcome to the brand new amwritingfantasy YouTube channel, so over the holidays the layout of the channel has changed and I hope you like what you're seeing here.

Jesper (1m 45s):
There's a new banner and everything so it's a completely thumbs up. Hey, as promised I am Beck to. Yes, old man, grumpy I. I guess you are here to stay as a permanent cohost on you. Someone has to keep you where it's less humans on a short lease and that's you. You got to that right. Okay then, but try not to interrupt all the time. I will be the judge of that. So book marketing in 2019 the principal that I'm about to share doesn't only apply to self published authors because actually traditional published authors, I'm in today's day and age expected to market their own books as well.

Jesper (2m 29s):
That's of course, unless you are a major name already, and if you are, I'm pretty flattered that you actually taking your time out to watch this video because you probably don't need it. The fundamental issue with book marketing as we're heading into 2019 is that the times where you could just sort of throw some money after it or even just spend a lot of time on random stuff in the hopes that something would stick that time is sort of over now and we've got to learn how to focus on what works as a core principle.

Jesper (3m 6s):
Why is that? Well, for one, the app platforms are getting saturated. You know, Facebook apps are getting more and more expensive. Um, BookBub ads are also very expensive though the feature deals still works somewhat and even Amazon has started to get rid of the website space that used to be dedicated to also bots and they have now replaced it by another row of ads in steps.

Jesper (3m 37s):
So again, a sign that the platform is getting saturated with that. And well, of course also Amazon wants to earn more money. So do you recognize any of these problems in your own book? Marketing I you spending more and more money and you're seeing very little result? Well. Okay, let's get into this a bit, but there is some baseline items that we need to get sorted first. So things like having a very good Shaundra relevant cover, a strong blurb, a professional looking website and a mailing list.

Jesper (4m 8s):
And by the way, the mailing list should be your absolutely number one priority and most important asset. And then there should be some reviews on those books so that it has some social proof as well. And all of those things are part of the book marketing equation. You know, I just realized that there was a lot of ideas there for future videos that we could talk about getting reviews, writing blurbs or whatever. And since this channel is now dedicated to fantasy opposites issue, we could tackle them head on.

Jesper (4m 38s):
So let us know in the comments section below if some of these topics are of a particular high interest to you and then maybe we'll put them on the video recording list. For now though, I'll assume that those elements are all in place and you are basically at the level we are doing everything you can to market the crap out of your books. Yet nothing seems to work and Hey, just for complete transparency here, it's not that I find book marketing the easiest thing in the world and I know exactly how to do it because it is difficult.

Jesper (5m 11s):
And the thing is that a good book is not enough anymore. It used to be so that if you wrote a really good book, you could put it out there and it will probably start earning you some money, but unfortunately that time has passed and if anybody tells you otherwise, just sort of nod and smile and then run for the Hills because those people are full of crap. I'm sorry. As an author, book marketing is part of your business and you have got to put the effort in and understand that in 2019 if your goal is to see some financial results from your writing, then you have to treat it as a business gets to the point towards the less human, Oh, you think I'm rambling here.

Jesper (5m 56s):
Those are actually some pretty fundamental points that just can't be ignored.

2 (6m 1s):
No one cares. Our view going to tell them how to run advertising or should I?

Jesper (6m 7s):
No, please don't. You know, nobody wants to hear your rather mean advice. You know, I know you're pretty well by now.

2 (6m 13s):
Book advertising is easy. You just hack all the computers in the world to put your book on those computers and to tell their worthless humans that the computer will only unlock once they have bought the book.

Jesper (6m 26s):
Okay, let's move on while he's gone. For a start, you need to know your normal level of sales. Our app, so I use selling zero books a week, 10 books a week, a hundred books a week. You see, unless you know your starting position and unless you only do one new book marketing initiative at a time, then the problem is that you have no idea which one of your methods are actually working and which ones should you double down upon.

Jesper (6m 58s):
So if you, for example, let's say that you launch a Facebook ad, an Amazon app and BookBub ad, and you do it all at the same time, and then your book sales starts to rise, that's good. The only problem is that you have no idea which one of these ants actually did the trick. And then you don't know where to double down. And that's a real shame. So first of all, stop tracking your sales and then only employ one new initiative at a time, only one. And then track the results after that.

Jesper (7m 29s):
And then you can start seeing what works and where you need to scale up. So why is this important? Because with the advertising platforms, getting saturated is getting more and more expensive and you don't want to spend a lot of money on five different platforms if they don't work. So the other thing that I found to be true is that book marketing depends on an awful lot on the type of book that you are marketing and also on your existing platform. So just because someone else has success with one type of ads, it doesn't necessarily mean that you can simply sort of replicate what that person is doing and then find similar success if you're copying what another author is doing, uh, you know, from an ad perspective and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Jesper (8m 17s):
Just make sure that you check what level of reach this author has. So is your audience size similar to that person's audience size? How many books does this person have published in comparison to you? So you see many don't actually understand that those other factors influences the effect of book marketing. So let's say that by now you have your tracking in place. That's good. So you know how many books you're selling on average every single week.

Jesper (8m 47s):
So where do you go from here? So I've sort of been circling around the topic of ads in this radio and that was actually on purpose because as we're into 2020, 19 and despite the fact that I've set that ad platforms, I'm getting saturated and they're getting more and more expensive, there is no longer anywhere around the fact that book marketing has become a pay to play game. That's just a truth whether we like it or not. So unless you're making use of paid advertising, it is extremely hard to get any visibility out there.

Jesper (9m 22s):
Although in in a minute I will share some alternatives with you, but uh, use, I hope you see why I also said that you need to focus on what actually works for your book rather than trying all kinds of ads on all kinds of platforms because due to the saturation issue, it would very quickly become a very expensive game to play. So as you are heading into this, don't spend more money than you can afford to lose that sort of the baseline of it.

Jesper (9m 53s):
And especially when you're first starting out, just just sort of started with a small budget, test the waters a bit and then only scale up when you were fine when you found something that actually trans into real book sales. And when you're first starting out, my recommendation would be to test our Amazon app. And I do understand the irony in the fact that I've said that you can't just necessarily replicate what somebody else is doing, but they have been working particularly well for me. And I've actually placed a screenshot here on the screen for you so that you can see the results of some of the reason apps that I ran.

Jesper (10m 30s):
But the thing with Amazon ads is that you are marketing your books on the platform where the readers are already browsing with the intent of making a purchase. So in that sense it's much easier than with Facebook ads where you basically have to entice the reader to get off Facebook and onto Amazon to complete a purchase purchase. And in my opinion, uh, on top of that, Facebook have lost a lot of it's effectiveness when it comes to selling books.

Jesper (11m 1s):
Simply also because Facebook users are growing tired of seeing ads in their feet. It can still be done. And I absolutely know some authors who have massive success with Facebook ads, but as I said, you can't necessarily replicate with others are doing and I certainly have not been able to replicate what they're doing and it's probably because my particular books don't fit that audience. So what I'm trying to tell you is sort of find your own way. You know a website, amwritingfantasy.com there is a link to that one in description below, but that whole S tons of advice on the topic of book marketing.

Jesper (11m 40s):
So you just head over there, search for book marketing and you'll find tons of blog posts also in the description field below. I'll add a link to a list of promotional sites from Reedsy and they collected that one, which is is an extremely Tandy list to have as a reference. And I promised you an alternative as well, didn't I. So when it comes to visibility, no, that making your book one in a series Permafree is another way to lower the barrier for new readers to try out an author they have never heard of before.

Jesper (12m 15s):
I have actually done this myself and while it did pay me to give a book away that I had worked so hard or were for free, I must say that it's now being downloaded so regularly that it constantly sits at an Amazon sales ranking of between 1,002 thousand and that's pretty good. All I do to make it stick there is to use some of the promotional services that you'll find listed and that Ricci article I just mentioned. And again, the same applies.

Jesper (12m 44s):
Measure which one of those promotional sites actually works for you and then only use those. So again, focus is key here in 2019 please also keep in mind that most authors make their money on sell through on series. So if you're trying to promote your one single book, try not to get too frustrated or what lack of sales, you know, releasing more books over the longterm. We'll help you out significantly. Stay safe out there and, uh, see you next Monday.