selling romance novels

Marketing Around Valentine’s Day

It is February 12th
and this is my annual reminder
that MANY people
dislike Valentine’s Day.

I write romance novels,
stories that feature love
and relationships,
and I am very careful
about marketing around
Valentine’s Day.

I usually gently reference it
with color – pinks and reds
and with hearts, roses,
chocolates
in my graphics.

And I don’t mention it
at all
in text.

Valentine’s Day
is a love it
or hate it
celebration
with many more people
hating it
than
loving it.

Market around Valentine’s Day
carefully.

Female Facing

In yesterday’s post,
I used the term
‘female facing.’

Being female facing
AS A BUSINESS
is a choice.

Our businesses
can be any gender
we wish them to be,
including genderless.

In the Romance Novel writing business,
for example,
I might wish my branding
to be genderless
to appeal to a certain
target market.

I might use initials
instead of a first name
in my pen name
(company name)
and I might use
genderless avatars
on social media.

I would be female
but I wouldn’t be female facing.

Being female facing
AS A BUSINESS
is a choice.

Make that decision
consciously.

Craft Your Own D@mn Promotional Posts

I posted on social media
that, when I’m seeking to share news
about a writer’s works,
I share their pinned post first.

A writer commented
and said her promo was
in her profile.
Would I promote that?

F*ck no.
If a person is too lazy
to craft a post for me to share,
I’m not sharing sh*t for them.

Good promo posts
take time to craft.

I ain’t doing all that work
for random writers.
Or even for best friends.

If you want people
to share your promotional material,
get off your a$$
and create the f*ckin’ promotional materials
(or pay someone to create it
for you).

Don’t expect unpaid people
to put in work
to promote your products/services.

I can’t believe
this has to be said.
But I guess it does.

Feeding The Strong

One of my Romance Novels series
sells REALLY well.
It earns
more than all the other series
combined.

THAT is the series
I promote the most.

Why?

Because $1 promoting that series
has a larger financial return
than $1 promoting any other series.

The series has a fanbase
to help boost the promotions.
These readers (customers)
are more likely to share
promotional material.

The series already has a good ranking (positioning)
at online booksellers.
Promotion boosts that ranking higher
and higher ranking means
exponentially larger visibility.

It has the glowing reviews
which help sell the book
once readers (prospects) arrive
at the sales page.

It has momentum
and an object in motion
stays in motion.

Feed the strong.

That usually has
a better return
than promoting the weak.

Producing What You Want To Produce

A common piece of advice
that is given to many writers
and to many other business builders
is
Write/produce what you want
to write/produce.

That advice is incomplete
because if we wrote/produced
what we wanted to write/produce,
we likely wouldn’t sell
that story/object/service.

Our readers/customers
aren’t usually ready for
our latest big idea.

They are often ready
for ONE of our big ideas, however.
Merely not the most recent one.

The complete piece of advice
is
Write/produce what you want
to write/produce
but ensure other people want it also.

Business builders usually have
quite a few products/services
they’re interested in offering.

I, for example,
have a list of over 100 story ideas
I would like to write
and ideas get added or drop off
that list all the time.

I pick story ideas (product ideas)
off that list
I think readers (customers) are interested
in buying.

I’m happy.
Readers (customers) are happy.
My business’ bank account is happy.

Produce what you want
to produce
but ensure other people
want that product/service also.

And keep a list
of product/service ideas
you’re interested
in exploring.

Numbers Are Part Of Business

I was talking about
read through on a series
on one of the writing loops.

The best selling writers
on the loop
all knew their read through rates.

Many of the other writers
talked about
not being good at math
and finding it too difficult
to calculate.

Too f*cking bad.
If you want your romance writing business
to be a success long term,
you have to know that number.

You don’t have to calculate it
if you’re bad at math.
But you DO have to
know your read through rate
and know what it means.

Numbers are a part of business.

You don’t have to calculate return on investment
or break-even sales
or sell-through rates
or other numbers.

But you do have to know
what they mean
if you want to be financially successful.

Get comfortable
with numbers.

Does Your Model Still Work?

Weather prediction models
are based on a stable jet stream.

The jet stream
is no longer stable.

And the weather prediction models
no longer work
for any predictions longer
than a day out.

I suspect
we are all basing decisions
on models
that no longer work
in today’s world.

I know I am.

In the past,
as one example,
if readers downloaded
one of my free books,
11% of them
would read the entire series.

I built my rate of return on promotions model
around that read-through
(sell-through)
number.

But that read-through number
is no longer applicable.
Very few readers
now read the entire series.

When I modified
my rate of return on promotions models
and applied the new
read-through number
(plus some other factors),
none of the promotions
I was considering
made a return.

Do your models
still work?

Knowing When To Close A Business

I plan to close
my romance novel writing business
when
the pre-order sales
for my stories
no longer cover their production expenses.

Based on the current
downward sales trajectory,
that will happen
in roughly three years.

I’m planning for that closure.

I’m writing the books
readers have requested.
I’m wrapping up series.
I’m setting up income streams
so they continue
without much involvement
from me.

If something unexpected happens
and my sales recover,
of course,
I’ll continue the business.

But, as of today,
I am planning to close it

Knowing I’m ending this stage
of my life
is sad
but it is also powerful.
I’m in control
of my business’ closure,
of the process.
It will be a good end
to a great business life cycle.

Decide now
when you’ll close/sell your business.

Build toward that closure.
And embrace
the fresh new start
that will follow it.

Show Your Brand Name

I scrolled through social media,
looking at author promo posts.

Half of the graphics
didn’t display the author’s name.

This happens
quite often.

We watch a commercial
and wonder what the commercial
was selling.

We see a print ad
and have no idea
who placed it.

That’s a waste of resources.
People are busy.
They are unlikely
to search for this information.

SHOW your brand name
on graphics
and other marketing materials.

Display your brand name prominently.
Make it easier
for prospects to buy from you.

Watching For Signs

Romance writers know
when people start banning
books featuring diverse characters,
romance novels will be next.

We watch for
that movement.
We try to stop it
from happening.
And we prepare
because it WILL impact us
next.

I know if the UK is experiencing
extreme weather
and climate change,
my section of the world
will likely experience it
next.

I prepare
for those weather events.
I plan around them.

There are almost always
warning signs
foretelling big changes
in our lives
and in our businesses.

Figure out
what the warning signs
for your situation
are.

Monitor them.
And then prepare
for any changes.