Promotion - what works and what doesn't?

Paula wonders what promotion works and what doesn’t.

In case you think I might have the definitive answer to this, I’ll start by saying I have absolutely no idea. All I know is that sales of my latest novel ‘took off’ in April –but I don’t really know why.

‘Irish Inheritance’ was published at the beginning of February. The sales by the end of that month were disappointing, to say the least, despite the pre- and post-publication promotion I did on Facebook and in the yahoo groups. I also set up my own blog tour, and guested at various blogs, usually one per week (in an effort not to overdo it!). But I was so disappointed by the end of February, I seriously considered giving up writing altogether. There seemed to be no point in continuing to write if only a handful of people were going to read my stories.

In March, my blog tour continued, and I’ve already told you about a successful few days around St. Patrick’s Day. After that i.e. during the last week of March, sales slowed down – and then, WHAM! At the beginning of April, sales took off again. So much so, that by April 13th, I had sold more than I sold in the whole of March, and at the moment it looks possible that April sales will be double the March sales. I track the sales on Novel Rank, by the way, and I'm not talking about thousands or even hundreds of downloads, but there have still been far more this month than any of my other books have achieved.

The e-book is selling mainly on Amazon’s USA site – and I’m mystified as my others have usually done better in the UK than in the US. I’ve only done a couple of blog visits in April and I haven’t done much advertising on Facebook, apart from occasional mentions when a new review appeared on Amazon. A couple of people have let me know that they have recently downloaded it, but I have no idea about the other sales.

Not that I’m complaining, of course, but it would be interesting (and useful!) to know just what has led to these sales. The book has an attractive cover, and it's set in Ireland which, I know, has attracted some readers who have Irish ancestry or who have visited Ireland. It has had some good reviews on Amazon, but then so have my other books. I don’t think I have promoted it more (or less) than any of my others. The only difference seems to be that my publisher has left it at the ‘sale’ price of 99 cents. That might explain why people are buying it – but doesn’t really explain how they are actually finding it on Amazon.

So I remain mystified (but happy, of course) about the sales so far!