Authors: are you targeting the right market?

Let's assume people want to support your books. There are some genuine souls who really want your success and they would love to help you.

Good intentions are not enough, you need to know are those people are your readers or this support is only formal.

What kind of readers you can meet?

Some people will share your book links but never open them. There is no use, they do it automatically.

People will congrats you, but they are not interested in what are you doing. This is a usual phenomenon, people want to support you for some reasons, but your books are not interesting them. Maybe a guy wants to approach you to flirt, maybe your friend wishes to support you, but their real intention is to be close to you, not to read your books.

People will support you expecting you to do the same. "Read my book I will read yours" is a common deal, but not always recommended. You read his book, he never returned. Or he pretended to read, but you can see from the review it is only formal.

So, what to do if you want to target the right market?

Watch around. If you need to repeat a few times that you are asking for reviews, this is not the right audience.

Say NO. The last time I saw NO I got few reviews of one star, but at least I know who did it.

Say thanks when you get reviews. People appreciate it when you are grateful.

Listen. If your readers are asking questions about your book, if they want to read other books from your collection, if they make preorders, they are your audience.

Don't post under others' promo links. Never. People will block you or mark you as spam.

The final conclusion:

Trying to sell books is the hardest task you will have as an author. Even if you invest a big money it will not make a guarantee of your sales.

Don't get discouraged. When you see one star, lack of sales, or ignorance, this is your test. Don't let them break you so easily.

Make an interview. I did more than 15 interviews, you never know who is reading. Selling books mean introducing yourself too, and if you are an interesting person, it is one more reason to sell your books.

Comments

Should we respond to negative reviews?

Recently I had a discussion in my social media about negative ratings. There was a situation in Goodreads, where I got two negative reviews on my two books. The point was in the way how the ratings were set up. First rating for my book "Body in the waves" was placed under 5-star review from another reviewer. While the reviewer praising my book, the troll came under to say "This is really bad book." Second rating was described as " Poor author needs writing lessons." Both reviews broke standards of reviewing, because there is no visible evidence that book was downloaded in Kindle unlimited or purchased. It was a clear troll act from a new page, without a profile photo and with a nickname. I reported this to Goodreads and they responded me they are processing this. Meanwhile, I heard from other authors that Goodreads failed to do anything about trolling. In these terms, Goodreads should delete such profiles and forbid the access because of breaking rules. T...

Why the refund is damaging indie authors?

I understand someone can be disappointed with a book. It is like I was disapointed with my trousers online and returned it. What makes a difference, my trousers were 40 euros. The book was 2.49 cents. This makes return funny, because what can you do with this money? Some readers don't understand story behind the refund. The author will get minus royalties. - 0.13 c in my Kindle report, that will vanish when someone else buy the book. The situation happens. Someone accidentaly clicked and bought a book. A random customer wants a refund. Maybe it was not a random move. Maybe the customer clicked, bought and did not like the book. When you don't like the book choose another options, instead of damaging authors. Write a negative review. Write negative one star rating. Don't purchase another books from this author. Or, maybe to reconsider and read it, again? If you write negative reviews or rate it with 1 or 2 stars, you are making a favor to authors. You are moving algorithms i...

Five myths about promo sites

Recently I asked for a featured Bookbub deal for one of my books. I got response that my book should be free priced and my expense would be 230 dollars. This is really funny, because I could expect people grab my book for free and give me one star (as it happens when books are available for everyone). To pay such amount of money would be waste and without a purpose. I am mix of traditional and indie author. Having a publisher, but not bestseller books, I am looking for ways to increase my book sales. Promo sites like Bookbub are very expensive and they offer their deals for 25% books from authors who applied for this. I had an insight to author's books who grabbed Bookbub deals. It works will authors who are already selling a good amount of their books. In general, promo sites are not working for favor of indie authors. These are five myths about promo sites: Promo sites give many readers. It is not true, because you will get visibility and many trolls, but not readers. Promo sites...

Rebelious rules by Kristina Gallo

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