I re-started my Facebook ad yesterday, but I tried to mix up this experiment a bit.  My bids to target those in the United States netted nothing.  Not even a view.  The United Kingdom attempt yielded the same result, but I understand why that experiment failed.

Yesterday, when I looked at the recommended bid for the UK, Facebook suggested I bid between 0.59 and 0.82 for each click.  This is the range that other advertisers are willing to pay to reach their market. On my limited budget, these bids would be beyond my reach, although I stood the chance of having 163,160 persons see my ad (by Facebook’s estimate).

Budget constraints considered, I ran another little experiment.  I went for a combination of islands - The Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica.  I also added in some other key words that I felt described the book, such as reading, relationships, police story, fiction, customs officer, writing.  The numbers of persons I would reach topped out at 68,920, but that could have been a boo-boo because my attempt to use ‘family’ as a key word kept converting to ‘Family Guy’.  At the end my potential reach was 43,720 persons.

The suggested bid was much lower (the range being 0.14 - 0.25). Based on my understanding, the amounts are what other advertiser have paid to reach the people I’m targetting. Today, I’m up to 160 fans from 102 on Monday and I’m close to 470K views.  I’ve spent an additional $12.00, with the clicks now averaging 0.15 per pop.  I plan to end this campaign at 10:00 am local time.

After that, I ‘ll be working on questions for the book giveaway on April 2, the day of Contraband’s release.

I paused my Facebook experiment at 102 fans. For the most part, I think they’ve delivered what they promised and I’m good with that. I got from 33 - 102 fans within a few days, targetting people from Jamaica, the Bahamas and Trinidad & Tobago.  My initial target toward folks in the United States yielded nothing.  I will alter the settings on that one and try again.

Now I have the task of seeing how many persons will be interested in reading the book. I don’t have the Amazon links up yet for the novel, in case people want to buy, but the publisher does have PayPal links posted to their site. Still, I think it’s a tad too early to ask people to buy. It’s better to encourage participation first and give them some value for their ‘fan ship’.

I’m looking for ideas as to what type of competition to hold to give away a copy of the book. One of my writing pals suggested a best break-up or best revenge scenario. I think I’m going to run with one of these, unless a more brilliant idea comes my way. Feel free share any thoughts you may have.

In the past couple of days, I’ve been mulling over what to do about exposure for Contraband.  I’ve been concerned about Facebook, where the number of fans was pitifully small. I’m reluctant to ask people to be fans. I feel like I’m imposing when I do this. Anyway, I did send out messages to some of my writing pals and most of them were kind enough to ‘fan’ my book.  I knew I was going to do an ad, I just wasn’t sure when.  I thought now would have been an opportune time with the book coming out on April 2.  So I went ahead and penned a simple ad.  I included the book cover, the release date and a short message:

A tale of greed, betrayal, loss and redemption.
Coming April 2 from Nevaeh Publishing.
Follow this Jamaican writer

I had to fill in various bits of information to hit what I thought would be my target market, so I started out with the following:-

Targeting:

Who live in the United States
Age 18 and older
Female
College Graduate
Who like Action/Adventure Suspense, Romance, Marijuana
Who speak English
Who are not already connected to Contraband

Result: Not much happened, other than a lot of clicks, with no resulting fans.

I decided to mix things up a little yesterday.

Targeting:

Who live in Jamaica
Age 18 and older
Male and Female
I left education open to all
Who like Action, Marijuana, Romance or Suspense
Who speak English (US)
Who are not already connected to Contraband

I should note here that I started out with 33 fans.

Look at the difference in the Stats below.

Daily stats for the week of March 14:
Date Imp. Clicks CTR (%) Actions AR (%) Avg. CPC ($) Avg. CPM ($) Spent ($)
03/19/2010    12,114     9          0.07    2    0.02    0.16    0.12    1.44
03/18/2010    75,396   49           0.06  20    0.03    0.18    0.12    9.02
03/17/2010          13     0          0.00    0    0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00
03/16/2010          71     0          0.00    0    0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00
Lifetime          87,594   58          0.07    22   0.03    0.18    0.12  10.46

Immediately, I saw that people who live in Jamaica relate better to what I’m marketing. Also, it could be that tag line in the ad.  ‘Follow this Jamaican writer.’

I think I’m going to run this experiment for another day and see how many fans I come up with.  Facebook does say that you only pay for people who become fans.  It’s not expensive, and I’ve seen results.  I’d recommend that if you do use their ads, you read up on the process beforehand.  I came across an excellent article by Viriginia Wild, Facebook Goldmine.

Getting the fans is the first step.  Keeping their attention is another.  I plan to find different ways of doing that.  One option would be to give away a copy of the book, but that’s down the road, when I think of a nifty idea to get to that point.

There’s a school of thought in Jamaica that people do not read much.  I know some people who do, but as to how many direct sales will come from this effort, I do not know.  One thing I notice is that most of the fans who have pictures posted are young people.  I’d be thrilled if I can find a way to get them invested in reading the book.

More on this as I go along.

Yesterday, I bought Heat by Geneva Holliday at my bookstore of choice. I finished it within a few hours. That hasn’t happened in a long time. The book isn’t my usual fare, but I opted to buy it based on the back cover blurb. The sex might be a little too much for some readers, but it worked for me based on the plot. The characters were interesting, so too their individual problems, most of which were wrapped up satisfactorily. I found one character’s transformation a little too pat, but that’s just me.

I’m into books by black authors, having been fed a steady diet of novels by Caucasian writers since childhood. I only discovered black romance authors a few years ago and have been doing my best to keep up with those writers whose work I enjoy reading.

It might sound silly, but I’ve been wondering how many Caucasians read works by black authors. I don’t mean novels by renowned writers like Toni Morrison or Maya Angelou. Have you ever picked up a book by a black writer whether established or unknown and bought it because it sounded interesting? I’d really like to know.

If you have a moment, please take the poll in the sidebar. Also, feel free to share your thoughts. Thanks!

I read a comment left at Journeys in Ink this morning regarding the chages the writer had to make to be published.  I left a comment and it has stirred some thoughts as to what extensive changes others have had to make to get to the publishing goal post.  I’ll be jotting down some notes on this for a blog post.

Have a great weekend all!

I’ve been reading a lot these days, not in the fiction genre, mostly articles to do with marketing and book promotion.  I came across a blog that is both informative and useful.  I’d been shying away from writing a marketing plan for my book, but finally did the job.  I plan to add details under each item, but that I’ll do over time.  This will be my master file for other projects-in-the-works. Please feel free to include any ideas you think will work.  So without further ado…

                     MARKETING PLAN - CONTRABAND

OVERVIEW
Contraband, a 78,000-word novel, is scheduled to be released on April 2, 2010.  The book will be marketed as African-American Fiction, African-American Romance and Contemporary Fiction.  It also fits the category of Urban Fiction.  The novel is being published by Nevaeh Publishing and will be released in the United States of America. Other than publicity through advertising and networking on the internet, my focus will be on making the book a household name in Jamaica.

OBJECTIVES
§    To alert as many potential readers as possible to the existence of the book
§    To market Contraband to every action/adventure reader
§    To have the book positioned in as many stores as possible across Jamaica
§    Grow author’s visibility for the next project.

MARKETING STRATEGY
§   Exploring all forms of media to reach target audience
§   Testing and applying the most effective combination of formal and informal media to reach the target market

TARGET MARKET
§    Readers of Fiction in general
§    Readers of Action/Adventure novels
§    Readers of Romance novels

TRADITIONAL MEDIA
§   Press
§    Radio
§    Television

NON-TRADITIONAL MEDIA
§    Book Signings
§    Facebook
§    Twitter
§    Blog Posts
ü    Blog Interviews
Book Reviews

PROMOTIONAL IDEAS/ITEMS
§    Book Markers
§    Corkboard Cover for Launch & Signings
§    Giveaway on Blog
§    Giveaway on Radio
§    First chapter (freebie) with newspaper interview

I admit it, I have an inferiority complex.

I did say this in my last post, and noted that my feelings of inadequacy are based on the genre in which I write.  I pen romantic suspense and young adult fiction, short stories and articles.

Every so often a glowing review of a new work of fiction makes me doubt myself.  How does one hope to make even a tiny mark beside writing that’s described as “…a brilliant, sophisticated piece of fiction…” or “A joy to read”?

So, I enjoy plotting my stories, and you can count on me for interesting characters and plot lines, but does that make me a writer of any note?

I’m very much aware that romance novels sell and that there are some talented writers who’ve stamped their names in this genre.  I can’t help having doubts and thinking that I might be getting ahead of myself by wanting to chart the same waters these talented people have navigated.

Sure, a publisher said yes, but that hasn’t silenced the doubts.  There’s that other little ocean called lack-of-self-confidence that makes me wonder - will the book sell?  When people buy it, will they think it’s drivel?  Will they want to read anything else I write?  How will I deal with bad reviews?  And there are a few more questions where those came from.

There are writers and friends whose judgement I trust and they’ve told me I’m a good storyteller.  I’m trying to take my own advice and remind myself that if people give me their opinion and enough individuals are saying the same thing independently of each other, then there must be some truth to their thinking.

My second book will be released in October and deals with a couple’s attempts to overcome adultery and a child born outside of their marriage.  Dissolution would have been a better project to launch my career as a writer, but Contraband (action/adventure/romance) got to the finish line first.

I suppose at this point on the road to publication, many first time authors get cold feet and start doubting themselves.  Other writers make no submissions, for fear of being told no.  At various stages in our lives, we all have to make crucial decisions.  A career in writing is no different.  Some tough questions to ask ourselves - Will I be a career author or a dilettante, dabbling in one project or another, but refusing to step into the world of publishing?  When I get a yes, am I prepared to do grunt work to sell copies of my book?  Can I cast off my hermit-like tendencies and get my feet wet, networking, arranging interviews, passing out flyers for my book, if necessary?

I spent a while at that busstop, swamped in negative thought.  It’s now time to focus less on my doubts and concentrate more on the projects I have saved on my thumb drive.  They need to make their way into the world and find homes.

My success as a writer depends on me.

Are you ready to step out on your journey to what you perceive as success?