When facing disappointments, take a step back from the original issue and remind yourself, "What do I really want?" and "Is there a solution?" Disappointments aren't meant to hurt you or keep you down. They're meant to help you grow and to remind you of your priorities.
So my release day for An American Girl in Italy was pretty slow- as in no books sold on Amazon or Amazon UK besides the one my sister bought the night before and no books sold on Nook. I thought I'd prepared well. I bought two book blitzes from Enchanted Book Promotions and Girls Heart Book Tours and appeared on over forty blogs that day. I'd written a nice blog about why I wrote the book on the Harper Impulse blog. I also crafted a pretty newsletter to my 300 subscribers. I requested reviews be posted from credible sources and sent out ARC's. I tweeted, facebooked, and blogged about it. And nothing.
I kept checking the ranking and seeing it drop all day to around 300,000. Very disappointing. I had to get away from the computer, and I was glad to go to work to think about something else for awhile. When I got home, all I wanted to do was watch Star Trek for the rest of the night. I couldn't seem to write anything new. Today while browsing the internet for pictures to symbolize my disappointment, I came across this one above.
What do I really want? Well, I'd like to have an audience for my books. I'd like to continue to be published. Do I have that? Yes, I do. I have three more books coming out this year and one set for 2015. I have many readers. I have almost 800 reviews of Goodreads and 372 fans. So, this is not the end of the world. Maybe a bump in the road, but not something I can't overcome.
Is there a solution?
My Plan:
1. I plan to blog more and drive more traffic to this blog. Maybe then more people will see my covers on the side bar and be interested in what I write.
2. I bought two blog ads for the rest of the week. You can see my pretty cover on Book Flame, and I'm Loving Books. Hopefully, I'll get some clicks.
3. Keep writing. The worst thing I could do right now is stop. I have two books due by the end of summer, and more releases= more visibility. I need to keep getting my work out there.
4. Ask for help: Would anyone like to host me and An American Girl in Italy on their blog? Please let me know in the comments with your email and I'll get back to you. I can do promo posts, guest posts, interviews, whatever.
5. Keep pushing my book. This book is something I'm proud of and something I believe in. It comes right from my heart and from my own memories of Italy from my orchestra tour. It's been professionally edited by three different editors, and it's an excellent story. If you are willing, go see for yourself!
3 comments:
That's a great quote. It's disappointing to release a book and not see any sales that first day, but you have a great plan. Plus, I've found it can take awhile for some books to catch on. People see it once and may think "nice cover." See it again and think "sounds interesting." It can take up to seven times of seeing the same book before a person decides to buy or get a sample.
And since I'm blogging a bit more during my blog tour, I'd be happy to put up a post with my blog tour info any Monday or Friday in June (up to June 23rd, since I'll be back to just Wednesdays then).
Things will turn around, Aubrie, you'll see! I love your book cover!
Aubrie, it's a fabulous cover! You have the best attitude possible, though. I'll email you privately. I do a 3 Reasons Why You Should Read (title) thing and would love to have you do one.
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