A Good Problem to Have – Advice Needed

This is an ask for some advice from some of the experienced authors out there in the blogosphere. I have some funds available to invest in pushing exposure for my books forward and I’m trying to decide among the various options that I have in front of me for spending these funds. I’m looking to those of you that have used some of these methods to weigh in on your strategy and/or results.

Here are some of the options I’ve come up with:

• Bookbub – In the past, I was taken aback by the price for Bookbub deals for featured books. If I were to use my funds in this area, I would exhaust almost all of them. Based on Bookbubs estimates for purchases of featured books, it looks like I would get a good return on my investment. The category for most of my books, crime fiction, is the most competitive and most expensive on bookbub, so, I’m not even sure I would be accepted. I’ve submitted all of my books for deals with the hopes that one will be selected. One book, Blood Orange, is in the thriller category which is cheaper and less competitive. If this book were selected, I might have funds left over for other activities.
• Social Media Ads – I have had some success in the past with Facebook ads, but the return on investment has been minimal. Most of the success has come with promoting free books and not with pre-orders or purchases of existing books. I’m not sure that social media ads, on their own, is the way to go.

• Kindle Scout and Promotion Blitz – I am very intrigued by the Kindle Scout program and am looking to enroll my new book into it. I thought, if I do this, I should have a coordinated campaign to tell people about it. I’m not sure what the Amazon rules are around doing this, but I will definitely check this out and may do this regardless of other options chosen.
• Professional Book Cover Design – I’ve been using Fiverr.com for my book cover design and have been happy with them thus far. I think it might be overkill to spend a great deal more on a book cover, but I could be persuaded otherwise.

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  Book Contests – There are many contests out there. Some seem very legitimate. Others, not so much. The entry fees and rewards vary widely. I’m not sure how much sales are driven by saying your book won an award, but it seems like a bit of a gamble.

• Have a Screenplay Written for One of My Books – I’ve been going through this painful process myself. This is a different kind of writing with a great number of rules that take time to learn.
• Some Other Strategy that I’m Missing – I’m open to suggestions from those of you that have had success with one platform or another. Feel free to chime in.

Thanks,

Don

 

Seeking Advice – Audio Book Creation

This blogging community has authors of all experience and success levels. One of the things I’ve been contemplating to take my writing to a new market is the creation of an audio book.

As I contemplate this, and I have on an off for the past three years, I’m trying to find the most economic, but effective way to make this happen for my first book. I would then like to used the increased revenue from the additional market to fund audio versions of my other books.

With this in mind, I thought I would leverage this community to get some advice from those of you that have created audio books. I will tell you that my first inclination was to record it myself. This can be done for a relatively low cost, but I just didn’t like the sound of my voice. I have a nasal, monotone voice that sounds much different in my ear than it does when it’s recorded.

So, here are my questions. I appreciate any information that you can provide:

1. Did you hire a professional voice actor/actress to record your audio book?
2. Approximately how much did this cost? Giving a range or price per word count is fine.
3. Have you seen an uptick in sales or significant revenue for the audio version of your book?
4. How does your marketing differ for audio books?
5. Are there any other things I should know going into this venture?

I understand if you are reluctant to share information. I would even be grateful if you pointed me in the direction of resources you have used to research and create your audio books.

I truly appreciate this blogging community and respect your experience and knowledge. I hope that I can help you out with similar advice at some point.

Thanks,

Don Massenzio