I’m dedicating this post to ongoing marketing efforts.  When you write books that are available as ebooks on web sites such as Smashwords.com or other ebook retailers like Barnes and Noble and Apple ibooks, you have to be aware of how ebooks are marketed somewhat differently from print books.

Below I have reproduced a table where I have started to keep a record of downloads of currently available titles on Smashwords, my principal distributor.   This is a table of weekly downloads by title, starting 2-2-16.   This is a table of every ebook I’ve uploaded to Smashwords and how it has done. 

	Title	Week Starting 2-2-16	Week Ending 2-9-16	Change	Comments
1	JW & the Serengeti Factor	515	526	11
2	JW & the Amazon Vector	361	368	7
3	JW & the Hellas Enigma	331	339	8
4	JW & the Golden Horde	277	286	9
5	JW & the Great Rift Zone	254	266	12
6	JW & the Europa Quandary	211	223	12
7	Final Victory	93	93	0
8	The Eyeball Conspiracy	137	138	1
9	The Peking Incident	139	141	2
10	Root Magic	64	66	2
11	Nanotroopers Episode 1	174	207	33
12	Nanotroopers Episode 2	0	73	73	Uploaded 2-5-16
	TOTALS	2556	2726

 

As you see, over 12 titles uploaded at varying times from May 2014 to January 2016, over 2700 downloads have been recorded.

In ebooks, downloads are key.  Full or partial downloads are the ebook equivalent of browsing in a bookstore.  Since many of my ebooks are set to free in price (more on that in a moment), downloads are the best barometer of interest from readers. 

One interesting entry in terms of download activity is Item #11, the Nanotroopers Episode 1.  This was uploaded on January 14.  Between that date and February 2 (about two weeks), some 174 downloads were recorded.  This is a daily average of 9-10 downloads a day…a respectable rate for a new title, with little or no marketing behind it.  Look also at Item 12.  Episode 2 was just uploaded 2-5-16.  Over three days, some 73 downloads have occurred. 

It looks like my new serial Nanotroopers is attracting reader interest early on.  This is pretty heartening.

Now back to marketing.  Why set an ebook to free?  There are many reasons but one is simply this: some of my titles weren’t being downloaded that much.  Smashwords offers all kind of tools and advice on ebook marketing.  If your ebook isn’t moving, you’re not making any sales.  If it’s dead in the water, make it free.  I tried this myself and it works.  I saw an immediate spike in the affected ebooks.  I think it has to do with readers being willing to take a chance on an unknown author…they’re intrigued enough to read the description and peruse the cover image, and being free may just push them to click on ‘download’ and take a chance.

It’s all about building an audience.  Of course, it goes without saying that your book needs to be well-written enough to keep them coming back…in fact, your book needs to grab the reader by the lapel and smack them upside the head, then knock their socks off.  But then that’s true of any book, print or ebook.

I mentioned perusing covers.  Don’t let anyone kid you: covers matter…a lot.  Whether on a web site or in a bookstore, covers grab attention and direct reader eyes to your book.  There are plenty of authors whose ebooks were wallowing in the doldrums and who sprang for snazzy professional covers and found big spikes in their sales and downloads.  You can’t afford not to do that.

Having said that, I plan on doing the very same thing.  Six of my titles (the Johnny Winger books) are part of a series called Tales of the Quantum Corps.  My next step to rev up downloads in this series (note that all books in the series have been priced at FREE) is to spring for a professional ebook cover designer to work with me and come up with a series of themed covers for the series…covers that have a consistent, eye-popping look with minor variations to distinguish the different titles. 

I’ll probably try this with the Nanotroopers series too, once I get further into it and possibly with The Farpool as well as potential follow-ons to that story.  And I’ll let you know what happens.

There are plenty of other ebook marketing techniques offered by Smashwords, such as preorders, but more on those later.

Next post will come on February 15.  In that post, I’ll go back to the world of The Farpool and let you know how that story is going and what’s coming afterward.

See you then.

Phil B.