The Anatomy of Raising Your Book’s Rankings

MY FAILURE: Last month I decided to run a sale on my latest release, a political thriller titled, we are but WARRIORS that debuted in October of 2020. We all realize how hard it is for an indie book to gain traction on a new release, and I must say I don’t do a whole lot to help myself. I’m terrible at promotion, don’t do book signings, don’t have release parties. I definitely failed Marketing 101.

THE PROBLEM: Getting your book noticed in the marketplace takes a superhuman effort, and I’ve already explained how bad I am at that. Now, everyone with a computer, a love for words, and a good story idea can write a book, and they do. Some are terrific, some are not. It was easier back when I started. Self-publishing still had a negative vibe attached, so some of us made inroads where we can’t today, given the glut of books in the marketplace. Back then, a BookBub ad could generate anywhere from 30-60K downloads for a free book and half that for a $.99 book. Really! BookBub even gave me a freebie when they started, but they kept raising ad prices, and it’s out of my price range these days. I just checked and a BookBub ad for WARRIORS would be over $900. For $1.99 it would be over $1600. That’s too rich for my blood, even if they accepted the ad. The last three times I tried, my book was rejected. They prefer books that are on sale on multiple platforms because they get more click-throughs. Another element is that more well-known authors are running BookBub ads at higher sale prices, which makes BookBub more money. It is a business, after all, and making money is the goal. Having been a business owner, I can’t argue with that.

MY PROCESS: I tried something different with this book to any of the others I’ve written. This time I left WARRIORS on Kindle Select for the required three months. Then I went wide. I’d never done that before, but I wanted to see if it helped reach a wider audience. I put four books on Draft2Digital, publishing the Amazon and B&N books myself. I left them for two months without one sale. Not one. Well, I told myself, I tried. It didn’t gain me anything, and probably the way my sales were going, it didn’t lose me much either. I took them off D2D and republished them on Kindle Select. Now I wanted to shine a light on the book I felt needed more exposure. I chose a seven-day Kindle Countdown promotion with two venues for paid advertisement. I’d always done well with eReader News Today and The Fussy Librarian, so those were the two I signed up for on consecutive days. I created a Photoshop ad to run on Facebook and some of the FB thriller/suspense groups. Here’s what happened.

RANKINGS: My starting ranking was an embarrassing 1,638,342. On the first day of the sale with only a Facebook ad, I sold two books. The next day was the ENT ad. I sold 29 books. The next day was the Fussy Librarian sale – eleven books. During this time, I staggered my own ads on Facebook groups. I really didn’t see any bump from these group ads. That doesn’t mean they don’t work; they just didn’t work for me. I’d still do them. The fact that nothing was gained doesn’t mean it will be the same way next time. After the ENT ad, my ranking that night went down to 11,000, and the book missed the top 100 bestseller list by 11 points. I was pleased, but I did so want to crack that barrier. ☹ The Fussy ad didn’t garner the same sales, but it’s hard to attribute them all to Fussy as some people might have seen the ENT ad the next day. If I do this again, I’ll stagger the ads better to see a more direct result. I would also run another paid ad near the end of the sale period. I sold 6 more books in the last days with a new Photoshop ad on Facebook, totaling for the sale period, 48 books, including one at full price. One day after the sale is over, my ranking is 129,500, a far, far better ranking than when I started. I didn’t get a screen capture at its lowest, but here’s a good image near my lowest ranking number.

QUESTIONS: Will this project garner me reviews? I hope so. Will this project gain me new readers? I hope so. I have sold some of my other books during this time, but it’s hard to attribute that to anything other than a reader wanted to read one of my books. Did I make any money? My ads cost me $65. A $.99 book sale will earn me approximately $.62 per sale. You do the math. Will I boost the ad on Facebook? Probably not. Even though the reach in numbers is good, it has never generated sales. I still might boost. Would I do this again? Yes, in a heartbeat. Forty-eight people have my book who didn't have it before my sale. Of course, my book could sit unread on their Kindles forever, but it was still worth it to me.

BOTTOM LINE: It’s hard to be a writer, especially during these fraught times. One would think because we’ve been sequestered at home for the most part during the last year and a half, that we’d be more apt to write. It hasn’t been the case with me. I’ve had a lack of concentration and a pessimistic view because of “the world.” Actually, planning the sale helped. Now to get back to business.

Polly Iyer is the author of ten suspense novels: standalones Hooked, InSight, Murder Déjà Vu, Threads, Indiscretion, and we are but WARRIORS, and four books in the Diana Racine Psychic Suspense series, Mind Games, Goddess of the Moon, Backlash and The Scent of Murder. She’s also the author of four erotic romances under the pseudonym, Maryn Sinclair. A Massachusetts native, she makes her home in the beautiful Piedmont region of South Carolina. You can connect with her on Facebook and visit her website for more information and to read the first chapters of her books.