SOMETIMES IT HURTS TO BE AN AUTHOR
SOMETIMES IT HURTS
Once upon a time writing was my hobby. I didn’t care too much about the fame or the money, but the moment I decided to view my writing as a business, and have a desire to make sales from my published books, that’s when my hobby suddenly feels like hard, unenjoyable work. Sometimes it hurts to be an author because despite taking all the steps I read about, I just don’t get the expected, satisfactory results.
Failed Promotion?
One of the promotion strategies I have recently learnt, is running a 5-day free promotion. Recently I read a book that even told me which day to begin and which day to end the promotion, and which sites to use to help me promote my books. I followed all the steps. The promotion went fantastic! Or so it seemed at first.
Number 1 best seller
What an incredible feeling it was seeing one of my books showing up as #1 in all three categories of Amazon’s top 100 free books. So, for the top 100 in each of those three categories, my book was ranking as #1. Moreover, of over 1 million kindle books, my book was ranking at just over 1, 200 overall in the top free books in the Kindle store.
These numbers were incredible. I was ecstatic and eager to see what my ranking would be like once the free promotion was over and I got back to the paid status. What came was quite disheartening. Only one day later, my book that had done so well during the free promotion, had now dropped all the way down to over 1 million overall. I did gain two book reviews and I am grateful that at least that was one good thing that came from it.
It Hurts
However, it hurts me to the core to see that the free promotion didn’t help me with ranking better and now I was pushed out of the best selling categories altogether. That’s hurtful. I felt like I did exactly what another successful author said to do, yet my results were dismal. As an author, I felt like giving up. I went into a negative spiral and thought of all the money I had wasted over the years writing, publishing and marketing books. I thought of how I don’t have to spend money in order to make money with my day job. In my day job I gain money, I don’t lose money, and a part of me really did feel like calling it quits.
One Step at a Time
I decided to write to the author whose instructions I had followed, and the advice he responded with was a good one. He said these things happen, but I need to move forward and to take things one step at a time. I know he’s right. Sometimes we have to fail over and over again before we succeed. Sometimes it hurts to be an author, but I would much rather have tried and failed than to not have tried at all. And just because one campaign may have failed, doesn’t mean another campaign won’t be successful. I just need to take it one step at a time and move forward.
Best Regards
Karlene
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