T.I.E. (Entry 18): The Medium Dictates the Message
Perspective changes many things.
By Thio Isobel Moss
As a newcomer to publishing—and to the mysteries of Amazon Ads, BookBub Ads, NetGalley, Edelweiss, and BookSprout — I’ve learned through trial and error that each platform has its own distinct audience. Each audience responds to different graphics, themes, styles, and words. What’s worse? They’re dynamic, too.
I recently started running test campaigns on BookBub. The first ran during Christmas week (not the ideal time to start), and I got two clicks. Incidentally, I was quite happy with my two clicks. In the second campaign, I added five author comps, changed the background from black to white, and lowered my bid. In two days, I had six clicks.
While the setup is similar to Amazon Ads in some ways, it’s also very different. On Bookbub, author comps reign supreme. On Amazon, most of my clicks have come from author comps, but a fair few have come from genre keywords. Tropes haven’t provided any.
On NetGalley, I’ve read that updating your listing — adding marketing information, posting review quotes, and so on — helps maintain visibility. I don’t know if this is actually true, but I diligently updated things as they came up. The result: fifty-five requests, forty approvals, a ninety-two percent download rate, fourteen “added to list,” and, thus far, feedback from seven readers.
For Edelweiss, I went through IndieReader’s In-Store catalogue. They’ve handled everything for me and have been extremely pleasant to work with whenever I’ve had a question. I’d read that once your listing is live, it’s best to leave it alone for at least two weeks unless something major needs fixing — and to be patient. Edelweiss isn’t like NetGalley, where most activity happens in the first few days.
I just received my first month’s results: fifty-two downloads, including twenty-four booksellers, eleven librarians, nine reviewers, four bloggers, and one academic. Some didn’t have accompanying tags. I don’t know if this is typical, or if next month will match, exceed, or give me just two more — but for now, I’m thrilled.
As for BookSprout, I was only there for three weeks. I had one reviewer, who proved to be my most enthusiastic so far. Bump will have a longer run here.
Back to the point — there is no one-size-fits-all in publishing. Give yourself room to experiment — and to make mistakes. If something doesn’t work right away, Google it, tweak it, and try again. Have fun with it. Publishing is stressful, but finding something that works after discovering several things that didn’t is priceless.
