There’s one part of publishing no one likes to talk about: when the book sales dry up. Let’s be honest: a lot of us writers go to bookstores and we see all the perennials on the shelves that we can always trust to be there: the books by Gabaldon, King, Tolkien, and Martin (not to mention the 9,485,682nd book by Patterson, Robb or Grisham…how the hell do they keep cranking those out every couple of weeks, anyway?). We’d like to think we could get in on some of that as well.
The grim, sad truth is that it rarely happens. We’ll show up on a few shelves for a few months and then disappear. And we’ll fall so far short of our dream numbers. Even grimmer that the title stops getting printed due to lack of demand. Not to mention suffering the indignity of having fans wondering where they can find Book 1 in your trilogy and having to tell them to look in a used bookstore, because your publisher isn’t making it available.
It almost makes one wonder just how antiquated and out of date the publishing business might be, how many of these rules and guidelines no longer work in this day and age.
But that’s another blog post for another day. Me, I want to talk a little about how I look at this conundrum as a self-published author. [Mind you, I’m not dissing the publishing business as a whole; I know many authors who do just fine with it, frustrations and all.]
See, I have three books out that I’ve self-released as POD trade paperback (through CreateSpace) and ebook (through Smashwords), and at present they’re just sort of…sitting there, not doing much. I did sell a few as they were released, of course. Not that many, more than I’d expected. And they’re still up there, available and ready for whoever wants to buy them. I don’t plan on pulling them from availability any time soon. I might revisit the books and do some cosmetic editing sometime down the road, but they’ll always be out there for anyone to read.
The Balance of Light has been out for what, a good couple of months now? The e-book was released in February, and the trade a month or so later. I think it’s fair to say I got as much as I could get out of the three for the time being. It would be kind of silly to keep flogging these books to virtually the same audience over and over again.
So what do I do with them, then? One of the things I’ve thought about, in particular is how to let potential readers know that they’re still out there. I mean, aside from the occasional tweet or blog post or shameless plug? That’s the rub. No one’s really been able to figure out how to do that for self-published books. I’ll put out some of my self-made flyers when I’m at conventions. There are some websites and platforms I could advertise on if I so desired. But is it the right time to do that at the moment?
At this point, I’ve been thinking less about the Short Game — flogging the books while they’re still fresh — and more about the Long Game. And by Long Game, I mean coming up with ways to push the trilogy on new readers in the future. Plugging the trilogy as an Added Value when I release my next book. Continuing to join in on the various sales that come up on Smashwords and elsewhere. Using them as props when I’m on convention panels.
Meanwhile, this also gives me more time and brainspace to focus on writing my current projects and planning future ones. [Current status: writing one, prepping another, and two, possibly three on the back burner.]
Do I feel let down a bit that the trilogy didn’t do as amazingly as I’d hoped? Well, sure. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t bother me a bit, and that I feel that I’ve failed myself for not following up on publicity as much as I should have. But what’s past is past. I also know that the themes of the trilogy are rather dense and they’re not for everyone. I’ve made my peace with all of that.
My thoughts on this are: always look forward. Always find the positive. Always find a way to make all of this work for me. And above all, learn from my own mistakes and missteps. The trilogy isn’t dead, far from it. It’s just in stasis. I can certainly bring it back to life if I so choose.
I’ve said it before…I’m in this writing gig for the long term. It’s more than just writing a large body of work, though. It’s about knowing what to do with it all over time.
Welcome to Bridgetown 
If the trilogy is complete, have you considered putting the first book out for free for a limited time or setting it to 99 cents and advertising it on sites like Robin Reads or other places?
Book 1 is free, and I’ve been thinking about advertising, yes…alas, I haven’t followed through with that as often as I’d like. I’ll have to do some more research for places like that. I haven’t heard of Robin Reads, but perhaps I’ll give that a try. Thanks! 🙂
I just looked at your books and book 1 is 99 cents, and Book 3 is not labeled as book 3 so it looks like a standalone. You also need to contact Amazon to let them know that the books are connected so they will make a series page for you. That way when someone downloads book 1, whether it’s free or 99 cents, they see the other 2 books and will likely buy it then. You’ll need to update the title of book 3 to reflect that it’s book 3 or Amazon won’t make that series page for you. You can contact them through the Contact Us link at the bottom of your KDP dashboard and I think it’s the product page. Just have your ASIN numbers ready for all 3 books so they will link them together.
My next suggestion won’t be popular but it’s made the difference between a sale a non-sale in many cases because it’s the first thing people will see. I suggest changing your covers. They don’t tell me anything other than it’s a city and most readers like me prefer to see someone we can identify with.