Creating
A Funnel
In
the Indie
world of writing there are many opportunities, new discoveries, and
pitfalls. The learning process alone can be overwhelming if you are
coming into it fresh, or off-the-street, if you will. And if you are
writing under the Indie flag, then you already know that there is so
much more to writing a book, than just
writing. Editing,
formatting, compiling, promoting, blogging, and resting (when we can
find time) are just a few of the have-to’s
in what we do.
I
want to talk about the promoting aspect of writing. That comes during
and after we have completed our work and are ready to put it out for
the world to see. But more so, my post is based on the number of
works rather than one piece of work. I am talking about a backlist of
work (at least two, but three or more is better) that are currently
up for sale. I call it promoting, but to be more specific it is more
of a way to promote. It is a method I implemented in an attempt to
gain a bigger audience. It’s called, Funneling.
Funneling
Funneling
is not a new term in the writing world by no means, but it is a term
that all writers should get familiar with. It is the idea of taking
one of your products, in our case, books, and using that one thing to
bring awareness to the rest of your titles. In other words, if
someone likes that one book, they may go on to purchase a different
one and so on. This is especially helpful if you are writing a
series. This is a technique used in many different business models
for selling goods.
In
writing, if you have two or more books available, this means of
promotion or strategy, can work well. If your content is good and
solid, and well-liked, then there is a good chance you will see
results via the funnel. I will give an example base on my plan and
results.
The
Foundation
There
has to be a foundation to make this work. In my case, my first book,
Purgatory
was up for sale as I was writing my second, Night
Dreams #1. Once I was
done with that, I wrote my third, Floor
Four. I made a
decision at that point to put Floor
Four up for free,
based on the funnel philosophy. I have my books for sale on all
platforms and in every store possible - print and ebook.
I
sell my books on Amazon, but I do not use Amazon Select - a service
that allows you to have your book up for free for a five-day period -
but it makes it exclusive to them for ninety days. I bring up the
free
thing because that is the basis for my funnel. The idea is to
generate interest through a free book, and if it is well-received or
liked, it may create fans or spark interest in the rest of the books
that you have for sale. Floor
Four is a novella
(around 30,000 words), and a good choice for me to offer as a
freebie. It is a stand-alone and not connected to my series.
Results
Before
I get to my results, I must admit that putting up my novella for
free, a work that I spent a lot of time on to write, edit and
re-edit, was a big decision - I know many of you have faced the same
dilemma if you have something for free. But, with my plan in mind, I
was ready to venture out and see what it would bring. Immediately, my
title was downloaded, and I have learned that there are tons of
readers who love free.
Floor
Four has been free for
a year and has been downloaded over 40,000 times which averages out
to just over 100 downloads per day. That is a ton of exposure, even
if some downloads were just because it was free. I have received over
170 reviews during this time. About two months into this process the
sales on my other books, Purgatory
and Night Dreams #1,
went up by 20%. Now, a year into this project, my sales have
increased by 85% and the trend is staying steady.
That
is in one year, and I have to attribute those sales numbers to the
mouth of the funnel…the freebie! Based on the majority of the
reviews, it has been well-received, which, in my opinion, has
translated to better sales and more fans. Since the free title was
available, sign ups for my newsletter, The
Project, have increased as well. Recently, I have released ND #2
& #3, and those began to sell right off, which correlates to the
above-mentioned stats.
Observations
This
blog post is not about how many books I’ve sold, but more to the
fact that those sales are directly related to the method I chose to
employ . . . The Funnel!
Of
course, we write because we love to write, tell stories, and share
them with the world. It’s just something we do and if I took a poll
of writers, I am sure that nine out of ten or more would say they
would still write, even if there was no financial windfall in the
end. But the reality is that we put so much time and hard work into
our books and stories and have achieved a major accomplishment, that
when we put it up for sale it is nice to be rewarded in that
secondary way.
In
closing, I feel that risks must be taken if you want to test the
stigma placed on indie authors. Some may not consider using a funnel
or something similar, a risk, while others may never put out one of
their works for free. There is no right or wrong answer, it's all a
matter of style and taste. What may work of one person may not work
for others, and selling a few books doesn’t define success in
writing. To me, success is sitting down and writing the story you
want to tell, and publishing it.
The
best part of what the funnel has brought to me are the new fans of my
writing, an audience, and I am now interacting with new readers who
genuinely appreciate my style of writing, and in that, I get
invaluable feedback, insight and a different perspective on how an
outside pair of eyes sees my fictional world.
Good
luck with whichever path you choose, but above all, KEEP WRITING!
To find out more about A. Lopez Jr and his writing, visit him at:
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