SPA Girls Podcast – EP102 – Maximising Book Sales At Christmas
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This week we tackle Christmas. Not literally. I mean we’re not going after Santa or anything. No knocking him to the ground, and sitting on him til he gives us presents. That would be weird, right?
No, this week we’re talking about what self-published authors should be doing over the Christmas period to promote their books to the hoards of eager Yuletide book buyers.
It’s a prime book buying time of year, and no one wants to miss out, right?
In order to do the best research for our eager listeners, we talked to several other authors (in forums and people we know) for their advice on this topic, as well as using our own experiences. We even discovered a few tips that we didn’t know about and are planning to use this year for ourselves!
If you’ve been wondering what you should do to promote your books this Christmas, you need to listen to this episode!
Promotions
Do nothing level – some big names say don’t bother as it’s too competitive over this time.
If you are promoting over Christmas, get started now!
Written word media – FB ads goes up by 30% Desk top Ads goes up 180%
If you don’t know how to do FB ads, then don’t make this the place to start.
Good cheer level – an opportunity to create goodwill.
Sending Newsletters that aren’t aimed at selling.
Offer freebies – a short story or novella sent specifically to your list.
You could try a ‘twelve days of Christmas’ promo – make sure it doesn’t cost you too much.
Recipes to cover the holidays are a great idea, especially if they are from your area or country.
Acknowledging your readers incorporating feel good subjects.
Potentially this no-sales approach can lead to an uptake anyway, which is a great bonus.
The Special Christmas book level – is it worth it?
We’ve had varying comments whether this is a good idea.
Maybe put it up for cheap or put it in a boxed set over this period.
Having the word Christmas or Holiday could be in the subtitle rather than the title to make it saleable all year round.
Needs to go out the beginning of November. If it’s in print use this as a buy now prompt for shipping dates. (21-23 Dec last dates for shipping)
Romance, especially small town, home and hearth, books are a natural fit over this time of year.
Normal promotion level
Promoting your non-Christmas books as presents. Print books will do potentially do better.
Brian Meeks, notices Facebook Ads are more competitive (harder to get) but he does get more impressions.
Mailing list promotions like ENT, Robin Reads, Bookbub, it could already be too late to apply for them.
Bookbub has also said that the buy through rates are not much different to the rest of the year.
Planned late run Level
From Christmas day to mid-January these people are hitting the people that have just received new devices or gift cards.
Affiliate Income
Make sure you know the rules and where you can use your affiliate links for any books you promote – yours or other people’s in your website or newsletter.
What else?
You can also use prizes for competitions, or FB and Amazon giveaways.
Buy products you might like to use when they are on special. Like Cyber Monday, Black Friday etc.
Christmas closures
Be aware of the shutdown dates for especially Amazon and iBooks.
Loading and making changes or asking queries might take a lot longer prior to the shutdown dates.
It’s a risk to launch at Christmas, but some experienced authors do well!
