2nd Quarter Promotional Activities
As I mentioned in my last self-publishing update, my promotional activities for Dancing in Heaven continue to be on a very low burner. When I bump into something like a review site or the opportunity for a guest post, I try to take advantage of it, otherwise I’ve pretty much moved on. I know that Dancing in Heaven is available for anyone who wants to read it. I may try to place an ad or contact select places that might have an interest, but the overall marketing approach that many self-published authors take is not for me. I continue to be amazed that sales are trickling in one at a time, a handful a month. Who are these brilliant people who are finding and buying my book? I’ll never know, but am grateful for them. They are keeping Annie’s story alive.
I did have a couple of fun speaking events in April.
04-05-2012 — Spoke at Jeffrey Hillard’s Cincinnati Authors class at the College of Mount St. Joseph
04-11-2012 — Spoke to the Friends of the Library group and students at Kettering College in Dayton, Ohio
04-18-2012 — Talked with readers at an extended book club meeting hosted by Nancy Chadwick
05-31-2012 — Announced winners of a book giveaway on my Facebook author page
You can read about all three of my April speaking events at my April 19 blog post: Readers continue to amaze, surprise, inspire, and uplift me.
Reviews and Interviews:
The following book reviews and guest posts were published by bloggers in April through June:
06-02-2012 — Guest post at Wrote by Rote
06-07-2012 — Review by Marion Driessen at Figments of a Dutchess
06-07-2012 — Interview at Reviews by Jane
06-28-2012 — Dancing in Heaven appeared in the UD Magazine on the Alumni Bookshelf and online at UD Quickly
Future Promotional Activities
I continue to be undecided about the Amazon KDP Select program that I mentioned in January. For now I’m doing nothing about it.
I may decide to pay for an advertisement if I find a site that I believe would be good for it.
I plan to request a review from the Midwest Book Review.
I will continue to look for possible reviewers.
I am scheduled to speak at the Cincinnati Author’s class at the College of Mount St. Joseph in the fall.
2nd Quarter Sales
| Month | Number sold |
| April | 31 |
| May | 9 |
| June | 20 |
| 2nd Quarter Total | 60 |
| 1st Quarter Total | 74 |
| December Total | 42 |
| November Total | 34 |
| October Total | 33 |
| Grand Total | 243 |
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” Helen Keller, American Writer and Lecturer
Christine M. Grote 
Your tenacity inspires me.
Thanks, JoDee. I debate whether or not to continue with these sad updates, but I think it’s only fair to let others who aspire to be self-published to know that it sometimes, if not often, looks like this.
I applaud your transparency and heartedly agree that people should know the reality of self-publishing that often occurs; however, I’m still wrestling with self-denial and not yet ready to be so open. Your posts help me to work through this process.
I don’t know any reason you should feel like you have to divulge your sales numbers, or worry that you don’t. I’ll repeat what many people have told me. Writing a book, and going through all the steps of publishing it, is a huge accomplishment in and of itself, even if it doesn’t sell one copy.
You have a lot of gifts and talents.
Thanks again for your words of encouragement. I just returned from a mini book tour and had a wonderful time sharing with ladies groups, talking with creative people, and selling my books. It was the look of gratitude in their eyes that reaffirmed my reasons for pursing this publishing path.
Yes! Exactly.
I love how you are allowing this to develop on its own and Dancing in Heaven is finding homes month after month.
Thanks for your support.
I am proud to have you as my sister and to know you as a woman in midlife that is challenging herself to achieve great things and live her passion. Keep going ~ at whatever pace feels good to you. Love, Carol
Thanks Carol. Your support means a lot to me.
Looks like you’re making good progress, Christine. Congrats, my friend.
Hugs,
Kathy
It doesn’t feel like a lot of progress, but the fact of the matter is that I think there are over 2,000,000 books out there on Amazon.com and my rating (based on sales) has moved up from over a million to about 650,000 for print and 220,000 for Kindle. Very low rating numbers, but much better than they might have been. It just shows that there are a lot of people out there with books that aren’t even doing as well as mine. It’s a tough market.
Your stick to it attitude will continue to serve you well. Steady and slow wins the race!
Steady and slow can win the race, if you don’t drop over dead before you hit the finish line. 🙂
🙂
testing I think I am spammed here your blog
I rescued you from my spam folder.
You are doing well Christine and it is even better that you are able to speak to writing groups. We have a successful self publishing local author, whose name I cannot remember for the life of me right this moment. He has approached a local book store who put a few of his books their store and he has done amazingly well. I keep forgetting to suggest this to my friend Joss Burnell will do so today when she is featured in my FITFS series! I am also so looking forward to featuring you this next month!
You really need a lot of confidence in this business. I’m glad your local author is experiencing some success.
I look forward to being featured next month. (Did I know about this already?)
You do need confidence or at least a thick skin. I may never get to the point of publishing because I have a fear of rejection! 🙂
I love reading your updates and look forward to hearing more about what you decide (if you do) about KDP — I’ll be joining you in the self pubbing ranks one of these days…
Thanks, Julia, as I explained to Kathy above, my sales ranking is quite sad, although better than it might be. There are a lot of books out there.
I think it’s a book that takes time getting to the readers. It passes by word of mouth.
You’re so kind, William. I think it does pass by word of mouth. I have a lot of people tell me they gave it to their mother, or friend, or someone else to read.
I think I am really okay with how it’s done so far. And this has been a real learning experience for me. I see my limitations. I am not a marketer. Never have been. Never will be.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t write books and publish them. It just means I have to keep my expectations realistic.