My books aren't selling. Have no ad budget.?

Question

I have been a writer since 1976 my first effort sold immediately. Have since published on web several places with some success. Have had my own web site at lulu.com/duncanpublishing now for 4 years. Started off great but this year has been very slow. Have adds on msn, google, and all the free adds I can find and sales are very slow. Looking for free adds that will get seen by lots of people. Look at google search and you will find my books that should give them a boost but it isn't helping. Google search for books by Melvin C. Duncan and it pops right up but the sales aren't
popping for nothing. You guys and gals have a look at the web site and tell what I am doing wrong www.lulu.com/duncanpublishing. Thanks in advance

My web site is http://www.lulu.com/duncanpublishing How do I get it live you can copy and paste.

I tested it and it is live now.

Answer 1

What you are doing wrong is self publishing. Lulu does nothing to promote their authors. Traditional publishing is always a better choice. If you worked hard on your work and you believe in it and in yourself, you owe it to yourself to spend at least twice as long trying to publish traditionally as you did writing the book in the first place. Free ads are largely ignored. Anybody with a Mac or a good pop up blocker is immune to them. Personally I would never click on a free ad. I like my hard drive too much to risk it that way. The only way you can really increase sales is by doing some professional advertising. And that costs money.

If you go to my profile you will find I star all good Q and A regarding publishing and writing. Many successful authors have taken the time to post here. Scan through them for some that may help you. Print them out and study them. But you should always remember "Uncle Jim's Law" - money should flow towards the author not away from him. With self publishing, it is always the opposite. Sorry to hear about your troubles.
----
They're, Their, There - Three Different Words.

Careful or you may wind up in my next novel.

Pax - Cs

Answer 2

I'm staying out of the self/traditional publish conflict.

As a reader, the site doesn't compel me to get one of your books. There is a typo in the first line - "My Wife Sarah." You conclude your self-introduction paragraph with a link to your cell phone sales company. These things give me the impression that you do not take writing seriously.
I read the book description in the top left, with the computer called One, and found it didn't spark my interest. Some of the details seem like too much for a description, like how he funded his space colony. More typos in this section - unless "wared" is a word I don't know.

Do you have any reviews written by a third party? I'd be interested in reading a blurb about your book at your site, even if it's for the 1976 book.
I know it's possible to be a good writer with less-than-perfect spelling, but can you have someone proof your page?

I'm sorry if this comes off harsh. Please read this with a gentle tone, not a grouchy one, because that is how I mean it.

Answer 3

Actually, Persiphone is correct, she happens to be a PUBLISHED author not a SELF-PUBLISHED author. Sure, you have many ads up, but so do a lot of other people. Same goes for the "pay a fee to see your work published" They have so many poems/stories crammed on one page, there is an astronomical chance that someone will read it. Yes, you should've taken your chances in the real publishing world

Answer 4

First of all, Persphonie is incorrect - the problem is not that you are self-publishing. I have been self-publishing for years (four self-published along with two traditionally published books), and while I don't have the $500,000 house and Mercedes in the driveway, I have been and continue to accomplish goals I set for my books.

I hope you don't mind if I am blunt in what I say.

1) Publishing that is almost exclusively marketed on the Web is almost never successful. Yes, you can sell books on the Internet, but not a large percentage of what you need to sell to be successful. You need to reach book readers, and most book readers are spending less time on the Internet than others. You need to get yourself into bookstores and you need to get your book ads into the hands of readers through other methods.

2) Your Web Page doesn't sell your books. It talks about you, shows a picture of your cat, offers a lot of detailed ordering information and book specifications, but unless I have read and enjoyed your books already, I (the potential reader) don't really care about that. I want to know why I should buy your books, and you don't do anything at the top of you page to tell me that.

3) You have tiny thumbnail pictures of your covers, the descriptions are not very compelling for some of the books, and, worst of all, there are grammatical errors in your descriptions.

Now, I don't want to set myself up as the know-all-see-all-end-all of book marketing. As I said, I haven't struck it rich, and I have made a LOT of errors (including all those I just pointed out to you), but I have found some ways to be more successful in my book marketing. It's not without cost, but very little successful marketing will be.

I will be glad to share more details with you via email. No, I am not going to try to sell you anything - there's just not enough room in the answer forum to write it all down.

[e-mail]

Answer 5

Dear Mel,

Perhaps you can copy your question and post it again since the link you posted is NOT live. People cannot use it to go to your site.

Don't start with www.

STart like this... for example... http://newfreebooks.com

And make sure before posting that the link turns blue... that will tell you it is live. And I would even try it out to make sue it works.

Answer 6

Mel,

I think you need to rework your website. It is not very inviting. The same theory applies to websites as in writing. You have to "hook" your readers. Perhaps revamping your site will help. Best of luck!