Invest in Yourself - but that doesn't sell books. What Ave Should I Take?

Sonja McGiboney
2 days ago
4 min read

A piece of advice ,often given to self-published (indie) authors, is to invest in yourself. Well, I've done that. My investment took a chunk out of my savings.

What do I have to show for all that? I have great books for young readers that teach and entertain. Below is a breakdown of all I've "invested" this year.

A general breakdown of my costs are:

Production and craft (including illustrator and editor fees which are the bulk of this amount.) 3003.96

Marketing and Vendor (including giveaways, postage, venue fees, launch party stuff, presentation stuff, ) 951.76

Products: Books I ordered for resale at local and other vendor events: 1190.32

TOTAL: 5708.79

If you look at the book products number, it seems like a lot, but I have over 30 books and I need to represent a small quantity of each at vendor events. (Let's hope that pans out. The first one is in October.)

If this isn't investing in yourself, I don't know what is. BUT... if you look at the marketing efforts, 514.30 of it is vendor fees and vendor accoutrements (book racks, giveaways etc.) 97.47 is giveaways (which resulted in no new reviews or purchases) That leaves 339.99 for other stuff which I purchased to aid in the launch party and other small local events. (stickers, games, paint, plush dogs, cute cats, cow stuff.) Advice to new authors.... create a budget and stay in it. I bought things here and there not realizing how much I was spending.

What this breakdown tells me is that I am not reaching very far, because, lets face it, I have little to no book sales. My Amazon dashboard continually shows, $0.00 sales.

So I am at a point in my author career where I have to either stop writing and let my expenses catch up to my retirement income (which is really Dale's retirement,) or invest in something other than local advertising that will increase the reach of my books.

One of the ways to do this is to purchase an "Editorial" Review. Why? Because, even though my family and friends say my book is good, a Library or bookstore will not add it to their catalog unless a "reputable" firm has given a stamp of approval in the form of a positive review. (Or, like me, you send them a pdf of the book to review for themselves, but that is a tedious adventure.)

The two that I am considering are Kirkus and Bookstr. But I'm not sure about Bookstr so if you have any information about them, please share it. I do like the "social" nature of Bookstr's platform as opposed to Kirkus which is mostly for publishers and libraries.

Kirkus: $450.00

Most publishers use Kirkus reviews. They are the industry standard and all Libraries use them to judge whether to buy a book or not. But if you read the fine print on Kirkus, If they like your review, that's great. It will be "considered" for placement into the magazine they send to libraries. (Please note the word considered, it's not guaranteed.")_ Once you give them permission to post your review on their website, then you can cite the review on all the places your books resides. However, "If you receive a negative review, you can choose NOT to publish your review and it will never see the light of day." And you will not be allowed to quote any of the review (even the good parts) in or on any platform. "All reviews acquired through the Kirkus Indie program must be published in their entirety on Kirkus.com before any portion of the reviews are published (online or in print) for any use." So you've just paid $450. 00 for nothing. (They like to couch it in terms like this: "simply using the assessment as feedback to improve your craft." )

Bookstr: Starting at $500.00

A relatively new company, 7 yrs or so, that has an active online showing with approximately 1.6 million followers on their website (6.2M monthly impressions) with Facebook (2M engagements,) 87.2thousand on Instagram (2.4m monthly impressions), 6.1K on Pinterest (871.1K monthly views) etc..with twitter, . they have a big following.

Their motto: Bringing Millions Of Book Lovers Directly to you!

With an audience of over 2.5 million passionate readers, Bookstr makes it easy to amplify your book’s visibility and credibility

Using their services of Featured Reviews, Editorial Features, Giveaways, Social Media Video Features and Social Media Marketing and Management, they promise to:

Build Credibility

Stand out with features and reviews that highlight what makes your story unique and position your book as a must-read.

Drive Discoverability

We help your book appear in search results, curated lists, and recommendations where readers are already looking.

Grow Your Audience

Attract the right readers and turn them into loyal fans through targeted campaigns and meaningful content.

Extend Your Reach

We put your book in front of more readers through strategic, high-visibility placements across our editorial, email, and social channels.

Here is a list of other review sites: I have not vetted any of them, so please do your own investigations to ensure they are for you.

Amazon – Generic Reviews from customers.

BlueInk Reviews - https://www.blueinkreview.com/

Book Riot - https://bookriot.com/