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Post by writeway on Feb 24, 2019 4:26:16 GMT
From what I can see, Melissa Storm seems reputable and even the Alliance of Independent Authors recommend her services as one of their partners. I am thinking of trying a few of her less expensive promo services such as her listbuilding service and I think she does one for Bookbub followers. Anyone ever used her and have experience to share? So far I've heard nothing but good news from some honorable people so I am not questioning her legitimacy just would like to know if anyone here can share about how their experiences were if they worked with her.
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Post by writeway on Mar 7, 2019 4:51:11 GMT
I've decided not to use Melissa's services. Heard that these list-building things tend to be a waste of time and only earn you a bunch of unsubscribes. I will stick to building my list organically. I don't do swaps or list builders but considered Melissa just to see but decided to pass. To be fair, this isn't anything negative about Melissa's services but overall I am hearing this method is more trouble than it's worth.
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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Mar 8, 2019 2:09:28 GMT
I would think the best way to get into listbuilding would be to find one author who writes very similar books as you who tends to show up a lot in your alsobots, and sending them an email to see if they would want to do a list swap. You could send them one of your books so they could check you out, and then if your book is higher priced do a one-day promo, or something. Then make sure you have a really relevant reader magnet. One that would only appeal to fans of your book and not just random freebie seekers.
I would discourage anyone from signing up with a group promo cos readers get inundated with emails from new authors, and you tend to get lost in the crowd. I made the mistake of signing up for some content once and not reading too carefully. And before I knew it I had 50+ authors that I'd never heard of before crashing my inbox. I was not pleased!!! So one-on-one should do much better.
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Post by writeway on Mar 13, 2019 16:11:43 GMT
Yes, if you do it with similar authors is best. I asked Melissa if she has readers geared toward my work and she claimed she did but seeing how I am a POC author with a POC audience, I wasn't convinced she reached those readers. Especially after I spoke to many POC authors who hadn't even heard of her and these are some popular authors in the genres I write in who sometimes use listbuilders. They also warned me against them. Many of these promotional things aren't geared toward POC unfortunately because they don't target our readers. That's something I always gotta take into account.
Anyway, I prefer to stick with what I've been doing. I have been building organically all this time and I did a survey of my subscribers yesterday and it proved my method is the right one for me.
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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Mar 14, 2019 4:41:41 GMT
Yes, if you do it with similar authors is best. I asked Melissa if she has readers geared toward my work and she claimed she did but seeing how I am a POC author with a POC audience, I wasn't convinced she reached those readers. Especially after I spoke to many POC authors who hadn't even heard of her and these are some popular authors in the genres I write in who sometimes use listbuilders. They also warned me against them. Many of these promotional things aren't geared toward POC unfortunately because they don't target our readers. That's something I always gotta take into account. Anyway, I prefer to stick with what I've been doing. I have been building organically all this time and I did a survey of my subscribers yesterday and it proved my method is the right one for me. I hate that in 2019 books with POC protagonists and worldviews is still an unusual or special thing. It should just be normal!!!! In TMOK I try to have a wide variety of skin tones and hair textures, and my two main protagonists/couple are brown and pink. The main space ship crew for the series will have 3 characters who are differing shades of brown and one who is pink and one who is pale. Actually there are 4 POC characters cos they pick up a hitchhiker along the way.  Also, I love your new avatar! ETA: TMOK is always a work in progress and the storylines are always changing. I don't know what it will actually be in the end, but this sounds cool, so I need to make sure it happens somewhere. All I meant to say was that I want lots of inclusivness in TMOK, and that the stories about no one but pale Europeans is boring. There needs to be tons more variety and this variety should just be books. |
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Post by dormouse on Mar 14, 2019 21:17:57 GMT
POC protagonists and worldviews The Aaronovitch series Rivers of London is like that. |
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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Mar 14, 2019 22:52:18 GMT
POC protagonists and worldviews The Aaronovitch series Rivers of London is like that. Cool! I'll have to check that out.  |
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Post by davidvandyke on Mar 18, 2019 16:18:43 GMT
I agree that list-building tends to yield a lot of unsubscribes and low-quality signups. We did one of those once and it wasn't worth the trouble. Three years later, we have less than 2% of the subscribers still on the list, whereas when we get an organic signup from the back matter, we keep at least 50% of them after 3 years.
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