Things I did that failed
I’m supposed to be good at this. I spent 30 years advertising the world’s biggest brands. I started and sold a digital media company. And yet...marketing my new, self published, illustrated noir crime series, Smalltime Comics, his been a b*tch.
Here’s a list of things I did that failed, followed by three things I got right. Hopefully, it gives you some perspective and saves you a little agony.
**Failure #1**. I created a series of low budget promotional videos for social media. [One of them](https://www.instagram.com/p/DPxFWmQjA0S/) did okay for about five minutes on IG; the others tanked. Hard.
**Failure #2**. TikTok. I learned the hard way that TT rewards you for being addicted to it, posting night and day, and pretending to love other people’s inane ramblings. Not for me, thank you.
**Failure #3**. I ran a digital ad campaign on Pinterest. There’s a huge audience there, it’s off the beaten path for publishing, and they offered a dedicated rep to monitor and optimize the campaign. I spent many hours creating 20 unique pieces of content for this effort. Short version: It delivered tons of stats and graphs, one sale.
**Failure #4**
. PR campaign. Influencers, I learned, will only talk about you if you pay them, and what’s the value of that? So, I reached out (in a really creative way) to over 100 traditional media outlets. I delayed the launch of my book for five months because reviewers won’t touch it after it’s out, and you have to give them time to read it. Four major media outlets asked me to send them the book. None of them covered it.
**Failure #5**
. I posted my book on Goodreads and paid them to run a giveaway. Over 3,500 wanted to read my book! Right. Over 3,500 people clicked a button to win a giveaway of my book. Not the same thing. This little exercise cost me $600 for the giveaway, plus printing and shipping 25 books. Result: several reviews on Goodreads. (Ping me if you want to know more about the Goodreads experience).
**Failure #6**. I ran a giveaway/promo on Crimereads. A smaller, more focused audience. Nicer people, slightly better result than Goodreads, but not worth it.
Discouraging, right? Well, it’s not supposed to be easy, as they say. So, here, as promised, are three things I’ve done that actually helped.
**Not Failure #1**. I DM’d my IG followers one-by-one, personally, and asked each one if they’d like to be a reviewer. I got a great result. People were kind and enthusiastic, and I’ve received 62 reviews thus far, plus 38 on Goodreads.
**Not Failure #2**. I gave a bunch of ARC copies out to people I barely know: My barber, the guy behind the counter at the taco place, the ladies at the post office, etc. Again: kindness and enthusiasm, and several unsolicited social media posts.
**Not Failure #3**. This is the big one: I’m still working hard. I’m using the pain of my earlier failures to fuel new and different ideas. There’s no easy way to do this, so I’m going to do a bunch of things I really did not want to do. Starting this month, I’m meeting people in person, running live events, attending conferences, and doing a bunch of new ad posts on and offline. Assuming anybody’s interested, I’ll let you know the results.