It’s finally here: The Finale of Season 2 of Book Rescue! Did we manage to help another author? Did we crush our
deadline? Find out this, the results of our book marketing strategies, and more right now!
I can’t believe another season is on the books. Book Rescue is a very personal journey where I get to spend a lot of actual one-on-one time with the author candidate. In this case, that was Sarah Hualde, a paranormal cozy mystery author and homeschooling mother of two who hasn’t quite seen the success she wanted, even with more than a dozen titles in the marketplace.
Sarah is a beast, and we got a ton accomplished in the first 64 days of the 90-day challenge from Fiverr. Just to recap, here’s what we’ve completed so far:
- Keywords
- Book Description
- A deep edit
- Proofreading
- Beta Reading
- An overhaul of all covers in the 6-book series
- A ton of meetings with book marketing experts
So, where are we now?
We have a few more marketing and promotional aspects to handle before the launch if we want to double Sarah’s personal best record for sales at launch, which was 16. We are shooting for 32.
I’m confident we can make that happen.
Do you think so?
If you’re new here, you can binge all 6 episodes – https://bookrescueshow.com/season2
Love it? Check out – https://bookrescueshow.com/season1
Book Marketing Strategies Leading Up to Launch
A few episodes back, I assigned Sarah the impossible task of going through long lists of marketing and promo services and creating a list of ones relevant to her genre. I also told her to gravitate to the free ones over paid ones to keep her bottom line in check until her author brand takes off.
The next task would be the live book launch broadcast on Facebook and YouTube. It’s a great way to build awareness around her new book while engaging with her followers in real time.
I asked Sarah about her game plan for launch day, “I’m just going to get up and I’m just going to go about my day. I’m going to put some paperbacks in places and take pictures, stuff like that. I’m going to make a couple little short videos like me roasting coffee beans because Penny does that in the first book. I’ll be doing little things like that throughout the day to create engagement. Then, the party will be a pajama party. I really like that idea. Then I have a list of people I’m planning to invite for interviews.”
Sarah was nervous about engaging with people on live video, so she had her guests, including yours truly, pre-record their segments. That way, she could just play the video for her audience using StreamYard, and have a moment to engage with the chat.
She had a list of people and an idea of how many slots, so she just reached out to them to see how many videos she received. Great plan.
Amazon Ads Update
I checked in with Sarah about her Amazon Ads. She dropper her daily budget to $3 because her previous budget was a bit of a strain on the ol’ wallet.
Most of the time, her budget is gone before 9am, which is nuts. So, she set up a second ad for Book 2, and it barely gets 2 impressions a day. It really is a crapshoot.
I think it has a lot to do with relevancy and the fact that Book 1 has been proven. She’s run ads on it before, promotions, etc. So, chances are likely that’s why it’s taking off so well.
I advised her to kick back her CPC (cost-per-click) to 11 to 15 cents if she gets frustrated with blowing through her daily budget so fast. She will need to monitor it daily though because if she doesn’t see any impressions, she will need to increase her CPC by a couple of cents and see how it does.
So, Did We Publish in 90 Days?
It’s official, we didn’t make the 90-day goal.
Once we got into Sarah’s catalog and figured out what needed to be done, we ended up with more work than just a single book launch. Early on, we decided that in order to really do things right, her entire Paranormal Penny series would need a metadata overhaul at the very least. We ended up doing cover, keywords, and descriptions for 6 books.
The extra work ate through a lot of our time more quickly than we anticipated.
Rather than dwell on the setback, now we could fully focus on beating Sarah’s personal record. We weren’t asking for much. The goal is to double her record of 16 sales and bring in 32.
One thing about setting goals is that they should be attainable. Based on multiple factors like Sarah’s email list, social following, and previous efforts, we decided doubling her previous record was a realistic aim.
Part of me desperately wanted to launch this book in 90 days, but I know Sarah’s business will be much better off if we didn’t rush things.
I want to impart this to you as well: don’t ever rush a book launch simply for vanity or ego’s sake.
The official launch date for Burned is June 14, 2022. We had less than a month left to build more hype, bring more guests to the live book launch party, and shatter a record!
Let’s Party!
True to her word, Sarah put on one heck of a book launch party. Watch the replay to see what went down.
She had 5 different guests, including me. She did trivia, scavenger hunts, a giveaway, shared insights about her writing, and managed to draw a small audience across her platform. For the entire 2 hours she streamed, she kept her excitement and energy high.
So, did we reach our goal?
I’ll let you know shortly, but first…
Let’s Surprise Sarah One Last Time
We ran a marathon of sorts. Sarah and I worked together for 3 solid months. I wanted to know her thoughts.
“I’ve had a blast. I will be really honest. I’m exhausted. I’ve been graduating my son, doing other daily life stuff, and then this. Whenever you gave me assignments, I just dove in and my house is destroyed by the time I’m done. I’ve got big bags under my eyes. I just work until it’s finished, so I am sad to see it ending, but I’m exhausted.”
It’s been commendable. She’s worked her tail off. Anything she gets from Book Rescue and what’s coming in the future, she absolutely earned.
It’s been an incredible journey working with Sarah. No one can doubt her ability to overcome obstacles and succeed as an author. That being said, we can’t simply finish with a book launch. We have to send her on her way in true Book Rescue fashion with some great tools and resources.
Sarah received:
- A hard copy of her Paranormal Penny series, all 6 books in paperback
- 1 year of ProWritingAid ($120 Value)
- 1 year of Book Brush’s Gold Plan ($146 value)
- Author Brand Kit ($499 value)
- Lifetime license for Atticus ($147 value)
- JLab Talk Pro USB Microphone ($149 value)
- Webcam and Light Kit
- $100 credit to use on Fiverr
- $1,000 to keep the ball rolling
By the end of the list, Sarah couldn’t speak for the happy tears. We had to cut, but here’s what you’re waiting for:
Sarah’s Results
I don’t know about you, but all of us at Book Rescue were crying happy tears when we saw these results.
On launch day, Sarah sold 66 books…quadrupling her previous record.
She got another 21 sales the next day!
Her book, Burned, won the American Fiction Award for Cozy Mysteries. She racked up 9 awards for 2 books!
The box set is now available!
Book 7 is set to launch on January 17, 2023.
What Will You Do with the Opportunity You’ve Been Given?
Book Rescue serves a twofold purpose:
- To help the candidate achieve success as an author.
- To help you duplicate that success.
We purposely use low-cost solutions sourced from places like Fiverr to make the methods we use available to everyone.
For example, you can get started with an eBook cover from the same designer Sarah used for FIVE DOLLARS.
We focused mainly on free marketing and promotion opportunities.
We used YouTube, social media, and email marketing…all either free or super low cost.
YOU can do this!
After last season, I wrote this post and included a PDF download so you could take Book Rescue with you.
I’ll be writing an update soon.
You can take that and basically use it as a checklist in your self-publishing process.
So, will you? Will you use the opportunity?
Next Season on Book Rescue…
I’m not entirely sure about next season, but I am taking applications.
That’s all I know for now.