Heather Hummel on eBook Marketing and Leveraging Amazon’s KDP Select Program

Heather Hummel is a “photonovelist” who blends her love for photography with her award-winning career as an author. Her published works include two novels, two non-fiction titles and essays which have garnered her numerous awards including a 2009 Mature Media Awards, Merit Award and a 2009 New York Book Festival, Honorable Mention.

David Wogahn: Heather, book marketing experts recommend that authors begin promoting themselves well before they publish their first book. When did you begin and what kind of marketing did you focus on?

Heather Hummel: Because I write in different genres and platforms, the preliminary marketing has been different for each book. My first book, Gracefully: Looking and Being Your Best at Any Age (McGraw-Hill, 2008), was co-authored with Valerie Ramsey (my mother, who became a model at the age of 63). She had already been on the Today Show for her modeling and was welcomed back when the book released. In this case, she was the one who did all of television, radio, and in-person appearances. The marketing campaign was driven by Goldberg McDuffie (a top New York PR firm). As the co-author of this book, I learned a lot about behind the scenes marketing from working closely with Goldberg McDuffie and McGraw-Hill.

Gracefully released in 2008 when Facebook was just starting to take off and New York houses held the reins of the publishing world. Like almost everyone these days, I utilize Facebook, blogs and Twitter quite a bit. I have an author fan page on Facebook with a personalized link (http://www.facebook.com/heatherhummelfanpage) and a Twitter account that I started using a lot more in the past several months. Both have very different approaches, and if used right, the same results.

Because I’m a photographer as well, I’m able to provide aesthetically pleasing posts on Facebook. People respond to my photography as much (sometimes even more!) as they do my writing, so I’ve learned that a captivated audience makes for a happy author. I’ve recently coined myself a “Photonovelist” – no, that’s not a word, but it should be. By letting my audiences see who I am as both a writer and a photographer, I am constantly promoting my unique brand.

Once you have a few books under your belt and a continuously defining audience, the marketing becomes a lot easier. The bottom line of early marketing is having a content fan base who is happy to go along your journey with you and who is looking forward to your next book…and the next…and the next.

DW: What has been the result?

HH: Building a fan base takes consistent diligence! I currently have over 1,400 Twitter Followers, 654 fans and 2,670 friends on Facebook, 68 blog followers, as well as a consistently growing e-list that is in the several hundreds. Each of these numbers builds daily, but I am careful to build relationships with my niche audience. In other words, I don’t add people willy-nilly. I believe in quality rather than quantity when it comes to relationships, whether in person or online.

For example, I am participating in a website, www.womensliterarycafe.com, which gives authors the chance to share their Facebook Fan Pages with their niche audience and writing colleagues. Since joining last week, I’ve increased my fan base by over 100 fans…who are, for the most part, my niche audience. I also take part in blog tours, guest blog posts (such as this one), and giveaways. Being a guest on other blogs is a great way to connect with readers and develop a platform and following. It’s always better to have a third party, such as a blog or a media outlet or a reader, promoting your work…authors are in a Catch-22 with that. Authors have to promote, especially in the beginning of their career, and it’s tough being a genuine cheerleader for yourself! But, if you have a blog or other venue showing your wares, you’re golden! Or is it silver?

Another great way to build a fan base is to collaborate with other authors. Hay House is one publisher that I do a lot of cross promoting with. When one of their authors releases a new book, they collaborate with a few dozen authors who provide giveaways as thank you gifts for those who purchase the book on their release day. Often times, I’ve been one of the authors supporting the Hay House authors by providing a free gift, which is usually an eBook version of either my books GO BIKE & Other Signs from the Universe or Write from the Heart since these two books fall under the theme of what Hay House promotes. By working with Hay House, I’ve built both a readership and e-list.

DW: When we spoke about the new KDP Select program you had a perspective formed from watching the evolution of the eBook marketplace. What was that?

HH: The self-published authors releasing new titles or promoting their existing titles on Kindle during 2010 and 2011 really caught the Big Kahuna wave of publishing! Breakout authors such as John Locke and Amanda Hocking blazed a trail by writing a handful of books and listing them for 99 cents (Amanda’s books range from free to $2.99, John tends to stick to 99 cents). Because of the sudden surge in sales of Kindle devices and the iPad, within a New York Minute these authors sold hundreds of thousands of books…something previously believed could only be achieved by authors from New York publishing houses. However, let me tell you, New York publishing houses do not release books at a New York Minute pace. What takes them over a year to produce, authors were now doing in weeks with Print on Demand books, and when Kindle et al came around, the timeframe became that true New York Minute.

When KDP Select was announced just in the nick of time for the Christmas holidays, I learned of the program from my author friend Van Heerling, who is the author of Malaika. I saw what he was doing with the program, so I joined…and I’m so glad I did!

In my research of the program, I read numerous posts on various websites from authors saying they were going to take the “wait and see approach” to joining the KDP Select Program. Many of them had concerns about opting in…some rightfully so if their sales on competing sites like Barnes & Noble were true competition for their sales on Amazon.

When you join Select, your eBook can not be for sale anywhere else (digitally speaking) for your 90 day commitment. This raised eyebrows on authors ranging from newly self published ones to Stephen King. The newly self published authors were afraid of limiting their sales to only Kindle, and the big name authors, such as King, were shaking fingers at Amazon for being the biggest beast in the jungle and utilizing their powers (and prowess!) to continuously keep the competition down, or at least in their place below Amazon.

Then there are authors, much like Van and myself, who saw this as an opportunity to catch the next wave in the set. We collaborated on the marketing of our books under the KDP Select Program. In addition to the five free promo days, our books are available to Amazon Prime members in the new Lending Library. The Lending Library allows the Prime Members to borrow one book per month for free on their Kindle. What authors didn’t know back in December was how much they would be paid per book for the “Borrows.” My books were borrowed 85 times in December, which was pretty darn good considering the program was new and I was mostly promoting the free downloads on the promo days and 99 cent specials, not the borrows.

All we really knew was that Amazon committed to a $500,000 pot for the Lending Library that we would share from later. Van and I, and I’m sure others, assumed the payout per book borrowed would be relatively low. However, this is where I’m glad I didn’t’ take the “wait and see” approach. Two days ago (early January) I received an e-mail from KDP announcing that the payout for Borrowed books for December is $1.70 per book. $1.70? That’s more than what I sell them for! Was I glad to have joined KDP Select? Absolutely.

In addition, KDP reported that, “Enrolled authors and publishers, such as yourself, on average received 26% more money in December for their KDP-Select enrolled titles from paid sales for the same titles. Also, our early results show that paid sales of enrolled titles are growing even faster than KPD titles.” They also let us know that they were adding $200,000 to the January pot for the Lending Library.

DW: So what did you do when Amazon announced KDP Select?

HH: Since I heard about it from Van, he and I collaborated from the get-go. We shared notes, numbers and marketing strategies. If something worked for me, i.e. specific wording in a Facebook post or for him, i.e. a Tweet thanking all the new readers¾we shared the success with the other, who then implemented it as part of their marketing strategy.

The “catch” of opting into the KDP Select agreement is that the eBook needs to be removed from other sites, such as Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Smashwords, making it only available on Kindle. Most of Van’s and my book sales were on Kindle, so it was no contest for us. For other authors, it clearly was. Fortunately, eBooks are pretty easy to “unpublish” from these sources, unlike paperbacks.

Once removed, we opted in and began using our free days as a promotional tool for our books. It worked great, and we’re doing another joint “free weekend” on February 11^th and 12^th as a Valentine’s promotion, which is perfect for titles like my Journals from the Heart series: Whispers from the Heart and Write from the Heart. Van’s Malaika will be free that weekend as well, and we will cross promote one another’s books.

DW: How have you utilized the five free promotional days that Amazon gives KDP Select participants?

HH: Yes, as mentioned earlier, Van and I did so with great success. When I signed up, I began to utilize my given five “promo days” right away. The promo days allow authors to list eBooks for free for up to five days in the 90 day commitment period. Because the days can be mixed and matched, I started off with using a free day for both of my novels the next Sunday. In the 24 hour period, I had just over 1,000 downloads, launching my books into the Best Seller categories. On Monday when the prices went back to 99 cents and $2.99 (Whispers from the Heart and Write from the Heart respectively), sales continued. By the next weekend Van and I decided to collaborate and run our books for free both days. We cross promoted through social media and both of my books had over 4,000 downloads, and Van’s was downloaded nearly 2,500 times. For us, this experience was a win-win situation.

DW: Has KDP changed how you price your eBooks?

HH: Both Van and I priced our books at 99 cents after the free promotion days for a few weeks. When we priced them up to $2.99 again, sales went down a little, so we re-priced them back to 99 cents and sales leveled out again. There are so many schools of thought on this topic, and essentially with little overhead, pricing an eBook at 99 cents and selling exponentially more than at $2.99 does have its benefits. The more copies sold, the faster the book shows up on the best seller lists where more people see it and buy it. It’s a cycle! I do know authors who do extremely well selling at $4.99 with an occasional discount, and then there are authors like John Locke who was the first to sell 1 million eBooks and his are all priced at 99 cents. It may depend on your specific book…the more niche, the higher you can price it.

DW: Do you think KDP Select is for all authors? Who might it not work for?

HH: Authors who do well on other sites like Smashwords and Barnes and Noble’s Nook are likely to not opt in to the Select program. 90 days is a long “trial period’ if your sales are equally good on these sites. But, I can honestly say, I’ve never heard an author brag about their Smashwords’ ranking, and I’ve only heard one or two mention their Barnes and Noble ranking. We all know Amazon is where it’s at. And since Amazon knows it, too, they are continuously looking for new angles.

Heather’s books have appeared in newspapers such as: Publishers Weekly, USA Today and the Washington Post; and in magazines that include: Health, Body & Soul, First, and Spry Living, a combined circulation of nearly 15 million. A graduate with High Distinction from the University of Virginia, Heather holds a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies degree with concentrations in English and Secondary Education. She is currently earning a Ph.D. in Metaphysical Sciences.

You can visit Heather’s website for more information: www.HeatherHummel.net

You may also be interested in our post about KDP Select and how to decide if it is for you.