Google is the traffic master so far in the Writerwerx University Short Story contest for this year. But Reedsy and Facebook are close behind when it comes to traffic.
But the rankings shift a bit when it comes to which site is actually referring writers who are serious about entering.
Selling Books
Consider factors such as this when searching for promotion opportunities or services for your books. Many new writers get so distracted by big follower / subscriber / visitor numbers that they forget to ask about audience demographics and engagement.
Wally Versus Kay
For example, if WideWally.com boasts 200,000 newsletter subscribers, but KaysCozyMysteries.com only has 50,000 subscribers, most writers are instantly going to want to advertise with WideWally.com. Four times as many subscribers means four times as many sales. Right?
Well…maybe.
Let’s dig deeper into the numbers.
Let’s say the breakdown looks like this:
Wally
- 200,000 subscribers
- 100 cozy mystery lovers (0.1% of total audience)
- 50% open rate: 50 people open the promo email
- 10% click rate: 5 people click on the link to your sales page.
- 10% conversion (Amazon): Half of one person buys your book 🤷🏿♀️ (10% of 5 = 0.5)?
Kay
- 50,000 subscribers
- 48,000 cozy mystery lovers (96% of total audience)
- 64% open rate (based on recent data): 30,720 people open the promo email
- 20% click rate (based on recent data): 6,144 people click on the link to your sales page
- 10% conversion rate (Amazon): 614 people buy your book.
FINAL SCORE: Wally’s 200,000 subscribers may provide 1 sale. Kay’s 50,000 subscribers are likely to provide over 600 sales. Kay offers more than 59,900% more new orders for you even though she has a quarter of the audience.
For those of you who were curious, data show that focusing on a niche market when advertising gives an extra boost to open and click numbers. A laser-focused newsletter like Kay’s results in an increase in open rates of about 14% and an increase in click rates of about 21%. Wally’s mixed bag of readers, no matter how big that bag may be, just can’t compare.
Knowing this, if you’re a writer who publishes cozy mysteries, does promoting with WideWally.com still look like a good deal? Probably not.
Having a large number of subscribers says nothing about the quality of that audience.
Before you request advertising services from any person or business, ask (or research to find answers to) these kinds of questions:
► What’s your open rate (how many people open each email on average)?
► What’s your clickthrough rate (how many of the openers click on sales links in your email)?
► How may of your subscribers / visitors / members read [insert the genre of the book you want to promote]?
These are the pieces of information that can help you make savvy decisions when it comes to advertising for your work if you decide to incorporate bloggers, literary organizations, and other kinds of sites into your promotion strategy.
Learn more about selling books by becoming a Writerwerx University Apprentice!
