So as I stated last October or so, I basically cut out the whole marketing aspect of writing. I decided to give it a go for a year and see what happened. Here is what I found.

Now I did use my blogs and the odd tweet. I also used Bookbub once in March. I got lucky enough to get in there. That is the only service I’d 100% recommend that I have come across. But they are stingy indeed. You need like 100 reviews to even have a chance and/or a traditional publisher.

Anyway, guess what? I probably made more money without marketing than I did with marketing. Not that I really care a ton about the grocery money. When it reaches $1000’s then we can talk.

But did I have more sales? Nope. Sales were down from when I was marketing.

So how can that be?

Well that is simple. Ads and marketing can cost a ton. The only one getting rich off those are the sites with the “thousands of readers” who probably won’t even see it. Even one ad for say $40 a month means you have to sell at least 20-60 books to make that money back, depending on the piddly percentage you get back. And guess what? With most ad sites, no matter the book, that isn’t going to happen. At least in my experience.

Plus there was no headache of marketing, getting ads ready, wondering if the sites are legit, etc. It was simply writing and blogging away. Such a better feeling than doing all of that marketing crap.

So that is my findings. You may not get as many readers, but you may also make more in the grand scheme. If that is your goal. I’d rather have readers any day but the headache of marketing and such is an annoyance. So I think I’ll forgo it for another year. Do you do much marketing for your books or products? Do you enjoy it?

Enjoy life, forget the strife.