The books for my closed door romance pen name haven’t been selling, so I completely changed my book marketing strategy. Today I’m sharing with you what changes I made and how it’s affected my book sales. I’ve been consistently posting on social media for 60 days, so it’s time to share the results. I’ll be showing you what posts performed best on which platforms and how many books I sold. And yes, I will be sharing the exact numbers and my income. Let’s do a 60-day check-in on this social media experiment.
Start from the beginning in this book marketing video series:
→Book Cover Design Courses:
→Book Formatting Course (print & ebook formatting):
→Writing Stickers:
→Merch & signed books:
→Newsletter:
PLANNERS – – – – – – – – – –
→My Writing Planner:
→My Novel Outline Planner:
→My Book Launch Planner:
→2026 Writing Planner (paperback):
→2026 Writing Planner (printable):
NON-FICTION BOOKS – – – – – – – – – –
→How Your Book Sells Itself:
→Grow Your Author Platform:
→Book Sales That Multiply:
→Secrets to Selling Books on Social Media:
→Plan a Profitable Book Launch:
FICTION BOOKS – – – – – – – – – –
→Read a free book, Change of Flight:
→Sparks in Iceland:
→Meet Me at the Summit:
→Let the Rubble Fall:
→The Trail to You & Me:
→Essence:
→I am Mercy:
→She's Not Here:
→Mr. Moon's Big Move:
FIND ME ONLINE- – – – – – – – – –
Content for writers: @mandilynnwrites
Content for readers: @authormandilynnbell
MY FAVORITE TOOLS- – – – – – – – – –
→Find KDP keywords and categories, PublisherRocket:
→Send ARCs on NetGalley:
→eBook Formatting, Kotobee Author:
→Social media graphics, Canva:
→Music in videos, Epidemic Sound:
→Email software, Kit:
Mandi Lynn published her first novel when she was seventeen. The author of multiple books, Mandi spends her days continuing to write and creating YouTube videos to help other writers achieve their dreams of seeing their books published. Mandi is the owner of Stone Ridge Books, a company that works to help authors bring their books to life through cover design and digital book marketing. She is also the creator of The Book Launch Planner, a planner designed to help authors publish and market their books. When she’s not creating, you can find Mandi exploring her backyard or getting lost in the woods.
DISCLAIMER: This video and description contain affiliate links. By purchasing a linked product or service, Mandi Lynn will receive a small commission at no additional fee to you.
Title: I Changed My Entire Book Marketing Strategy – BOOK MARKETING ESP 4
Search terms: indie author marketing, self publishing tips, book marketing for authors
#bookmarketing #indieauthor #bookpublishing
girl, i think the flip through videos need to be a bird’s-eye-view of the book, if you know what i mean.
I don’t 😅 do you mind explaining more? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Great information! I tried social media but I think my personality just doesnt jell well with it 😂. I have had more success with amazon ads and found your publisher rocket helpful. Its always helpful to see when things dont go as well we are so use to seeing the end when the journey is just as interesting!
In a perfect world I hope to move onto Amazon ads eventually as well, but I really want to figure out free marketing 😂
I recently saw a bunch of different ideas that you could try for social media posts. One is Booktok might not like my book because… Another one is I want to see more books like… And they show a bunch of different images of things that might be similar in your books. It can be characters from different books, tv shows, or movies that fit the vibes of your main characters. To the setting, and all other kinds of things. And then at the end you say that there is a book that exists like that and you show them your book.
Adding these to my list of prompt ideas!
Hi i am an author too and i’m interested in the booktok,could you please throw more light on this? although i am a non-fiction writer. i’ll appreciate your feedback
Thanks for sharing your experience.
You’re so welcome!
I know everyone’s social media is so different but something that helped me immensely with my videos was dropping my branding (I just use plain white text and usually dim lighting). Blending in with other readers helped me a lot. ❤❤❤
Oh! Good to know! Ive thought of it that way before! Such a good point!
You are an amazing young woman and I truly admire your grit and perseverance! I have a couple of thoughts I hope will inspire you. First, you are a good writer. I read “Meet Me at the Summit” and quite enjoyed it, even though romance is not my usual genre. Be confident in your ability as a writer.
What is different about your books is that they are no spice. It is so refreshing to read a romance that isn’t full of smut.
I’m not judging anyone for what they read. We live in a free country and I will stand up for any adult reader’s right to read whatever they want.
But for those of us looking for wholesome, no spice content, it’s actually hard to find these days.
All that to say, I would lean into the wholesome and closed door aspect of your books.
I still recommend also marketing to an older demographic. Not that boomers never read spicy books! But there is a slice of that demographic that is looking for no spice reading material. I’m a boomer myself and I read pretty widely, but I don’t like books with sec scenes or swearing.
Finally, I like your attitude about growing slowly and steadily. When John Grisham wrote his first book, “A Time to Kill,” sales were so horrible that he started selling books out of the trunk of his car. This was before ebooks. He’d load up his trunk and go to big store parking lots and sell his books.
I think he turned out OK.
Thank you! I definitely need to focus on the wholesome side of things more. It’s probably the one thing I haven’t done yet. Mostly due to having friends that write smut books and I don’t want my marketing to come across as looking down on their books.
Very interesting and I’ve been enjoying your sharing!
Thank you so much, I’m glad you’re finding it helpful!
Things have changed so much just in 13 years. In 2013 I published my first book and for the first couple of years it did really well (over 100K downloads, nearly 6k reviews at this point), and then it Dropped. Off. A. Cliff. There were months I made $4K on that one book, but for years it has made absolutely nothing. I have published several books since then and every single sale at this point feels like squeezing blood from an orange. Idk. It’s discouraging. Thanks so much for breaking down what’s working for you and what isn’t!
Ugh, that’s so tough to hear. I hope you find success like that again!
Thank you for sharing!! You motivated me to plan better before posting on my social media.
Hey Mandy, love your videos! Thanks so much for sharing with us. I know this video was about social media, but do you do Amazon ads? It’s hard to figure them out at first, but it might be a thought for you! 🙂
Don’t feel embarrassed about your numbers; you are informing and inspiring others like myself. It’s been one year since I started publishing my books, and the KDP reports are not inspiring, seeing numbers like yours. But for me that’s only half the story because I make more than twice my KDP royalties in retail sales at conventions, signings and book fairs. I figure if I do well this October at a couple of big sci fi conventions, I will have broken even on my entire adventure and be in the black before Christmas, and to me that’s a win, because I’m in it for the long haul, with another five books already planned out. My progress is way slower than yours, and I don’t write your genre’, but I study what you do because you seem to really have a grip on every aspect of the process. You’re a pro.
The best marketing I did for my book was stacking free book promotions.
thank you for sharing your experience Lynn