A year without advertising

I’ve not spent any money (directly) on promoting or advertising my books

This was not my initial plan for 2024 - to not spend on advertising - in fact, it was quite the reverse. I hoped to capitalise on a strong finish to 2023 and push further in 2024 but a number of factors held me back at the start of the year (some self-caused) and it got to May and I hadn’t done any advertising, and I decided to try a whole year without any.

In fact, I went one step further and decided to cut back on social media, publicity of any form, and basically stop talking about my books.

I mean, I do mention them occasionally across the various places, and on here from time to time, but I decided to see if all that extra work and time and effort was really worth it.

Now, as a scientist, I am extremely aware that this is a multifactorial experiment with so many confounding variables and nobody could ever say this is a valid experiment as the control has very different conditions from the treatment.

In 2023, I started with only 1 book, 2 by August and 3 by November. In 2024, I had 3 books throughout. Not to mention all the rest of the factors, so we should all keep that in mind as we discuss the next section.

So here’s a comparison of the raw numbers to compare before we delve into these in more detail:

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2023

Advertising spend: £1200

Other expenses: £3500

Income: £2973.54

Net: - £1726.46

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2024

Advertising spend: 0

Other expenses: £850

Income: £2324.38

Net: £1474.38

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Interesting. Sure. But on it’s own, the numbers aren’t necessarily the biggest or only guide to how well the year without advertising went.

In 2023, I had to pay for the editing, covers and other expenses to set up my publishing business, whereas in 2024, I only paid for one cover and one edit.

In 2023, my bestselling book was Ghosts of Mars by a good way. In 2024, it was The Nameless by a long, long way.

So what did I learn:

• YA sells itself much better than MG, which needs so much more work, especially in terms of pitching for publicity more so than paid ads, which work better for YA.

• That I don’t always have to be on it, in terms of pushing my books in people’s faces for them to sell. My sales have been steady all year without any huge amount of work, and sure they’ve spiked a couple of times with competitions wins and listings, and other things, but it’s born all fairly organic.

• I cannot discount the rollover effect of all the marketing, advertising and publicity I did for my books in 2023 in terms of sales in 2024, either. It’s quite likely without the work and spend of 2023, I’d have had a miserable 2024.

• Self-published books just don’t have a short shelf-life like most traditionally books do. If I decide to really push any of my books again in 2025, I will see an increase in sales. I am not limited by profits and print runs and storage space that trad publishers are.

• Self-publishing is a long game. If I wrote 2 sequels to one of my books next year and pushed the promotion and advertising hard, the sales would pick up and the momentum makes the book more visible to readers and shoppers. If I maintain that, my books will sell and be read indefinitely. Nobody can stop me in that regard, so things can only get better in the long run.

• Also, it’s a long game because if you spend (on quality things for your book) and make a loss initially, that quality will stand the test of time and help you continue to sell anytime in the future. I may have lost money in year 1 but even if I never spent another penny on new books or advertising, I’d still see a steady flow of money coming in every year going forward.

• PS - I was about to say ‘every year until I die…’ above but I’ve also been doing some ‘estate planning’ for my publishing company to ensure when I do die, my children will inherit the company and all the royalties of my books for themselves, and I hope the body of work I will have completed by then, might give them a decent passive side income, or with a bit of advertising push from them, even a good income.

Anyway, all this to say it was an interesting year doing very little on the advertising front, and while I don’t want to announce big plans for next year in case of delays etc, I am excited to perform even better in 2025, in the Force is with me…

Have a lovely holiday season folks, whether you celebrate things or not. I hope you get some time off with family (and your imaginary friends in your novels!) and come back refreshed for next year! Til then…