I have no clue if you should, but hopefully after reading this, you will.
First, let me share a little win…
May 2025 was my first ever time hitting 100,000+ page reads in a single month. I also went over 1k in revenue and 600+ sales for The Price of Power, book one in my Dreams of Dust and Steel series. And as of writing this, it’s June 10th, and I’ve broken my previous record for page reads in a day–eight out of the last eleven days. In fact, I hit 100k page reads in the last two weeks.
After accruing a good little fan base and some awards from my first time publishing book one in my main series, Dreams of Dust and Steel, I was faced with a big decision to relaunch or keep going.
Aka, shoot for the moon or watch my series peter into nothing.
The relaunch would be a huge risk. I would be sacrificing 220 reviews/ratings and the possibility of turning my fans against me.
Ultimately, I decided to move forward, and while I wouldn’t say I’ve seen the full fruits of my plan yet, things have been going in the right direction.
My Strategy
Create a continuous sales stream through peer sharing, cover reveals, a semi-rapid launch, and well-timed promo stacks while trying to avoid a surge in sales that Amazon might suppress.
This took quite a bit of finagling and required me to overcommunicate with my author swaps. At times, I felt wrong asking so much from peers, but I know we’re all here to help one another, so I danced that fine line of annoying and clear, and hopefully didn’t burn any bridges.
What I Did
– I banked a ton of newsletters swaps. Around forty, scattered across launch month, but focused mostly in the first two weeks.
– Banked content. I finished A Graveyard for Heroes (book two) in the series last July–it released June 11th. I also wrote Banners of Wrath (book three). Once you have enough content, you can do a rapid or semi-rapid release, so I staggered my main series launches with a pair of novellas and plan to drop something every two months. With five releases at my disposal, I have a ten-month window to generate buzz and momentum.
– I reached out to higher-profile writers of varying levels in my genre. Surprisingly, I got some big names to back my work.
– New, better covers–a big reason for the relaunch.
– A+ content on Amazon. Muy importante. Do it.
– Physical ARCs: some but not a ton. I spent most of my budget on covers, design, and editing.
– Large eARC team, 200 as it stands, but only managed to get about fifty initial reviews in month one.
– Started a Discord, got 100+ readers into it, and then ran a giveaway.
– Got a teeny bit more active on TikTok.
Unforeseen Roadblocks
– Having never done AMS ads before, I went hard into them this time… only to discover their efficacy had been hamstrung by Amazon moving from the A9 model to the A10 algo. Shit. So, I had ramped up a TON of spending in March–the exact time when they changed it–and it stagnated, leading to a handful of direct sales.
– If you relaunch, I suggest doing so if you have under 100 ratings and an ARC team of over 150. While I had the latter, the former made it a huge obstacle to populate the book at the top of searches above the old edition. See, when you unpublish a book from Amazon, you can never unpublish the physical edition. It stays. Forever. Beware. Some folk bought it by mistake–I’m sorry!
– I launched the week of the big tariff kerfuffle in the US (April 2nd). This effectively neutered any posts, reshares, etc. on Twitter for that week. Larger media outlets regularly getting thousands of views were relegated to the lower hundreds and a smattering of likes/comments. Woof.
What Flopped?
– Ads. I did my homework, but that algorithm change pulled the rug out from under me. I’m sticking with them and playing with them since my daily royalties are still exceeding my spend, but we’ll see where I land with them.
– Big-name shares. Mileage varied. A story on IG from a former indie turned trad got me the most, though not more than the handful of solid influencers.
– …newsletters, kind of? I theorize this has lost some efficacy over the years as the community has become more incestuous. I know many of my readers received the same promo email for my book from other authors ten+ times. To highlight this further, I joined a novella giveaway with a dozen other authors during launch. I have a 3k newsletter sub list, so I didn’t expect to get more than 50-100 new subs from it. The giveaway netted 150. When I uploaded the list, I got zero new subs, which lends credence to the idea that indies and indie readers have a fairly localized sphere of effect. To be successful, I think it’s best to look at ways to bring folk in from outside the regular community without abandoning its core people.
What Has Worked So Far?
– Instagram influencers between 3k-15k followers. I’ve found these to be the best, especially if they consistently post and engage their audience. I think it has to do with them having a big enough following that some posts can get great traction, but remaining small enough that they still interact with most folk in the comments. The average human can manage about 150 relationships on the high end–I think this could have something to do with the audience size and effect that creates the aforementioned influencer sweet spot.
– Content cadence. I put out the cover reveal for Banners of Wrath before A Graveyard for Heroes was even released. This has kept the buzz going. Readers are excited to finally get a deluge of content, and the longer I can stay in their circle of awareness, the better.
– Promotions. Did I make back the money? Nope, and that’s including a BookBub international deal. However, timing is important. The promos managed to get roughly 500 copies of The Price of Power into the hands of new readers, with A Graveyard for Heroes coming out a few weeks after. Also, netted about fifty pre-orders and managed to outrank Joe Abercrombie in the UK on the opening weekend of The Devils. Very cool street cred.
– Pricing. I launched at $4.99 because I knew I could capitalize on all the work I’d done to build the launch and bring in new readers. This was risky since most folk I knew had already purchased the ebook during the previous edition.
– AMAs on Reddit. Great place to engage new and existing readers.
– Networking is everything. All these tactics I’ve mentioned are sure to undergo changes. All except this one. The right favor from the right person at the right time creates opportunity. The more supporters you have, the more audiences you share, the more you’ll find your readers, and they’ll find you.Plus friends. We all need those! My life revolves around this career now, and I can say wholeheartedly that the authors I’ve met have made it worth all the ups and downs.
If FanFiAddict will have me, I’ll return in a couple of months to update ya’ll on the journey. Once A Graveyard for Heroes drops, I should have a better idea if this relaunch has been a true success.
So far, the trajectory of sales, royalties, and page reads has all gradually increased. I had some MAJOR meltdowns when I got depressingly low initial numbers in April. “Oh no, it failed!” I would say to myself, then curl up in a ball.
I had to remind myself this is a game of patience, and initial surges weren’t ever a part of the plan.
Hopefully, this helps some folk who are considering a relaunch. Happy to field questions if anyone reaches out on socials.
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