How did I publish THESE LIVES

  In this post, I will describe the launch of my book THESE LIVES (memoir book).
    My editor was enthusiastic about the book, and I can discern between courtesy enthusiasm and a real one. She even helped me (for free) look for an agent. It didn’t work out, but I had some replies that were very close calls, mostly saying that they do not specialize in the book genre - but had a debate within the team to consider it.
So, I decided to spend some money on launching my book because what I had was encouraging. I also paid three professional reviews (Kirkus, Indie Reader, and Reedsy Discovery), which were very encouraging.
     I remembered some bad times with a previous book when I signed up with Xlibris. I paid an initial sum for which they evaluated the book and suggested a book cover. The evaluation showed that they did not read the content, but they read a few pages here and there, and the cover design was a picture on Shutterstock. By chance, I found it on Shutterstock by looking for some keywords to match the book’s narrative. I canceled the agreement and lost the money.
So, there is no way I would fall into the trap of vanity publishers, better self-publish, and pay for services I need.
After some research, I decided on Reedsy for cover design and marketing. I am not making publicity for Reedsy; I just tell my audience what happened.
    It was expensive, about USD 1000 for marketing and £960 for cover design and formatting. I did not need the formatting, but I wanted to go full steam and not regret it later. I do not regret the payment since I reached #1 (eBook) and #3(Print) for Amazon New Releases for the Romanian History section. 

Back then, I could add more categories, including Russian history, since Russia’s presence in Romania greatly influenced the lives of many family members. The funny thing is that I was #1(eBook) on New Releases for Russian history too.
    

    The cover design was obviously a very good marketing feature. The marketing lady advised me on how to present my book in the media, chose all the book categories, and sent me documentation about advice on how to maintain a media presence. She recommended the guy to design the cover. She recommended modifying my website; I remember her insisting on asking my provider for a secure level (https).
    How many books did I sell to reach #1 in that first month? Around 40 was enough since maybe it was not such a big competition in those categories.
      Here is what I think the sales came from.
     I paid ads on Twitter, and the algorithm made me pay around $100 in one day, with more than 100,000 impressions but no sales. I stopped it; at least for me, that was not a good platform.
    I was an IT professional with hundreds of connections on LinkedIn. My post there was seen by many and brought some sales. Same for Facebook, where, as well, I have hundreds of connections. Both Facebook and LinkedIn brought me free sales.
I think Amazon’s algorithms to promote books positioned THSES LIVES well after the launch, but I did not take advantage as I should have.
 
    In my next post, I will explain where I am now after one year and a half after publication and what I did to sell more.