Ads for Authors and Mentorship Case Study: ROMANCE

As told in Ember Leigh's own words...

Before I found Rebecca and her amazing courses, I was making about $15 every three months in royalties through a small publisher. And honestly, at that point in my life (between 2013-2016), I was happy with that. The fact that I was publishing my books at all and could afford the occasional coffee? I had reached a life goal. 

But I still had bigger goals remaining, and the prospects seemed dim. With each new book that I wrote—featuring a cover I couldn’t control, a blurb I knew could be better, and attached to a story that I was proud of but still seemed to be ‘missing’ something—I wondered if this was just going to be what publishing looked and felt like for the rest of my life.

Each new release felt like a shout into the void. Nobody knew. Nobody cared. And advancing seemed like a Catch-22. 

For people to know about you, you need to find your readers. But how could I find readers if nobody knew about me? 

I entered into every manner of promotional activities, but no matter what I did, nothing clicked. My books were going nowhere. I wanted a direction, and more than that, a brand. 

I realized I needed to wade into the world of self-publishing, which for me had ALWAYS been a big no-no. I was very opposed to it for a very long time (which is why I languished for so long, honestly!). I loved the small publisher I was working with, but I had no creative control over the elements that really mattered. And yes, they were producing quality work. But it wasn’t at the level that I was admiring in other big name authors. I wanted to be THERE, at THAT level.

Once my publisher closed down in early 2018, I knew this was a window of opportunity. I received the rights to the book I wanted to turn into a series, and I could test the waters with self-publishing a series. So I got to work writing the next books in the series. 

But I knew I would need serious help with marketing.

Around this time, I found out about Rebecca Hamilton and got started with a free marketing tutorial that she had released around then. It had awesome info, so I then spent $35 on a Skyrocket Your Book Sales course, which led into me buying a blurb writing course she offered. I spent less than $100 in her courses in early 2018 and learned VERY useful information that I planned to utilize in my re-launch. 

I kept my eye on her from then on, learning more about the Publishing Mastermind Course. I wanted to join, but didn’t have the money. In early fall 2018, she premiered her Ads for Authors course, offering a steep discount on the beta testing. I don’t know what came over me, but I KNEW that I had to take this course. It seemed like a godsend at the time—Rebecca’s top notch services at a price point that I could afford. It fell right in line with my re-launch too, so the timing was spookily perfect. My husband agreed with the investment and I took the plunge. 

On Sept 30th 2018, I re-launched my MMA romance, so I only have sales data that pertains to my self-publication utilizing Rebecca’s methods.  With the previous publisher, however, I would make roughly $15 every 3 months and if my ranking was ever below 100,000, I got excited.

But using the Ads course to relaunch this book….

Above is the sales ranking history for my first in series. These ads keep your book STICKY! 

I had some experience with FB ads prior to her course, but I could never get my CPC below $0.50. I was able to implement her course right as I began re-launching my series, and my CPC always averaged between $0.08 and $0.12 for all my ads. 

Her method really WORKS! In my first month alone, I made over $200. Which to me felt INCREDIBLE, because I had never even made over $100 in an entire YEAR as an author. 

That may seem like nothing to some authors, but it was a huge difference to me. And it was only the beginning.

Within two months, I made back my investment in the class. Curious where I am less than a year later? 

As of October 2019, I’ve made over $10,000 in sales and the future only looks brighter as I continue to release and implement the methods learned in this course.

Ads for Authors SERIOUSLY works, but I learned through the class that having the right cover and blurb are just as important as having a successful ad. Because getting readers to the sales page isn’t even half the battle—convincing them to buy once they’re THERE is where the real challenge awaits.

After several months using the ads methods, refining things and watching the data, I realized that my sell-through wasn’t spectacular. So naturally, I began to suspect that my books weren’t as good as they could be. 

I still had eyes on PMC, but Rebecca offered a discount on one of FEW spaces available for a one-on-one backlist mentorship. At this point, I had four books in my series released and was seeing about 15% read-through from book one to book two. I was making money, but not as much as I was hoping. I knew I could be doing more for the books, so I jumped on the chance to work one-on-one with Rebecca. 

As we worked through the mentorship, I realized that I still had plenty more growing to do as a storyteller! Even after having been published for SIX years, my craft needed work. This might not be surprising to some authors, but I honestly thought that my stories were more or less solid. And maybe they were—to an extent. But they had so much room to improve.

And that’s what I’ve been focusing on in 2019. Making my books better. Unputdownable. The type of stories you want to BINGE READ!

Thanks to Rebecca’s courses and her solid guidance, my sell through from book one to two is now at 30% - meaning I now sell twice as many copies of book two than before! Now I feel that I have the foundation in place to truly elevate my career.

(Note from Rebecca here! Ember's books were ALWAYS awesome. All I did was teach her a few adjustment tricks and reader psychology to help improve the read through. Her stories were already fantastic! Okay, back to Ember now...)

Another win came when I qualified for my first Bookbub Featured Deal in September 2019 (on my first try...still not sure how that happened, honestly!) and my MMA first in series reached #4 overall in the free store. With over 25,000 downloads and thousands of new readers reaching my books, they found a STRONG and SOLID series which is now turning into lifelong fans and steady sales.

Here you can see exactly where I began the Ads for Authors. My author rank has been sticky ever since! 

If I had applied for the Bookbub deal before finding Rebecca, I know without a doubt I wouldn't have been accepted. Nor would I have been able to maximize the benefits of such a promotional opportunity. 

Sometimes, I still have to pinch myself that my books are ACTUALLY reaching readers after so many years of languishing in the dark.

Bottom Line?

• I've 8x'd my income.
• Doubled my sell-through!
• and dropped my CPC from $0.50 to $0.08!

If you’re serious about making money at writing, then you NEED to learn what Rebecca has to offer! Your career will be all the better for it!