I’m always looking for more readers – aren’t all writer? Writing YA books, you’d think I’d be marketing to teens (not an easy thing to do); however, I came across a statistic not long ago stating about half of YA readers are adults. It’s something I’d read before, and I tend to agree with the statistic. Early last week, I was tagged on Twitter by a friend alerting me to a webinar her agent was presenting – How To Find Readers – and I immediately registered. There were no great epiphanies, but she did offer some ideas I plan to follow up on – offering a few chapters for free or scenes cut from my books. Being active on social media is important, but choosing which platform works best for you is imporant. She also mentioned not just promoting your own novels, but helping other writers – something I’m a proponent of. Coincidentally, she brought up a topic I’d been looking at last week – categories and keywords on Amazon.
Which brings me to Publisher Rocket (formerly known as KDP Rocket). A couple of my publisher siblings mentioned this in our Facebook group and how using it had helped their rankings and sales – all good things, right? After investigating further, I downloaded it last week. I’ve been through the tutorials and played around a bit, and there are some areas I still haven’t gotten to, but plans are to go back through the tutorials again. Lots of info is included, and I want to take full advantage of eveything it has to offer.
I started watching a new series. For All Mankind on Apple+ has completely and utterly hooked this space nerd. I’d seen it 
advertised last November when it was released, but at the time, we didn’t subscribe. Last week, I was offered a 7-day free subscription, so I took it. It’s an alternate history storyline that begins in June 1969 – when Russia beats us to the moon by one month. Other changes (and I’m not giving anything away with this) include women also entering the space program and after Nixon, Ted Kennedy becoming president. Highly recommend it!
Have a safe and healthy week!
Books and Such 
Many adults enjoy YA, some even read kids’ books! Let´s face it, we are all still kids inside. xo
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Exactly, Darlene! When my boys were younger, we read some fantastic kids’ books. Given the opportunity, I wouldn’t hesitate to read some new ones.
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Hope the new program helps. I sure don’t have any new tricks.
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I think we’ve used all the tricks we can think of, Craig, lol.
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Much success with the program! My instincts tell me that the number of adults could be even higher.
I’ll have to take a look at For All Mankind. I haven’t tried any of the apple+ shows yet.
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I just finished it and believe me, Tessa, there are plenty of gasp-worthy moments. Lots can go wrong in space! And I agree with you about the numbers being higher based on what I see at book events.
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I have Rocket downloaded too, but haven’t had a moment to explore in detail. I’m planning to take a few weeks off as soon as I get The Emissary 3 published (writing the epilogue today), and I hope to spend a lot of my time investigating Rocket and other marketing tools and ideas. I have totally failed to do a bit of promotion of any kind for the last two years! MUST get back to it! You’ve inspired me.
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Glad I could help, Marcia! From what I can understand so far, Publisher Rocket can save you loads of time searching for categories and keywords, but there are still other parts I haven’t gotten to. Hope it works for you!
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We’ll have to compare notes on what we’ve found out and what seems to work best. 🙂 Good luck!
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Wishing you the best with the program, Teri. I wonder which social media platform the teens are using now…it’s hard to keep up. I love to read YA!
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Thanks, Jill! What I’m hearing from teens is Instagram, so I’ve tried to up my posts on there. Over the past couple weeks, I’ve epically failed, lol. You can only do so many cat posts, right?
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LOL! There’s a lot of competition among the cats out there! If you haven’t checked out Author Uproar on Twitter, it’s a great community to keep your book active without you being the one to constantly toot your own horn. 🙂
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Thanks, Jill – I’ll definitely check it out!
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Phillip is great to work with, I have his email address, if you need it.
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I’m in that percentage, I love ya books. I’m going to take a look at the Rocket program, it sounds interesting. Thanks for sharing and good luck finding readers!
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I love them also, Jina. Even if I didn’t write YA, I’d still read it. And thanks!
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Hoping you find some helpful tips in the program, Teri. I would love to find something that really makes a difference with ranking and sales. So far the only thing that’s helped me is BookBub and that’s only because my publisher fronted the cost for the ads.
I did change keywords on some of my books a while back and they seemed to make a small difference. I should probably look into Rocket.
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I ran a Bookbub ad with Gemini, but didn’t see that it made any difference. I had a Bookbub feature with Sarah and sold around 1800 books that day – I’d love to win the lottery and get another.
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You and me both!
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A lot of adults read YA because they don’t have “heavy” sex, bad language and as much violence, but still have really good stories. Marketing is tough for us all but I do believe blogging works best for me.
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I agree about the good stories, Robbie, and I haven’t come across any with heavy sex, but I’ve seen language (not bad) and a good bit of violence in some. it really depends on the genre, I think. It’s never been violence just to have violence, but it’s always fit within the world. People think writing the book is difficult – it’s got nothing on marketing, lol!
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For All Mankind sounds good. Dear Husband and I recently started watching Mrs. Maisel (whatever the full title is) on Amazon. It’s really good!
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I haven’t seen that one, but know it won several awards, and I also like the actor. Maybe I’ll add that one to the lineup. Thanks for the rec, Priscilla!
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Add one more person who loves YA being an adult. I hope you found something interesting and helpful.
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There are lots of us out there, Yesha. And thanks!
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I have had Publisher Rocket for a couple of years. I agree it helps.
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Good to know, John. I saw it mentioned three times in a week, so I figure that’s a sign for me to check it out.
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Dave Chessan gives a lot of good information to his subscribers.
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Sure does.
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Give us an update of how you go with Publisher Rocket. Sounds interesting.
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More tutorials on the agenda for today!
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I’ve heard of Publisher’s Rocket and have thought about purchasing it. I’d be curious to know how it works for you.
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I’ll mention any updates with it on the blog – keep your fingers crossed, Joan!
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For All Mankind sounds awesome! I must check it out!
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Shari, I binged that one in just a few days – so addictive. It’s been renewed for a second season, but who knows when filming will begin.
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Yay! That’s great it’s been renewed yeah but who knows when like everything else 😦 I’m glad I still have my massive to watch list lol!
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Yeah, I know loads of adults who read YA. Anyway, good luck finding more readers… Your books deserve them!
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Thanks so much, Tori – appreciate the kind words!
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I love YA books. I am getting ready to publish through KDP for the first time. Any suggestions?
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I wish I could offer some guidance, but I’m not familiar with KDP. I can’t even imagine the epic disaster it would be if I tried it, lol. My publisher deals with things on that end, and I’m so grateful for it.
There’s a whole series about publishing with KDP on this website – https://storyempirecom.wordpress.com/ It’s a wonderful source for writers and I’m sure you could find lots of helpful information. Good luck!
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Thanks Teri
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