Tomorrow I say goodbye to the Darkyn web site, which has finished up a two-year run on the internet. It was a gamble, but I'm happy to report that it paid off, and the series has done so well that I earned back my investment in the first year.
However, like all good things, self-promotional budgets run out, so the site has to go. I do appreciate the excellent service and support that I received from Metro DMA, the site's amazing designers. Metro helped me with every glitch, technoblip and problem that came up, and dealt with a lot of inconvenience on my behalf without a murmur. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for first-class digital media design.
I'm not really sure what I'll do next. For now, I'll keep PBW rolling and let that be it for a while. This is not to imply that web sites are a bad idea. When done right, they can be fun as well as great promotional tools.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who stopped in to see the site and sent feedback to me about it. It was definitely an experience.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I've just recently discovered this series and I looked it up at the bookstore because I saw the wonderful cover art on the website. So it definitely worked for me! :-)
ReplyDeletehi Lynn I LOVE your series and have read it from the beginning, but i have to tell you, i hate the website! Sorry, I had to say it. I love your books so much that I want to know what't coming next, who are all the different people, so your website left me extremely frustrated! I'm thrilled that it helped the series!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you earned back your investment in the site. Thank you for letting us know it's going away -- I paid a farewell visit.
ReplyDeleteAwww. I'll miss the Darkyn site, it was so cool. I had to visit it one last time before it goes away.
ReplyDeleteI'll miss the Darkyn website too. It was very, very nice and professionally done. I hope this doesn't mean that it is the end of the series? Why are you taking it down?
ReplyDeleteI hope you keep the PBW blog, Lynn. I think it's absolutely awesome and makes me want to read your books more to know you care so much about your fans. :)
ReplyDeleteMissy, I appreciate your candor. I know that the site didn't work for everyone, but like all big experiments, I learned a lot from it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
ReplyDeleteJane wrote: I hope this doesn't mean that it is the end of the series? Why are you taking it down?
Oh, no, the series isn't over. I have two more books in the works, and my editor has already indicated that the publisher would like more.
For every book I write, I work from a self-promo budget based on a set percentage of my advance. This is so that I can do what I can for each book without spending more than I'm earning.
In order to create the Darkyn web site, do the original press release mailout and other related self-promo, I had to use the self-promo budget for the entire series plus rainy day funds that I've been putting aside for years. I literally spent every self-promo penny I had to promote Darkyn, but from the beginning I also put a firm cap on that investment so that I would not be tempted to go into debt to sustain the self-promo.
The self-promo won't come to a complete halt, either. There are still things I can do that don't cost me anything, like writing the Midnight Blues e-book.
WOW. Metro DMA does some awesome work--not only on your site but on some of the other sites they feature. Goodbye to the Darkyn website--it was purdy.
ReplyDeleteThat's a darned good business practice about setting aside a portion of the advance for self-promo. I'll have to write that one down. It's great to see that the site earned out the investment you put into it.
They definitely did an awesome job using Flash. I admit I'm not a fan of websites done using Flash, but this one was one of my favories. It's saddens me to see it go.
ReplyDeleteLynn,
ReplyDeleteIt's a beautifully done website so I'll be sad to see it go too...visited it once more! I hope you'll consider keeping your bio and the link to your Agony interview for newbies who come to your PBW blog so they can get to know you even better. :)
Hi there! I'm reading IF ANGELS BURN which has been in my TBR pile for ages. I am simply blown away. I came online today to find the website and was disappointed it was gone. I think you should bring it back as your books in this series are still going strong. Just my two cents.
ReplyDeleteThanks!