December 2025 Book Marketing Challenge

December 16, 2025December 3, 2025 | C.E. Flores

December is here, which means it’s time for my favorite (and occasionally humbling) year-end ritual: digging through a year’s worth of stats to see what actually happened in my little corner of the publishing world.

This month, I’ll be taking a closer look at:

• Website stats – Who visited? What were they looking for? And how many of them stuck around long enough to click something besides “back”?
• Sales data – The highs, the lows, the “…really? That’s all?” moments.
• Social media growth – Which platforms showed promise, which flatlined, and which ones are still giving me the “why are you like this?” energy.
• Best-performing books – Along with the true cost behind each one: money, time, effort, and the occasional existential crisis.

Basically, I’m pulling everything apart to see what worked, what didn’t, and what I can learn from it all. It’s part archaeology, part analytics, part “oh, that’s why nothing happened in May.”

I’ll be back in January with an update on what I discover and, more importantly, how I plan to move forward in the new year. New strategy? New goals? New chaos? We’ll see.

Here’s to ending the year with clarity and starting the next one with purpose.

November 2025 Book Marketing Challenge Update

December 12, 2025December 3, 2025 | C.E. Flores

So… how did November marketing go?

Well, let’s just say it was an adventure—and not entirely by choice. Remember how I had to discontinue my Amazon ads because of that delightful bank card fiasco? Yeah. So November was a full-on freeballing-it month. No ads. No fancy targeting. Just me, my social media posts, a couple of emails, and some strategic free book promos thrown into the universe like confetti.

With limited tools, I leaned hard into my strongest performers: Abuelita ¿Qué Vamos A Hacer Hoy?, Let’s Make Rosca de Reyes, and the Exploring Traditional Herbal Remedies in Mexico series. I decided to make the ebooks free over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend. Counterintuitive? Maybe. But hear me out.

Kids’ books? People love a physical copy.

Pick up your copy today!

Herbal books? Herbalists want pages they can touch, smell like paper, and flip through with a cup of tea in hand.

The perfect gift for the herbalist in your life

So the strategy was simple: let readers try them for free digitally, fall in love, and (fingers crossed) come back for the print versions either for themselves or as gifts. Will that work? It’s too early in December to know, but we’ll see.

As for downloads… I didn’t get as many as I would’ve liked. But I’m hopeful that the ones I did get were from the right people like the families, teachers, herbalists, and curious readers who actually want and need these books.

Marketing without ads is definitely a challenge, but it’s also oddly empowering to see what happens when you rely on creativity instead of algorithms. On to December and whatever magic (or mischief) it brings!

October 2025 Book Marketing Challenge

October 5, 2025October 3, 2025 | C.E. Flores

Hitting Refresh: Revamping My Author Presence for the Fall 🍂📚

Whew. After a rollercoaster of sales and social media experiments, I’ve realized it’s time for a good old-fashioned author presence refresh. October feels like the perfect month to step back, take inventory, and make sure my online spaces actually reflect where I am as a writer right now and not where I was three years ago.

So, here’s what I’ve been working on (and what’s coming next):

1. Updating My Digital Homes

First up, I’m giving my Amazon author pages, Goodreads, and websites some botox if not serious facelifts.

Fresh bios: It’s funny how fast your author bio gets outdated. I plan to rewrite mine to better reflect my current projects, interests, and focus areas. (Check me out on Amazon as C.E. Flores and Millie Flores)
Latest highlights: Adding updates about my current projects so readers know what I’ve been up to, what’s coming next, and where to dive in first if they’re new to my work. (See my latest adventures at Surviving Mexico.)

2. Making My Book Descriptions Work Harder

While updating my author profiles, I realized some of my book descriptions were… let’s just say they weren’t doing me any favors. So I’ve been going through each one to:

Add stronger hooks that make readers want to click “Buy Now.”
Use keywords that help new readers actually find my books through search.
Inject a little more emotional pull because sometimes a well-placed line about transformation says more than a paragraph of details ever could.

If you haven’t checked your book blurbs in a while, trust me, it’s worth a refresh.

3. Expanding My Reach: Reviews, Reviews, Reviews

Another big focus for this season: getting more eyes on my books. I’m adding another title to BookBub and also over at Muted Muses to gather more honest reviews and reach new audiences. Reviews are still one of the most powerful ways to build trust with readers, and I’ve been missing opportunities by not fully leaning into that. I also had an author reach out to me to review his book on book reviews, so that’s on my to-do list for the month.

Looking Ahead

This refresh feels like a reset button, a chance to polish what’s already out there, make my books easier to find, and reconnect with my readers in a way that feels more current. By tightening up my author presence now, I’m setting myself up for stronger sales and more engaged readers heading into the holidays and the new year.

It’s a lot of work, but honestly? It feels good to get organized and intentional again.

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Book Hawking: A Beginner’s Guide to Marketing Your Self-Published Book is your roadmap to turning your hidden gem into a must-read!

September 2025 Book Marketing Challenge Update

October 3, 2025 | C.E. Flores

September wasn’t the most productive writing month for me (life had other plans), but something surprising happened. My book sales actually went up! Maybe it was thanks to the extra push I gave my Lupita book marketing… maybe it was just good luck. Either way, I’m celebrating the win.

I kept my Amazon ads running for both Abuelita ¿Qué Vamos A Hacer Hoy? Let’s Make Rosca de Reyes and the Exploring Traditional Herbal Remedies in Mexico series, and I also showed up consistently on social media with some targeted posts focused on the Abuelita book. The results? Not too shabby at all.

Looking ahead, I’m maintaining my focus on my children’s book, Abuelita ¿Qué Vamos A Hacer Hoy? Let’s Make Rosca de Reyes! (available in both bilingual and Spanish editions) for the next couple of months with more of the same.