For any of you who follow, stalk, or seen something from or
about me on the internet Wednesday or Thursday, or about my first novel
“Whisper,” it is because I was promoting my book. Amazon Select is a program where if you make your
book exclusive on Amazon you can join their Amazon select program. It must be only for sale and distribution
exclusively thru Amazon to qualify for participation and it must stay on there
a minimum of 90 days.
During that time period you can run sales where you offer
your book at a discounted price and for a period of five days of your choosing
you can actually give the book away for FREE.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Why would anybody want to give their hard
work away to people for FREE? Even though
it is a FREE download it counts as a sale in Amazon’s system so it raises your
book up in the sales category based off units moved. The goal is to get in the top 100 best
sellers, top 50 or best case scenario hit the golden sweet spot of the top ten! I didn’t get anywhere close to the top 100
with the giveaway of my book. I did get
to learn the specifics of putting a book on there and participating for the
last 86 days.
Tuesday, Whisper will come off the select program and I’ll
re-publish it on the other venues for sale so it can be equally enjoyed by all
types of E-reading devices. I personally
am a big fan of Smashwords dot com and the many avenues of distribution they
have available. Smashwords and Mark
Coker’s Guide to formatting your book for their meat grinder allowed me to get
started and published. My sales have
virtually been non-existent there for the last 90 days because of my two books
the one that has been through being edited three times and is good to go has
been “Whisper.” My second novel is still
published on Smashwords but still needs help.
Rather than turn potential readers off my work by promoting a way less
than perfect book, I haven’t been promoting it at all.
The next three big things on my plate now that I am taking a
breather from helping promote my book and acting like a spamming computer whore,
screaming get my book. First is getting
my second novel “No Rules Of Engagement” ready to go, completely re-edited,
re-formatted, and re-launched. Second is
to make the editing changes to my third novel which has not seen the light of
day on the internet yet. “Leviathan
Deterrent” is the sequel to “Whisper” and will be out shortly after the
re-launch of NROE. Thirdly I am in the
final chapters of writing my fourth novel and off to the editor with that so we
can to try and publish it before the end of the year.
If you’re an Indie Author you will have to promote your
books. My editor also doubles as a
publicist and arranges to have my book listed on different websites where they
list FREE Kindle books. I try and help
with tweeting, posting stuff on my blog, posting links on Google+, and some
Facebook stuff. Frankly my true
personality is that of an introvert who if I could – would lock myself away and
just read and write books. But I
can’t! I am forced to go to my day job
five days a week one week and six the next while I act like a normal happy
person who likes interacting with other people.
I find that funny as some people have said I am an extrovert and
outgoing because I will talk to anyone – but it’s forced most of the time. I will talk to anyone. I am not shy by any means and I am a very
curious person by nature but I have discovered that is the writer in me looking
for stuff to put in my books.
I feel relieved when these things are finished and I can sit
back and relax while I continue writing on whatever novel I am currently
working on. I wrote “Whisper” in 2010
and have been through the editing process three times with that book. I have spent a lot of time promoting it
during the five free days it was free on Amazon. I can’t wait until the sequel of NROE is
finished because I am going to start a new series of books. I have been with the same characters and up
to four books for going on three years.
It is time for a slight change before writing the last of the Alexander
Hawk series. I have a story roughly
outlined for the next Wiley Randolph book if I decide to go there. I really want to write a new novel with new
characters and explore and investigate a real threat to our modern society
before writing another book on these two series.
I apologize to any of my friends, acquaintances, and
contacts who feel I have bombarded their social media outlets the last two
days. I want to publically Thank
all those who took part in my little promotion and did get a copy of “Whisper”
to read sometime in the near future. To
you all I sincerely hope you enjoy the book enough to take part in the FREE
Days for “Leviathan Deterrent” when
it gets published and gets to that stage later this year. Maybe I can break the top hundred
best-selling books with that one!
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1 comments:
It's a good promotional tool. I too have tried it, and noticed a good upward tick of sales once my five-day period was up. Good advice, Thomas.
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