Saturday 29 September 2012

Hot Chick Gives It Away

Now, that got you interested did it not. OK fellow scribes, I'm trying something new. Once upon time in the land of Amazon KDP Select one could paper the house with free tickets and spread the word. And the word was Sales. My own experience was initially positive but with the change of algorithms and a new Amazon recipe containing 3D humble stumble potion, red sales headed for the sunset.

Now has come the idea of gifting your book to people who really want it. Using The Reader's Guide To E Publishing (RG2E), it is possible to feature your book for the day. This site offers free books. The down side is that the author pays for them! However, much of this money will come back to you via your Amazon sales and the cost is far less than conventional advertising which will only sell you a few books if you are lucky. Of course, you are free to adjust your price in advance of your offer. In the UK such costs are fully tax deductible. 

Another advantage is that you are asking people to choose books they like. With KDP I found that there was a download frenzy like anorexic mackerel swallowing silver paper. A few would then submit reviews within an hour beginning "I hate this kind of book and could only read three pages".  

Today, RG2E are featuring "The Chosen", my short tale of roguish aspiration. The idea is to get a bump up the charts. Let us see what happens. You will be among the first to know and I won't charge a cent.

Emma thinx: Rarely is freedom given. 








5 comments:

  1. If I gift books, and I do from time to time, I simply gift them from Amazon so that Amazon's algorithms kick in with sales, which gives the book a better ranking. It seems to work.

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  2. You are the most tongue in cheek person I know, and I adore tongue in cheek. There is no metaphor intended here for anyone beginning a snicker. Thank god for your fresh, original and endless sense of humor. And your fine writing!

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  3. Emma, I love your writing...Please don't waste your energy on marketing! All I want is another book from you! Yes, I know, I should be a fine one telling someone "don't waste time on book promotion" when I myself do it! I just did a Twitter campaing lasting 24 hours round the clock saying "the price of my book will DOUBLE in 24 hours...in 23 hours...in 22 hours...etc", you get the idea: one tweet every hour on the hour.

    Did it work? Frankly, no. I got a couple of sales, a boost in the rankings that quickly evaporated. And it's left me totally convinced that Twitter does NOT work to sell books. Neither do free promotions. People don't read what they've gotten for free, you must make them PAY for it!

    The only way to make them pay is the well-tried system of yore: produce more books and make sure they're good! That's what I decided...yes, I know, just did that Twitter campaign but I promise: never again!

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  4. Thanks guys for your comments. Claude you are pretty much right. Only writing more books will take any of us anywhere. I have been furiously writing away but
    I had been suffering a bit of style identity angst. Romance does not allow for too much ribald humour and I am constantly having to staunch the raunch. Staying on message can be tough. As for the RG2E experiment, I can report that the results were relatively modest. Even red hot chicks find it hard to give it away it seems.

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  5. Love your style of writing. If you'd like a fresh approach to marketing, contact me. I have some info you might be interested in. Contact me through goodreads or email.

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Thanks so much for stopping by. Always so happy to get your feedback. Emma x