Selling my soul might actually be easier.
I have been doing a TON of reading, research and “gathering of best practices” lately, including poring through blogs and absorbing hours upon hours of podcasts. Of particular help are Joanna Penn’s podcast (The Creative Penn) and the Sell More Books Show. I’ve also listed to quite a few Author Hangout episodes and Rocking Self-Publishing. The prevailing wisdom is to start marketing your books (or at least your “brand”) long before their release, so in a sense, my marketing efforts should always be “on.”
What I haven’t been doing a lot of is writing. But there’s a good reason–after hearing Shawn Coyne interviewed by Joanna Penn, I picked up his book The Story Grid and thought I might be able to figure out where the missteps are in my WIP. It has changed my thinking–it’s really inspired me to go back and re-map out the entire novel (word-count-wise, I’m about 2/3 through, but in reality, I’d say only about 50%). Yes, it’s more work, but I will feel so much more confident when it’s done. I’m out outliner anyway, so I always like to know “where I’m going,” even if my characters pull me off that path now and again. Read More…
Gearing up for Amazon KDP Select Giveaway
When I first published Battle Axe and Ring of Fire simultaneously last year, I enrolled Ring of Fire in Amazon’s KDP Select program on the promise that it offered more exposure via its lending library and ability for Amazon Prime members to download such titles for free. The downside? It’s a 90-day arrangement that makes your digital (not print) title exclusive to Amazon, so I was forbidden to make it available anywhere else. The upside? None, at least that time around. I saw no discernible difference between the purchase/borrow activity of Ring of Fire vs. Battle Axe. The other (and potentially huge) alleged asset of the program is that it offers up to five “giveaway” days where you can offer Read More…
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