Great promotion is Bookgorilla.com from Kindle Nation Daily. Selling 20 books an hour right now. Hope it keeps up.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Book Gorilla is working
Right now my novel DROP OUT is being sponsored on
Bookgorilla.com, a subscription only newsletter newly developed by Kindle
Nation Daily specifically designed for readers looking for quality books… and
it is working. The book is selling!
Monday, April 1, 2013
Promotions
Been working hard on my latest manuscript (still untitled) though
the Easter weekend did muff up my writing schedule a bit. I also have a big
promotion coming up for DROP OUT on April 4th with KND’s new Book
Gorilla newsletter. I paid extra to be on the premier front page and be exposed
to @ 20,000 opt-in readers. Will it be profitable? I guess we’ll see. I need to
sell 150 books to recoup the cost.
I’m also trying a new promotion with a site called
BooksandAuthors.net. I paid to have DROP OUT ( http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FX0K7U
) its description and Amazon link tweeted on their Twitter site three times a
day for one month. They have 180,000 followers, so I only need a small
percentage to purchase the book to earn out. I also think the exposure from
both promotions is going to be huge. The tweeting promotion started four days
ago and I have already noticed a slight increase in sales.
It’s the beginning of the month again and authors who sell
through Amazon know what that means, the dreaded brown bar of zero sales as the
book stats reset. With the impending nice weather, I anticipate a new batch of
readers aching to grab their Kindles, find a quiet, comfortable spot under a
shady tree, and get lost in one of my books. Let’s hope so.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Sleep well manuscript
It finally happened. I reached the end of my creative juices
on my latest novel. At 25,000 words in, I’ve had enough. The book started well
enough. I had a great idea and I feverishly wrote the first draft in under
three weeks. I let it sit for a few days while I visited the Jersey Shore and
then pulled it back onto the screen anxious and excited to begin the revision
process. And then thunk!
Plagued by writer’s block for the last two weeks, I’ve been
spending my morning writing time agonizing over the draft. The story is strong,
the characters lively, and the setting fantastic… so what’s my problem?
Perhaps, it’s the oncoming nice weather, or the fact that I’ve
come up with another new, fresh idea for a book (a philosophical thriller). I
don’t know. But what I do know after writing twelve novels, nine of which are
published, is that when I lose interest in a project it only results in flat
writing and a boring story if I continue. I learned this lesson the hard way
after writing three novels that I struggled to finish over a span of years only
to realize that they weren’t very good. A combine twenty-seven months of work
shoved into a closet drawer for eternity.
There’s nothing worse than realizing the drive to continue this
book is dwindling and the joy of writing this book is waning away. It’s a good
book by all standards (great plot, action, and suspense) except my own. As the
itch to start a new project tickles in my mind, I feel both sad and relived
(because I’m only three months into this project and haven’t wasted too much
time) that this latest novel needs an incubation period before I continue with
the revisions. I think that’s what separates the consummate writer from the
wannabe; knowing when to move on.
So, as I put my latest manuscript to rest in the drawer with
the others for who knows how long, I’m feeling the excitement, anxiousness, and
commitment of starting yet another project. Writers get better with time and
experience, and although my latest novel may never be finished or may become a
bestseller in the future, I realized for my own sanity that for now, I need a
new world to live in and new characters to meet.
Sleep well my unfinished manuscript, may you someday see the
light of day again and come fully to fruition. For now, it’s time to start
another new novel. I can feel my fingertips tingling already.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
The sacrifice
Spring is here and once again the oncoming nice weather will
test my resolve to finish my latest novel. I find it especially difficult to
keep focus when it’s a beautiful, sunny seventy-degree day outside. But as an
artist I must ignore the temptation to enjoy the outside. When I am working on
a first draft (as I’m doing now) I find that I can only concentrate on creating
original material when I’m sitting at my desk. Something about that particular
space and mindset unlocks my imagination greater than any other. In a way, I’m
a slave to my own setting.
I have no problem revising second or third drafts from
anywhere in the world; on plane, sitting on my deck, or being in a hotel room;
but that first draft must always be written in this particular space. I guess
it’s where my muse likes to hang out.
Despite a brief attack of writer’s block (my first ever),
and several trips to the hospital (It’s all chronicled in my blog), the first
book in my planned dystopian series is coming along. I reached 25,000 words
yesterday which is just a few thousand less than I had planned in my timeline.
The story is coming together well, the characters are shaping up nicely, and
the futuristic setting is awesome. Now, if I only had a title for the work.
This is the first book I’ve ever started without having a
title in mind. Perhaps, that’s because I have been thinking about the plot of
this one for so long that the words and story came onto the page before I even
had a solid idea of what to call it. I had a few titles in mind, but when I
searched Amazon I found that there were already books that had those titles. As
a writer, I highly recommend that you search Amazon so that your book title is
unique in the world and therefore easier to find when googled. I’ll keep my
thinking cap on until the right one hits me.
As I stare out my office window at the beautiful day I am
going to be missing, I can’t help but wonder if all this sacrificing is worth
it? Will I go to my deathbed regretting the time I spent writing rather than
enjoying the wonders of nature? Will I grow old and angry that I didn’t take
advantage of every nice day offered out to me? I don’t think so. For long after
I’m gone my books will still be here and readers will be able to enjoy my
stories. In a way, I’m sacrificing a few beautiful days to immortalize myself
in the human condition.
So, I’ll lower the shades to keep sunlight from stinging my
eyes and get down to the business of finishing this first draft. I may miss out
on the day, but the joy I get typing away at my keyboard greatly offsets it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)