Ana Spoke's Blog, page 8

Can’t afford $399 for NetGalley? How does $50 sound?

By now I’m sure you’re familiar with my Most Super-Duper, Exhaustive, Comprehensive, and Current Listing of Free and Paid Book Advertising Websites and Ideas, and if you’re not – have a look. It’s not only a list of promo websites that I’ve been compiling for many months but also a diary of my experiences with some of them.

If you’ve seen it, perhaps you’ve noticed the listing for NetGalley and my lamenting about its price – or maybe you’ve heard of it through other channels. It’s a free service for any blogger, reviewer or librarian to request titles for review before they’re published. It’s the authors and publishers that have to pay. A lot. $399 just to list one book – you can understand why I’d never tried it before.

It’s an industry standard and a great service – this is how you could get those early reviews for your book, to give it an extra oomph on launch day. So imagine my delight when I came across a mention of “NetGalley co-op” on KBoards. I looked into it, and guess what – it’s an independent press with a subscription to NetGalley, who are willing to sublet listings for as little as $50 a month! Author after author on KBoards are singing its praises and I’m going to list both Shizzle, Inc and Indiot with them, for 1 month and 3 months, respectively, starting in July. I will be posting a review and a comparison of results for 1 month vs 3 months in October, but I just could not keep this secret to myself.

You’re welcome.

A few reasons why you may want to join KBoards

No, it’s not a kiteboarding forum. Maybe that’s why it took me until now to join – even though I’ve seen references to it throughout my 2.5 years of blogging. Or maybe because it looks so huge and intimidating on the first glance…see for yourself.

Whatever the reason, I decided to join last Monday, during my procrastination/self-torture phase, when I was trying to decide on an editor for Indiot. True to myself, I went overboard, reading just about every post, creating a profile complete with my books in the signature, and creating book pages for Shizzle, Inc and Indiot. It’s been a week, and so far I keep wondering why I have not done that sooner. You may be on KBoards already, but if not – here are a few reasons why you should join me:

More visits to your blog – after a week and 45 comments so far (told you, I went overboard), stats show 72 referrals from KBoards alone during the same time.
There have been new followers as a result.
I feel incredibly motivated after coming across a post which asked full-time writers about the consistency of their income. Before, I was only aware of a few multi-millionaires that “made it” and a huge army of “shrimp” like me that are swimming around, picking up a few sales here and there. Turns out there’s also a “middle class” of writers that have substantial portfolios. Those writers, with 12-16 books to their name are making 100-500 THOUSAND a year. So what if it takes me five years to get there – the main point is that it seems possible with a goal, focus, and hard work.
I have found a second editor, a young woman with incredible feedback by the members. I contacted her about editing Shizzle, Inc (yes, a fourth round, by a fourth editor!) and she offered me a crazy deal of $376 for the whole thing, because it’s already clean, and because I was willing to work with her schedule. This means a second edition of Shizzle, Inc will come out at the same time as Indiot goes live. It will be the same story, but with tighter and cleaner prose, and hopefully not a single Australianism.
I have found a very cheap and seemingly good designer. Yes, I am going to try a third designer, hopefully in a collaborative fashion this time. I really like my designs and I have good feedback on them, but I don’t like my topography and even worse – I don’t know what to do about it. Plus, I have now accepted that my current cover for Indiot does not let people know it’s a sequel to Shizzle, Inc and that needs to change. I am now thinking of taking the paper rip concept across all the books in Isa Maxwell series, since in each installment her life is turned upside down by the antagonist – so on the cover, the rip will be between her and the antagonist. More on this in a couple of weeks.
I’ve downloaded Scrivner! Then I cried, because at the first glance it (and the user guide) seems so complicated. But now I’m excited again! I feel like I’ve graduated into the class of professional writers, and the third book’s skeleton is already underway. I will definitely post my impressions after a few weeks, but so far I’m very hopeful – Scrivner will replace the first phase of the project, where I ruin walls with sticky notes.
I’ve given other people advice, and they’ve thanked me, and what can I say – it’s like a fix for a junkie…
I’ve learned a lot about book launches. Decided to lower the pre-order price for Indiot (Isabella Maxwell’s Escapades Book 2) to $0.99, because that’s what everyone on KBoards seems to be doing. It will stay that way throughout the first week of launch, going back to $2.99 (or $3.99, not sure yet) around 23 July. I got just one preorder during the last three weeks, so let’s see what happens with this low offer.
It’s fun! New topics get posted every few minutes, and you just never know what new bit you will learn next.

That’s a lot in just one week, isn’t it? To tell you the truth, I’ve felt intimidated at times, because there are so many pros on there, but you get used to the signatures containing a string of covers after a while. Everyone is really nice, and a few people are even funny, which is a huge bonus in my book.

So go check it out – but do come back! This here blog ain’t no KBoards, but it is a place where you can watch a dark horse race for gold in real time.

Video of my podcast with Drae

Hi, everyone – sorry to hear that not everybody was able to access the live podcast. This was the first time I’d used Blab (thank you, Drae for introducing me to new technology!), so I’m not sure what might have gone wrong. There is, however, a video to forever record my very first live interview:

https://blab.im/drae-shizzle-inc-the-book-launch-with-ana-spoke

Hope it’s of interest, and as usual – please ask any questions you may have!

Live podcast on Shizzle, Inc launch in just one hour!

Hi, everyone,

Just a quick note to let you know that I will be doing a live Blab podcast with Drae on the launch of Shizzle, Inc in one hour – whatever that may be in your time zone. Join us at this link – you can even ask questions live!

You don’t need to sign up for Blab, but I don’t know much more than this – the interview will be unscripted, so wish me luck!

If you don’t get to see it live, I will update this page soon with the link to the YouTube video.

How to make your book permafree in less than a day

Woo-hoo! Shizzle, Inc is finally perma-free!

In case you’re wondering what that means – basically, it will be free from now on, or until I change my mind, which has been known to happen. If you’re wondering why I’m so excited, well, let me tell ya…

First of all, I had no idea it will take so long. My understanding of the process was that you make the book available for free on Smashwords, then go to your Kindle edition, click on the “tell us about a lower price” link, provide a link to Kobo or Nook where it is free, and voila! When voila did not happen right away, I’ve asked peeps on the blog and Twitter to help me out by doing the same. Don’t know how many actually bothered to notify Amazon, but there was no voila in sight after two weeks of waiting. Finally, because I have no patience, and a pair the size of Texas, I did the unthinkable.

I emailed KDP and asked them to match the price.

I hear you, and your sharp intake of breath. After all, the Internet is full of advice on “loopholes” and how to stick it to the man/Amazon, who would surely suspend my book or do something equally nasty if they ever find out that I’m trying to loophole them out of their cut. But no – I don’t know if the fact that Indiot, the second book in Isabella Maxwell’s Escapades series is already available for pre-order, but KDP were cool with it. I got a courteous reply saying that they’ve confirmed that my book is available elsewhere for free, and that in 2-3 business days it will be free on Kindle as well.

It took two hours.

Yay for KDP Support! The second reason for why I’m bouncing in my chair is that after two weeks of waiting, searching the Internet for stupid advice (apparently putting the price up and dropping it down repeatedly has worked for some), and watching my dull, lifeless sales charts, I have liftoff. And boy, what a liftoff it’s been:

What is really surprising, is that 427 copies were downloaded without any paid promotions whatsoever. I didn’t know when this was going to happen, so I’ve been waiting to schedule them after I knew for sure that KDP will match the price to zero. On the chart above, the left-side surge in free downloads of 600-1000/day had cost me $139. I don’t know if this current trend will continue, but so far I’m very happy with the result, which landed me in the top of all category charts:

With the paid promos, I got as far as 111 Free in Kindle store, but basically in the same positions in all categories, so what does it matter? I would prefer for people to find me through a category, anyway – hopefully resulting in fewer random negative reviews.

So the new era has begun – moreover, I have now managed to formulate my promo plan in one simple sentence:

I will give away 100,000 free copies of Shizzle, Inc by the end of 2016.

I hope that will generate 2% of sale-through of Indiot, or about $4,000 in royalties. This goal will require some paid advertising, of course, but it no longer seems ridiculous, like it did after the first promo (at the same spending rate, 100,000 downloads would cost me $3,500). It will also depend on whether I manage to secure a BookBub run, and guess what – I have applied for it. Again.

Exciting times and exciting sales charts coming up!

(P.S. Thank you, my British colleagues, for pointing out that the price was not free on the UK site – apparently this is why I was told to wait for 2-3 business days. I’ll wait, but in the meantime, I’ve fired up another email to KDP.)

Murder and Wine and the Oblong Door

Hi, everyone,

Something different today. My brains have been turning into a mush from the continuous editing of Indiot, plus I’m in constant pain from something going array with my back (due to too much sitting and editing). Well, for whatever reason, I was having some kind of a crisis today, and prescribed myself a dose of “something different.” I sat back down in front of the screen with an intention to write a spanking-brilliant new promo plan for Indiot, and instead, I wrote a short story with a prompt from Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds blog. The task was to write a story based on a title – I chose Murder, Wine, and the Oblong Door. I’ve never done flash fiction before, and I intended for it to be something completely different, but alas, it’s about Isa.

Here it is.

Murder and Wine and the Oblong Door

“I could get away with murder.”

“Right.” Harden sipped his beer as if I was just going on about school drama, like I usually do. We were in the bleachers, with a six-pack between us, and the whole Saturday night to kill.

“I mean it. If I had to, of course. Like, if a gang killed my parents when I wasn’t home, and then the popo just gave up on the case, and I had to become a vigilante.”

“What do you have against your parents, psycho?”

I punched his shoulder. “You’re not listening. I love them, so I would kill for them, get it? But I would be smart about it, like that girl from that movie, you know the one? She got raped and then she plotted revenge for years. Something like that.”

“Okay, this is enough for you,” he made a move to grab my bottle, but I snatched it away. “Two beers, and you’re wasted? You’re a cheap date, Izz.”

“I’m not wasted,” I said and demonstratively took another sip. “You’re just closed-minded. And this is not a date.”

I couldn’t see his face, but I heard him puff. We hardly ever talked about Brad, ever since Harden tried to convince me that a jock was not a good boyfriend material and we had a huge blow-out. Still, I could tell what he was thinking, even when he chose to swallow the words.

“I’d use poison,” I said.

“Jesus! On whom?”

“The gang members, silly. I’d be like Poison Ivy, seductive, but deadly. Charm them, then slip a potion into a wine glass, and boom!” I threw my arms to show the explosive effect my weapon of choice would have on the gastro-intestinal tract of wrong-doers.

“Those are some posh thugs,” Harden said. “I’ve never heard of gangstas passing around a bottle of fine Cabernet Sauvignon.”

“Okay, whiskey glass,” I conceded. “The point is, they wouldn’t know what hit them. I’d be in and out with an alibi. Natural causes, case closed.”

He leaned in and I could see his face in the dim light of the half-dead flood lights. I could not tell if he was mad at me or playing along. “Who are you?”

“I’m Isabella Maxwell,” I said, bulging my eyes back at him. “I may look average, but I sometimes have unaverage thoughts, so arrest me.”

“Unaverage is not a word.”

“Grammar Police.” I chugged the rest of my bottle and tossed it into the darkness of the van. “Gimme another.”

“Jesus, Isa, you know Mom will kill me.” He labored to get up and retrieve the bottle, and I took the opportunity to twist the cap off another one.

“Maybe you shouldn’t,” he said, settling back next to me.

“Maybe you should,” I said, handing him a fresh one.

We sipped in silence for a few moments.

“So you think I’m a weirdo?” I said finally.

“Yes,” he said and grabbed my sleeve, chuckling, as I pretended to flee. “I think you’re…special. In many ways. And yes, you have unaverage ideas, but that’s what I…like about you.”

“Thanks.” I punched his shoulder again, this time with more feeling.

We sipped and watched a bat glide silently overhead.

“I have them too.”

“Murderous thoughts?”

He laughed. “No. Unaverage ideas.”

“Like what?”

He hesitated. “No – they’re silly. You’ll think I’m an idiot.”

“But now you have to tell me!” I shook his arm. “Tell me!”

He took a swig. “Okay. Have you ever thought about why doors are always rectangular?”

I thought for a moment. “No. I can honestly say it has never crossed my mind.”

“It’s probably because they’re easier to make,” he said. “Somebody once made a rectangular door, and then everybody else copied it, not once stopping to think if that was the best design. I mean, have you ever met a rectangular human?”

Brad’s broad shoulders and massive frame flashed through my mind, but I honored the unspoken agreement with Harden. “No.”

“Me neither. But here we are, round pegs, pushing through life’s square holes.”

“I think it’s the other way around,” I said, hoping it wasn’t a prelude to another discussion of Harden’s round body, and how it was in the way of his dating and DJ-ing dreams.

“It’s just a metaphor,” he said. “But I’d like to one day build a house with only round doors. Well, not round, but oblong, for sure.”

“That would be cool,” I said, trying to imagine a house without hard edges. “I’d love that. I’m always running into the door corners. Make all the tables and beds oblong, while you’re at it.”

“Done,” he said and we shook on it.

I tried another swig of my beer, but it was getting warm and more than a little gross. I sneaked a look over at Harden, who seemed absorbed in his own thoughts, probably outside of the rectangle box. I thought of Brad, who was probably off his head just then. Maybe I was foolish to let him go on Spring Break without me, but he said it would make our relationship stronger.

“You’re on the list,” I said.

“What?” He snapped from whatever dusk-dream he was having. “What list?”

“The list of people I would avenge if they were murdered by thugs. It was only Mom, Dad, and Felicity, but now it’s you, too. You should be honored.”

I couldn’t see his face, but I heard him puff. “I am.”

I hoped he couldn’t tell what I was thinking.

 

And just like that, I’m an author of a series

Well, not quite yet – but as of today, Indiot (Isabella Maxwell’s Escapades Book 2) is available for pre-sale on Amazon. This was my plan, all along – to make it available well before the release day, which I have scheduled for 16 July, but for some reason I was in a state of analysis paralysis when it came to deciding when to upload and when to schedule the launch day.

You see, Amazon lets you upload a book for up to 90 days before the release, but if you miss the date, or don’t upload the final draft 10 days prior, you will be banned from pre-releasing anything else for a whole year.  Not only that, they want you to upload a “final draft for review”. You can read the full details in Kindle Preorder guide. They do say that the “final draft” may still need to undergo copy-editing, but it’s not clear what they would be checking or how raw of a draft it could be. At the same time, I see books on Kindle all the time that are slotted for release in six or more months – how is that possible?

Another reason I was not ready to upload was that I just could not figure out how to finish the draft cover. To remind you, this is what the mock-up looked like:

The main issue I had with the mock-up was the title, as usual. I liked the idea of the diamonds, because a certain diamond necklace is featured in the plot, but when I started working on the final version, the diamonds were competing with all the other embroidery and textures. So I set it aside. For about three months, until I finally had a breakthrough today. It’s a diamond necklace, duh!

Once I had the new design figured out, the adrenaline went through the roof – suddenly I was decisive and confident. In a matter of a couple of hours, I registered the ISBN, had the draft text formatted, and the cover and manuscript uploaded to KDP. I spent a few nail-biting hours worrying that KDP would come back with “You have a bazillion spelling mistakes” until I saw that Indiot was available on Kindle. It took another couple of hours for my Author page to be updated, and then an hour-long exhausted nap, as I collapsed in a wake of a realisation so enormous, I still have to pinch myself.

I’m an author of a series.

Okay, so it’s short, at two installments, but it finally gives me the marketing leverage I’ve craved for so long. I’ve already made Shizzle, Inc free on Kobo, so if you have a moment, could you please help me make it perma-free by telling Amazon to match the price? The “tell us about a lower price” link is under Shizzle, Inc ratings (you will also need the Kobo link above):

I even made a new banner for the blog, to finally make it look like a proper author page – what do you think? The next thing on my list is a similar banner for Twitter. I can almost taste the new marketing, starting with a whole wave of the new quotes. More ads, too –  and if you’ve read Shizzle, Inc but have not yet posted the review on Amazon, could you pretty-please do that? I’m at 37 reviews at the moment, but supposedly I have to be at 60 to get the attention of BookBub. I have some other crazy new ideas, which I will hatch in a separate post.

And finally, if you are waiting on the beta-version to read, I’m still tinkering with it[image error] But I will definitely email it on 1 May – thank you in advance for so generously donating your time!

This is all. One hell of a day, and the one thought that keeps going through my mind is – why was I so afraid to list it for pre-order in the first place? It was not hard.

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

A simple guide to overcoming 1-star review grief

I briefly mentioned in my last post that free giveaways are notorious for attracting random readers that just don’t get your novel. Also, you may or may not know that the average Goodreads rating for any given book is usually lower than that on Amazon. This may be due to a few reasons, one of them being that people can rate your book without ever reading it.

So it’s not that much of a surprise that someone posted a 1-star review of Shizzle, Inc on Goodreads today. Still, it was a kick in the balls that I don’t even have, to read words such as “heaving pile that’s hard to swallow”, “poorly developed characters and an equally poorly thought out plot”, and finally “I’m sure the author is planning an equally stomach-churning sequel.” Ouch, ouch, ouch.

Normally I think of myself as having thick skin, but the review derailed me, and after a pretty good day, too – I penned 1,300 words of that stomach-churning sequel and even had an idea for another Donald Trump video spoof. Suddenly, I didn’t feel funny at all. Felt like an idiot for taking time off work to do this, and a whole bunch of other very unhelpful thoughts. I had to reverse the nosedive before I crushed. I tried watching TV, but it was all bad news, as usual. I poured myself a glass, but it only made me feel closer to tears. Then I struck onto a brilliant idea, and it worked like a charm. I decided to put it down in writing for future reference, as alas, I’m sure I’ll have even more bad reviews on my path to developing Isa into a bestselling sensation. I hope it may help you, too.

Life is all about perspective, isn’t it? I was actually pondering that just a couple of days ago, as I wrote this sentence in Indiot’s draft:

Everything is relative, and everyone is familiar with that concept – it’s the one that causes your ass to appear either huge or toned, depending on whether you’re in a yoga class or Burger King waiting line.

So for a bit of a reality check, I decided to peruse Goodreads reviews of some of the world-famous books that are known as epic bestsellers. Below are some stats on those books, complete with juicy quotes lifted from 1-star reviews:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Harry Potter #1) by J.K. Rowling. Number of 1-star ratings: 59,343. Most striking quote: “Awful in every way.”
The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings #1) Number of 1-star ratings: 33,017. Most striking quote: “Tolkien can’t write. He can’t build character. He can’t advance a plotline.”
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia #1) by C.S. Lewis. Number of 1-star ratings: 15,800. Most striking quote: “Well,all right.I have to say that this book is terrible…In fact I haven’t read this book before but I’ve heard from other people that this book had ruined their childhood… :(“
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Number of 1-star ratings: 96,578. Most striking quote: “If I could give this book a zero, I would. I absolutely hated it.”
The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon #2) by Dan Brown. Number of 1-star ratings: 68,541. Most striking quote: “Whoever edited this drivel ought to be sewn in a sack with a rabid raccoon and flung into Lake Michigan.”
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium Trilogy #1) by Stieg Larsson. Number of 1-star ratings: 47,572. Most striking quote: “This is a book so bad that it doesn’t deserve a review.”
1984 by George Orwell. Number of 1-star ratings: 35,943. Most striking quote: “Not really for me. Where’s the action, where’s the romance?”

I was going to do ten of these, but I feel a whole lot better now and would rather return to writing that sequel. I have a lot of work to do before I can earn tens of thousands of 1-star reviews.

Hope you’re feeling a whole lot better too.

Who wants to beta-read Indiot?

Hi, there, everyone. Whew, what a rollercoaster few days I’ve had! The free giveaway on Kindle is over, with 3,974 copies given away. It’s only been a few days, so it’s too early to give you a full report, but I got my first new review just two days into the giveaway, and boy, what a gem it was!

This is a huge relief, as free giveaways are apparently notorious for attracting bad reviews – people grab freebies without regard to genre, read them, don’t “get them”, and feel disappointed enough to complain. I hope more will come in the next couple of weeks as I have actually seen a huge spike in KENP – more than 2,500 pages read over the last four days. If it was anyone reading this, could you please post a review on Amazon? Apparently I need to get to about 60 to attract BookBub’s attention, and I’m now at 33.

I have no explanation for this KENP spike, by the way. I have contacted Amazon and they have confirmed that during free days people with KU get my book outright – so why such an influx? Sadly, I shall never know, as I have now taken Shizzle, Inc off Kindle Select – I plan to make it permafree in about a month, to celebrate the preorder launch of Indiot.

Speaking of which, I would like to get about 3-5 beta readers for Indiot, is anyone interested? This would be different from an Advanced Review Copy – if you’ve registered for my Permanent ARC list (see the floating banner to the right), you will automatically get a copy. This is more about helping me work through the current draft. I myself have never been a beta reader, and I have not done that with Shizzle, Inc, but I’ve given some thought to who I’d like to help me:

Beta readers get to read and privately review a book before it is copyedited. This could be exciting, or disappointing, depending on how you look at it. You will not have a chance to be surprised at reading the finished book. (By the way, each beta reader will get an autographed paper copy as a thank you, when it’s released in July.)
You generally like humor and chicklit, and you’ve read Shizzle, Inc and liked it enough. If you didn’t “get” it, you will probably be disappointed with Indiot. Not only the storyline relies on the knowledge of the previous events, it is similarly unrealistic and off the wall. That’s just what I do…
You will have time to read about 70,000 words in the first two weeks of May. Sorry for the tight timeline, but I’m only looking for a high-level review, there would be no need to do copyediting – I will hire a professional editor to do that.
You would be willing to critique my work in a constructive way – “this is shit” and “this is perfect” would be equally unhelpful. I’m looking for things like “this did not make sense” and “why did she do X when she said Y just before?” and maybe “you should develop the scene Z more.”
I would give preference to Americans. Sorry! It will depend on how many people express interest, but I might have to make this call, as the novel is set in the US and I need all the help I can get, being a Russian-Down-Under. By the way, comments such as “Americans would say bla-bla instead of blah-di-blah” would be very welcome.
Sorry for the #5. On the more inclusive side, any gender or age is welcome. I’m still blown away by how many guys have left reviews on Amazon – could this be the beginnings of dudelit?

This is all I could think of – if you have any questions or suggestions, please ask away! If you want to beta-read Indiot, please email me on ana.spoke (AT) yahoo.com.

Thank you in advance!

 

Give it away, give it away, give it away NOW!

How you guys doin’? I’m flying high – not only cause life on [read: near] the beach is sweet, but because my latest promo is doing even better than I expected. In my last post, I bemoaned the lack of sales, which was all my fault, anyway. All writing and no marketing makes Ana a poor-selling author. I didn’t moan for very long, though, before I decided to do something about it, namely stage a massive, promoted free giveaway.

The last time I made Shizzle, Inc (Isa Maxwell escapades Book 1) free was in September, about two weeks after it was released. I didn’t advertise it, other than on the blog and Twitter, as it was intended to be just a thanks to my followers. With no sequel in sight, giving it away made no sense. Over the two days, about 150 people downloaded it.

This time around, the sequel is so close, I can smell it. Okay, so it still smells a bit raw, but at half-edited 63K words, I’m very close to the finish line. In fact, the plan is to pre-release it in just about a week! So I’m now ready to do what a bunch of authors have done before me – give away the first book in the series for free. I will make it permafree as soon as Indiot is available, but for now, I tried a KDP 5-day free giveaway.

I didn’t know what to expect, so I made an arbitrary goal of giving away 3,000 books over the whole period and sneaking my way into top 100 Free in Kindle store. I advertised it as follows:

11 April: Reading Deals – $15.

12 April: Kindle Nation Daily – $99.

13 April: eBookasaurus – free; Manybooks – $25; AskDavid – free.

14 April: AskDavid – free (they tweet multiple times).

15 April: none.

So what did I get for my investment of $139?

Well, it’s not even finished yet, but I’ve already given away 3,100 copies!

Of course, a lot of people just stuff their Kindles with freebies, so I’m gonna assume that most of these copies will never be read. Of those that will, some will probably not get it and hate it – that’s just the risk I have to take. But then! There will be others, who will get hooked on Isa’s escapades and will buy the next installment at the full price of, say, $2.99. If it’s 10% of the above, I would make my money back, and then some. Will it work? I will let you know, of course…

And how about the rankings? I have a new addiction, a tracker tool supplied for free by Kindle Nation Daily:

You can see that Shizzle, Inc (Isa Maxwell escapades Book 1) has come close, oh so close, but those thousands of free books were not enough. After this experiment and a lot of stalking of my competition, I am convinced that the only way to get onto the first page of Free Kindle Store is with BookBub. Trouble is, apparently everybody already knows that – the competition for promos with BookBub is fierce. So far I’ve applied twice and was rejected as many times, but from reading other people’s blogs, it seems that the ratio of applications to successful placements is close to 10:1. Those same people have reported anywhere between 20-100 THOUSAND giveaway copies as a result, so I just need to buckle up and keep trying. In the meantime, I’m thinking of printing this for my inspiration board:

I know that some of you are against giving your work away for free, and I completely understand why – common sense tells me not to give away something that cost me $3,000 and two years to make. But I slap it back down because the big picture demands that I do just that. Time will tell if it will pay off.

Hey, Ana Spoke from September 2016, what do you think? Have I made the right choice?