K. R. Hill's Blog, page 6
December 1, 2015
... it's right where they want him.
This is an action tale set in the village where I lived for a couple of years. Of course everything has changed since I was there. Gone is the tin roof market where every dog in town would stand slobbering on the burning hot sidewalk, staring at the butcher as he carved up a side of beef twice a month, winking at any woman who happened to be waiting. Gone too is the palapa of jungle poles that housed pool tables shipped from Mexico city, where the owner had been a pool hustler. He used to walk among the tables, shoving wads of paper under a table leg here and there to keep the tables from wobbling, and say, as he chalked up his precious cue, "Now I'm going to give you a lesson," as he cleared the table. It was a time of innocence, when couples strolled with toddlers around the square in the evening, and if you wanted fresh fish for dinner, you just looked through a beach facing window, to see if the frigate birds still glided high above the surf. For, if they did, that meant the fishermen had not returned yet with the days catch. And if a party lasted into the wee hours and you ran out of booze, no problem. You just drove to Francisco's house, and he opened the back door of the Licoreria, passed out enough libations to keep the festivities going until morning.
Discription: Forced to flee the men stalking him, a cop named Cody Brannon moves to a Caribbean beach town and tries to escape a violent past by rekindling a dream and opening a food cart. But ritual murders push him to investigate the theft of a Mayan artifact, said to possess supernatural powers, stolen decades ago.
November 20, 2015
BOOK PROMO UPDATE
The second phase of the promos produced some nice results that I would like to tell those interested about.Goodreads giveaway: I set my giveaway of hard copies to take 1 month. For the first three weeks the results about put me to sleep and the lack of interest made me feel something was wrong with my book, the cover, the title. I panicked. But then the element of suspense entered the equation. As time began to run out, members registered in droves! The numbers increased by about 100 per day. By the time it ended, I had 604 people wanting a copy.
What I learned was to hold the contest for a shorter length of time, one week perhaps, and not to give away so many books. I gave away ten copies through CreateSpace, and their postage is expensive. The giveaway cost me just over $80, but I consider it a fantastic success. My book was on the mind of over 600 people! It will be recognized the next time they see it. Right now I am not concerned with earning back my promotional costs. My objective is to get the book out there. Hopefully, with about 100 books in the hands of readers, the writing, the story, will grow by word of mouth. I shall see.
eReader News Today: On November 19 I ran a promo on this site. I tried three times to get my book listed, and the first two times they declined to let it aboard. I'm glad I persisted. I had been told by other authors that this site produced, and it did. I paid $30, dropped the price of my book to $0.99 on Kindle, and away the sales went. This site produced the most sales, but Bargain Booksy was not far behind, and with the latter I kept my price at $1.99.
Amazon pay per click ad: With the Xmas season here I wanted to haul out all the guns, so to speak. So, I paid Amazon $100 to run an ad the month of December. I opted to have my cover placed on the screen of kindles world wide, but was turned down because my cover displayed a gun in the hand of one of the people. Okay. (I'm considering running the cover through fiverr.com and having them delete the gun).It begins the first of December and I will post the outcome.
Indie Book Promos: I have a two month ad coming out with them to coincide with the Amazon promo. This is a British site, so I have been polishing up my author bio for the Amazon UK site. I am curious to see what is going to happen. They sent me a long list of questions for the promo. Here, however, I've decided to part from the norm. I am competing for readers against a million authors who lived the American dream, school, university, work, family, mortgage.
Abandoned house, YucatanBut that is not me: I lived an unconventional life. I traveled with a back 
My bar, Israelpack for ten years around Europe and Africa. That changes a person. I've harvested apples in Switzerland and hay in Denmark, slept on train station floors, hitch hiked with the trucks from Barcelona to Copenhagen, and lived without a key for years. That, I believe, is my strength. My life has given me a unique perspective. In my bio I will highlight my difference.
November 11, 2015
FREE BOOK FOR OBJECTIVE REVIEW
Free ebook!
I need reviews for my new suspense novel, Touching Spirits. If you will post an objective review, only a line or two if you like, on Amazon, I will send you a free ebook. I will 'gift' it to you through Amazon, so you must have an account set up with Amazon.
Please be a reader who enjoys at least a novel or two a month, and like adult fiction--not erotica--and suspense.
Please leave your email in a comment, or simply shoot me a note at z14ukevin@gmail.com. After I send your copy I'll delete your email. I won't spam you or pass your address to anyone. I'll gift the first 10 people who respond. Kevin R. Hill
I need reviews for my new suspense novel, Touching Spirits. If you will post an objective review, only a line or two if you like, on Amazon, I will send you a free ebook. I will 'gift' it to you through Amazon, so you must have an account set up with Amazon.Please be a reader who enjoys at least a novel or two a month, and like adult fiction--not erotica--and suspense.
Please leave your email in a comment, or simply shoot me a note at z14ukevin@gmail.com. After I send your copy I'll delete your email. I won't spam you or pass your address to anyone. I'll gift the first 10 people who respond. Kevin R. Hill
October 31, 2015
Escape From Mexico (Short Story)
ESCAPE FROM MEXICO
Kevin R. Hill
When you live in Mexico you soon become aware there are a lot of Americans hiding there. So you learn not to ask too many questions, who not to visit, and who not to let visit you. But in such a tiny village I would get hungry for a social life and seek the company of any new person in town. I remember there was one guy who called himself ‘Lucky.’ One morning his big white trimaran was anchored in front of town. Lucky’s grandfather had died in Norway and he had inherited a fortune. Soon after notice of the inheritance arrived, he received a letter from the Norwegian government notifying him that he owned 110% of the money in taxes. So good old Lucky decided the timing was right to take his money and see a bit of the world.
And if I’m talking about sailors, I have to tell you about Phillip. He’s a legend among the gringos of Puerto, the John Wayne of the ocean. When he sailed into town his two crew members did not even tie the mooring lines before they jumped onto the dock and kissed the planks. Forty-foot seas had made them religious, and seeing mountainous black waves surrounding them was not something they ever wanted to experience again. But you had to like Phil. He had this laid-back, Cajun way of seeing the funny side of everything. It made you like him. He was bigger than life with his stories of being boarded in Cuba, or of sailing up Rio Dulce in Guatemala, monkeys swinging through the jungle trees. Sometimes, after a couple of shots he’d slap the bar, and with that ‘coon-ass accent, he’d say, “steel is real,” referring to his boat’s hull. Right away he loved Puerto and started running snorkeling tours with his dingy. We’d take tourists out to the reef and I’d guide them around the coral, point out lobster and barracuda and such, and everyone was happy. Soon he was part of our lives, a member of the Gringo community in Puerto. I’d see him at my truck stop restaurant by the port, where no other gringo ever went, and in the tortillaria, buying fresh, warm tortillas. It was like he had always been there. He stayed in Puerto so long that the Port Captain invited him to tie up on the dock. For a boat owner that was a huge deal. If you’re anchored on a sandy bottom, like he was, you are constantly afraid a wind might blow the boat and drag your anchor. You were constantly jumping up from sleep at the slightest noise, afraid you might drift ashore. So Phillip took the Port Captain up on his offer. But let me be clear: The Port Captain offered the pier to tie up to, but a mordita (little bite, or bribe) was expected to pass from Phil’s wallet to the Port Captain’s pocket once a month. And everything went fine for some months, until the tourists stopped showing up for snorkeling trips. Then Phil got behind on payments.
I remember one time we were taking his boat out with a couple of young women, and had just raised the main sail when we heard someone shouting through a bullhorn. I thought the entire Mexican navy was coming after us. There behind the boat came a speed boat with a couple of soldiers and a port official. Phillip was told to turn around and that he could not leave until his business with the Port Captain was finished. Nothing pisses off a sailor like taking away his right to sail. Freedom is his high, his rush, his identity. But we came about and headed back. From that day on Phil plotted his escape. He couldn’t afford to pay off the debt. The Port Captain even came to his boat one night and told him how he needed money. “I have a wife and two children in school, and a mistress. You have a fine boat, and I would hate to confiscate it because you don’t have your … papers in order.” Yep, the Port Captain had him by the short-and-curlies. He had to find a way out of Puerto, but the reef kept him fenced in with the only channel into the open ocean right in front of the Port Captain’s office. There was another channel, the fisherman’s channel, but it was only about ten feet wide, and maybe the same depth at high tide. Phillip’s keel drew eight feet alone. But he was a Cajun, and a little thing like shredding his boat on the reef was not going to bother him. “Steel is real!” He would rather risk losing his boat than pay the fat Port Captain another peso. We met at 4 am. I came up beside his boat in an open launch. Phil stood on deck unwrapping the main sail. I grabbed onto to the deck and peered up at him.
“Listen, you have to stay exactly behind me or you’ll hit coral. Exactly! You got it?” “I’m right on your ass, bro'.” “When you see me throw up my arms, pop the main and don’t look back.”
I crept along inside the reef in the darkness and searched for the little channel to freedom. Our engines sounded so lonesome just idling along like that in the night. When I turned toward the open ocean I could see the water white and foamy around the coral on either side. The swirling current pushed my little boat from side to side, and I had to fight the tiller to keep her on course and not be town apart on a coral head. Fifty yards past the reef I threw up my arms, holding the tiller between my knees, and laughed when I saw that sail fill up, that deep water boat lurching into the wind as it glided past like an athlete born to run, surging with power, fetching the next port, shaking the dust from her sail and not looking back. I’ll always remember that look on his face, a sailor free again, one with the ocean and limitless possibilities, that smile filling his whole face as he bowed hat in hand, and was gone into the rising sun.
Kevin R. Hill
When you live in Mexico you soon become aware there are a lot of Americans hiding there. So you learn not to ask too many questions, who not to visit, and who not to let visit you. But in such a tiny village I would get hungry for a social life and seek the company of any new person in town. I remember there was one guy who called himself ‘Lucky.’ One morning his big white trimaran was anchored in front of town. Lucky’s grandfather had died in Norway and he had inherited a fortune. Soon after notice of the inheritance arrived, he received a letter from the Norwegian government notifying him that he owned 110% of the money in taxes. So good old Lucky decided the timing was right to take his money and see a bit of the world.
And if I’m talking about sailors, I have to tell you about Phillip. He’s a legend among the gringos of Puerto, the John Wayne of the ocean. When he sailed into town his two crew members did not even tie the mooring lines before they jumped onto the dock and kissed the planks. Forty-foot seas had made them religious, and seeing mountainous black waves surrounding them was not something they ever wanted to experience again. But you had to like Phil. He had this laid-back, Cajun way of seeing the funny side of everything. It made you like him. He was bigger than life with his stories of being boarded in Cuba, or of sailing up Rio Dulce in Guatemala, monkeys swinging through the jungle trees. Sometimes, after a couple of shots he’d slap the bar, and with that ‘coon-ass accent, he’d say, “steel is real,” referring to his boat’s hull. Right away he loved Puerto and started running snorkeling tours with his dingy. We’d take tourists out to the reef and I’d guide them around the coral, point out lobster and barracuda and such, and everyone was happy. Soon he was part of our lives, a member of the Gringo community in Puerto. I’d see him at my truck stop restaurant by the port, where no other gringo ever went, and in the tortillaria, buying fresh, warm tortillas. It was like he had always been there. He stayed in Puerto so long that the Port Captain invited him to tie up on the dock. For a boat owner that was a huge deal. If you’re anchored on a sandy bottom, like he was, you are constantly afraid a wind might blow the boat and drag your anchor. You were constantly jumping up from sleep at the slightest noise, afraid you might drift ashore. So Phillip took the Port Captain up on his offer. But let me be clear: The Port Captain offered the pier to tie up to, but a mordita (little bite, or bribe) was expected to pass from Phil’s wallet to the Port Captain’s pocket once a month. And everything went fine for some months, until the tourists stopped showing up for snorkeling trips. Then Phil got behind on payments.
I remember one time we were taking his boat out with a couple of young women, and had just raised the main sail when we heard someone shouting through a bullhorn. I thought the entire Mexican navy was coming after us. There behind the boat came a speed boat with a couple of soldiers and a port official. Phillip was told to turn around and that he could not leave until his business with the Port Captain was finished. Nothing pisses off a sailor like taking away his right to sail. Freedom is his high, his rush, his identity. But we came about and headed back. From that day on Phil plotted his escape. He couldn’t afford to pay off the debt. The Port Captain even came to his boat one night and told him how he needed money. “I have a wife and two children in school, and a mistress. You have a fine boat, and I would hate to confiscate it because you don’t have your … papers in order.” Yep, the Port Captain had him by the short-and-curlies. He had to find a way out of Puerto, but the reef kept him fenced in with the only channel into the open ocean right in front of the Port Captain’s office. There was another channel, the fisherman’s channel, but it was only about ten feet wide, and maybe the same depth at high tide. Phillip’s keel drew eight feet alone. But he was a Cajun, and a little thing like shredding his boat on the reef was not going to bother him. “Steel is real!” He would rather risk losing his boat than pay the fat Port Captain another peso. We met at 4 am. I came up beside his boat in an open launch. Phil stood on deck unwrapping the main sail. I grabbed onto to the deck and peered up at him. “Listen, you have to stay exactly behind me or you’ll hit coral. Exactly! You got it?” “I’m right on your ass, bro'.” “When you see me throw up my arms, pop the main and don’t look back.”
I crept along inside the reef in the darkness and searched for the little channel to freedom. Our engines sounded so lonesome just idling along like that in the night. When I turned toward the open ocean I could see the water white and foamy around the coral on either side. The swirling current pushed my little boat from side to side, and I had to fight the tiller to keep her on course and not be town apart on a coral head. Fifty yards past the reef I threw up my arms, holding the tiller between my knees, and laughed when I saw that sail fill up, that deep water boat lurching into the wind as it glided past like an athlete born to run, surging with power, fetching the next port, shaking the dust from her sail and not looking back. I’ll always remember that look on his face, a sailor free again, one with the ocean and limitless possibilities, that smile filling his whole face as he bowed hat in hand, and was gone into the rising sun.
Caribbean House
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CARIBBEAN TIME: I spent an amazing time in an abandoned house on the Caribbean, on the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico. It was a fabulous experience among the Maya, and I daily spear fished on the Palancar reef, shooting lobster and snapper, while typing out my first novel on a little manual typewriter. I have drawn heavily on that time for my new novel, which, of itself, is a personal journey to find love.At night I listened to the Caribbean surging onto the sand. A breeze usually arrived in the early morning, when the heat of the day had finally surrendered, and a slight coolness filled the old house. The breeze danced with the mosquito net around my hammock and made everything look hazy, as though I was floating in a cloud.
Each morning I awoke singing, a dream song spilling into the day. When I climbed from the hammock there was no rush to find warm clothes. I stood there in my underwear, smiling at the tropical light filling my house with a warm candle like glow, listening to tropical birds, papaya leaves scraping the mosquito netting over the kitchen window, trade winds warm on my chest, feeling free and alive and content, a man with so little, living in an abandoned house; but rich with love and life. At my drift wood table, barnacles stuck to a leg, I took a piece of bread, lifted the coca-cola bottle filled with raw jungle honey, a piece of corncob stuffed into the opening, and tapped it on the table. The ants surrounding the cob ran down the bottle and I pulled the stopper and poured honey.
After breakfast I opened the front door so Slinky, my feral cat friend, could visit and search for food. She didn’t enter like a house cat with a meow. She was all business, sneaking in low to the ground, cunning, hunting. And while she hunted lizards, I sat at my manual typewriter and traveled in my mind to Germany, my experiences there having sifted through the filters of time. How strange it was to sit in cut offs, spraying mosquitoes at my ankles with Bug and Tar Remover, while writing about a highly organized society on the other side of the world. Every time I walked into town, I could not be certain I would end up there, so full of possibility was each day. Maybe a friend would drive by with the jeep loaded for a cenote trip, or crazy Mike would need help building a fish-smoker in the jungle, or a lost tourist gringa would pull up needing directions, and I’d be pulled into the Caribbean flow of life again. A simple trip to the store might end with Mike, being eaten by mosquitoes in the jungle while shoveling concrete, or jumping through the ceiling of a hidden, egg-shaped cenote, bursting to the surface of water untouched for a hundred years, feeling so alive that energy and joy poured from me with the water as I climbed into the sun. When I finished writing each day, and the house was too hot to stay in, I brushed sand from my feet, tapped my sandals on the floor to make sure no scorpion was hiding in there, and slipped them on. With a few pesos stuffed into my salty cut-offs, I carried my 20 liter plastic container to the tap on the street, filled it and struggled up the path, feet sinking in the warm sand. Back in the house I set it in the sun for a warm afternoon shower. It was not until I returned to California did I understand how much my time beside the Caribbean had changed me. One day I was speaking to a Mexican man about his country. As he told stories of his village, an odd look came over his face, as though he were watching a beloved child drive away for the summer. “You know,” he said, staring into memory. “The days are longer in Mexico.”
“Yes, and more full of life."
More Dud sites.
Every Writer's Resource ($10), Free Books Daily ($3.00), Good Kindles ($20), all together directed absolute minimal traffic to my free day on Kindle. I feel they were a waste of money.
I also have a $30 listing on Digital Books Today that began yesterday and has produced zero sales. My book is buried so far back in their pages of listing that even I got tired looking for it. With the sites that have produced I saw immediate results the moment the listings went live, so I expect next to nothing from this site, although the ad will run for two weeks.
I also have a $30 listing on Digital Books Today that began yesterday and has produced zero sales. My book is buried so far back in their pages of listing that even I got tired looking for it. With the sites that have produced I saw immediate results the moment the listings went live, so I expect next to nothing from this site, although the ad will run for two weeks.
October 27, 2015
Ebook Ads Update
To date I've paid $150 for ads that have run with Kboards (2 ads @ $15 and $50), awesomegang ($10), Bargain Booksy ($50), and Free Kindle Books and Tips. Of those the last two only produced sales.Sales are low but I'm not thinking about money or ROI. It is my belief that once I get out about 100 books that will serve as a foundation, a core of readers who will begin to promote the book via word of mouth, the greatest form of advertising on the planet. I shall see if my belief proves out.
Goodreads: I should mention goodreads in with the mix too. On October 14 my pay per click ad with them began. At the beginning I thought this ad a waste of time. I got hundreds (now over 3k) views without a single click!
But slowly my belief about the ad changed. I noticed that members were adding my book to their 'to read' list (now 52). Since I am simultaneously running a free book giveaway, which cost me nothing other than the cost of the book and postage, I've noticed that over 120 have signed up for a chance to win a free copy. It is movement. The ice is melting.
How I've come to view my ad on goodreads is this: I paid $50 to have the ad placed. Over 3k readers have seen it and not a penny has been taken from the $50 fee. At this rate the $50 will give me an ad on goodreads, the site with the most traffic, for life! As members begin to read my work others will see their reviews, and what they are reading. Again, the writing, the book, must sell itself.
Bottom line: An ad on goodreads is a long term investment.
Next? The second wave of ads. On October 29 my book, Touching Spirits, will be free on Amazon
New detail added to cover--the hand!KDP for one day. I have seen the power of this promotion. A few years ago one of my books was offered and 10k copies were given away in one weekend! I want to maximize the promo by getting the book listed on sites where readers are looking for free and bargain books. I chose Thursday for the give-away because that is not a prime sales day as is Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Build-up: To direct traffic to the book I listed it at Every Writer's Resource for $10 . After shaving my book description down to 1-3 sentences for other sites, this one wanted not less than 300 words. It should begin Wednesday.
On that fateful Wednesday begins another promo with Digital Books Today for $30. What is nice is that this ad/promo runs for two weeks!
Was I content to stop there? you ask. Not quite. The following day, when the free book promo kicks in, Thursday, October 29th, I have scheduled two more promos!
The first is with Free Books Daily for $3.00. How could I pass it up with such a low cost?
The final promo/ad in the month of October, also kicking off on free-for-all Thursday the 29th of October, is with Good Kindles for $20. This site also asked for about 300 words of book description, as well as a lengthy bio. I believe this ad will run for a month, and during that time I can once request that my title be moved to the top of the list.
That leaves the month of November without promos after the 10th. I'm hoping that by then the effects
of the free promo on KDP will result in rising sales and carry through this month until my promos in UK kick in. (Should I mention in my Amazon UK author bio that I was deported from Heathrow airport?) Anyway, 'having done all' I rest.October 20, 2015
KEEP WRITING! APPLY BUTT GLUE
So, I worked on a novel for three years. Once it was published I was swept up in the advertising, and now I feel lost without a project to occupy my time. I tried to jump into a children's fantasy book I have been working on, but I couldn't shift from the tone, setting and characters of my novel to imaginary sea creatures.
What am I going to do? It is time to retreat to non fiction, without all the concerns of fiction. Yes, it is time to write another automotive how-to. For me they serve as a great transitional device. With nonfiction I let the oil that lubricates the gears of fiction (plot, conflict, pacing, tone, character development) cool and slowly thicken to its normal consistency, so that it is, once more, ready to begin another project in the realm of the imagination.I use automotive projects as diversions in my daily routine of writing. That is, when I'm into the creative part, writing for three hours a day with a first draft, I love to go to the garage and rebuild a carburetor or something else on a car. It is simple. I follow a plan in a book. And by following a clear procedure my thoughts flow freely, and during that time, when no need or pressure is applied to the creative process, no need-to-know stress, that the answers to the fiction problems just roll out and I have to wipe the oil from my hands and search for a pen to record the solution that just made itself known.
The most important thing, for me, on a professional level, is to keep writing. And writing the
nonfiction is a trick I use to keep going.
October 18, 2015
Ebook Promo Update
So far I have been promoting on Kindle and ebook sites for just over two weeks. I have spent $200 and how gathered a good understanding of which sites paid off and which did not.
Sites that worked:
1. Bargain Booksy. I paid $50 for a nice ad. They did a nice write up too. The moment it went live I saw a boost in sales.
2. The other ad that produced was on Free Kindle Books and Tips. I am writing this at 11:39 am, Pacific time, and this ad has already produced sales equal to Bargain Booksy. Also, this ad cost 50% what I paid at Bargain Booksy!
The dud sites:
1. I placed two ads with Kboards. One was in their 'new and overlooked books' blog, for $15. The other ad cost $50. The two ads produced 3 sales.
In all due fairness, I suspect this site is one the author needs to daily build a presence, a following.
2. The awesomegang. Yes, I only paid $10, but this 'ad' ran the same day of the $50 Kboards ad, and so maybe it helped with those 3 sales.
3. This next one is confusing. Because of the massive amount of traffic on goodreads I bought an ad. I paid $50 and they showed me all the mega data about traffic and sales, etc. But I should have done more research. All the blogs I have since read stated what I have since learned: The goodreads ads are like those on Amazon: you pay per click, and you get no clicks.
In advance I forked out $50. My ad has since been seen by 1700+ readers without one click! But ... my ad has been seen by 1700+ readers. It took me quite a while to grasp this. It is exposure. The rate I am going that ad will remain there into the next century.
Also, I have noticed that 47 site members have added my book to their 'to read' lists. The ice is melting. So make up your own mind on this. For me, I am not happy, but rather accepting that I am slowly flirting with the readers, like the good looking woman I daily see in starbucks. It is not a the approach used in a Friday night club after a few drinks like the other ads, delivered to readers looking to score. I am cultivating my readers--I hope.
One other thing: I arranged for a free book giveaway on goodreads. It is free, other than the hardcopies and postage I will pay for to those who win. Goodreads takes care of the whole thing, but I set up the duration (1 month), and the number of free hard copies (10). What has happened? The giveaway began on October 14, and I have had 115 members of that site register. My name, my book, has come to the attention of 115 members, plus the 47 other members who added the book to their to read lists.
At this point I'm not thinking about ROI. I am just trying to get the book in the hands of readers. I know that if I can get 100 people to read it it will build a following, an increase in sales though word of mouth. I know it.
My next step? I am going to use the extremely good info on Digital Book Today and World Literary Cafe, and use it to orchestrate a KDP book giveaway, in conjunction with several ebook site ads, layering, as they call it, to maximize sales. I shall report on it. kevin.
Sites that worked:
1. Bargain Booksy. I paid $50 for a nice ad. They did a nice write up too. The moment it went live I saw a boost in sales.
2. The other ad that produced was on Free Kindle Books and Tips. I am writing this at 11:39 am, Pacific time, and this ad has already produced sales equal to Bargain Booksy. Also, this ad cost 50% what I paid at Bargain Booksy!
The dud sites:
1. I placed two ads with Kboards. One was in their 'new and overlooked books' blog, for $15. The other ad cost $50. The two ads produced 3 sales.
In all due fairness, I suspect this site is one the author needs to daily build a presence, a following.
2. The awesomegang. Yes, I only paid $10, but this 'ad' ran the same day of the $50 Kboards ad, and so maybe it helped with those 3 sales.
3. This next one is confusing. Because of the massive amount of traffic on goodreads I bought an ad. I paid $50 and they showed me all the mega data about traffic and sales, etc. But I should have done more research. All the blogs I have since read stated what I have since learned: The goodreads ads are like those on Amazon: you pay per click, and you get no clicks.
In advance I forked out $50. My ad has since been seen by 1700+ readers without one click! But ... my ad has been seen by 1700+ readers. It took me quite a while to grasp this. It is exposure. The rate I am going that ad will remain there into the next century.
Also, I have noticed that 47 site members have added my book to their 'to read' lists. The ice is melting. So make up your own mind on this. For me, I am not happy, but rather accepting that I am slowly flirting with the readers, like the good looking woman I daily see in starbucks. It is not a the approach used in a Friday night club after a few drinks like the other ads, delivered to readers looking to score. I am cultivating my readers--I hope.
One other thing: I arranged for a free book giveaway on goodreads. It is free, other than the hardcopies and postage I will pay for to those who win. Goodreads takes care of the whole thing, but I set up the duration (1 month), and the number of free hard copies (10). What has happened? The giveaway began on October 14, and I have had 115 members of that site register. My name, my book, has come to the attention of 115 members, plus the 47 other members who added the book to their to read lists.
At this point I'm not thinking about ROI. I am just trying to get the book in the hands of readers. I know that if I can get 100 people to read it it will build a following, an increase in sales though word of mouth. I know it.
My next step? I am going to use the extremely good info on Digital Book Today and World Literary Cafe, and use it to orchestrate a KDP book giveaway, in conjunction with several ebook site ads, layering, as they call it, to maximize sales. I shall report on it. kevin.
October 14, 2015
Expand your Titles List--Easily!
Okay, I confess. I have an automotive habit. I love to tinker. It helps me unwind after hours in the writing realm. I own a 1975 Ford truck that is possessed, and it keeps me quite busy. For a short while I wrote some articles for national car mag.Between fiction projects I decided to write a short non fiction book. And you can do the same about something you know and love. It took me about two weeks to write and organize the photos I had. I had it formatted on fiverr for $30 (for info on how to deal with fiverr, and what to expect, and how to avoid hassles, see my blog post on the subject), and now I'm selling ecopies on Amazon and hard copies alike. No, it doesn't sell like gangbusters. It is a small niche market, for a carburetor that was last made in 1979. But it has become my 'little train that could.' It just keeps trucking.
Every month I make about $20 from royalties. It sold a copy in France too. For me it was an easy way to build up my title list, and I have others planned.
Pick a subject you know a lot about, and plan a small non fiction book.
