Peter R. Stone's Blog, page 3
June 19, 2015
February 27, 2015
How to Run a 99cent Kindle Countdown Deal Sale
If you enroll your book in KDP Select (Kindle Direct Publishing Select) you can enroll your book in two types of promotions. You can run either a Free Book Promotion or a Kindle Countdown Deal. To my understanding, you are permitted to enroll a book for 7 days per three month period, into either or both of these promotions.
Kindle Free Book Promotions
A quick word about running a Free Book Promotion. Unless your book is the first of a series and you have already published one or more sequels to the book, don't waste your time.
The first time I ran Forager Book One in a Free Book Promotion, I saw 800 copies downloaded, and zero follow-on sales. However, once I had published Infiltrator, Forager Book 2, I put Forager for free on B&N, iTunes, Kobobooks, Free-Ebooks and Smashwords, and Amazon soon followed suit by price matching the book to zero. Since then, I have promoted Forager Book One on numerous free and paid advertising websites, and have seen consistent follow-on sales of both Infiltrator, Forager Book 2 and Expatriate, Forager Book 3. In conclusion, the best way to sell the first book you write is to write a sequel, and then promote the first book on its free days or price-matching free days, which will then sell the sequels.
Kindle Countdown Deal Promotions
Websites The Complete Forager Trilogy was submitted to during its 99c Kindle Countdown Deal.
Once I had completed all three titles in the Forager Trilogy, I combined the three titles together to form The Complete Forager Trilogy. I decided to enroll The Complete Forager Trilogy in a 99cents Kindle Countdown Deal. I was treating my book as a 'new release,' and the prices listed below are what I believe I paid at the time. Note that prices are subject to change, and vary according to the book's genre and promotional package ordered.
Digital Book Today $30.00
Readcheaply Free
Bargain Booksy $35
eBook Lister $10.00
eReader News Today $15
Korner Konnection Free
Flurries of Words Blogspot $5.00
People Reads $8.99
The Fussy Librarian $14.00
This is a snapshot of The Complete Forager Trilogy's ranking on Amazon's Best Sellers Rank list just after it had hit its highest point (it had got up to 2,450) durinng the Kindle Countdown Deal week. I sold over 230 copies of the book. Unfortunately, I do not know which of the listed websites brought in the greatest numbers of sales, apart from eReader News Today, which brought in 89 downloads in one day.More Comprehensive List of Sites to Submit a 99cents Kindle Countdown Deal
Here is a more comprehensive list of websites to which you can submit your ebooks to during a 99cent Kindle Countdown Deal. Note that prices are subject to change, and vary according to the book's genre and promotional package ordered.
Addicted to eBooks free but queue
Ask David $15?
Author Marketing Club $49 for a day
Awesome Gang $10
bargainbooksy.com $35
Bargain eBook Hunter $15
Best eBooks Free free
Book Basset $22
Bookbub Many options
Book Goodies free Book Gorilla $50
Book Sends $40
Books on the Knob free
Digital Book Today Many options
eBook Lister from $5 to $20
Ereader Utopia from $5 to $15
eReader News Today/ $15
Fiverr BKnights $10
Free Kindle Books and Tips $25
Flurries of Words from $5 to $15
Free Discounted Books Varies
Girl and Kindle Book Promos $5 and up
Kindle Nation Daily $99 +
Korner Konnection.com free
People Reads $8 and up
Pixel Scroll $15
Read Cheaply free submission
Sweet Free Books $5
Sweeties Picks $5
The Fussy Librarian.com Varies
The Kindle Book Review $40
Things to Note:
Important Note - Many websites recommend that you increase your Kindle book's price immediately before the Countdown Deal, and then lower it immediately after the sale. eg. Book's price is normally $2.99. You change it to $5.99 before the sale so that when it is discounted to $0.99, it seems a better deal. After the sale you change the price to $2.99 to try to keep sales going. Please note that Amazon have clamped down on this unscrupulous practice. If you change the price on a Kindle book, KDP will not permit you to enter the book into a Countdown sale for the next 30 days. Furthermore, as soon as a Countdown sale is concluded, the book's price is locked for 2 weeks.
Bookbub is reputed to be the best place to submit Kindle books on their free days and Countdown Deal days. Sadly, I cannot personally report on their results, because each time I submitted a book to them, the rejection email came back so quickly that the ink had not yet dried on the submission I'd sent to them. Things that may help in your book getting accepted by them are: have a professional looking book cover, have the book professionally edited, have a ton of 5-star reviews.
Facebook boost page/post advertisements. I tried once, and got back 10% of the 'likes' per $5.00 that Facebook had anticipated I would get. None of those 'likes' equated to sales/downloads. I cancelled the ad before the day was out.
Facebook Groups. There are many Facebook groups for authors to post their books during their free or 99c days. However, be aware that most of the people who follow those groups are authors and therefore have zero interest in the books you post on the group's page.
Fiverr. Be careful of Fiverr ads. Some ads promise top results, but when you examine the sites they submit your book to, you may find that they submitted your book to sites that require payment, such as Bookbub. And as they obviously did not pay, those submissions were ignored.
Twitter. Firstly, I would like to thank all who tweeted and re-tweeted my tweets about the Forager line of books. However, on only a couple of occasions when my book was tweeted as being free was there a small increase in downloads, and when the trilogy was tweeted at 99cents, there were zero sales. And to be honest, it is no surprise. So many twitter accounts follow 2,000 accounts and have 2,000 followers themselves. Unless you are a celebrity, your tweets simply get lost in the crowd.
Banner Ads, I tried this once on a website that had high traffic, but it resulted in zero downloads of Forager, even though it was advertised as being free on the ad. Let's be honest, when is the last time you clicked on a banner ad?
Book Blog Tours sound promising, but I had no success with them. I submitted Forager to a promotional book blitz tour when it was $2.99. It was featured on 37 websites, but resulted in zero sales. A mere 8 people listed it on their to-read list on Goodreads. One positive thing from book blog tours, though, is that some of the hosting sites may review your book. Although Forager got a few reviews that way, most bloggers simply listed an except from the book rather than reading and reviewing it.
I have also had a great deal of experience in promoting Forager after it was price matched by Amazon to free. Since then I have seen over 6,500 copies downloaded. I may at some stage write a post about which sites I used and the successes I had with them.
January 22, 2015
Read for Review Offer
Dear Subscribers and Readers,
I would like to offer you a free copy of my latest middle grades children's book, 'The Clockwork Mechanical' in return for a review on Amazon.com
'The Clockwork Mechanical' has just been accepted as a finalist in Bookbzz.com's Price Writer Competition 2015. The competition's results will be posted on March 5th.
The book is written for ages 7yrs to 12yrs, but the adults who have read it so far have enjoyed it just as much. It has 88 pages.
If you are interested, please send an email to peter7r9stone@gmail.com and let me know if you would prefer mobi (Kindle) or PDF.
Here are some reviews 'The Clockwork Mechanical' has received so far.
"This was an absolute delightful story. Very creative and totally different. I like that the orb wiped Brad's memory so that he could have a different perspective on Megan than the one he had in school. Kids these days can be really cruel to other kids that seem different, and this story really showed that there is a reason for everything and they should not be judgmental - if they just stop and give the 'different' kid a chance, they might just surprise you. At least, that is what I got out of it.....
This is a great start to what looks like will be a very good series that will appeal to both boys and girls, and I like the fact that is conveys a message within the story." - Tamara @ The Avid Book Collector
"This was a fun little read. Written for the 8 to 11 age-group, it keeps it simple and doesn't get bogged down, or try to swamp the reader with information.
The main characters, Brad and Megan, actually act like the 11-year-olds they are, rather than junior superheroes, and I had a really easy time connecting with them. The story, while being a typical save-the-planet adventure becomes so much more than that in the author's skilled hands, and I loved the Clockwork Mechanical itself. I actually felt like I was along for the ride, and, even though it is written for children, adults that enjoy their adventures to be simple and fun will love it, too. I will be keeping an eye on this series." - Rachel Scalmer
"I was given a copy of "The Clockwork Mechanical" by the author, Peter R. Stone, in exchange for an honest review. I have read two of Mr. Stone's YA Dystopian books and am a fan of his work, so I jumped at the opportunity to read his first Children's book. I happen to like science fiction and steampunk so this book was a good match for me. It was fun, age appropriate and I think kids will enjoy it. Waking to find himself trapped on a space station with an evil mechanical, our young hero has to save the day. Throw in a quirky girl from his earth class and some cool mechanical creations and you get a great read. I can recommend for grades 3-6. If you like children's books (like I do) you would probably enjoy this one to. It does have a clear ending, but leaves us with an opening to another book. I give it 4+ stars. I really liked it." - Jodi
I would like to offer you a free copy of my latest middle grades children's book, 'The Clockwork Mechanical' in return for a review on Amazon.com
'The Clockwork Mechanical' has just been accepted as a finalist in Bookbzz.com's Price Writer Competition 2015. The competition's results will be posted on March 5th. The book is written for ages 7yrs to 12yrs, but the adults who have read it so far have enjoyed it just as much. It has 88 pages.
If you are interested, please send an email to peter7r9stone@gmail.com and let me know if you would prefer mobi (Kindle) or PDF.
Here are some reviews 'The Clockwork Mechanical' has received so far."This was an absolute delightful story. Very creative and totally different. I like that the orb wiped Brad's memory so that he could have a different perspective on Megan than the one he had in school. Kids these days can be really cruel to other kids that seem different, and this story really showed that there is a reason for everything and they should not be judgmental - if they just stop and give the 'different' kid a chance, they might just surprise you. At least, that is what I got out of it.....
This is a great start to what looks like will be a very good series that will appeal to both boys and girls, and I like the fact that is conveys a message within the story." - Tamara @ The Avid Book Collector
"This was a fun little read. Written for the 8 to 11 age-group, it keeps it simple and doesn't get bogged down, or try to swamp the reader with information.
The main characters, Brad and Megan, actually act like the 11-year-olds they are, rather than junior superheroes, and I had a really easy time connecting with them. The story, while being a typical save-the-planet adventure becomes so much more than that in the author's skilled hands, and I loved the Clockwork Mechanical itself. I actually felt like I was along for the ride, and, even though it is written for children, adults that enjoy their adventures to be simple and fun will love it, too. I will be keeping an eye on this series." - Rachel Scalmer
"I was given a copy of "The Clockwork Mechanical" by the author, Peter R. Stone, in exchange for an honest review. I have read two of Mr. Stone's YA Dystopian books and am a fan of his work, so I jumped at the opportunity to read his first Children's book. I happen to like science fiction and steampunk so this book was a good match for me. It was fun, age appropriate and I think kids will enjoy it. Waking to find himself trapped on a space station with an evil mechanical, our young hero has to save the day. Throw in a quirky girl from his earth class and some cool mechanical creations and you get a great read. I can recommend for grades 3-6. If you like children's books (like I do) you would probably enjoy this one to. It does have a clear ending, but leaves us with an opening to another book. I give it 4+ stars. I really liked it." - Jodi
December 15, 2014
The Complete Forager Trilogy softcover
I just received the paperback edition back from the printers. It looks fantastic. 822 pages long, for $39.99.
The Complete Forager Trilogy Reaches 500 Sales
Wahoo - I sold my 500th copy of 'The Complete Forager Trilogy' today.
I also just received the paperback edition back from the printers. It looks fantastic. 822 pages long, for $39.99.
The Kindle Version is currently still on sale for 99cents, but the sale will end soon.
I also just received the paperback edition back from the printers. It looks fantastic. 822 pages long, for $39.99.
The Kindle Version is currently still on sale for 99cents, but the sale will end soon.
December 10, 2014
A Day at School in Newhome
Here is another scene that has been added to Forager, which is still available for free from Amazon.
Ethan Jones is reminiscing about his days in primary school...
Pondering the Custodians attempts to catch me out reminded me of the first time I saw them apprehend a mutant like myself. It was my second day in first grade. I was in Class A with 29 boys – Class B had 30. I heard the Custodians standing outside the classroom, arguing amongst themselves. One asked why they couldn’t just drag every kid in the school down to the hospital to have an MRI scan and physical examination to check for mutations. Another replied that there would be widespread protests from the parents if they dragged 700 plus boys down to the hospital without parental consent.
A moment later, they entered the classroom and told our teacher not to mind them because they were just running a routine test. I noticed they were carrying some kind of audio device, but all the same, I was taken completely by surprise when they switched it on and a painfully loud ultrasonic noise stabbed through my head. All I wanted to do was press my fingers into my ears and scream in pain, but I recalled the Chinese gentleman’s instructions to hide my ability, so I bit the inside of my cheek until I bled to distract me from the pain.
Little Scotty White wasn’t so quick, though. As soon as the ultrasonic sound blasted out, he screamed and doubled over, pressing his hands over his ears. The rest of the kids looked at him in surprise, for they hadn’t heard the sound, of course. After that, the Custodians switched off the device, grabbed Scotty, and marched him out of the room.
We never saw him again.
Ethan Jones is reminiscing about his days in primary school...
Pondering the Custodians attempts to catch me out reminded me of the first time I saw them apprehend a mutant like myself. It was my second day in first grade. I was in Class A with 29 boys – Class B had 30. I heard the Custodians standing outside the classroom, arguing amongst themselves. One asked why they couldn’t just drag every kid in the school down to the hospital to have an MRI scan and physical examination to check for mutations. Another replied that there would be widespread protests from the parents if they dragged 700 plus boys down to the hospital without parental consent.
A moment later, they entered the classroom and told our teacher not to mind them because they were just running a routine test. I noticed they were carrying some kind of audio device, but all the same, I was taken completely by surprise when they switched it on and a painfully loud ultrasonic noise stabbed through my head. All I wanted to do was press my fingers into my ears and scream in pain, but I recalled the Chinese gentleman’s instructions to hide my ability, so I bit the inside of my cheek until I bled to distract me from the pain.
Little Scotty White wasn’t so quick, though. As soon as the ultrasonic sound blasted out, he screamed and doubled over, pressing his hands over his ears. The rest of the kids looked at him in surprise, for they hadn’t heard the sound, of course. After that, the Custodians switched off the device, grabbed Scotty, and marched him out of the room.
We never saw him again.
November 28, 2014
How to Run a 99cent Kindle Countdown Deal Sale
If you enroll your book in KDP Select (Kindle Direct Publishing Select) you can enroll your book in two types of promotions. You can run either a Free Book Promotion or a Kindle Countdown Deal. To my understanding, you are permitted to enroll a book for 7 days per three month period, into either or both of these promotions.Kindle Free Book Promotions
A quick word about running a Free Book Promotion. Unless your book is the first of a series and you have already published one or more sequels to the book, don't waste your time.
The first time I ran Forager Book One in a Free Book Promotion, I saw 800 copies downloaded, and zero follow-on sales. However, once I had published Infiltrator, Forager Book 2, I put Forager for free on B&N, iTunes, Kobobooks, Free-Ebooks and Smashwords, and Amazon soon followed suit by price matching the book to zero. Since then, I have promoted Forager Book One on numerous free and paid advertising websites, and have seen consistent follow-on sales of both Infiltrator, Forager Book 2 and Expatriate, Forager Book 3. In conclusion, the best way to sell the first book you write is to write a sequel, and then promote the first book on its free days or price-matching free days, which will then sell the sequels.
Kindle Countdown Deal Promotions
Websites The Complete Forager Trilogy was submitted to during its 99c Kindle Countdown Deal.
Once I had completed all three titles in the Forager Trilogy, I combined the three titles together to form The Complete Forager Trilogy. I decided to enroll The Complete Forager Trilogy in a 99cents Kindle Countdown Deal. I was treating my book as a 'new release,' and the prices listed below are what I believe I paid at the time. Note that prices are subject to change, and vary according to the book's genre and promotional package ordered.
Digital Book Today $30.00 Readcheaply Free Bargain Booksy $35 eBook Lister $10.00 eReader News Today $15 Korner Konnection Free Flurries of Words Blogspot $5.00 People Reads $8.99 The Fussy Librarian $14.00
This is a snapshot of The Complete Forager Trilogy's ranking on Amazon's Best Sellers Rank list just after it had hit its highest point (it had got up to 2,450) durinng the Kindle Countdown Deal week. I sold over 230 copies of the book. Unfortunately, I do not know which of the listed websites brought in the greatest numbers of sales, apart from eReader News Today, which brought in 89 downloads in one day.More Comprehensive List of Sites to Submit a 99cents Kindle Countdown Deal
Here is a more comprehensive list of websites to which you can submit your ebooks to during a 99cent Kindle Countdown Deal. Note that prices are subject to change, and vary according to the book's genre and promotional package ordered.
Addicted to eBooks free but queue Ask David $15? Author Marketing Club $49 for a day Awesome Gang $10 bargainbooksy.com $35 Bargain eBook Hunter $15 Best eBooks Free free Book Basset $22 Bookbub Many options Book Goodies free Book Gorilla $50 Book Sends $40 Books on the Knob free Digital Book Today Many options eBook Lister from $5 to $20 Ereader Utopia from $5 to $15 eReader News Today/ $15 Fiverr BKnights $10 Free Kindle Books and Tips $25 Flurries of Words from $5 to $15 Free Discounted Books Varies Girl and Kindle Book Promos $5 and up Kindle Nation Daily $99 + Korner Konnection.com free People Reads $8 and up Pixel Scroll $15 Read Cheaply free submission Sweet Free Books $5 Sweeties Picks $5 The Fussy Librarian.com Varies The Kindle Book Review $40
Things to Note:
Important Note - Many websites recommend that you increase your Kindle book's price immediately before the Countdown Deal, and then lower it immediately after the sale. eg. Book's price is normally $2.99. You change it to $5.99 before the sale so that when it is discounted to $0.99, it seems a better deal. After the sale you change the price to $2.99 to try to keep sales going. Please note that Amazon have clamped down on this unscrupulous practice. If you change the price on a Kindle book, KDP will not permit you to enter the book into a Countdown sale for the next 30 days. Furthermore, as soon as a Countdown sale is concluded, the book's price is locked for 2 weeks.
Bookbub is reputed to be the best place to submit Kindle books on their free days and Countdown Deal days. Sadly, I cannot personally report on their results, because each time I submitted a book to them, the rejection email came back so quickly that the ink had not yet dried on the submission I'd sent to them. Things that may help in your book getting accepted by them are: have a professional looking book cover, have the book professionally edited, have a ton of 5-star reviews.
Facebook boost page/post advertisements. I tried once, and got back 10% of the 'likes' per $5.00 that Facebook had anticipated I would get. None of those 'likes' equated to sales/downloads. I cancelled the ad before the day was out.
Facebook Groups. There are many Facebook groups for authors to post their books during their free or 99c days. However, be aware that most of the people who follow those groups are authors and therefore have zero interest in the books you post on the group's page.
Fiverr. Be careful of Fiverr ads. Some ads promise top results, but when you examine the sites they submit your book to, you may find that they submitted your book to sites that require payment, such as Bookbub. And as they obviously did not pay, those submissions were ignored.
Twitter. Firstly, I would like to thank all who tweeted and re-tweeted my tweets about the Forager line of books. However, on only a couple of occasions when my book was tweeted as being free was there a small increase in downloads, and when the trilogy was tweeted at 99cents, there were zero sales. And to be honest, it is no surprise. So many twitter accounts follow 2,000 accounts and have 2,000 followers themselves. Unless you are a celebrity, your tweets simply get lost in the crowd.
Banner Ads, I tried this once on a website that had high traffic, but it resulted in zero downloads of Forager, even though it was advertised as being free on the ad. Let's be honest, when is the last time you clicked on a banner ad?
Book Blog Tours sound promising, but I had no success with them. I submitted Forager to a promotional book blitz tour when it was $2.99. It was featured on 37 websites, but resulted in zero sales. A mere 8 people listed it on their to-read list on Goodreads. One positive thing from book blog tours, though, is that some of the hosting sites may review your book. Although Forager got a few reviews that way, most bloggers simply listed an except from the book rather than reading and reviewing it.
I have also had a great deal of experience in promoting Forager after it was price matched by Amazon to free. Since then I have seen over 6,500 copies downloaded. I may at some stage write a post about which sites I used and the successes I had with them.
How to Run a Kindle 99cent Countdown Deal Sale
If you enroll your book in KDP Select (Kindle Direct Publishing Select) you can enroll your book in two types of promotions. You can run either a Free Book Promotion or a Kindle Countdown Deal. To my understanding, you are permitted to enroll a book for 7 days per three month period, into either or both of these promotions.Kindle Free Book Promotions
A quick word about running a Free Book Promotion. Unless your book is the first of a series and you have already published one or more sequels to the book, don't waste your time.
The first time I ran Forager Book One in a Free Book Promotion, I saw 800 copies downloaded, and zero follow-on sales. However, once I had published Infiltrator, Forager Book 2, I put Forager for free on B&N, iTunes, Kobobooks, Free-Ebooks and Smashwords, and Amazon soon followed suit by price matching the book to zero. Since then, I have promoted Forager Book One on numerous free and paid advertising websites, and have seen consistent follow-on sales of both Infiltrator, Forager Book 2 and Expatriate, Forager Book 3. In conclusion, the best way to sell the first book you write is to write a sequel, and then promote the first book on its free days or price-matching free days, which will then sell the sequels.
Kindle Countdown Deal Promotions
Websites The Complete Forager Trilogy was submitted to during its 99c Kindle Countdown Deal.
Once I had completed all three titles in the Forager Trilogy, I combined the three titles together to form The Complete Forager Trilogy. I decided to enroll The Complete Forager Trilogy in a 99cents Kindle Countdown Deal. I was treating my book as a 'new release,' and the prices listed below are what I believe I paid at the time. Note that prices are subject to change, and vary according to the book's genre and promotional package ordered.
Digital Book Today $30.00 Readcheaply Free Bargain Booksy $35 eBook Lister $10.00 eReader News Today $15 Korner Konnection Free Flurries of Words Blogspot $5.00 People Reads $8.99 The Fussy Librarian $14.00
This is a snapshot of The Complete Forager Trilogy's ranking on Amazon's Best Sellers Rank list just after it had hit its highest point (it had got up to 2,450) durinng the Kindle Countdown Deal week. I sold over 230 copies of the book. Unfortunately, I do not know which of the listed websites brought in the greatest numbers of sales, apart from eReader News Today, which brought in 89 downloads in one day.More Comprehensive List of Sites to Submit a 99cents Kindle Countdown Deal
Here is a more comprehensive list of websites to which you can submit your ebooks to during a 99cent Kindle Countdown Deal. Note that prices are subject to change, and vary according to the book's genre and promotional package ordered.
Addicted to eBooks free but queue Ask David $15? Author Marketing Club $49 for a day Awesome Gang $10 bargainbooksy.com $35 Bargain eBook Hunter $15 Best eBooks Free free Book Basset $22 Bookbub Many options Book Goodies free Book Gorilla $50 Book Sends $40 Books on the Knob free Digital Book Today Many options eBook Lister from $5 to $20 Ereader Utopia from $5 to $15 eReader News Today/ $15 Fiverr BKnights $10 Free Kindle Books and Tips $25 Flurries of Words from $5 to $15 Free Discounted Books Varies Girl and Kindle Book Promos $5 and up Kindle Nation Daily $99 + Korner Konnection.com free People Reads $8 and up Pixel Scroll $15 Read Cheaply free submission Sweet Free Books $5 Sweeties Picks $5 The Fussy Librarian.com Varies The Kindle Book Review $40
Things to Note:
Important Note - Many websites recommend that you increase your Kindle book's price immediately before the Countdown Deal, and then lower it immediately after the sale. eg. Book's price is normally $2.99. You change it to $5.99 before the sale so that when it is discounted to $0.99, it seems a better deal. After the sale you change the price to $2.99 to try to keep sales going. Please note that Amazon have clamped down on this unscrupulous practice. If you change the price on a Kindle book, KDP will not permit you to enter the book into a Countdown sale for the next 30 days. Furthermore, as soon as a Countdown sale is concluded, the book's price is locked for 2 weeks.
Bookbub is reputed to be the best place to submit Kindle books on their free days and Countdown Deal days. Sadly, I cannot personally report on their results, because each time I submitted a book to them, the rejection email came back so quickly that the ink had not yet dried on the submission I'd sent to them. Things that may help in your book getting accepted by them are: have a professional looking book cover, have the book professionally edited, have a ton of 5-star reviews.
Facebook boost page/post advertisements. I tried once, and got back 10% of the 'likes' per $5.00 that Facebook had anticipated I would get. None of those 'likes' equated to sales/downloads. I cancelled the ad before the day was out.
Facebook Groups. There are many Facebook groups for authors to post their books during their free or 99c days. However, be aware that most of the people who follow those groups are authors and therefore have zero interest in the books you post on the group's page.
Fiverr. Be careful of Fiverr ads. Some ads promise top results, but when you examine the sites they submit your book to, you may find that they submitted your book to sites that require payment, such as Bookbub. And as they obviously did not pay, those submissions were ignored.
Twitter. Firstly, I would like to thank all who tweeted and re-tweeted my tweets about the Forager line of books. However, on only a couple of occasions when my book was tweeted as being free was there a small increase in downloads, and when the trilogy was tweeted at 99cents, there were zero sales. And to be honest, it is no surprise. So many twitter accounts follow 2,000 accounts and have 2,000 followers themselves. Unless you are a celebrity, your tweets simply get lost in the crowd.
Banner Ads, I tried this once on a website that had high traffic, but it resulted in zero downloads of Forager, even though it was advertised as being free on the ad. Let's be honest, when is the last time you clicked on a banner ad?
Book Blog Tours sound promising, but I had no success with them. I submitted Forager to a promotional book blitz tour when it was $2.99. It was featured on 37 websites, but resulted in zero sales. A mere 8 people listed it on their to-read list on Goodreads. One positive thing from book blog tours, though, is that some of the hosting sites may review your book. Although Forager got a few reviews that way, most bloggers simply listed an except from the book rather than reading and reviewing it.
I have also had a great deal of experience in promoting Forager after it was price matched by Amazon to free. Since then I have seen over 6,500 copies downloaded. I may at some stage write a post about which sites I used and the successes I had with them.
November 20, 2014
New Scenes Added to Forager
Dear Readers,
Some good news - I've gone through Forager, Book One and created additional detail by adding a few new scenes.
Here's the first one, which is now in chapter two:
As we worked, I reflected on the unlikely friendship that had blossomed between Michal and me. When he graduated from primary school and started attending high school, Michal was so messed up that I went out of my way to avoid him, even though I was his senior by one year – on his first day, Michal beat the daylights out of several year niners. It became quickly apparent that he was not only taller than all the other boys, but stronger and more vicious too. We all learned to steer clear of him during recess or lunchbreak, for he’d thump someone for even looking at him.
Turned out there was a reason for his violent behaviour – his home life was hell, something I found out after we become fast friends by some miracle. Some days he’d come to school with a limp, others he’d struggle doing the woodwork class because one of his arms was too badly bruised to hold the saw. And then there was the time he favoured his ribs for six weeks, causing me to conclude that several had been fractured.
Michal never let on where he got these injuries, but when I considered his refusal to discuss his home life and his insistence that we never visit him at home, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. When I tentatively broached my suspicions with him one day, he surprised me by admitting what I suspected – his father was a violent alcoholic. He frequently came home drunk and beat up Michal or his mother. Never touched his kid sister and brother though – probably because Michal always kept them away from his father when he was in one of his alcohol-fuelled rages by presenting himself as a target.
I tried to talk Michal into reporting his father to the authorities, but as fathers in Newhome were considered authority figures second only to the Custodians, he wouldn’t hear of it. So I tried to help him in any way I could: a supportive word here, an encouraging word there, and more practically, I’d sneak bandages and healing ointments from home to dress his bruises and fractures.
When he left school at fifteen, Michal was so big that his father stopped hitting him when he was drunk. From then on, his attacks took the form of verbal rather than physical abuse. That was an improvement, but abuse is still abuse.
I will list another added scene in my next post.
Some good news - I've gone through Forager, Book One and created additional detail by adding a few new scenes.
Here's the first one, which is now in chapter two:
As we worked, I reflected on the unlikely friendship that had blossomed between Michal and me. When he graduated from primary school and started attending high school, Michal was so messed up that I went out of my way to avoid him, even though I was his senior by one year – on his first day, Michal beat the daylights out of several year niners. It became quickly apparent that he was not only taller than all the other boys, but stronger and more vicious too. We all learned to steer clear of him during recess or lunchbreak, for he’d thump someone for even looking at him.
Turned out there was a reason for his violent behaviour – his home life was hell, something I found out after we become fast friends by some miracle. Some days he’d come to school with a limp, others he’d struggle doing the woodwork class because one of his arms was too badly bruised to hold the saw. And then there was the time he favoured his ribs for six weeks, causing me to conclude that several had been fractured.
Michal never let on where he got these injuries, but when I considered his refusal to discuss his home life and his insistence that we never visit him at home, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. When I tentatively broached my suspicions with him one day, he surprised me by admitting what I suspected – his father was a violent alcoholic. He frequently came home drunk and beat up Michal or his mother. Never touched his kid sister and brother though – probably because Michal always kept them away from his father when he was in one of his alcohol-fuelled rages by presenting himself as a target.
I tried to talk Michal into reporting his father to the authorities, but as fathers in Newhome were considered authority figures second only to the Custodians, he wouldn’t hear of it. So I tried to help him in any way I could: a supportive word here, an encouraging word there, and more practically, I’d sneak bandages and healing ointments from home to dress his bruises and fractures.
When he left school at fifteen, Michal was so big that his father stopped hitting him when he was drunk. From then on, his attacks took the form of verbal rather than physical abuse. That was an improvement, but abuse is still abuse.
I will list another added scene in my next post.
Help Needed - and - New Scenes Added to Forager
Dear Readers,
If you've read all three books in the Forager Trilogy, I was wondering if you could help me out.
The Complete Forager Trilogy needs 10 or more reviews before I can promote it on a couple of websites, such as The Kindle Book Review, however, the book has only 7 reviews to date. If you could pop over to the book and add a review, I'll be very appreciative :) If you click here it will take you straight to the book's review page. (And if you haven't popped a review on the individual titles, I'll be delighted if you could review them too...)
Thanks!
And some good news - I've gone through Forager, Book One and created additional detail by adding a few new scenes.
Here's the first one, which is now in chapter two:
As we worked, I reflected on the unlikely friendship that had blossomed between Michal and me. When he graduated from primary school and started attending high school, Michal was so messed up that I went out of my way to avoid him, even though I was his senior by one year – on his first day, Michal beat the daylights out of several year niners. It became quickly apparent that he was not only taller than all the other boys, but stronger and more vicious too. We all learned to steer clear of him during recess or lunchbreak, for he’d thump someone for even looking at him.
Turned out there was a reason for his violent behaviour – his home life was hell, something I found out after we become fast friends by some miracle. Some days he’d come to school with a limp, others he’d struggle doing the woodwork class because one of his arms was too badly bruised to hold the saw. And then there was the time he favoured his ribs for six weeks, causing me to conclude that several had been fractured.
Michal never let on where he got these injuries, but when I considered his refusal to discuss his home life and his insistence that we never visit him at home, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. When I tentatively broached my suspicions with him one day, he surprised me by admitting what I suspected – his father was a violent alcoholic. He frequently came home drunk and beat up Michal or his mother. Never touched his kid sister and brother though – probably because Michal always kept them away from his father when he was in one of his alcohol-fuelled rages by presenting himself as a target.
I tried to talk Michal into reporting his father to the authorities, but as fathers in Newhome were considered authority figures second only to the Custodians, he wouldn’t hear of it. So I tried to help him in any way I could: a supportive word here, an encouraging word there, and more practically, I’d sneak bandages and healing ointments from home to dress his bruises and fractures.
When he left school at fifteen, Michal was so big that his father stopped hitting him when he was drunk. From then on, his attacks took the form of verbal rather than physical abuse. That was an improvement, but abuse is still abuse.
I will list another added scene in my next post.
If you've read all three books in the Forager Trilogy, I was wondering if you could help me out.
The Complete Forager Trilogy needs 10 or more reviews before I can promote it on a couple of websites, such as The Kindle Book Review, however, the book has only 7 reviews to date. If you could pop over to the book and add a review, I'll be very appreciative :) If you click here it will take you straight to the book's review page. (And if you haven't popped a review on the individual titles, I'll be delighted if you could review them too...)
Thanks!
And some good news - I've gone through Forager, Book One and created additional detail by adding a few new scenes.
Here's the first one, which is now in chapter two:
As we worked, I reflected on the unlikely friendship that had blossomed between Michal and me. When he graduated from primary school and started attending high school, Michal was so messed up that I went out of my way to avoid him, even though I was his senior by one year – on his first day, Michal beat the daylights out of several year niners. It became quickly apparent that he was not only taller than all the other boys, but stronger and more vicious too. We all learned to steer clear of him during recess or lunchbreak, for he’d thump someone for even looking at him.
Turned out there was a reason for his violent behaviour – his home life was hell, something I found out after we become fast friends by some miracle. Some days he’d come to school with a limp, others he’d struggle doing the woodwork class because one of his arms was too badly bruised to hold the saw. And then there was the time he favoured his ribs for six weeks, causing me to conclude that several had been fractured.
Michal never let on where he got these injuries, but when I considered his refusal to discuss his home life and his insistence that we never visit him at home, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. When I tentatively broached my suspicions with him one day, he surprised me by admitting what I suspected – his father was a violent alcoholic. He frequently came home drunk and beat up Michal or his mother. Never touched his kid sister and brother though – probably because Michal always kept them away from his father when he was in one of his alcohol-fuelled rages by presenting himself as a target.
I tried to talk Michal into reporting his father to the authorities, but as fathers in Newhome were considered authority figures second only to the Custodians, he wouldn’t hear of it. So I tried to help him in any way I could: a supportive word here, an encouraging word there, and more practically, I’d sneak bandages and healing ointments from home to dress his bruises and fractures.
When he left school at fifteen, Michal was so big that his father stopped hitting him when he was drunk. From then on, his attacks took the form of verbal rather than physical abuse. That was an improvement, but abuse is still abuse.
I will list another added scene in my next post.
