Brandon Ellis's Blog, page 5
January 7, 2014
The Choice Method: One Secret on Making Child Rearing That Much Easier
Yes, I’m an author of fiction books, so you may be thinking that I have no education or “right” to give advice on raising a child. You may be correct, but in the fourteen years of parenting, I’ve implemented one important trick that helps the process of parenting go a lot easier.
I’m a father of three children. Two of my children are teenagers, a 14 year old boy and a 12 year old girl — I put “12 year old” as a teenager, because the drastic change from an 11 year old to a 12 year old is giant, at least with my kids — and my other child is a 2 year old girl. The 2 year old is going to sit front seat in this article. She is who I’m going to use for the examples of the secret — or not so secret — method that you’re about to read. It’s a method that works especially well for children who are in their “terrible 2′s” and “terrible 3′s” phase in life.
It’s called the “Choice Method“.
I don’t know if I just made the title of that method up or if the title was handed down to me by my peers, but what I do know is that it works, and works very well. It was taught to me by an 80 year old woman many years ago and then, several years after that, by a counselor and friend.
When I was first taught the “Choice Method” I was in my teens, never imagining in my wildest dreams that I would have three children, let alone even one.
The Choice Method isn’t full proof, because nothing in life is. I would say it works 80 percent of the time, which, for parents with children in the terrible 2′s and 3′s stage, is wonderful, as it reduces their daily stress and alleviates most of their worries when asking the child to do something. The other 20 percent of the time it doesn’t work simply because the child is in a state of tantrum or they have been given the same choices over and over again, starting to become bored from the monotony of it all. This is why, after you learn the method, you need to vary it.
The Choice Method is simple and straight forward. It is exactly what it says it is — a choice. What I’ve learned with children is that when they’re in their developmental years (the thinking stage and the self awareness and imagination stage), 18 months to 7 years old, they are learning all about choices. And, the great thing is, they respect you for giving them personal choices (children are much, much smarter than we think they are). Being given a choice appeals more to the child than does being ordered to do something. It “feels” better to them, which is their main gauge of what’s safe and what’s not. They don’t like it when something doesn’t feel safe.
A choice puts the child — your child — way above the “being talked down to” phenomena that parents unconsciously do, which is an entirely different article to write and read about.
So, keep in mind, that choices are who we are, steering our life to go here, there, or to stay put, and are the building blocks of our future. A choice is one of the most important skills that a child develops, so it is important for them to experience a healthy range of choices, thus giving them the understanding of what a choice really is. A choice lowers a child’s defenses, thus giving them less of a need to rebel against your suggestions.
Here is how the Choice Method works:
If a parent asks a child to drink water and they refuse, but the parent knows that their child hasn’t had a drink of water all day long, then making them drink the water, either by trying to force it down the child’s throat (never a good idea) or pounding it in the child’s head how important water is and that they better drink it, because “I said so”, will cause a stressful, negative reaction in the child. The child feels bullied and emotionally beat up. Now, I’m not saying that you raise your child or children that way, but if it sounds familiar, then here is an alternative approach: Before or after a child refuses a cup of water, simply show that child two cups, asking, “Do you want to drink out of this blue cup or this pink cup?” In more times than not, they’ll point to the cup they prefer and then drink from it. This is the Choice Method.
An example of this occurred with me and my 2 year old this morning, though it wasn’t with water. I put her bowl of breakfast on the table, placed a spoon in it and said, “Here you go, Lily. Let’s eat our breakfast!” and, by golly, she refused. Who would refuse such a beautiful organic bowl of my special fruit smoothie, especially since I was so cheerful about giving it to her? Nonetheless, forcing it down her throat wasn’t the answer, but I knew she was hungry because she wanted something else to eat. Something not as healthy for her and something that isn’t for breakfast. I, instead, went to the silverware drawer and grabbed another spoon. Coming back to the table, I grabbed the spoon that was sitting in her smoothie bowl and held both spoons up, asking, “Which spoon do you want to eat your smoothie with?” She pointed to the “Blue’s Clues” spoon — the original spoon that was in the bowl — and chowed down like only a 2 year old can. Well, she only took eight bites. (I count. I know, I’m crazy like that.)
The Choice Method can be used in any situation (I’m sorry for sounding like a commercial or an infomercial). For instance, Lily doesn’t like to put her clothes on before we go outside, and, of course, it’s cold out and I don’t think too many people would like to see a naked child running down the sidewalks of Portland.
What I do, instead of fighting with her about putting her clothes on, is show her two pairs of pants, saying, “Which one, Lily-bug?” She points to one of them, “I want dat one, daddy.” I’ll then show her two shirts and she’ll again point, “dis one, papa.” We then, calmly and enjoyably, put them on. Socks are next, then a coat. All of this goes smoothly, because it was her choice and I wasn’t forcing anything on her.
Now, here is where it doesn’t work.
Every night I’m in charge of putting Lily down for nighty-night. It’s not an easy task, so I sometimes get lazy and have my partner do it for me. Nonetheless, I have that task assigned to me. Most of the time, like most children, Lily doesn’t like to go to sleep. She will do everything possible to convince me and her mommy that she should stay up and look through books, play with her Lincoln Logs, put puzzles together (she makes me put them together while she watches), or snatch the hamsters out of their cages.
For a while, I did the Choice Method and gave her a choice. I would show Lily two books and say, “Which book do you want to read before you go to sleep?” She would point to a book, “Dat one, daddy,” and we’d proceed to her bed and read her book. After I was done, we’d turn off the light, and she’d roll over and go to sleep.
In the beginning, this nighty-night strategy worked like a charm. But, here is where the Choice Method can veer off course and become stale, monotonous, over-used, unimaginative, and, well, you-name-it.
After months of this working, the nighty-night routine suddenly took a turn. It changed from her choosing one book, to both books. That was fine. I’d just read two books, but what I didn’t know was that I was playing right into Lily’s little hands. Two books turned into three, three into four, and so on and so forth.
So, what to do? I started giving different “choices”. I started bringing variety and imagination to the routine. Instead of reading her books every night, we did a puzzle on her bed or played a game of Lincoln Logs, with the promise to go to sleep once we were done.
If you continue to give the child the same choices over and over again, the child eventually finds them tedious and flat out boring. They’ll want more, they’ll want a change. That’s why it’s so important to change it up every so often when using the Choice Method. You and your child/children will be better for it.
The Choice Method, like I said, works 80 percent of the time. And, although that 80 percent is great, I’m still trying to figure out how to make it 100%. I don’t know if that’s even possible. Nonetheless, I’ll keep calm and carry on.
If any of you have any suggestions or can bring more to the Choice Method topic, then please post them in the comments section below. There isn’t much in life that can beat a community of advice from parents, because we’ve gone through the parenting ringer more times than not, bringing a wide variety of experiences and lessons to our parenting tool box. We can teach each other what we’ve learned along the way, making the world of parenting a much better place.
Thank you for reading.
- Brandon Ellis, Author of:
The PureLights Series (An Award Winning Action/Adventure Fantasy Series for the 8-14 year old age group, and adults alike)
Star Guild Saga (A Science Fiction Series for all ages)
The Choice Method – One Secret on Making Child Rearing That Much Easier
Yes, I’m an author of fiction books, so you may be thinking that I have no education or “right” to give advice on raising a child. You may be correct, but in the fourteen years of parenting, I’ve implemented one important trick that helps the process of parenting go a lot easier.
I’m a father of three children. Two of my children are teenagers, a 14 year old boy and a 12 year old girl — I put “12 year old” as a teenager, because the drastic change from an 11 year old to a 12 year old is giant, at least with my kids — and my other child is a 2 year old girl. The 2 year old is going to sit front seat in this article. She is who I’m going to use for the examples of the secret — or not so secret — method that you’re about to read. It’s a method that works especially well for children who are in their “terrible 2′s” and “terrible 3′s” phase in life.
It’s called the “Choice Method“.
I don’t know if I just made the title of that method up or if the title was handed down to me by my peers, but what I do know is that it works, and works very well. It was taught to me by an 80 year old woman many years ago and then, several years after that, by a counselor and friend.
When I was first taught the “Choice Method” I was in my teens, never imagining in my wildest dreams that I would have three children, let alone even one.
The Choice Method isn’t full proof, because nothing in life is. I would say it works 80 percent of the time, which, for parents with children in the terrible 2′s and 3′s stage, is wonderful, as it reduces their daily stress and alleviates most of their worries when asking the child to do something. The other 20 percent of the time it doesn’t work simply because the child is in a state of tantrum or they have been given the same choices over and over again, starting to become bored from the monotony of it all. This is why, after you learn the method, you need to vary it.
The Choice Method is simple and straight forward. It is exactly what it says it is — a choice. What I’ve learned with children is that when they’re in their developmental years (the thinking stage and the self awareness and imagination stage), 18 months to 7 years old, they are learning all about choices. And, the great thing is, they respect you for giving them personal choices (children are much, much smarter than we think they are). Being given a choice appeals more to the child than does being ordered to do something. It “feels” better to them, which is their main gauge of what’s safe and what’s not. They don’t like it when something doesn’t feel safe.
A choice puts the child — your child — way above the “being talked down to” phenomena that parents unconsciously do, which is an entirely different article to write and read about.
So, keep in mind, that choices are who we are, steering our life to go here, there, or to stay put, and are the building blocks of our future. A choice is one of the most important skills that a child develops, so it is important for them to experience a healthy range of choices, thus giving them the understanding of what a choice really is. A choice lowers a child’s defenses, thus giving them less of a need to rebel against your suggestions.
Here is how the Choice Method works:
If a parent asks a child to drink water and they refuse, but the parent knows that their child hasn’t had a drink of water all day long, then making them drink the water, either by trying to force it down the child’s throat (never a good idea) or pounding it in the child’s head how important water is and that they better drink it, because “I said so”, will cause a stressful, negative reaction in the child. The child feels bullied and emotionally beat up. Now, I’m not saying that you raise your child or children that way, but if it sounds familiar, then here is an alternative approach: Before or after a child refuses a cup of water, simply show that child two cups, asking, “Do you want to drink out of this blue cup or this pink cup?” In more times than not, they’ll point to the cup they prefer and then drink from it. This is the Choice Method.
An example of this occurred with me and my 2 year old this morning, though it wasn’t with water. I put her bowl of breakfast on the table, placed a spoon in it and said, “Here you go, Lily. Let’s eat our breakfast!” and, by golly, she refused. Who would refuse such a beautiful organic bowl of my special fruit smoothie, especially since I was so cheerful about giving it to her? Nonetheless, forcing it down her throat wasn’t the answer, but I knew she was hungry because she wanted something else to eat. Something not as healthy for her and something that isn’t for breakfast. I, instead, went to the silverware drawer and grabbed another spoon. Coming back to the table, I grabbed the spoon that was sitting in her smoothie bowl and held both spoons up, asking, “Which spoon do you want to eat your smoothie with?” She pointed to the “Blue’s Clues” spoon — the original spoon that was in the bowl — and chowed down like only a 2 year old can. Well, she only took eight bites. (I count. I know, I’m crazy like that.)
The Choice Method can be used in any situation (I’m sorry for sounding like a commercial or an infomercial). For instance, Lily doesn’t like to put her clothes on before we go outside, and, of course, it’s cold out and I don’t think too many people would like to see a naked child running down the sidewalks of Portland.
What I do, instead of fighting with her about putting her clothes on, is show her two pairs of pants, saying, “Which one, Lily-bug?” She points to one of them, “I want dat one, daddy.” I’ll then show her two shirts and she’ll again point, “dis one, papa.” We then, calmly and enjoyably, put them on. Socks are next, then a coat. All of this goes smoothly, because it was her choice and I wasn’t forcing anything on her.
Now, here is where it doesn’t work.
Every night I’m in charge of putting Lily down for nighty-night. It’s not an easy task, so I sometimes get lazy and have my partner do it for me. Nonetheless, I have that task assigned to me. Most of the time, like most children, Lily doesn’t like to go to sleep. She will do everything possible to convince me and her mommy that she should stay up and look through books, play with her Lincoln Logs, put puzzles together (she makes me put them together while she watches), or snatch the hamsters out of their cages.
For a while, I did the Choice Method and gave her a choice. I would show Lily two books and say, “Which book do you want to read before you go to sleep?” She would point to a book, “Dat one, daddy,” and we’d proceed to her bed and read her book. After I was done, we’d turn off the light, and she’d roll over and go to sleep.
In the beginning, this nighty-night strategy worked like a charm. But, here is where the Choice Method can veer off course and become stale, monotonous, over-used, unimaginative, and, well, you-name-it.
After months of this working, the nighty-night routine suddenly took a turn. It changed from her choosing one book, to both books. That was fine. I’d just read two books, but what I didn’t know was that I was playing right into Lily’s little hands. Two books turned into three, three into four, and so on and so forth.
So, what to do? I started giving different “choices”. I started bringing variety and imagination to the routine. Instead of reading her books every night, we did a puzzle on her bed or played a game of Lincoln Logs, with the promise to go to sleep once we were done.
If you continue to give the child the same choices over and over again, the child eventually finds them tedious and flat out boring. They’ll want more, they’ll want a change. That’s why it’s so important to change it up every so often when using the Choice Method. You and your child/children will be better for it.
The Choice Method, like I said, works 80 percent of the time. And, although that 80 percent is great, I’m still trying to figure out how to make it 100%. I don’t know if that’s even possible. Nonetheless, I’ll keep calm and carry on.
If any of you have any suggestions or can bring more to the Choice Method topic, then please post them in the comments section below. There isn’t much in life that can beat a community of advice from parents, because we’ve gone through the parenting ringer more times than not, bringing a wide variety of experiences and lessons to our parenting tool box. We can teach each other what we’ve learned along the way, making the world of parenting a much better place.
Thank you for reading.
- Brandon Ellis, Author of:
The PureLights Series (An Award Winning Action/Adventure Fantasy Series for the 8-14 year old age group, and adults alike)
Star Guild Saga (A Science Fiction Series for all ages)
December 28, 2013
A New Book = A New Website Name
With a new book out, I’m searching for a new name for this website. I love “thepurelights.com”, however, my readership is growing and “thepurelights.com” is no longer viable, simply because I’m expanding my writing. I have the PureLights trilogy (book 3 is coming out soon) and Star Guild, the first episode of a two to three season book series is out now. The first episode is free, so go grab one here: http://goo.gl/m7AQ4N.
So, I was thinking of going with my name, www.brandonellis.com, but it is already taken. I can buy it for almost a thousand bucks, but unless someone wants to give me a thousand dollars, I’m not going to snag it. Now, perhaps something catchy, like www.bookwizard.com or www.bookbrandon.com, all of which my daughter doesn’t like. She’s the smart one, so I’ll take her word on it.
If you have any ideas, let me know.
- Brandon
October 27, 2013
Book Progress Meter
One of my favorite authors, Hugh Howey, has a book meter widget that he puts on his website, which he grabbed from the NaNoWriMo website–a site that helps author’s write an entire book in a month.
What I saw on Hugh Howey’s site was something that helped me a lot. I’m a writer that likes to start writing several books at once and, for a year now, I thought that I was spreading myself to thin. What I saw on one of the most successful writers’ website, Hugh Howey’s site, was that he does the same, and then lets everyone know how far he is in every book he’s got going.
So, if you want, come back to my website every so often to see how far I’ve progressed with each book.
Enjoy!
Brandon Ellis
August 10, 2013
#TwitterBook
Starting today, August 10th–the day of my son’s 14th birthday–I’m going to write a twitter book. Let me rephrase that: I’m going to write a book on twitter. I don’t have a title for it yet, though I have the entire story right here (I’m pointing to my head).
It’s going to be fun, entertaining, and hopefully read by a couple of people. It’s free, of course, since it’s on twitter. The hash tag for my book is #TwitterBook, hence the title of this post. It’s only going to be on Twitter until I’ve completed it. Then I’ll put it into ebook and paperback form and sell it.
Here’s the first excerpt of my twitter book, copy and pasted from my twitter account: @thepurelights
~ ~ ~
The cold flakes of snow fell onto his skin. His body was cold and he shook as the winter morning breeze blew through his frozen, gray hair. The fear of frostbite lingered in Frank Alfred Jesse’s mind. He felt the cold white cover of land against his back. He couldn’t talk, no matter how much his mind screamed for help. He was too weak to move and he felt his heart pound at each breath. His tongue was dry, swollen, and rested against the back of his teeth. His teeth he could feel, though the rest of his body was numb, including his battered and bruised face covered in his dried blood. He knew that nature, with all of its life, was now death to him, as it slowly took him away. On this day, Frank should have died.
~ ~ ~
There it is! So, I’ll be posting almost every day until the “twitter book” is complete. Remember, on twitter, type in #TwitterBook to read the rest of my new book–yet to be named.
If, when you’re reading this book, a title comes to mind, post it here and perhaps I’ll use it.
Thank you!
August 7, 2013
12 Days: My Self Publishing Journey (12 and a half of 12 and a half)
Okay, I was supposed to write my last post in my self-publishing journey last Monday. It didn’t happen. I decided to write my 3rd book and couldn’t tare myself from the creative flow.
Now that’s it mid day and I feel I must finish what I started…well…here I am. I’m excited to report that I feel the entire promotion was a success. I’ve sold a lot of book 2 with my book 1 promotion efforts. I’m actually listed on a category, when before I wasn’t.
Back to “How I Did It!”
In the first couple of posts I wrote exactly what I did before the actual promotion and I’ll copy and paste them right below here:
Reviews are very important
Those wonderful, incredible reviews. They’ll either bring you warmth and happiness or rip your heart out. They’ll also be very difficult to obtain–at first.
I don’t want to explain every single way to get a review, so if you’re an author, then go here: PageLily - How to Succeed on Amazon (they are my favorite ebook conversion/formatting company–cheap and professional). PageLily has partnered with a company called “AMC” that will help you get reviews, morally, without paying for them or badgering people to review your book in order to get them. So, watch the AMC video after you click the link above.
Also, on Facebook I found a group that focuses on reviews. I tell the review group that I’m in need of a review and someone or a lot of someones will reply, saying that they want my book for free in exchange for a review. It doesn’t always work, but sometimes I’ll get one or two people to take me up on giving a review. The group is called Review Seekers.
Exposure4all
I signed up with Stewart over at Exposure4all. He has over 380,000 twitter followers and I chose the program that sends 30 of my tweets to his followers over a 6 day period for only $7.60. To me, that was a great deal and I feel lucky he went forward with my book and helped me with my promotion. I created a link with bit.ly that tracks how many of those 380,000 followers actually clicked on my tweet and looked at my book. I had over 700 clicks, which most likely led to downloads of my book.
World Literary Cafe
I went over to the World Literary Cafe and signed up to their social media book buzz program. I think it worked well.
From the World Literary Cafe, themselves: “WLC has partnered with FreeBooksy to help promote author’s free titles for the month of July/August. If your book is free, you can gain the exposure listed above (Standard Social Media Book Buzz without the excerpt) IN ADDITION, 30 lucky authors who purchase a Social Media Mania promotion for July and whose book is free will ALSO be included in Freebooksy’s daily email. The email goes out to thousands of readers who own Kindles and have specified their genre interests. FREE titles may purchase this option only once/month per title. The Standard package may be purchased for multiple days.”
The rest of them…
I went to BookBlast and signed up for their genre specific emails. They have subscribers/readers who are looking for certain genre’s to read. I signed up for their “Fantasy Subscriber List”. There are over 8,000 on that list. Fabulous customer service.
I signed up with Kindle Fire Department where they advertised my free book, “The PureLights of Ohm Totem“, to 52,000 of their fans. Excellent customer service.
I signed up with Kindle Nation Daily and advertised to their 170,000+ subscribers. They rocked it for me and had great customer service.
What can I say? I loved all of their customer service.
Well, thanks for reading. That’s what I did. I’ll keep you updated. My next goal: Sell 100 books a day. I’m going to research that now.
I’ll keep you informed! 
August 2, 2013
12 Days: My Self Publishing Journey (Part 12 of 12 and a half)
From beginning to end
And, there is never an end. We begin a journey with a goal in mind. If we accomplish that goal, then we create another, more far reaching goal. We do this to continually, striving to become better. This is called thriving. If we don’t accomplish our goal, then we go at it again, or simply give up. I’m not the giving up type and I don’t think you are either.
In the beginning I set my target. I wanted to give away 10,000 to 20,000 books through a free 5 day Kindle (Amazon) promotion. Did I accomplish that feat? Not close, though I’m proud at what I’ve done. I feel I figured “it” out–at least a little bit. I ended the free promotion at just over 3,600 giveaways. This means that 3,600+ people may potentially read my book, and if they like it, they’ll buy the second book in the series.
The reason I think I “figured it out”, is because I know that if I wasn’t turned down by BookBub–an incredible website that puts your book in front of a targeted audiences that are looking for books in specific genres–then I’d have met my goal or surely would have soared over it. I haven’t found a promotional tool as good as BookBub. Trust me, they are amazing. Bookbub was part of my plan from the beginning and although it didn’t pan out, it doesn’t mean that it won’t next time.
You may be wondering why BookBub is so “important”.
I’ll tell you why.
I’m in the “Fantasy” genre category on Amazon. It’s a category that’s semi-popular and probably in the middle of the pack when it comes to genres. There are about 7 genres that are more popular and about 7 genres that are less popular. Like I said, it’s in the middle of the pack.
Now, BookBub has an email list of over 230,000 people who want to know when the next free “Fantasy” book is coming out. Or, when the next great “Fantasy” book is on sale. If I was accepted as an author on their site–which I wasn’t–then I would have easily given away 5,000 – 10,000 more books. That may, and possibly is, an understatement. BookBub is a reputable company that wants the “best” books and my book didn’t have enough reviews to signify that it has been out long enough to even be considered as “one of the best”.
(Wow, I’ve been putting “quotes” everywhere in this post.)
Also, BookBub has just about every genre covered. They have 610,000 subscribers for the “Mystery” genre. Maybe I should be writing Mystery’s! They have 450,000 subscribers for Historical Romance; 350,000 for Thrillers; 290,000 for Memoirs and biographies; 290,000 for Inspirational; 300,000 for Women’s fiction; and much more.
Just to let you know, I’m not selling for them and I don’t make any money by promoting them. However, I wonder if they have an affiliate program, because if they do, then I’ll erase this paragraph and sign up and then write the above paragraphs in a way that will definitely get clicks for BookBub. Hmm…I’ll go check it out now…
…nope, they don’t have one. Oh, well!
So, you can see why BookBub is an author’s friend.
The Beginning
About 2 months before my free Kindle promotion started, I went from website to website submitting my books, telling the webmasters the dates that my book will go free–July 27th-July 31st. They, in turn, put my book in their system and on the days of my free promotion, they’ll send my information, descripting, book cover image, and a link to my Amazon page to their subscribers. They do this all for free. Since they get so many book submissions, it’s good to notify these promotional websites a month or two before a promotion, putting you at the top of the list. There is also an option to pay $5 or $10 to each website for a “guaranteed” spot on the day of promotion.
There is also an option to go to Ebookbooster and have them do it for me for $40. I’ve heard that they’re quick, professional, and they work, because they have a relationship with a lot of the book promotion websites, giving them clout, which can also put you on top of the webmaster lists.
Here is a big list below. Scroll down, because it’s long. Or, scroll down if you want to skip it. I got this list from Ebookboster.
That’s a lot of sites! And, there are even more!
So, I submitted to each and every one of them.
Let’s get the book buzz going.
Months ago, I found a way, through an article I read (here), how to get a massive amount of twitter followers without paying for them. I got them legit and honestly. I was able to gather almost 8,000 followers in two months. And, I wasn’t even trying. If I had spent a lot of time doing what the article said to do, then I would have had more followers.
The reason for the large amount of followers is because I targeted followers that are connected to book reading clubs, book reading promotions, and readers that follow reading magazines, like Reader’s Digest.
Weeks before my free Kindle promotion, I started sending one or two tweets a day about my book, letting them all know that it will be free starting July 27th. When July 27th rolled around, I started sending 5 tweets a day, pointing them in the direction of my free book. I didn’t say, “Hey, my book is free, get it!” That may have worked, but I chose a different approach. I researched how to write provocative headlines, making people “want” to click on the link. I went to CopyBlogger for help. They gave me a free PDF that helped my tweets become magnets (in their words).
What I also did on Twitter was befriend wonderful people by starting chats with them. I was surprised at how many helpful people there were on twitter land. I like to help people out in life, so I’m usually the one doing the helping. When authors volunteered their knowledge, giving me wisdom beyond my experience, I was extremely grateful, not knowing really how to react to the immediate kindness handed to me. I wasn’t used to that kind of treatment. Nonetheless, they helped re-tweet my tweets to their followers, not because my book was great–they hadn’t read it yet–but because they liked me and I liked them. We became “friends”, in a virtual, twitter kind of way.
I found out, a little too late, that on Facebook there’s a way to promote your author page to thousands of people for pennies on the dollar. At about the half-way point in the free promotion, I found and decided to “boost” my author page. For just $20, I was able to get 3,000+ people to “see” my facebook post, which was about my free book. Perhaps I got downloads from that? My guess is that I did.
Facebook isn’t just good for boosting your page, either. I found that all of my friends “shared” my posts about my free to their friends, and so on and so forth. It was easy and hassle free.
Snooze… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Okay, I’ll have to post the rest of what I did for my free 5 day Kindle promotion. I’ll do that on Monday night. Why? Because I’m tired. Sleepy, really. I worked all day and it’s 1 am and I need to get up in the morning and take my 2 year old to Yoga Day Care, then go to work (sports massage therapists), then come home for a couple of hours and clean the house for our Bed and Breakfast (yeah, we have that too), then head out to a festival that I’m massaging at for three days called, “Pickathon”. So, I’ll have to wave goodbye for now and get to the last half of this post to you later.
I’ll see you on Monday. Much Love!
July 31, 2013
12 Days: My Self Publishing Journey (Part 11 of 12)
Dear Everyone,
This free promo that I just did was a smashing success. There’s 20 minutes left until it’s over and I’m still ranked #1 in my category, #400 in overall free books on Amazon, and I have sold several book 2′s.
*A side note: I’m still derailing from the negative review I got. It’s my first, so I need to chill. I hope it’s my last. It’s hard to write a book with all of my heart, spend years on it, then read a terrible review about it. However, it’s my first book and I can tell you right now, I just need to get over it. And, I know that my second book is much better, as I’ve grown leaps and bounds as a writer in just two books. Though, my first book–I feel–is great, fantastic, and just plain swell. To be told from one professional reviewer that my first book was one of the best books she’d ever read, makes me feel that I did do a good job with it.
Back to what really matters…
Tomorrow will be the tell tale sign of what happens after a successful free book promotion. Will my book suddenly jump up higher in the paid rankings? Or, will it go back to where it was–in the 200,000′s? I’ll let you know.
Now, I have a goal. Since I researched and researched how to have a successful free promo and it worked, I’m now going to spend my time writing my third book and researching and researching how to sell 100 books a day. Once that goal is attained, I’ll reach for a higher goal. And, I’ll let you know if or when it happens and how I did it.
The next step?
In tomorrows post, and the last post in this 12 part series, I’ll explain exactly how I had so many downloads and how I could have had a lot more.
Stay tuned…
12 Days: My Self Publishing Journey (Part 10 of 12)
Negative Reviews
Okay, so, I got my first negative review today. What did I do about it? I stared at the 2 star rating that this person gave me and wondered what I did wrong. How have I failed him/her? What can I do better?
Then, I shook my head, slapped my face a couple of times, and poured a bucket of ice water over my head. WAKE UP!
You can’t please everyone. If you could, then wow! That’s impressive. The truth in life is that not everyone will like what you do. Not everyone will think you’re the greatest or even so-so. Some people just won’t like your personality or your “vibe”. You may be too slow, too fast, too shy, too talkative, too handy, too knowledgeable, too imaginative, too lazy, too happy, too sad, too… you get the drift.
Forget all of that. Live your life, sing your song, and do what you love. Some people may become inspired simply because you’re doing your passion in spite all of the odds. And, when you do that, the heavens applaud and life seems brighter, easier, and beautiful. You’re living your bliss.
That is what I’m doing and I’m carrying on with it.
Day 4 of the free promotion
I’ve given away 2767 books of “The PureLights of Ohm Totem“. I’m elated, even though I was hoping for 10,000 downloads by now. If I would have been accepted by BookBub, then I think 10,000 may have been do-able. Check them out if you haven’t yet.
I’m still ranked #1 in my category, but am just over #400 in all of kindle books. I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll be set higher on the Amazon search ranking algorithm (I don’t know if that’s what it’s truly called, but it sounds alright with me) as soon as my book is off of the free promotion. Once it’s higher, then perhaps I’ll be able to sell more books, because it will be “seen”.
Tomorrow is my last day, so I’ll give you one last update, and then by day 10 I’ll write a nice, longer post of everything that I have done thus far to get me so many downloads. Again, it’s not the amount of downloads that I wished for, but I’m not complaining.
Have a great day, everyone!
July 30, 2013
12 Days: My Self Publishing Journey (Part 9 of 12)
Me: Your shoes are on the wrong feet.
4 year old son:
Me:
4 year old son:
Me: …
4 year old son: I don’t have any other feet.
Me: Fair enough.
I love that one.
Stats
Let’s get right to it, shall we? I worked all day (remember, I’m a sports massage therapist), so I didn’t get to check my stats as much as I would have liked.
When I got up this morning, I saw that I was ranked #87 overall in Amazon rankings. I was happy.
About an hour later, I was ranked #82.
Things were looking up!
Not only did I make it into the top 100 free books on all of Amazon, I did it when I wasn’t expecting to. I actually thought I’d make it below 100 top free books on Sunday–yesterday. Not the case. Today was the day.
I, however, watched it slowly dip lower and lower, going from #99 to #127 to where it’s at now, #164. No biggie. I’ve still had a total of 2646 downloads by the end of the day. Not too bad, eh?
I know, short post, but I have to get some sleep. I’m tired. I just got home at 11 pm from a long work day. People need their bodies repaired, AND APPARENTLY ALL ON A MONDAY!
Just kidding. I love being in service. It’s a blast and I am the luckiest guy, or one of the luckiest guys, out there.
Much Love and carry on…
