Henderson Smith's Blog: The Beginning..., page 6

Godzilla Giveaway Books Away!

Okay, that was expensive and my big gamble. We'll hope it pays off! If I can just get enough good reviews and readers behind my lovely ugly princess, it will push up out of the multitude of new publications and find its audience. With the support of readers, that's what will happen...or not!

Don't ask me why it takes so long to get to England - not until July! Yet, India and Australia only 2 weeks? I don't get that. Sorry poor European readers, they must send them on the slowest boats available. U.S. readers should have theirs by Friday!

Thank you all for entering so very much and dear winners, please remember to post your review on Goodreads and Amazon.

Thank you so much!

Please Tell Your Friends!!!!

If you've read my book, The Ugly Princess, and loved it, please TELL YOUR FRIENDS! If you feel comfortable about broadcasting the news as I need help with my broadcasting and would be EVER SO GRATEFUL TO YOU! It is amazing what one person can do. The old "you tell someone", then they tell someone and there you go! It is so hard to break through in this market when there is so much competition. In the last 30 days, Amazon has published 5,880 fantasy books alone. I do think I have a very special book, but without help from my readers, I know I'll never go anywhere. Thanks for your help and thank you for loving my beautifully ugly princess!

2200 for Godzilla Giveaway!

Big numbers and big book numbers to mail out now - 100 copies! Now, if only they will review my book and post it on Goodreads AND Amazon, then it will all be worth it. It's hard finding a place to show the world my beautiful ugly princess...but with the right help...fingers crossed...she will find her audience!

Free Kindle Dowload on June 4th!

As the tag says, if you're interested in reading my book, please use this opportunity to download a kindle copy on Amazon this Wednesday! One Day ONLY! Hope you will review it after you download it! Thanks, Henderson

My Book on Ebay?

So, if you read a previous post of mine, you saw that I was concerned that some of the people who enter Giveaways may not be playing by the rules laid out by Goodreads. I decided to test my hypothesis and went to Ebay and searched for my book and lo and behold, there were three copies for sale! Now, I know I have sold very few paperbacks via the only publisher for the book so how did 3 copies make it to Ebay? Curious, don't you think? I suppose if one just spent their time entering every giveaway there was, the odds are they are going to win numerous giveaways. Thoughts anyone? Is my logic faulty?

Love My Readers!

Okay, so it's not like I have a plethora of readers at this point, but it is absolutely delightful to be meeting some of my new readers. It's so gratifying to have you falling in love with my dear little Olive as well. I have a new friend in Australia - Tahlea, my first fan in Australia. It is just an amazing thrill for me to have you loving my little book! I'm hard at work on the sequel and so many of you have volunteered to be Beta Readers as soon as I'm done. Thank you! This is really the fun part, meeting all of you.

Frustration over Book Winners in Giveaway!

Call me old fashioned, but when I enter a giveaway and if I'm lucky enough to win, I do feel obligated to read and review the book as quickly as possible. Afterall, I got it for free and that was the deal I agreed to. Goodreads says only 50% of all winners in book giveaways ever review the book. That seems unfair, especially when Goodreads warns you not to contact the readers who have your free book sitting in their home and are not reading it. Cause that's what I want to do. I want to write them a note and say, "Hey, that book cost me over $20 to get to you (if they live out of the U.S.) and you can darn well read my book!" But then, of course, I'd be worried I'd tick off the reader and they'd give me a one star rating and that would be even worse than nothing. A lot of authors won't do giveaways because of these issues. Maybe next time I'll put in the synopsis for my book on the givewaway page, "Please do not enter unless you really promise to read my book and if you don't, you'll write me a check for what it cost me!" Of course, for those lovely readers who do fulfill their part of the bargain and do read and review the book - thank you! It's just frustrating to spend the money and the time to mail it all out and not have any response at all from so many "winners".

Books Away!

The second giveaway is now in the mail. I hope all of the lucky winners will enjoy the book and fall in love with beautiful Olive, my ugly princess! Fingers crossed...

Finding my Tribe?

Or should I say, Olive's tribe? Sending out the books to the winners of my second give away and hoping they find a great home with these readers. It's all up to the readers, obviously, to determine Olive's future. So, hoping they will read the book, review the book and love the book! Olive needs to find her tribe - will you join her?

A Godzilla of a Give Away!

So, I've been doing a lot of reading with the plethora of information Goodreads provides and have become convinced that "the giveaway" is an incredible device to reaching new readers and getting reviews. I read one presentation on how a best seller became a best seller and they gave away 100 books! So, I thought I would copy their actions and do the same - a 100 book giveaway! Now, if only I could garner the same result ;) But the reviews have been so encouraging that I've decided to do it. It's all about someone reads The Ugly Princess, tells a friend, who tells a friend...

It starts this Friday! And I've opened it to readers in the U.S., Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, India, France and Germany. It's NBA time so: Go Big - Or Go Home! We'll see how this goes in the coming month. Very Exciting!

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...