What's Up Wednesday - Book Release Addition

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk.  Head over to Jaime's page for links to find out what's up with everyone else. Here's what's up with me.
What I'm Reading

I recently read three books about indie publishing and marketing that are all conveniently bundled together. All three books have a slightly different take on the indie market, so reading them all together back to back was a good way to get a broader sense of the industry.

Yesterday, my second novel came out. Reading three books on marketing, has been a great way to remind myself of all the things I should be doing.

If you are an indie publisher, thinking about indie publishing, or even a traditionally published author who wants to improve your marketing, I recommend all three of these books.

I will warn you though, the three books in one giant kindle file makes for a very long read. This is the first bundle I've every bought, but I've heard of as many as a dozen books being bundled. That would really be a long ebook.

What I'm Writing

The Evolution of Emily is now on sale! You can buy it here, or here, or here.

Oh, wait, you wanted to know what I wrote this week? Not a whole lot. I did join a new writing critique group though. So hopefully, that will help motivate me to get going on my next book soon.

I did just release a novel yesterday though, so I'm not going to feel guilty about not writing this week.


What Works for Me

Since finding time to actually write, isn't something that I seem capable of doing these days, I've decided to say what marketing strategies work for me in this section. Here is a fabulous tip I have for all authors, weather you are indie or traditionally published.

Include search words in links to amazon. Let me explain, because this is a really great tip. Amazon chooses what books to recommend under a given key word search based upon what books were purchased while searching for that word. So you want easy sales, to friends and family, to include those search words. The easiest way to do that is to search for the book yourself, and then send the link that includes those search words.

For example, my first novel Counting to D , has a dyslexic main character. When people are searching for a book about dyslexia, I want them to find my book. So I just searched for the word dyslexia on amazon, found Counting to D (currently ranked 42nd under that key word) and sent you the link that has the key word of dyslexia included. If any of you decided to click on that link and then buy C2D, amazon see people buying C2D after searching for dyslexia and increase my presence under that word search.

What Else I've Been Up To

My kids have been missing A LOT of school lately. Last week, they had an insearvce day on Monday, and Veteran's Day on Tuesday. Then there was freezing rain on Thursday, so school was closed. Next week, there are conferences on Monday and Tuesday, and then Thanksgiving, so they have the entire week off.

See, there is a reason why I'm not getting any work done on my next book. I'm very busy being a mom right now. I do love Thanksgiving. But I'll never be a fan of freezing rain.

So what's up with you?