A rant and a marketing jumble

My mom called the other day to ask about how many copies of Zombie Fever: Malaysia Outbreak I'd sold so far.

I told her that I've sold a surprising amount of copies since I published and began marketing the book a month ago.

Now this wasn't a lie as the number has actually surprised me. I've sold exactly @#$ copies. Ha! You didn't think I was going to post the actual number did you?

I didn't tell her the exact number either.

Suffice it to say that ebook copies of Zombie Fever: Malaysia Outbreak are being sold. Are they flying off the virtual shelves? Not quite, but I'm hoping that with enough marketing and shameless self-promotion that a trickle of purchases will soon become a steady stream.

I could sense through the phone that my mom had a bit of a smirk on her face when she asked me about my sales. It's hard for her to fathom why someone who has taken the time to write an entire novel wouldn't want to at least try the traditional publisher route. Of course, she doesn't read the multitude of forums and articles about the current state of the publishing industry, like I do, and how difficult it is to get a book published by a first time author, not to mention the ridiculous amount of time wasted in the pursuit.

But following the traditional route has never been my cup of tea. I've always 'driven my own car in my own lane' just as Randy Jackson said of Phillip Phillips on American Idol last night. The last thing I want is to sign over control of my own work for what, so that I can call my mom and say, "My book is being published! You can tell everyone I'm a professional writer now!" and ask her, "Are you proud? Do I have credibility now? Do you love me?"

No. I'd rather sell a trickle of books as an indie author, even with an occasional typo or grammatical error here and there.

Why? Because the currencies that I value most are time and freedom.

I'm satisfied with a simple life and the luxury of answering to no one.

Anyway…

How am I doing with marketing Zombie Fever: Malaysia Outbreak?

Here's what I've done so far in the last month:

1) Put together this blog,

2) Set up a twitter account,

3) Signed up as a Goodreads author and posted my book for sale,

4) Uploaded for sale on Smashwords for premium distribution to B&N/iTunes/Kobo/Diesel/Sony/etc,

5) Uploaded for sale on Amazon for Kindle fans,

6) Uploaded for sale on XiiXin for the European audience,

7) Uploaded for sale DriveThru Fiction,

8) Uploaded a short story called, Naively Irrelevant and my first novel, Buddy the Rat on KDP Select with samples of Zombie Fever at the end,

9) Sought reviews from approx. 11 bloggers and reviewers of horror novels and had three responses who will review in 2-3 months, yay! Shout out to The Aussie Zombie, Stuart Conover, Editor of Buy Zombie and Wistfulskimmie. You're awesome!

10) Created an author page on Amazon,

11) Signed up for Kindle Forums and dutifully posted my weekly self-promotion,

12) Begged acquaintances, friends and family to read my novel and post a review on some of the above ebook sites,

13) Made print versions of Zombie Fever: Malaysia Outbreak and Buddy the Rat available on Lulu.com,

14) Posted on Stumbleupon,

and,

15) Posted announcements about my novel on Zombie Fan websites I found on Google like Zombie Friends, Zombie Hub, worldofzombiesmobileapp, and Zombie Fans.

And here's a list of marketing tools still in progress:

1) Posting a giveaway in exchange for reviews on Librarything,

2) Create a press release and send it out,

3) Adding more content on my blog (like this post),

4) Creating an author website to sell my books directly,

5) Writing a short story prequel to the novel and posting everywhere for free,

6) Continue submitting my book to bloggers and reviewers,

7) Sign up and post on mobilereads and any other forums I can find,

8) Maybe upload for sale onto Clickbank (still undecided yet),

9) Create a Facebook author page…but I really don't like Facebook.

(Bear in mind that these lists aren't comprehensive, just what I can remember at the moment)

Can you think of anything more I can do for promotion? Any suggestions?

Oh, my daughter just woke up from her nap.

Time for play.