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!
