Apocalypse Road now live on Kindle

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Apocalypse Road Update

Still working on the description.  Being that it is what will make people decide whether or not to read my book, I always agonize over what to write.

On the bright side, I have a cover, courtesy of www.pixabay.com.  The image was free for commercial use and requires no attribution.

Graphics and Design Links

Have a couple links to share.  www.pixabay.com is loaded with FREE graphics.  Yes, truly FREE!  Many are even free for commercial use and don't even require an attribution. Then there is www.canva.com/, another great FREE resource.  It's perfect for creating book covers and more.

Give them both a try.  I did and was very pleased.  I already found cover art my next novel.  Watch for a preview of it coming soon.

Why I Write

I haven't done anything with this blog in over a year, mostly because I didn't feel I had anything worth blogging about.  My skill at promotion is sorely lacking,   I've sold a few copies of Soul Searching, but its nothing to, as they say, "write home about."  That begs the question, "Why do I write?

Yeah, there is the fantasy.  There is the dream of becoming popular, famous, and yes, rich.  In reality, I know that none of that is likely.  Yet I still want to continue writing.  I want to write to tell my stories.  If anyone WANTS to read them, great, if not, I'll continue writing for ME.

I've also noticed that my blogging ability is also lacking.  Perhaps not my skill, but rather my determination.  So many things preempt my blog.  I heard a country song awhile back, about people not chasing their dreams because "life happened."  Every day life, family, earning a living, and assorted obligations, tend to take priority. 
I attended a writing workshop at our community college last week.  It was hosted by a local author.  I was "the old guy in the room," surrounded by young college students.  When it was over, I chatted with one of these young people.  Jon was working on his first novel.  He felt "driven" to tell his story.  It was as if it was fighting its way out of his brain.  But he was struggling.
I began to think about this blog to not only tell the story of my Kindle adventures, but the resources I have found.  Perhaps they might be of some help to people like Jon.  Even my failures could be of value, helping other avoid the mistakes I have made.
I decided I need to write something on this blog at least once per week.  When it comes to writing about writing, there is no shortage of subject matter.  So lets see what happens.

Stay tuned for new about my second novel Apocalypse Road, coming soon to a Kindle near you.

Excitement Coming Soon?

Deviating from my usual topics here because we may be seeing a bit of excitement next week.  Hurricane Erika is on her way and the latest prediction showers the storm passing just off shore from our location.  Of course, that's still 4 days away and the predictions of storm plots can, and often do, change. 

The Results of My E-book Giveaway Promotion

Since I haven’t blogged in 3 weeks, this is long overdue.  All I can say is my “regular job,” as well as our volunteer work, has kept us busy.

So what happened with the e-book giveaway promotion?  That’s where we left off.  It was a bust for sales; did not sell a single copy from my promotional efforts.  The reason why was simple.  I didn’t promote my promotion, at least not well enough.  I posted to a handful of Facebook groups, as I had not yet even been accepted for membership to the list I found of places to promote.

However, I did improve my ranking by a fair amount.  It was not enough to bring about any sales.  As anal as I can be about details, I didn’t make note of my standings before I started, but I remember the numbers roughly. 

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: ~#360,000 Paid in Kindle Store

    ~#13,000 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Romance > Paranormal

    ~#38,000 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction

At the height of my giveaway, my stats looked like this.

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,812 Free in Kindle Store (Note, this number is in the free category.)

    #181 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Romance > Paranormal

    #361 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction

And this is where I currently stand.

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,020 Paid in Kindle Store

    #8135 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Romance > Paranormal

    #10218 in Books > Romance > Paranormal

    #25481 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction

I gave away 89 copies of Soul Searching, made no money, but raised my overall ranking by over 160,000 places.  Granted I’m still just shy of being in 200,000^th place, but that’s better than 360,000^th.  During the promotion, it was exciting to see my other numbers dip into the low three digits.  But that didn’t last long.  The morning after the promotion (which ended at midnight) the stats looked like this.

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #199,602 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

    #8257 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Romance > Paranormal

    #10611 in Books > Romance > Paranormal

    #25407 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction.

Now keep in mind I didn’t sell any books from the promotion.  Since then, I have sold exactly 3, and have a couple of Kindle Unlimited users.  Even those 3 sales improved my stats.

What’s next?  I will be doing another giveaway, but only after I have done an organized promotion from a carefully crafted list.  The object is to rank high enough in popularity, that you will be as close as possible to the top of the list.  Then the effort becomes self replicating.  People who didn’t see the promos for the giveaway will see it when they go to “Free on Kindle” without scrolling too far.

The list.  Well, that’s coming.  But it has been a rather daunting task.  I’ll tell you why next time.

A quick addition.
When I wrote this just a few minutes ago, my stats were as I described them.  I just looked again and they had changed.  I lost ground.

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,182 Paid in Kindle Store

    #8511 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Romance > Paranormal

    #10723 in Books > Romance > Paranormal

    #26828 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction

That one single sale last night affected the numbers THAT much, at least temporarily.  It would seem that small changes in sales can have a surprising effect.

What have I learned about promoting my novel on Kindle?

OK, so what am I learning about promotion.  I’ve learned that it’s not just about giving an e-book away for a couple of days.  Without promotion, the effort will likely fall flat.  It may only generate a few downloads and little or nothing in the way of sales.

I’ve also learned that a lot of people have made a lot of lists on where and how to promote your e-book online.  Some are paid advertisements, others are free.  Some will allow you only to promote when your e-book is free, others will allow you to post when it’s reduced, and others allow free posting of a full priced e-book.

Some web sites require varying lead times, as much as 30 days.  Others request a week, and still others are “day of” only.

I also found a list of “Twitter Influencers”.  Looks like I will have to revive my Twitter account.

Many are Facebook groups.  Virtually all memberships require approval.  After 24 hours, about 50% have been joined as members.  The rest are still “Pending.”  I’m focusing on Facebook first since it’s the social network with which I’m most familiar. 

I might add that I found a great group on Facebook.  Promotion is forbidden, but they have a great group of people.

I’ll work on Twitter next.  That should just be a matter of Following a bunch of users, and hoping that they will follow me back.

Part of my process involves worksheets.  I have consolidated the lists that I found online and I’m in the process of putting them into a table, complete with my own notes.  The goal is to separate the free from the paid, and which I can only use for my free giveaway and those that will let me do general promotion.  If I don’t, any efforts will be haphazard.

Another thing I learned is not to talk about free book giveaways in the Amazon Author forums.  It’s a subject that starts flame wars among users. 

My free giveaway has been set to start at midnight (but I think that’s Pacific time) and End Friday.  I should know how well it worked on Saturday.