I got the message a little late this year, but yesterday I finally received my email from Smashwords asking if I would like to participate in "Read an E-book Week 2015."
Unlike other promotions, I have no problem getting behind this one
because I already participate in multiple efforts to promote reading in
general. I read to kids on a regular basis. I also participate in field
trips for preschoolers to check out the local library. I help with book
fairs. I try to participate in anything that promotes reading.
I
truly believe we need to promote reading as much as humanly possible. It's
sad how far reading has declined over the years. One of the worst
comments I hear on a regular basis is, "I'll wait for the movie to come
out because I don't like reading." I know more people who use their
Kindle Fire to play games than to read books. As a result, I meet a lot
of kids who don't like reading because the adults in their lives do not
read. They fail to understand how important reading is, until it is too
late. Take it from me, a person who made it to college before I realized
I had the reading level of a child: reading is very important!
If
you're an author on Smashwords, consider participating. My results from from last year were pretty good. I saw about a 20% increase in sales. However, I believe we have to look beyond sales and really promote reading. If you are
already participating, great job! Let's keep promoting Read an E-book
Week. Readers, there are thousands of books for sale at discounted
prices, and many are free. Browse through the catalogs. Find something
you like. Above all else, keep on reading. Have a wonderful week!
For those of you interested, my book, Beyond Heights and Depths, is free this week with coupon code: RW100.
This past week I participated in Read an E-book Week 2014. My book, Beyond Heights and Depths, was free on Smashwords. As I have written before, I have had trouble getting any promotions going on Smashwords. The results of previous promotions were terrible. However, I had no problem getting behind this one because I already participate in multiple efforts to promote reading in general.
I love to promote reading because I believe reading is incredibly important. When Smashwords emailed me about participating in Read an E-book Week, it was a no-brainer for me to participate. I really wasn't sure what to expect. I don't know what it is about Smashwords, but giving away books with them is one of the most difficult tasks imaginable. I have never reached anywhere near the kind of success on Smashwords as I have through other channels.
However, I was pleasantly surprised to see a small increase in this promotion. I gave away somewhere around 20% more during Read an E-book Week than I did during the previous promotion only a few weeks earlier. In my opinion, the major difference was Smashword's involvement with the promotion. Normally, there is no involvement on their end. In fact, I am pretty sure I have never seen another promotional event on Smashwords besides this one. Overall, I am pleased with the results, but please keep in mind that I had very low expectations for this promotion to begin with.
How about you? Did anyone else participate in Read an E-book Week? What kind of results did you achieve? I would love to hear about your successes or frustrations with running promotions on Smashwords. So far, I have not found anyone who has had great success with Smashwords. Tell me about your experiences. Thank you everyone and have a great week!
Life sure is funny, sometimes. Last week I discussed my failures promoting my book through Smashwords. Specifically, I ran into problems promoting my book with the coupon feature. I had no intentions of giving up on Smashwords yet, but I was unsure of what to do next. Smashwords does not have many of the options or benefits of promoting on other sites.
A few days ago, I received an email from Smashwords asking if I would participate in "Read an E-book Week 2014." Unlike other promotions, I have no problem getting behind this one because I already participate in multiple efforts to promote reading in general. I read to kids on a regular basis. I also participate in field trips for preschoolers to check out the local library. I help with book fairs. I try to participate in anything that promotes reading.
I believe we need to promote reading as much as humanly possible. It's sad how far reading has declined over the years. One of the worst comments I hear on a regular basis is, "I'll wait for the movie to come out because I don't like reading." I know more people who use their Kindle Fire to play games than to read books. As a result, I meet a lot of kids who don't like reading because the adults in their lives do not read. They fail to understand how important reading is, until it is too late. Take it from me, a person who made it to college before I realized I had the reading level of a child: reading is very important!
If you're an author on Smashwords, consider participating. If you are already participating, great job! Let's keep promoting Read an E-book Week. Readers, there are thousands of books for sale at discounted prices, and many are free. Browse through the catalogs. Find something you like. Above all else, keep on reading. Have a wonderful week!
For those of you interested, my book, Beyond Heights and Depths, is free this week with coupon code: RW100.
On Black Friday, I ran my first KDP Select Promotion Day. I know many of you are wondering how that is possible. I chose not to enroll my first book in KDP Select. I decided to sell my first book on iTunes, Nook, and Kobo. In all honesty, I didn't know what I was doing. I was learning as I was going along and trying everything out.
With book two, I decided to go with Amazon because I have had the most success through the Kindle Store. Over the last few months, I have heard many good and bad things about enrolling in KDP Select, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I decided to go with just one day to start off. I submitted my information to promote my free day on five sites I learned about from others on Twitter. I also submitted info on one site that only takes submissions on the day of the promotion. The only thing I did in addition was make sure to tell others about my free day on Facebook and Twitter.
Seeing as how I did not put in too much effort, I am pleased with the results. Beyond Demons and Protectors made it into the Top 10 free books for that day. I gave away 200 books. I'm slowly getting some reviews and people contacting me about the book. My first book also received a boost in sales. Overall, I would say my experience with KDP Select Free Promotion was positive. This last month of book promotion has definitely been much better than my experiences with the first book, which was so stressful I wasn't sure I wanted to write a second book. The only major problem I encountered this time was when the book initially showed up for free on the Amazon site. It took almost two hours before the book showed up as free, but after that, no major problems.
I'll get a chance today to see if the positive results continue. I am running another free promotion on KDP Select for Cyber Monday. I'll be sure to let everyone know how this one goes. Hopefully, the results will be good. If not, I will be sure to write about those experiences as well. Have a wonderful week, everybody!
Update - December 8, 2013:
I ran another free promotion on Cyber Monday. My results were not as good as they were on Black Friday. I still managed to give away another 100 books. My book made it to #8, which I was really happy to see. I observed a small bump in sales in both my first and latest book sales, afterward; however, the bump did not last long, and I have not received any new reviews this past week.
I can't be sure if the decrease in free sales was a result of the day or timing of my promotions with any accuracy. Overall, I am pleased with the results. It took a little work, but nothing outrageous. I have a few more free promotion days left to use. I need to look at what worked and what didn't, and then choose the next days for promotion.
One thing I can say is giving my book away for free did help me a lot in spreading the word about my book. A lot of people have been asking questions, telling me what they liked, and are recommending their book to their friends. I still feel the best promotion is word of mouth, of course. Only time will tell just how much more word of mouth I actually gained as a result of free promotions. I think things are going fairly well, especially considering my second book has not been out for very long.
I will be sure to keep you all posted about how my future promotions turn out. Thank you to everyone who helped me over the cyber weekend. I could not have accomplished anything without you. Number 8 is pretty darn good, even if my time in the top 10 was fairly short. Have a wonderful week, everybody!
I'm sure you have all heard the old saying, "To err is human; to forgive, divine," by Alexander Pope. Basically, this phrase means we all make mistakes, so we should also be willing to forgive others. I believe this to be true, of course. However, in all honesty, I can admit that forgiving others is not my strong suit. I'm working on it, but I still have a long way to go.
I've been thinking about this phrase over the last few weeks. I know I am supposed to forgive others, but sometimes I forget. I know what you are thinking. Yes, I work in ministry, so I should know better. I'll let you in on a little secret: ministers are just like everybody else. We are all a work in progress. We all make mistakes. I, too, am prone to holding grudges for a little while.
Now, as to why I'm writing this post. A few months ago, I tried to help a family member out with a money problem--major red flag. Anyway, I tried to help her out, but things went wrong very quickly once greed came into play. Needless to say, I did my best to see things through, but at great personal cost. Not only did she try to rip me off, but when that didn't work, she resorted to insulting me and making slanderous comments about me and anyone who was not on her side. I got angry, very angry, angry in a way that I did not think I could get anymore, which was scary.
I felt the best course of action was to not talk to this person any longer. Our business concluded, and I felt much better not having to talk to this person. Unfortunately, you can't avoid people forever. Two weeks ago, I had to attend a family party with this person. She did not talk to anyone, and no one made any effort to talk to her. I thought this would make me feel better, but I actually felt worse, so I went ahead and talked to her. I chose to forgive and move on, and you know what, it made me feel a whole lot better. I felt free; in fact, I still feel free: free of negativity, free of the burden of holding a grudge, and free of anger.
When I work in ministry, I often have to remind people about forgiveness. We have been forgiven; therefore, we must learn to forgive others. In most cases, the major issue people have with forgiving others is that they believe they have a right to hold on to their anger, resentment, and/or hatred of the person who wronged them. The problem is that holding on to those negative feelings often does more harm to the person holding on to them than the person those feelings are directed toward. Hanging on to negativity like that will eventually take their toll on a person. If you can forgive others, then you can let go of all that negativity. In this way, you are free; free of the burden of carrying around all that negativity.
I think we tend to get too caught up in thinking that forgiveness only benefits the other person in some way. A lot of people worry that if we forgive someone who wronged us, then it's like we are saying it's okay for people to treat us that way. This is not true at all. It really does takes a bigger person to forgive. The bigger person is the one that understands that forgiving the person who wronged them is way better than having to carry around all of that negative baggage. A person who can forgive others truly experiences the divine nature of forgiveness because a person who can forgive knows what it really means to be free.
