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.
Let me just start off by saying: I love to write. My love of writing has led me to publish two books, with a third on the way. Recently, I needed to take a break from drafting book three. My break ended up being a bit longer than I intended, so I've been very slow to get back to writing. I still love to write; I just find my thoughts and ideas aren't flowing to the page as smoothly as before. Thus, I am in need of motivation.
With my first two books, my best thoughts always came from time spent at the beach. Catching a few waves helped me get the creative juices flowing. Since my second son was born, I can count the number of times I have been to the beach on one hand. This wasn't a problem until I fell into a lull in the middle of drafting book three. So, I have been taking some time to discover some new motivators.
I'm really enjoying this experience. It has been interesting to talk with other writers to find out what helps them stay creative and motivated. I have found that writing something other than what I normally write has been a great help. I spent some time on Wattpad working on poetry, which is definitely not what I normally write (I'll post one of my poems below). Through some of the poems, I have been able to place myself back into my characters shoes and see the world from their perspective. The process has been incredibly insightful.
I have also found that not putting too much emphasis on promoting my other two books has helped me stay in writer mode as well. Promoting is great, and obviously necessary, but I realize now that I need to find some balance between writing and promoting. It's just not good to get so caught up in promoting that you forget to keep writing.
The last thing I have been trying to do is keep enjoying life. I don't know how it is for you, but writing isolates me from the world around me. When I am writing, that is all I am doing. Everything else falls away. It's good to get away from the computer and live life, spend time with family and friends, and leave some of that stress behind. Sad that I needed to be reminded to live, but glad I learned that lesson now instead of later.
Anyway, thanks for letting me rant about this for a little bit. I'd love to hear how you keep yourself motivated to keep writing. Please leave a comment below. Keep writing, my friends. Have a wonderful week!
As promised, here is one of the poems I wrote to get back in the swing of things:
Darkness Within
Deep within the recesses of my mind,
the darkness no longer tries to hide.
Like venom, the memories run through my veins.
Driving my mind insane,
filling my soul with pain,
leaving me desperately looking for someone but myself to blame,
destroying every cell of hope in my body,
until only a shell remains.
Why can't I think of better days...
Do normal people replay every hurt in their head,
while roaming through life like the walking dead?
Why, why, why do I?
Why can't I be like them instead?
Instead of this hollow shell, a reminder of what could've been.
A monument to pain, the type hidden deep within.
Hidden from the prying eyes of a society that looks away, anyway.
Yet, finds entertainment in other people's pain.
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.
This past week I tried using Smashwords coupon manager for promotion. I was curious to see how successful doing a free promotion through Smashwords would be. Technically, there is one more day in the promotion, so I will probably update this post again later this week. If anyone is interested, here is the link to Beyond Heights and Depths on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/282737. The coupon code is: ZH99P.
I have to say, I am quite disappointed in the results so far. Through other free giveaways, such as, KDP Select, I have given away over 500 books during a 5 day period. With almost no effort at all, I have usually been able to giveaway more than a hundred books in 1 day. I thought I would be able to use what I know about promotions to produce similar results through Smashwords. Unfortunately, I was completely wrong. I have not seen anywhere near the numbers on Smashwords that I have on other mediums.
I did everything I usually do for a promotion like KDP Select Promotional Days. I
submitted my information to promote my free day on several sites that I typically use. I also submitted info on one site that
only takes submissions on the day of the promotion, which has worked very well for me in the past. I also made sure to tell others about my free day on Facebook
and Twitter. These are all the things I have done before and had successful promotions, but this promotion was the most unsuccessful I have ever done.
The only significant difference I can discern at the moment is the site and method of promotion. I will have to do further research to see what went wrong, but so far the biggest problem appears to be the use of Smashwords and the free coupon. I wonder if people really don't want to do the extra step of entering coupon information. In any event, it was a good learning experience. I'm not sure I ever want to try this type of promotion again. The amount of work that goes into it and receiving such undesirable results leaves little incentive to try again.
So, tell me: Have you had similar experiences? What do you think? Is there something I could have done differently to produce better results? Let me know. I'm interested in hearing from you. Thanks everyone and have a wonderful week!
Update - February 23, 2014
I ran the promotion through the holiday. I had high hopes, but none of my goals were met. I did everything the way I would normally do for a regular promotion. The results were horrible. There really is no nice way to say it.
I sell more books on a regular basis than I gave away with the Smashwords coupon. I've been researching for answers, but I still am not entirely sure why this promotion went so bad. The only conclusion that I can draw from this is the use of the coupon. I guess people don't want to deal with coupons, even if it means just punching in a code at the end of a transaction.
I'm not quite ready to abandon Smashwords altogether. I am still selling books on Nook, Kobo, and iBooks. Thus, Smashwords is not a total loss. I still can't figure out why the coupon thing sucks so bad. I normally manage to giveaway hundreds of books. This one was such a big failure I just can't understand what went wrong. In any event, it's a good learning experience. I still have a lot to learn, so I'll keep on trying until I can make this thing work.
Again, I'm wondering, have any of you had
similar experiences? What do you think? Is there something I could have
done differently to produce better results? Let me know. I'm interested
in hearing from you. Thanks everyone and have a wonderful week!
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!
