Writer's moments

Monday Morning Quarterbacking…

OMFTT.final_mediumLast week I did my first real book promotion by making Book 1 in the Women of Willow Bay series, Once More From the Top, a freebie on Amazon. Just over 14,000 readers downloaded the book, a number that feels really huge to me. Now I told myself I wasn’t going to do the math to figure out how much that would’ve been in sales. My friends, mentors, editors, book designers, etc.,  Lani and Alastair from StoryWonk, warned me not to do that. But of course, I did it. Yes, guys, I’m confessing to you here in this semi-public forum. I did the math!

I thought the dollar numbers would make me feel terrible, but they didn’t. Not even a little bit. It wasn’t money lost at all. I went into this promo with the goal of attracting readers to the Women of Willow Bay series and to my writing. In that regard, it was a rousing success. I’d hoped for at least a couple of thousand downloads over three days. What I got stunned and thrilled me. Now there are over 14,000 people with my book on their Kindle. Some of them have already read it and come back to Amazon to buy Sex and the Widow Miles. Some even loved it so much, they also bought Rule Number One, my first book published last year by BookStrand. The freebie generated sales and that’s what we were hoping for.

Now I’m not silly enough to believe that all 14,000 readers will actually read Once More From the Top, be delighted with my extraordinary storytelling skills <grin>, and become lifelong Nan Reinhardt fans. But I’m seeing evidence in my sales numbers and my reviews that some already have, and that is the best gift any author can receive. Especially an indie author because we’re out here on our own. No publisher’s got our back. Yes, it’s the choice we made, going self-pub, but it’s kinda scary, so validation means a lot. Looking back at the promotion, the freebie was a good idea and I’m so glad I did it. It worked just like it was supposed to, and now I’m writing like crazy to get Book 3 (as yet untitled) ready to send to my editor.

So here’s a huge <muah> and thank you to everyone who helped me promote the freebie and to everyone who downloaded it. Enjoy the book, mes amies! And watch for the third book in the Women of Willow Bay series coming May 2014!

Oh…and hey, Lani? I am a great writer! 😉

 

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