Happy Valentine's Day!

Just a little thought for the day!

#FreebieFriday here at the Non-Steader!

Go here TODAY October 16th, 2015

- http://amzn.com/B014OKNOZE

and get a free copy of

In honor of #FreebieFriday!

Today, I'm giving away free copies of my book over at Amazon. Please give it a read! If you like it, maybe pretty please post a review. That would be super.

Thanks!

http://ow.ly/ThkB6

Tentative Book Promotion Ideas

Kindle eBook

Everyone has told me that one of the best ways to get your writing out there is promotion. Whether it's giving your book away for free or newsletters or buying advertising, you really have to promote the hell out of your book.

There's only one problem with that. I'm terrible at asking people to buy things. I would much rather you decide on your own, independently, that you would like to purchase something I wrote, or read something I posted or what have you. I don't think I've mentioned the fact that I wrote a book since like the second day of this blog. I started this blog to tell people about my writing. And I did. I told them once, politely, at the beginning. Is it wrong that I feel like that should be enough?

Given that type of mentality, I've asked for suggestions and assistance. A few of my good friends on Twitter, Tumblr, etc. have agreed to help out. I think I'm going to try one of those newfangled promotional deals that KDP offers: the free book.

From what I understand it's essentially you giving away a copy of your book for roughly 24 hours. You make no money from it, but it's supposed to generate word of mouth buzz interest readership penetration. So, we're going to give that a shot. Probably some day this week, I'll make my book free for a day and we'll see how that goes. I will try to find a reason to be excited about it. Really, what I'm hoping will happen is reviews.

I still don't have any reviews as far as I know on my Amazon ebook. I don't know if that's because no one has purchased it... or because no one has read it... or what's going on there. But I'm pretty sure I said I wanted an email if I had a review posted and there have been no emails. So, I'll have to check that out. What about you, my blog reading friends... if I gave away my book for free would you rate it on Amazon and perhaps post a few kind words? Am I even allowed to ask that?


http://ow.ly/ThkbR

Promotional Issues

So, I post my book on Amazon, and I really don't know what I was expecting.

I even created a Twitter account, which was a hurdle for me. I had a Twitter back when it first launched and it was such as hassle and caused so many problems I deleted it back in like 2010. Getting back on that particular horse was not easy and (to anyone who knows me) proves my commitment to the promotional aspects of being an author.

But that's the issue I'm currently struggling with. Do I buy followers, do I pay for advertising, do I try to find a way to direct people to my blog? Why does everything on Google+ just look like it was tossed out by some corporate PR team? I agree that writing should be done for the sake of the writing itself. I'm not a writer because it's easy, I'm a writer because I can't help myself. I finally put the pieces together for a book and now it feels a little... fake? Like I have to artificially drum up interest, engaging in a metaphorical circle jerk of other independent authors and reviewers and companies who are just looking to profit. That feels... just wrong.

I think maybe it was a little naive of me to think that book would speak for itself. Honestly, in the sea of self-published and independent books, it's almost impossible for anyone to notice, even if it was the best thing ever. The market is just flooded and it almost makes me think that even trying to get people to pay attention is a fantasy. I guess I will have to resign myself to never selling any copies and knowing that at least I put it out there and if no one is every interested, then that's just how it goes.

But what purpose is there to publishing when no one will ever read it? Should I continue to write, but simply keep these things to myself? Is that the correct solution that will at least allow me to feel less like a whore? I don't know. I just don't like the concept of publicly shouting at people to buy my stuff. I think that's probably why authors get agents and publishers and managers in the first place. They hire people to do the shouting for them.

Getting Started

Waking up today, I saw an email that a friend had purchased my book and written a review! I got so excited!!

And then I checked Amazon and got sad. I still don't have any reviews on my book, and the one I did have was not accepted by Amazon. It seems odd to me that you can give free copies of a book in exchange for a review, but if someone purchases a copy, but is personally known to you, they are not allowed to share their thoughts. The person spent money on the book, shouldn't they be allowed to post their opinion, regardless of the relationship to the author?

Well, its a slow start. I mostly published the book because I genuinely thought people might enjoy it. Who knows if it will ever go anywhere? In the mean time, I will continue to work on my next book and hope for the best.

If anyone out there knows how to get reviews from strangers, feel free to email me!

KDP Experience

Night Mountain

I just finished the process to get my book published on Amazon, through their Kindle Direct program. I've never actually done any sort of eBook stuff, and it was a really fun process. Right now, it's in the approval process where it just kind of gets reviewed. That can take up to 72 hours, and they should let me know when it finishes. I'll be sure to update when it's available in case anyone is interested.Thanks for reading!