Quite Contrary

Where was I? Oh yes…

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Author notes
  • Casa Excéntrico
  • Clarissa Rodgers-Briskleigh
  • EJ Lamprey
  • Joanna Lamprey
  • Shop
  • Spain
  • The main characters at Grasshopper Lawns

promotion tips

October 11, 2013 by elegsabiff

How to give a book away – harder than you’d think

I know I’ve been quiet lately; I’ve been totally engrossed in a crash course of learning how to give books away. You’d think everyone likes a freebie, but there are OH SO MANY free books out there, you can’t just put an apologetic tweet on Twitter saying er, hello, would you like my book? Free?

Most writers have the subconscious but unshakeable belief their books are jewels of the highest quality, which need only to be brought to the attention of an anxiously-waiting world. Most of the experts trying to shift them for you cynically consider them the equivalent of an old sofa on the pavement. The reality, one has to hope, falls somewhere between the two.old sofa

Once I started delving into the subject of free books I was genuinely gobsmacked at (a) how many options there are (b) how many writers are giving their books away (c) how often (d) how far off trend my books are and (e) how difficult it is. The best free book websites won’t even look at your book if it doesn’t already have multiple reviews and a top rating, which seems completely puzzling to someone who was only thinking of doing it to get reviews and an improved rating in the first place.

I’ve done a giveaway once before, on one of my short stories, with I think 4 tweets on the subject, and shifted around 100 copies, so obviously the research needed to be done. I’ve now registered with any number of websites so that I can send them One Two when the promotion starts. I’ve joined about twenty Facebook promo pages so I can post the details, ditto.

This is like preparing for the A-Z blog challenge in April all over again, as I prepare lots of utterly spontaneous-sounding little tweets, posts, blurbs and mini-synopses to paste into place – I’m guessing the end of October will be an absolute blur of activity.

And yet – now I am coming across sensible, intelligent articles which agree, along with some of the websites I investigated, that I should be paying to give my book away. I’m having a little trouble getting my head around that, to be honest. It took me a while just to accept giving books away was good for sales, and I’ve attached a click-on link for a good article by Martin Crosbie on the subject of free promotions

Here’s another good article, by Rex Jameson, on How to give books away. Both articles were found on my new favourite website: Favourite, because the administrator emailed me back to tell me my blurb on One Two was crappy, and how to re-write it. That’s gold. So if you want a fab website for Freebie Fridays, pick up your free books via Indies Unlimited

I pay for my Grasshopper Lawn covers, and love the results. I pay for editing, after the many blushes of releasing One Two in January without professional editing; then picking up error after error after error and a review pointing out how desperately it needed it. At least with eBooks you can change the book as often as necessary – printing an unedited book must be heart-breaking, although at least the minimum-thousand-copy print runs of the past no longer apply. But paying to give the book away? Really? There’s a relevant up-to-the-minute article on the same website Is Free Over?

More research is necessary. Well, and more money. Writing is my passionate hobby, and no totally engrossing, thoroughly enjoyable, hobby comes without a price tag. Few hobbies actually pay back a few pennies here and there, or can be shared with people you have never met, so those are definite perks. But right now I’m deflated. I’ll give the promo a fair go, because it’s interesting and useful experience. I’ll put out the third book, because it’s the best so far, but if it doesn’t ‘take’, writing will go back to being a private hobby.  typist

As for Five Six Pick Up Sticks, it’s back from being edited, and bleeding red ink on nearly every page, but the death of one thousand cuts is mainly superficial; no huge rewrites needed, and it will be published at end October as planned. As all of the above pain is to launch it into a world not completely indifferent to the series, fingers crossed…

Rate this:

Posted in The Beta Reader, and the Indie learning curve | Tagged promotion tips, Respectfully submitted | 9 Comments

Click on ‘subscribe to my mailing list’ for free story + ongoing updates and offers

Subscribe to my mailing list.

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,074 other followers

ALLi – Alliance of Independent Authors.

Alliance of Independent Authors /

Do-Over

Countdown to launchNovember 26th, 2019
Starting your life over - with no memory, two strangers, and in immediate danger. A constant rollercoaster of a thriller which twists and turns across Spain, France and the UK in the search for safety, a new life, and the lost past

E J Lamprey

E J Lamprey

Do-Over

Nineteen Twenty My Plate Is Empty

Seventeen Eighteen Past Lies Waiting

The Money Honey

Fifteen Sixteen Maids In The Kitchen

A Second Rainbow

Eleven Twelve Dig And Delve

Nine Ten Begin Again

Seven Eight Play It Straight

Five Six Pick Up Sticks

Three Four Knock On My Door

One Two Buckle My Shoe

Omnibus – first three books bundled

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Quick link to the Ethical Author guidelines

I'm an Ethical Author

Posts I Like

  • Visuals on Garden of Eden Blog

Bookgoodies



Archives

  • November 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • February 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013

This car is about to be crushed for not having a numberplate ...

Top Posts & Pages

  • A-Z Challenge - Rules of the Detection Club (circa 1929)

QR code to One Two Buckle My Shoe

qr code

QR code to author on Amazon

qr code
Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.
Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy