Hey peeps! Just popping in to let you know that Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It is free to download again this weekend. So if you haven’t picked it up yet, now’s your chance!
It’s actually available on all the Amazon sites — so if you’re not American/British/Canadian, hop over to your favorite Amazon site and search the book name. Happy reading!
Unrelated media of the day:
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/TJb3H0Y
As we reach the end of Imminent Danger’s first 90 days in KDP Select, I realized that I’ve only used 3 of the 5 free giveaway days! Gasp. Thus, I am pleased to announce that …
Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It
will be free to download on Monday & Tuesday (April 6-7)
Here are assorted links for your clicking convenience:
It’s actually available on all Amazon sites, so just head over to your Amazon site of choice and it should be there!
If you want to share the news of the free downloads days, you’re awesome. If you don’t want to share the news, you’re still awesome. Either way, thanks for reading, and happy downloading!
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Unrelated media of the day:
Today for your enjoyment I have a series of humorous Tumblr posts.
Last weekend, I took advantage of the KDP free days promotion and put Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It on free download for the entire weekend. I’ll start by showing you the results, and then I’ll walk you through what I did to promote the book, and how effective I think said promotions were.
Ready? Steady? Go!
Here’s a screencap of the downloads graph:
So over the course of 48 hours, the grand total of downloads was: 2,861
Now, I’m pretty darn excited about this. I know some authors get upwards of 4,000 downloads with zero promotion, but heck, it’s my first free weekend!
Part 1: Pre-promotion marketing tactics
About a week before the free promotion started, I signed the book up with about a dozen of those “free book blast” sites.
Here’s the site I used: http://authormarketingclub.com/members/submit-your-book/
If you scroll way down, there’s a bunch of website icons. The idea is you click on an icon, and it opens up to that site’s submission form. Most of the sites on there offer free book promotion if you’re doing a KDP free book day, but they do specify that it’s first come first served, so your book isn’t guaranteed to show up on their marketing blast. There are of course paid options to ensure your book is featured, but I just signed up for the free stuff.
Of all the sites I signed up for, the only one I saw actually tweet about my book was http://www.book-circle.com/. Others might have also promoted my book, but if they did, I didn’t see it.
All in all, it’s hard to judge the effectiveness of these sorts of sites. However, they are free, so there’s no real downside apart from time expended. So I’d say I recommend using these sites, as long as you’ve got spare time and won’t be too disappointed if nothing comes of it.
Part 2: Saturday (Day 1) begins!
I started off the first download day by doing the standard social media thing — tweeting about it, writing a blog post, posting on Facebook, etc. I’m part of a few writer groups on Facebook, so I posted in there as well.
Downloads started off slow — by noon on Saturday I was at about 200. Not too shabby, but not where I wanted to be! So I thought to myself: Michelle, there has to be another way to promote your free download days. But where?
Part 3: IMGUR
Here’s where the story really kicks off. If you haven’t heard of IMGUR, go check it out now. It’s basically just a site where people post funny photos or GIFs, and then people look at them, upvote or downvote them, and comment on them. Kind of like Reddit, except way less complicated — and way less specialized.
I love IMGUR. I go on every day and catch up on the latest memes. There’s some truly hysterical stuff on there. And I’ve tried posting a few photos on there (mostly of my roommates’ adorable cats), but those photos never made it out of “user sub” — basically, they only got maybe 20 upvotes each, and you need at least 300 upvotes to boost your post to the front page (which is the part of IMGUR that most people look at).
So I thought, what the heck. Might as well post my book — what’ s the downside? Even if it only gets 20 upvotes, that’s 20 more people downloading the book!
Thus, I posted this:
This was posted around midday Saturday. Apparently that’s a good time to post, because over the next few hours the upvotes gradually rose. 100 … 120 … 150 … 200 … For a while, it sat around 250, and I was obviously psyched, because 250 people saw it and liked it! But I was also a little disappointed, because supposedly 300 is the magic number to get to the front page, and I was so close!
Then I stopped checking IMGUR for updates and went off to do something else for a few hours. When I came back, I saw the upvote count and nearly had a heart attack — it was over a thousand!
By Sunday, the final upvote count was ~3,000. I was beyond the moon by that point. I got a ton of awesome comments, people asking questions about my book, or about self-publishing, or about writing in general. There were obviously some trolls, but for the most part everyone was really supportive. Click here to check out the post and the comments. (And note that the top comment is a reference to a meme that’s currently popular — it has nothing to do with my book, lol.)
After my post hit the front page, free downloads skyrocketed. Victory!
Conclusion:
All in all, I’m really happy with my first free download weekend. I won’t say sales increased a great deal in the wake of the free days (or at all, really), but I did net 5 new reviews, so that alone is fantastic!
I wouldn’t suggest IMGUR as a good promotion platform for indie authors. It’s not an advertising site — it’s just a place to share funny photos and cool original content. I think I got away with it because I posted at the right time of day, I posted a photo of both myself (a young woman) and a cute dog, and the fact that the book was for free (i.e., I wasn’t trying to sell it, just give it away). However, if you want to check out the site and give it a try, go for it! At the very least, you’ll see some funny posts and get a good laugh out of it.
Thus concludes my report. Have an awesome weekend, everyone!
Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It is officially free to download this weekend (January 31 – February 1).
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Here are details about the book:
Genre: YA sci-fi / romance / adventure
High school junior Eris Miller thinks she’s having a bad day when her roommate’s boyfriend catches her stepping out of the shower wearing nothing but a towel. Then she gets abducted by scaly six-armed aliens with a strange fondness for the color blue, and her day suddenly gets a whole lot worse.
Trapped on a spaceship bound for the slave markets of Sirius B, Eris fears she’ll never see her home again. But then fate whisks her away from her reptilian captors and into the arms of Varrin, a fast-talking space pirate who promises to deliver her safely back to Earth. He claims to have her best interests at heart, but Eris soon discovers that her charming rescuer has a hidden agenda.
As they race across the galaxy, outrunning a villainous figure from Varrin’s past, Eris begins to realize that their relationship is putting her planet, her life and her heart in imminent danger. She knows that trusting Varrin could prove deadly … but what other choice does she have?
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I’ll be posting results of the free weekend once said weekend is over, so check back here if you’re curious. Other than that … let’s get this baby to #1 on the Free Kindle Chart!
SHWOOP.
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen — Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It is re-released on Amazon and ready for your reading enjoyment! (Scroll to the end of the post for links.)
The 2nd edition features a variety of exciting updates, including:
For anyone just finding this site for the first time, here’s the cover and description of Imminent Danger:
High school junior Eris Miller thinks she’s having a bad day when her roommate’s boyfriend catches her stepping out of the shower wearing nothing but a towel. Then she gets abducted by scaly six-armed aliens with a strange fondness for the color blue, and her day suddenly gets a whole lot worse.
Trapped on a spaceship bound for the slave markets of Sirius B, Eris fears she’ll never see her home again. But then fate whisks her away from her reptilian captors and into the arms of Varrin, a fast-talking space pirate who promises to deliver her safely back to Earth. He claims to have her best interests at heart, but Eris soon discovers that her charming rescuer has a hidden agenda.
As they race across the galaxy, outrunning a villainous figure from Varrin’s past, Eris begins to realize that their relationship is putting her planet, her life and her heart in imminent danger. She knows that trusting Varrin could prove deadly … but what other choice does she have?
***
Check out the book here:
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Call for reviews:
If you have at some point in the past read Imminent Danger and enjoyed it, please consider posting a review on any of the above sites. The reviews from the old edition did not carry over to the new edition, so currently Imminent Danger is sad and review-less. Thanks!
SHWOOP.
Now, let me preface this post by stating that this is an extremely tentative plan, cooked up in the shower yesterday, and now delivered via the magical power of the internet to your computer screen!
Step 1: Finish writing Chasing Nonconformity
This is the most important step, as this sequel is the pivot point around which the rest of the plan turns. I’m about halfway through the re-write right now, and will hopefully get it done by the end of February. Then begin the rounds of editing and beta readers and general headaches … so I’m hoping that if I buckle down and really put my nose to the grindstone, I can maybe eke out a finished manuscript by September?
Step 2: Get covers for Imminent Danger and Chasing Nonconformity
Of course, I already have a cover for Imminent Danger, but that cover is technically owned by iUniverse, and I don’t really feel like paying them several hundred dollars to come into possession of a cover to which I’m not particularly attached. The plan, you see, is that I’m going to re-publish Imminent Danger on my own (i.e., not through a vanity publisher), which will give me much more control over the fate of the book. So I’m going to need covers for both books 1 and 2.
I was in talks with a cover designer last year, but things didn’t really work out — I didn’t know what I wanted, and the designer had a particular style that, while lovely, just didn’t mesh with what I had in mind (despite me not actually knowing what I had in mind). See the problem? Indecision abounds in my world. Anyway, I’m now messing around with cover design on my own, and have tentatively acquired a new designer … more on that story as it unfolds!
Step 3: Break from iUniverse and re-release Imminent Danger via Amazon KDP
So this is actually two steps in one. Basically, I kind of like the idea of trying out the Amazon KDP program, but that of course means I can’t have my book for sale on other websites. Since iUniverse is currently distributing Imminent Danger to every website under the sun, that will mean that I’m going to break from them at some point. I don’t know when, but … it’s definitely going to happen. I mean, unless I can find a way to re-publish Imminent Danger on Amazon KDP and still leave the iUniverse version up and available … maybe call the new version the “Deluxe version” or something? If anyone knows about this sort of thing, by all means send your wisdom my way!
And then the second part of the step is, of course, to re-release Imminent Danger on Amazon KDP. I don’t know that I’ll stay in the KDP program forever, but it seems a good way to start. My tentative plan for this is to re-release the book sometime in September. I’m thinking of doing the Kindle Countdown Deals program for the first three months, and then switch over to the 5 free days option just in time for …
Step 4: Release Chasing Nonconformity for Christmas!
This is, of course, assuming I’m actually able to come up with a finished manuscript by the fall, which is … let’s just call it an extremely optimistic plan. But I’m nothing if not optimistic! So assuming everything goes according to plan, I’ll release Chasing Nonconformity around the start of December … and at that point Imminent Danger will have gone into the “5 free promo days” program, so I can offer it for free for a few days in December/January to drum up interest and encourage people to give the series a shot.
I am obviously a complete “n00b” at marketing, so any thoughts/comments on my plan are greatly appreciated!
Unrelated media:
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/GrN3m
Today’s guest post comes to us from Tom Dale, a writer over at sainsburysebooks.co.uk, who was kind enough to offer some insights on the current state of digital self-publishing. Read on!
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The digital age has changed the world. It has transformed the way we do almost everything, from the minute to the massive. There are valid arguments claiming that technology has enhanced our lives and those that say it has detracted from it. Personally I sit somewhere between these two camps, but on the whole I believe it has made life better and broadened possibilities for many people on the planet. The greatest achievement of the technological age, I would argue, is the enhancement of global interconnectedness. That may sound a little wordy but think about it for a second; in that second you thought about it millions of people communicated with millions more people.
This greater connectivity has one key benefit for authors the world over; self publishing can be done by anyone and distributed globally in an instant. Not only that but your content will sit alongside works which have had thousands of pounds thrown at them for publication, with no distinguishable difference. When Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, a tool for authors to self-publish their books to Amazon’s Kindle store, was launched alongside its famous e-reader, the Kindle, vast new possibilities were created for authors without the resources or support to get their work published. This format has been reproduced by many other eBook publishers such as Apples iBook or Barnes and Noble’s Nook publishing services.
Gordon Willoughby, Director of Kindle EU, has had to say of these platforms: “[It] enables ‘ordinary’ Kindle authors to compete on a level playing field with the giants of the literary world and we’re so excited to see it succeeding for both readers and authors.” Mr Willoughby’s words ring true in light of the thousands of success stories that have come out of eBook self publication.
Despite some controversy around Amazon’s publication service and rumours of excessive ‘delivery charges’ added onto Amazon’s fee for eBook sales, the KDP tool is an invaluable one for aspiring authors. If you are sitting on your first book – receiving rejection letters from traditional print publishers – do not be disheartened; it has been hailed as a cure for the depression of rejection from publishers. The tales of self-publishing success often tell of multiple rejections, only to receive multiple offers once a name was made on the eBook market.
There are a plethora of alternatives to Amazon’s KDP and I would suggest maximising your potential sales by exploring all these other avenues to ensure maximum reach. However, despite the controversy around the two royalty levels that Amazon offers, you should not exclude yourself from that market. Consider that people who own Kindles are unlikely to use other eBook purchasing services (although from I what I hear competitors such as Sainsburys’s eBooks are beginning to challenge this) and that just under half the e-reader market share is held by the Kindle, it would make no business sense to back out of such a vast market on principle or otherwise.
Kathryn Stockett, author of the bestselling novel The Help, who was famously rejected dozens of times before getting her work published, has been quoted telling fellow authors: “What if I had given up at 15? Or 40? Or even 60?” And how many did stop at 40, or 50, or 60? It takes an incredibly strong person to still believe in your work after so much rejection but it would seem that this rejection has no bearing on the merit of your work.
So, in short, this new age of self-publication bypasses the depressing, even soul-destroying, world in which the fickle choice of another affects your very existence as an author. The global connectivity that has been gifted to us by the digital age has brought with it other gifts. The ability to jump straight from author to published author in a matter of hours and to see one’s work sat on the shelves, albeit digital ones, of a global bookstore alongside the best bestsellers and the most successful storytellers work. It gifts new self-confidence to demoralised authors and a road to success to those who had never broached the barrier of the ominous publisher.
Long live digital!
Tom Erik Dale is a freelance journalist, writer, and lover of all things literary. He has long been an enthusiastic reader of both fiction and non-fiction, and is a keen believer in the digital reader revolution.
Unrelated media of the day:
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/ZtIPea5
Michelle Proulx - Author 