Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

E- Book Promotion Days

Those of us in the independent sector of publishing will no doubt know that marketing a new book is akin to burning pound or dollar notes. You do all the promotion, you blog like mad, network like a social prostitute and throw money on great ideas, and all you get as a reward is one measly sale on Amazon.

But the other great thing you notice is that one measly sale makes a significant difference on your chart rating, promoting your book thousands of places up the scale. Many of us will know with the monolithic world of Amazon, that being at the top of your various genre charts is vital to the Mr and Mrs Bloggs of the world seeing your book and considering a purchase. But whilst you are dwindling in the realms of number 100 or even 1000 in the genre not even the most avid book searching geek is going to delve that far to find you.

This week I have attempted a bit of a promotion and it seemed to work in pushing my kindle book ( A Very English Revolution) to the front page of the Political Thriller chart, and that’s with only minimal additional sales (less than 10 I think). Maybe there is a chance that Bloggs will get his wallet out now.

This morning I thought of a great way for all of us to do something similar to help each other.

My idea is to promote our e-books as a collective. I have chosen e-books rather than paper copies because most of us sell e-books a much lower cost so it makes the exercise more viable than paper, although if it’s successful maybe we can consider paper as well.

Here’s the idea.

We create a list of interested authors who all possess a kindle. I can keep a register of interested parties or publish it somewhere, whatever we choose. Each author agrees a promotion day and the others share this on their blogs and social networks. When that day comes around each of us buy and download the book on the same day, therefore boosting that days sales ranking. If there are enough of us doing it then there is a chance of success.

Success breeds success, so if it works for one person then others will follow and each of us will have more of a chance to make front page heaven. Of course this does require trust in our fellow authors to do the deed, but what can I say? It’s an idea, if it works then we all win. You never know we might be downloading a great book we might otherwise totally bypass.

Interested to know what people think. Please share it around writer sites, as the more people are interested the more we can make this work. People can find me out in the virtual world but otherwise a mail at norristeve@gmail.com will engineer a direct response.

7 members like this

Comment by Stacy Eaton on January 13, 2012 at 9:26pm: Not at all!!! Very cool!

Comment by Amanda Chambers on January 13, 2012 at 9:32pm: Steve's interview is up. http://wp.me/p26mcl-6K

Working on George's now.

Comment by Steve Norris on January 13, 2012 at 9:33pm: thanks Amanda

Comment by Amanda Chambers on January 13, 2012 at 11:37pm: George's post is up. http://wp.me/p26mcl-6P

I think Sarah's is the only response I have from the remaining authors. You still have plenty of time, but please try to have your answers to me at least two days ahead of your date.

Comment by George Stringfellow on January 14, 2012 at 1:18am: Thanks for helping us out today, Amanda

Comment by Amanda Chambers on January 14, 2012 at 1:24am: You're welcome! I'm getting good feedback from the interviews. Hope that translates into some sales for y'all!

Comment by Steve Norris on January 15, 2012 at 1:47pm: Ratings are still doing well this morning - thanks guys, sneaked back up to #36 this morning.

BTW - haven't heard from Jeannie in the last week, tried a personal message, so unless I get confirmation I assume she's not taking part. Tuesdays promotion will just be for Sarah. Unless anyone knows any different. I have talked to C.A. and she is up with the sales, just having trouble getting on the site.

Comment by Matt T. Schott on January 15, 2012 at 2:00pm: Thats geat Steve, Tuesday morning you post Sarah's link and Jeannie's if she contacts you.

Comment by Steve Norris on January 16, 2012 at 10:10pm: It's Monday evening so posting the link for Sarah's remarkable book, Lancelot and the Wolf

http://www.amazon.com/Lancelot-Wolf-Knights-Camelot-ebook/dp/B0058W...

Sarah can post a tweet for us to post with it.

Please purchase as you come on line tomorrow

Thanks everyone for keeping up with this great promotion