… of giving away over a thousand copies of my novel, “The Big Bend”. We’re talking about the Kindle version, of course. No printing costs, no shipping costs, nobody working in a dingy mailroom or a large warehouse that has to be built, maintained and staffed (and let’s not forget about the means of getting those books to the retail stores, and the distributors ‘bite’ and the cost of the shelf space in the bookstore, etc., etc., ad nauseam; all of that goes away when you discuss eBooks; and that is one of the main reasons why “Traditional Publishing” is going to go away, as well. They literally cannot compete against eBooks. It’s all about “Cost”. It has to be.
And I am giving away over (I hope) one thousand copies of “The Big Bend”. That is the first of four novels in a series I’ve written about the life and times of a former cop here in Florida.
I could not afford to do that if eBooks – and Amazon – were not here. I could not afford to do that if I did not know I would be making money on the back end of this giveaway. Say, what?
Let’s say 10% of the thousand people who download and read a free copy of “The Big Bend” and enjoy it then purchase another of my novels. That means I will have sold 100 copies to people who – as far as I know - never read one of my novels before. That puts money in my pocket and brings in 100 new readers, all for a staggering cost to me of - (are you ready for this?) - $0.00.
That’s right. It did not cost me a single penny, and almost everyone who owns a Kindle or uses a Kindle Reader App on their PC, or Mac, or hand-held device in both Europe and the US had access to Amazon during those 3 days of my giveaway. I sent out announcements on Facebook, my email notification list and blogged about the giveaway throughout the week prior to the start of the free download promo and begged everyone to repost and forward the notice to their friends. One of my good friends in England, Morgen Bailey (http://www.morgenbailey.com/), updated a blog interview I did with her some time ago and allowed me to tack on an announcement about the giveaway (thanks again, Morgen! You’re the greatest! Love you long time!), and she has a much bigger audience than I do.
I really don’t care how many people download the free copy of that novel. I hope the number rises into the hundreds of thousands. The more the merrier.
The promotional offer began at midnight (think of it as very early Wednesday morning) yesterday and runs through midnight on Friday. This is all on Pacific Standard Time. So far, at 3:49 pm on Thursday, over 900 copies have been downloaded. I hope and pray that by the end of this evening that number is well over one thousand. That means I still have an entire day to see the numbers continue to climb. I sure hope they do!
it’s called Marketing and Promotion, and if you’re a writer hoping to grow your readership and actually make a living as an author, you gotta get yourself out there and do it. You gotta grow your audience. You have to cultivate new readers. Remember, ‘grow’ is a verb. That means you do something.
Here’s the link to the book page on Amazon for “The Big Bend”:
If you don’t own a Kindle, you can get an app for your PC or Mac or your hand-held device here. I know lots of people who read Kindle books on their smart phones (just not while you’re driving please!):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=sv_kstore_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771
It’s free. Go ahead. Download a copy and read it and enjoy it. Please.
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