In case you haven’t been keeping up with my latest news, I had a book come out December 1. It’s called The Key of Solomon, and I think it’s pretty good. But one of the harsh realities I’ve learned in writing books is that you can’t just write books and expect the public to beat a path to your door. Funny how that works.
So every time I come out with a book I try a slightly different strategy, hoping that one of these times I will come upon a magical formula that I can keep and use from that point on. So far, it’s very much miss and not too much hit. But here’s what I’ve done so far.
1. I talked about it. A lot. Here, and on Facebook. On Twitter. Face to face.
2. I did a giveaway on Goodreads for five books that got almost 800 responses. The goal is to (1) get those who signed up for the giveaway (at least some of them) to turn around and buy the book, or (2) get the five people who won a book to read it and submit a review to Amazon. I find that works about 25% of the time, and seems to be working less as time goes on. I’ve also learned that Goodreads is going to start charging for their giveaways in 2018. That sucks.
3. I paid on another site to offer my book for free in exchange for reviews. It will be offered for three weeks, then they give takers another weeks to submit their reviews. If you haven’t figured it by now, reviews are important.
4. I did a book signing at the Texas Adventist Book Center in my home town of Keene today, and I’ll do it again on Sunday. These events are usually hit and miss, but the Texas ABC bought a bunch of my books, so I want to have a good showing. Plus you never know if just showing up might convince someone to buy one later. So far, it’s been slow.
5. I’m offering my ebook for free on Amazon this weekend. This is always kind of risky. I’m promoting it on Twitter and Facebook, as well as Goodreads. The danger is that the people who might have bought it will end up getting it for free instead. My reasoning for offering it for free is simply that I need as many people as possible to know about the book. I still hope to get some reviews out of all that. Maybe some of the freebies will end up benefiting me through word of mouth, and the ebook is really free for me.
So like I said, it’s always a crapshoot. You try something, and if it works, you remember it and try it again later. I hope you remember to get your copy of The Key of Solomon this weekend.
The Great Adventure 