Relic Worlds: Lancaster James & the Search for the Promised World Available for Free on the Kindle

It's that time; time to give away free promo copies of the book on the Kindle to give everyone a look.

I'm always wary of giving away my books for free.  After all, I spent months on them.  This particular Relic Worlds story has been in my mind since 1997.  So I'd rather get something for my efforts; after all, I promised my girlfriend a hammock and a lifetime supply of Bon Bons!

It is a bit frustrating to see mainstream books never having to go through this phase, but it's a necessity for independent books to get noticed.  I've made it a regular practice now to come out on the Kindle first, do the KDP Select program for 90 days to promote it with this free giveaway and other promotions, then do a wide release with other e-readers.

So today (May 29, 2014) to Saturday (May 31, 2014) Relic Worlds: Lancaster James and the Search for the Promised World, will be free on the Kindle at: http://www.amazon.com/Relic-Worlds-Lancaster-Search-Promised-ebook/dp/B00JSW7EBY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401383605&sr=8-1&keywords=Relic+Worlds

Twitter versus Instagram

I’m not the best when it comes to social media.  I find it to be more or less a necessary evil.  It’s not a horrible thing really, but all things being equal, I’d rather be writing my next book and let it speak for itself than be finding things to talk about on Facebook, Twitter, or even a blog.  Even now, I had to force myself to do this before getting back to my next book.

So for the wide release launch of the first Relic Worlds novel, I’m getting a social media guru to help me.  She gave me a choice of two platforms through which she would help.  Facebook is a must, and the other can be either Twitter or Instagram.  My first thought is for Twitter, but she recommended Instagram.  She said that Instagram is more popular with young people these days.

I therefore have to consider the pros and cons of both platforms.  I’m not crazy about either of them as I’m someone who prefers to have longer, deeper conversations, which are not conducive to the brief Twitter posts, or the picture-only Instagram.  My promoter said we could post things relevant to Relic Worlds such as scientific photos and science fiction pictures.  We couldn’t do much in the real world as pictures of me would involve me in the chair in front of my computer, then me in the chair from another angle, then me with a cat on my lap, etc.

This wasn’t a bad idea, but then I got to thinking that the reason why Instagram is more popular with younger people is because many of them are more interested in images than words.  If I was doing Relic Worlds as a comic book, this would be a good idea, but I’m not.  I want to attract people who are interested in reading, in taking in words, brief or otherwise.

One of the most important things I’ve learned in marketing is that you have to market to people who may actually buy your product.  Marketing to anyone else may seem like you’re casting a wider net, but you’re really just wasting time.  It’s for this  reason that I’m probably going to go with Twitter promotions throughout July.

I’m no expert at this, though, so if anyone reading this has further insight, I would love to hear it.

76 Places to Submit Your Free KDP Select Promotion for Your Kindle eBook - Training Authors for Success

I'm getting ready to have a second free promo for the Relic Worlds novel.  I did one that lasted 2 days, which was intended to give a free copy to loyal Relic Worlds fans, and to get copies to people who will hopefully do reviews.  The second one, lasting 3 days, is intended for the public.  It's goal is to shoot my book up the Amazon list, at least in its category, and to get people to know the series.  To me, the most important goal of this first book is to generate interest in the series.  Being that there will be plenty more books, it's more important to generate fans than to make a big profit on this first one.



I've therefore been studying blogs that list placed to list the book is free, and I came upon the following article.  I'll have to narrow it down somehow.



76 Places to Submit Your Free KDP Select Promotion for Your Kindle eBook - Training Authors for Success

Relic Worlds Novel Free Today on Kindle through KDP Select

My latest novel, Relic Worlds: Lancaster James and theSearch for the Promised World, is now available for the Kindle on Amazon.  I had been releasing the series on Drivethru Fiction, and had even done this book as a serial there, releasing each chapter as I finished it.  As such, I was going to have the novel come out on Drivethru and all the other e-readers upon release.

However, I looked over the results of my last two books, Pro Bono and The Great Heist.  I released the former through the free on Kindle program, and even though I gave thousands of copies away for free, I sold thousands more after the promotion.  That book still sells better than any of my others.  Meanwhile, I put The Great Heist through Amazon’s other promotion program, Kindle Countdown Deal, where it is sold for a lower price for a limited time.  I had almost no luck with that, selling only a few copies during the promotion period, and it’s never taken off, despite the fact that the subject matter is even more appealing to the general public than Pro Bono.

Of course, none of the other major e-reader platforms have a good promotion program other than Drivethru, which, unfortunately, is not a site highly trafficked enough to get a huge amount of sales.  So as a result, I’m going exclusively with Amazon to give away those copies for free so hopefully those people will spread the word.

I am doing this promotion in two stages:

First promotion:  I’m making it free for two days over a weekend to give it away to all the fans of Relic Worlds and people who have been following me on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  It’s a bonus to them, and hopefully those people will begin spreading the word in time for the second promotion.

Second promotion:  About a month later, I’m making it free for three days.  I will be promoting this one far more widely.  Those areas include:  Book Bub, Pixel of Ink, Facebook sci fi sites, Google + sci fi sites, Kindle Daily, etc.  This is the one I’ll really be pushing, and trying to get people to purchase.

The intent is to generate interest while there’s still time left in the exclusive Kindle deal.  The reason this is helpful is because it maximizes the book’s exposure in one area, making it more likely to get on their top books list.  If people have multiple readers, they purchase it on Amazon, and that pushes me up the Amazon list higher.  If it was on multiple readers, the book would go more evenly up multiple lists, thus making it so the book never reaches bestseller status on any one site.

Since the other e-reader sites do not have promotions that support independent artists like Amazon does, I chose Amazon Kindle.  Simple as that.  They all bemoan Amazon for having unfair business practices, but they do that while not improving their own services for independent authors like myself; so I don’t feel too sorry for them.