Running Two Books on Sale in Tandem on KDP Select

The first two Relic Worlds books went on sale today on Kindle, and they'll be on sale through the end of the week.  I made the first one free, and the second one on sale for 99 cents.  The idea is to entice readers with the first, and since the second is just a buck, hopefully the audience will just go ahead and buy it.

I'm going to monitor its progress and report how it goes, continuing to try to figure out how this self-promotion thing goes.

Here's how I prepared this time.

Two weeks before the sale, I applied for the big guys.  That's Bookbub, Ereader News Today, and Digital Book Today.  As usual, Bookbub and Ereader turned me down, but Digital Book took it.

One week before the sale, I went tot he paid sites that seemed to do pretty well before.  This includes Book Butterfly, Free Booksy, Book Sends, and Ebooks Habit.  I also posted it for free in Awesomegang, Indie Book of the Day, Ignite Your Book, and OHFB, and for $3 at Free Ebooks Daily.  In every case I chose one of teh books to post except for one of the sites, Ebooks Habit.  They were low price enough that I posted both.  The hope is that someone will see one, then the other, and realize they can get a couple books in the series for a deal.

Throughout the week before the sale I was very active in Facebook groups that I belong to which involve sci fi books and Kindle reads.  This was to sort of prime the pump, and for people not to think I'm just going to post my book and am not interested in what they had to say.  I didn't just post on these sites, I reacted to what other people said.  I made my presence known as much as I could.

The day it started, I registered for any site that only takes submissions on the day, such as Facebook groups that do free Kindle promotions.  Most importantly, though, I posted the announcement to Relic Worlds' Facebook page and I shared that with other groups.  The first step is very important; to post in my own page first and share it.  When I post in other groups, it links back to me.  But when I share from my page, it links back to the page, which is the series I want them to get into.

So that's where we are right now.  It's 4:30 and I'm at 635 free downloads of book 1, but 0 purchases of book 2.  Strangely, there have been a couple downloads of my other books, but that might be just coincidence.  I'mhoping the actual sales pick up.  I'll let you know as it continues.

For now, here are the links to the books on sale:

Relic Worlds, Book 1:
https://www.amazon.com/Relic-Worlds-Lancaster-Search-Promised-ebook/dp/B00JSW7EBY?ie=UTF8&keywords=Relic%20Worlds&qid=1465240389&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Relic Worlds, Book 2:
http://www.amazon.com/Relic-Worlds-Lancaster-Secret-Padrone/dp/1530464692/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1465240389&sr=8-2&keywords=Relic+Worlds

The American Game Free on Kindle This Weekend

The American Game will be available for free on Kindle this weekend as part of a KDP Select promotion.  It will be available for free on the Kindle from Friday, September 26, until Tuesday, September 30.  It can be found at:

http://www.amazon.com/American-Game-Jeff-McArthur-ebook/dp/B00LJII7GG/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1411618014&sr=8-1&keywords=The+American+Game+Jeff+McArthur

It may seem counter-intuitive to give away one's books for free, but each download counts as a sale, and if there are enough, it can get onto the best sellers list, at least in its category.  This helps with exposure, which leads to even more sales.  So regardless of whether or not you're going to read the book, I hope you'll download it.

Doing a Free Kindle Promotion of The American Game in Two Weeks

The American Game will be free on Kindle for five days beginning on September 26 and running through September 30th.  To prepare for this, I'm alerting several sites, including:

Pixel of Ink

Kindle Nation Daily

Ereader News Today

Digital Book Today

Book Gorilla

I'm also posting it on all my social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and Google +.  I'll also be telling every Civil War, history, and baseball group I can find.

In the past, I've separated my free days, having 2 early in the 90 days of KDP Select, and 3 near the end.  That way I can learn from the first.  This time I wanted to make sure I got some reviews first, then just had them all at once.  I'm hoping it will build in numbers downloading it as I would like to get it into the hands of as many people as possible.

This is a story I have been more concerned gets out there to the public than on having a huge profit.  While I believe this is a story that will appeal toa  large audience, I spent so much time on it over 20 years that no amount of money can make up for it.  I'd like this to build my reputation, and just to be seen.  I love this story; I always have.  I'll update this page to say how well my efforts are going.