A Writer's Week: Giving It All Away

First things first. I made another school visit this week. A big thank you to Ms. Gaipa's 4th grade class! I loved your questions and hearing all about your different writing projects! The kids had some great observations about the book and writing in general. Thank you very much, I had a great time. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera, so I didn't get any pictures of the visit.

It's always great to visit classes and connect with the kids. They also come up with some interesting questions. I always seem to meet at least one that's writing a book. They all have great ideas.School visits are a great way to get the word out about The Deliverers: Sharky and the Jewel. Lately, though, I've been trying to figure out a good way to drum up some interest beyond my rather limited sphere of influence.

Then, I hit upon an idea. Actually, the opportunity had been staring me in the face, I just hadn't been alert enough to see it. Amazon has a program where you can offer the Kindle version of your book for free for up to five days within a 90 day period. So, that's what I decided to do. I figured everybody likes free stuff, right? It might be a good opportunity to get the book into the hands of people I don't know. The more people that read it, the more chance they'll like it and spread the word, right?

I made the book available for free for three days this week. I have to say that it was a success. Overall, I gave away 1,343 copies of the book in the U.S., 16 in England, seven in Germany, and one in Spain. For a couple of hours, I was giving away a book a minute! In Kindle's ranking of bestselling free books, I made it as high as #204. I was #5 in children's action & adventure, and #5 in children's science fiction & fantasy.

So, I got the book into the hands of a lot of people that would not have even known it existed. That's great. Now I'll have to wait and see if this results in increased sales and some more reviews on my Amazon page. My hope is that at least half the people who got the book will actually read it, and some of those will like it and spread the word.  If it works out, I might try it again for a day or two every few months.

That was my big marketing push this week. On the writing side, I've got to rewrite part of the new book. Stig does something that works the first couple of times he does it. I mean that he does it for two valid reasons. The third time he does it, it's not convincing, so I'm trying to think of something he can do instead that would work. I'll come up with a good alternative. Hopefully I can fill you in on some progress next week!