I can’t believe that it’s been a month since I posted and what a month it has been! Before we get into that let's talk Amazon eBook promotion.
By enrolling your eBook in KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) Select you are granted five (5) free eBook promotion days every 90 days. These are days where your eBook is free to download to everyone. Giving away your hard work for free? Craziness!
It’s not so crazy, by offering your e-book for free you open up your book to a wider audience who will download and hopefully review on Amazon. The reviews are flagged as a verified purchase which adds to its integrity. Also, if someone likes what they see in the e-book version they may want to order your other formats such as paperback.
But it if it was only so easy to just list your eBook as free and sit back….
Nope! You must promote it to death. I mean through your pages, groups, twitter, IG wherever and then there is the site known as “The Fussy Librarian”. This site has access to hundreds of thousands of subscribers who are interested in free eBooks. The key is to line up your free eBook days with the available promotion dates on Fussy Librarian.
All in all, from my own promotion I got over 900 downloads and well over 25 reviews. I would say that was a success. Reviews continue to trickle in even after the promotion. Right now, I am at 63 on Amazon, more than I ever dreamed was possible.
After the high of all those downloads, comes the inevitable lows of reality, the slow or nonexistent sales.
This is where you need to go back to basics and for me it has been Facebook /IG ads and bloggers.
The Facebook and IG Ads are trial and error with respect to tweaking the target audience, ad text and title. I have seen some good reaches and a couple hundred clicks but no outcome in terms of sales. However, I find that my targeted local ads (Trinidad and Tobago) have more favourable results in securing local orders that I sell directly.
Another great avenue for exposure is bloggers. I have come across great book bloggers on IG and You Tube. I follow them and have a look at their content and engagement before I even think of approaching them. When I do, I ask them to take a look at my book on Amazon and as well as through my website and if it interests them, I offer to send a copy for their review.
Since my book targets young readers, I also reached out to kindergarten teachers, firstly I offer a copy they can read to their class, and if once again, their class enjoys, I request that they share on their IG if they are so inclined.
These bloggers work very hard to create engaging content so I totally respect and admire those that only share what they believe will benefit their audience
After all this exhausting work I did have some wins this month!
I had five read aloud renditions done including one by the Duchess of York ( see my main page! ). My book became a #1 Best Seller in a Kindle Category (albeit for a few hours 😊 ) and I received such awesome support and encouragement from persons here in Trinidad that I am truly thankful and grateful.
I can’t wait to see what the next month has in store!
