Self-publish to KDP Select or All Markets? by J.Q Rose

Hello and welcome to the April meeting of 

the Insecure Writers Support Group(IWSG) blog hop! The sun is shining, spring's around the corner, and we have the opportunity to get-together to discuss all things writerly. 

What a great time to be a writer.

Join us!

Internet Writers Support Group Blog Hop
First Wednesday of every month.

What is IWSG? Founder of the  Insecure Writer’s Support Group and author Alex J Cavanaugh explains the group's purpose is "to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!" You're invited to become a member of this supportive group.

The group blogs the first Wednesday of every month.  The list of bloggers is always available so you can hop around to the author blogs filled with humor, advice, and thought-provoking topics on writing and publishing. You can find the list of participants at Alex's IWSG page. 

# # # 

Self-publish to KDP Select or All Markets? by J.Q Rose

Last Friday I revised and re-published my non-fiction e-book for girls, Girls Succeed! Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women. The first

Girls Succeed! by J.Q. Rose
To inspire and empower girls.

version was published in 2012 when I was just learning about writing and publishing. Now that I have some books behind me both trad and self-pubbed, I'm even more insecure about marketing! 

You know how a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing? Well now that I've dipped not only my toe, but my whole torso into this book business, I know enough to see how many marketing possibilities there are out in the cyberworld AND realize how many books are available for readers to peruse. 

What are the best avenues to get a reader's eyes on a book? Recently I discovered, in a survey run by Smashwords' Mark Coker, a reader chooses books simply by browsing through the online and brick and mortar stores. Word-of-mouth is not the #1 choice. That surprised me.  

Girls Succeed! is at amazon and smashwords so it can be distributed to many booksellers, but with the advent of KDP Select, a huge promotion tool for amazon, I wonder if it is better to yank GS from Smashwords for a few months and try to market it through KDP.  I would appreciate you sharing your experiences or a friend's experience in using KDP Select.

Dream BIG!

The small business person in me fights the idea of amazon becoming a monopoly and squeezing out the other booksellers. But I must reveal that Girls Succeed!, while great for getting coupons to send to readers, has had few sales at Smashwords in the past four years. 

This book is a "heartwork." Maybe it's because I have two daughters and a granddaughter, but I feel the e-book is a wonderful way to inspire and empower girls to dream big. So I want to get it into the hands of readers, not for the money, but for the message.

Thank you in advance for any input you have to help me reduce my insecurity!

###

Romance Readers Want to Know series
Every Thursday on the J.Q. Rose blog

Come back tomorrow when we put sweet romance author, Joselyn Vaughn,  in the hot seat to answer questions from readers on the Romance Readers Want to Know series at the J.Q Rose blog. Also a lucky commenter will win her witty and warm romance, Sucker for a Hot Rod.

Marketing Your Book with the KDP Free Promotion, Book Trailers for Non-fiction Books, This Week

Hello and welcome to the J.Q. Rose blog! 

I bet you had a blessed Easter and/or Passover. Now spring is officially here! 

Many folks' thoughts turn to vegetable gardening this time of year. My DH, Gardener Ted, and I joined forces to offer information in our guide, Quick Tips on Vegetable Gardening: Starting Your Garden, to help them get inspired and to offer practical advice on gardening. 

Vegetables from J.Q. Rose and Gardener Ted's garden

I had a blast putting all the articles together and working with my hubby on the final product. I uploaded the file to Amazon on February 15, 2015. The eBook hit the Amazon bestseller lists the next day!  I was thrilled. But after the first rush, sales fell off. 

I decided to try the KDP promotion of offering the eBook for free. I don't have the second book in the series available yet, but I decided to use part of my 5 days of free promotion at this time since 'tis the season to start a garden. 

I was blown away with the response to the three day "sale." I gave away over 1100 eBooks and reached #1 in crafts/hobbies and seasonal categories of Amazon's free kindle eBooks. 

I decided to use the free promotion for several reasons:

• Create buzz to earn real sales after the promotion
• To gauge the interest in vegetable gardening
• To garner reviews for the book

I chose the dates because in Michael Thomas eBook, Crush It on the Kindle: A Guide to Publishing and Maximizing Sales, advised offering the free promotion at the end of the month. He explained "The biggest jump came from people borrowing my book at the beginning of the month, which increased its sales rank, which increased its visibility, which increased its actual sales and profits." I figured if he achieved great results when giving it away for just one day, I'd offer it for three days to include the end of the month and the beginning. Perhaps this was erroneous thinking on my part. (Just like the assumption that if fertilizer is good for a plant, give it more than the directions say, and it will grow faster. No, don't do that,)

I'm sure I made an error when selecting the days for the give away because by making the promo 3 days, I bumped up into Good Friday, Passover, and Easter weekend. When the give-away ended on Thursday, April 2, the next day to actually purchase the book was Friday and the beginning of the weekend. As I write this blog on Monday morning, I have not sold one eBook. So the "buzz" didn't translate into actual sales. 

Do I have hope this week will see sales? You bet I do because the royalties are going to support local food pantries in my area. Have I missed the optimal time to sell a book on Starting Your Garden? Not in Michigan! It's still snowing there and in many northern states. I also rationalize, people always have that desire to get their hands dirty. Gardening is not just a few weeks in the spring.

Another tidbit for you to tuck away in your marketing tool box--I notified several websites who feature FREE eBooks so I could rely on not only Amazon's promotion, but also those sites. Shelley Hitz Places to Submit Your Free KDP Select Promotion PDF made it easy to find and enter the eBook info. The link to the PDF is in her eBook, Marketing Your Book on Amazon: 21 Things You Can Easily Do for Free to Get Exposure and Sales.

# # # #

Besides the give-away as a marketing tool, I decided to make a book trailer for the eBook. I worked on it and got it ready, then it dawned on me that book trailers are usually for fictional books. Have you ever seen a book trailer for a non-fiction book?? Hmmm....well, after all that time I spent on this video, I'm going to be brave and share it with you below even if non-fiction trailers are not done! 

VIDEO: Quick Tips on Vegetable Gardening: Starting Your Garden

Book Trailer for  Quick Tips on Vegetable Gardening

Have you tried using the KDP Select Free Promotion in your marketing efforts? Is it in your marketing plan? What do you think of book trailers for non-fiction books? Please leave a comment below. We'd love to hear from you.

This Week:

Thursday, April 9--Author Kyla Phillips is my guest. She suggests four points when world-building in your stories. Come back for this helpful information and to discover her new urban fantasy, Agent of Light, releasing in May.

Be sure to get notices of new posts on the J.Q. Rose blog by submitting your email in the box in the right side bar. I promise, NO SPAM!!