Until this October, my first (and so far only) book on Amazon, Bound by Life, has had a steady readership. I have not had as many paid downloads, but since the book is enrolled in KDP Select Program, it has seen many reads through KU/KOLL. The screenshow below shows the KENP read in September, 2016. Though the book has seen many more KENP Reads in previous months, September was much better compared to October and November, with no KENP reads at all.
This kind of made me panicky – because I am not sure about the reason for the drop in reads suddenly. For an author, perhaps nothing is better than being read. Hence, whether or not the royalty is ample, an author always wants readership.
In the past, I have noticed that writing about the book (whether in blog/Facebook) has led to spikes in readership. And for months now, I have only talked about the book when during the Free Book Promotion (FBP). The FBP creates a buzz in the digital world, which later translates to more readership. Which is why, I am again making the book available for free for the next five days.
From Nov. 21 – Nov. 25, Bound by Life will be absolutely FREE on Amazon. The free promotion starts approximately 12 AM PST, so keep a look at your clocks tomorrow, especially if you are not in PST.
When I go back to the Amazon KDP account, I keep thinking when I will be able to put another book out there along with this book. At a point in time, I had a dream that I will publish one book every year. But as I struggle with work life, I realize it is easier said than done. Somewhere, pressed by the cogwheels of life, inspiration vanishes. I have lost count of how many WIPs are lying around here and there in the computer. These days I have even stopped using the computer – with the smartphone, I can do mostly every day-to-day thing that I need to do. Unless, I have to write a blogpost or work in the book, I don’t use the laptop.
Are you a working professional and an aspiring writer? How do your manage your time? How do you insert the much-needed dose of inspiration to your writing life? Write to me in the Comments below.
Until later,
Write On!
Scribbles@Arpita 
This is a really interesting insight into publishing and marketing your own book. I had no idea you could see trends like this from Amazon. Fascinating.
I too struggle with balancing writing, working, and being a parent. I wish I had some kind of formula or magic to give you, but I don’t. Good weeks I get 10 hours of writing in and that includes novel/blog and short story writing. Bad weeks I get 2. I try not to beat myself up too much on the bad weeks, because that leads to even worse weeks. Congratulations on your book readership so far, and I hope you get another bump in readers!
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Hi! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. After finishing this blogpost, I actually went on to editing a long-preserved WIP. I am planning to make a public declaration of a publish date for it, so that it kind of forces me to finish the work. I have made schedules in the past and they did not work. I guess it’s time to be a little tough on myself.
Why I am particularly frustrated with this WIP is I have 95% of the word count. I just need to finish the rest 5% and do a couple of rounds of edit. Hoping to clear this by Dec 31. Let’s see.
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Best of luck with your goal. I really appreciate seeing other’s processes and learning from them. Thank you for sharing!
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