An indie writer’s woes and a free book promotion

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!

 

Free ebook on Amazon Kindle: Bound by Life by Arpita Pramanick

My ebook, Bound by Life is once again available for free on Amazon. If you are a Kindle user and have not read it yet, please do download it.

The free promotion runs from September 6th-10th. In the previous promotions, the book has been downloaded over 100 times. Help me reach even greater audience by sharing this!

Cheers,

Arpita

Of Amazon self-publishing, book reviews and free book promotions!

It’s been more than eight months that I published my first ebook through Amazon. Since then, the platform has seen much change. The KENP standard that measured the number of pages in a Kindle ebook, underwent change: according to the earlier version of KENP, my book was 189 pages long. According to the new standard it is 143 pages only.

That of course means that I am no longer getting the amount I used to get when a reader read my book through Kindle Unilimited/KOLL. But again, the point of me publishing a book was not really about the money – even though every single rupee I earn from the Bound by Life campaign gives me more delight than the salary I get from my day job. I’m sure many writers would relate to this. So, every time I check the number of reviews of my book on Amazon, my heart skips a beat. I tremble inside with a mix of fear and excitement, wondering what the reader had to say about the book. So far, I have six positive reviews on Amazon. But every new review makes me feel as excited as the first one. To be read by someone who you don’t know and to be appreciated for your effort feels thrilling!

I especially loved the honest words in the latest review. The fact that I am a new, unknown author probably makes a lot of readers think twice before considering reading this book. In this age of consumerism, everyone wants to be sure that the product they are considering is worth their time and money.

So, I decided to lift the money constraint from the equation for some time. From April 8th to April 12th, Bound by Life will be available for free on Amazon. My target is to sell at least a 100 free copies of the book this April.

But I need your help to be able to do so. How do you think I should proceed to be able to sell 100 free copies? If you have had any experience in promoting books, please share the tips with me. You can reach out to me using the Contact form below.

Looking forward to hearing all you book enthusiasts! Also, feel free to share about the free promotion on your blog/social media platforms, You may also share the promotional images that I use on this blog for this purpose.

 

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ