My first free promotion ended last weekend and I'm pleased with the results. Since it coincided with the first Monday of the new month I've decided to use this month's Inspirational Monday to look back on my experience since publishing A Mage's Power.
I'm no longer editorial arrogant. Last year I thought I could be my own editor. I was so sure I could find all the errors I made three passes through the manuscript after I thought it was clean. It still wasn't and in the end I hired an editor but that wasn't the arrogant crushing blow. No, that came when the editor I hired said my manuscript required more than a light proofing. I was making the same error over and over again which lead to thousands of errors. Most of my 1 star reviews and also some of the positive reviews remark that the editing (my editing) was horrible. My book's overall rating would be higher if I had swallowed my pride and hired an editor before hand. When I finish the sequel, Looming Shadow, I will order more than a light proofing and put aside a month (or +1 weeks for however long they think it will take, which ever's longer) for them to do their thing.
It's been about a year since I took social media seriously and I'm still learning how to take full advantage of it. Creating this blog was the best I've done in that regard. It gives me a center to showcase my work and from which I can expand outward. I use writing tips and book reviews to attract hits and relate the former to my books and their pages at the top of this one. This also allows me to connect with other authors, like Isaac Hooke. We have a symbiotic relationship going on with retweeting and review giving.
My most recent experience is the above mentioned free promotion. I decided to do it once I received the professional edits for A Mage's Power. The idea was to get it into as many hands as possible to wash away the preception that the book was full of errors. At midnight on Saturday KDP recorded 951 downloads; for comparison this is 3/4 of my 'paid' downloads for the entire month of February. This fulfilled my objective so I'm happy with it.
With all this experience the launch of Looming Shadow will more successful and have fewer setbacks. Most inspiring of all is how many readers have said they're waiting for it. To them I'm not an unknown author anymore.
From what I understand, one of the perks of publishing through Amazon (and others?) is the ability to upload revisions that clean up errors and the like and have the update pushed free to those who've purchased it. I've received at least two such updates via my Kindle app. But I've come to the conclusion that it's virtually impossible to catch all your own mistakes.
ReplyDeleteFree updates to those that purchased? I haven't heard of that. I'll have to look into it. Thanks for letting me know.
DeleteCongratulations on the book and the great reception you've gotten. Keep going! I've taken a little detour and have been focusing the first part of this year on the craft. Things are humming along, just quietly.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I will! I'm glad to hear you're making progress with your own work.
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