I know, I don’t usually post this news here. But, yep, it’s FREE WEEK on my site. I try to do this once a year along with a few “free” times peppered throughout the year. It’s supposed to be good for your sales but, by now, I think most people know that:
People Just Like to Get Stuff for FREE
That’s all.
Kind of like those ‘severed heads’ Jaime Lannister once spoke of.
It’s ok. At least people are downloading and possibly reading. Maybe it’s not ‘good for sales’ but it can be ‘good for ye olde ego’.
Before I continue with the meat of this post, yes, here it is.
September 21st-September 25th (midnight Pacific time) you can get The Heart of War-Special Illustrated Kindle edition, Christmas Eve on Olympus, Cold November Rain, A Window to Magickal Herbalism, and Lisa’s List in English and Spanish all FREE on Kindle.
END of SHAMELSS PLUG
I don’t have any money for this campaign so I’m left with posting in FB groups, my own FB pages, Instagram, and Gods Help Me!, TikTok. I made one video for them and that’s it. It’s easy to see that the videos I’m actually IN get the most attention but I detest being IN the video so TikTok is not a good match for me.
Oh, yes, and my Loony friend is also running her book for free this week. I’d give you the info but that defeats the whole purpose of having my Loony friend. She doesn’t have any money either. She’s very new…she did pick up 7 ‘friends’ and 11 ‘followers’…Go Loony! Of course most of them are scammers. A lot of the FB groups won’t let her post but some did. I checked in with KDP to see how she was doing today.
23 downloads!
And someone actually bought the next book in this two book series.
I wish I could see how she’s making out in the Kindle Store but I think she’s just too new. There are no numbers for her on her book page. Bummer.
As for those FB groups, I have kept Loony and meself completely separate. We do not belong to any groups/pages together. No Cross Contamination, in other words. I don’t have to drive myself a wee bit batty wondering if I or she or whoever! LOL! Already posted in a group. I got out of every single author/indie author group I was in, they were driving me crazy. Loony picked those up. She posted in a few of them but did not attract the violent vitriol some other indie authors attract due to their AI covers.
Loony learned how to get around that nasty AI tag. She cruises through those groups largely unnoticed and certainly not bullied. I look at those 23 downloads, smile, and think:
Oh, fuck, what if THAT is going to be my Stan Lee Moment? How utterly delicious perfectly Divine Poetic Justice, hey? LOL
The Heart of War, as always, is still the heavy hitter with 53 downloads. Long live the Big Guy!
My biggest surprise was A Window to Magickal Herbalism. That book, that poor poor unloved book, has been out there forever. I could never elevate it to where I wanted because I either didn’t have the time, I certainly didn’t have the patience, and I didn’t have the right tools to pull it off in e-book form anyway. I would have gone about that completely wrong. Wait, no, I DID go about it completely wrong. Yep.
Now, I know it’s FREE but be happy for an Old Lady for just a moment, ok?
Yeah! #1! Woot! So much for; people will never even look at your book because of the AI cover.
Just for reference
That’s the very first cover for this book. It was the cover for years. Obviously I made it. Oh, and I had to search far and wide on my computer to find it so you could see it!
That’s the second cover for this book. It also graced that position for several years. Yes, obviously, I made it. I don’t think I did a horrible job the second time around but it needed help.
Latest and greatest cover. As you can see, I took my two covers to Hal and together we made my actual vision for the cover spring to life.
Don’t be a Darren. Imagine you’re standing in a bookstore, you are presented with these three books with slightly varying titles. Which one are you at least going to pick up and turn over to read the back cover?
This is why I got out of all of those authors groups.
The people downloading that book right now, today, don’t care about the cover beyond the fact that it attracted and held their attention long enough to get them to click that ‘free’ button.
Believe me, please, please, please, in the past I have tried to GIVE this book AWAY and had very little success. Who would buy it with THAT cover and believe, even for a second, that the author was serious or had any idea at all? Not me. Honestly, yeah, no…not me.
Still I worked hard on that book, which was not an easy feat in 2012 struggling through tables in Word–which, BTW, turned out to be the wrong way to go anyway. All the work that went into it coupled with all the work it needed made it a very daunting task. That book went On and Off Sale several times over the years as the wind blew. The only thing I could ever say was: I’ll get back to it.
I said that for 14 years.
It’s always had very useful information presented in a very simple form. When I wrote it, and still today, I wanted everyone and anyone who picked it up to have no trouble understanding it or to feel, even for a second, they were in over their head or somehow didn’t belong. The text was always good.
The book was always dry. It was never what I envisioned because I didn’t have the tools. More than that, I didn’t have anyone to share my vision.
Today, as it sits up there for free with its meager ‘promo campaign’ behind it, it’s truly a book I would have loved to have when I was first starting out and feel I would have referred to it often.
It may finally have been given the opportunity to have the effect I wanted and to reach those nice folks who may be in need of it.
As the sun begins to set on my life, I feel that’s the most important part of this whole process. That the work finds the people who will appreciate it. All others are superfluous.
Unless, of course, Loony delivers on that Stan Lee Moment, then all bets are off.
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