Making It Free

I used to occasionally try Amazon's free book promotions. They never worked. I couldn't even get one taker. I wouldn't say it was demoralizing, but it was surprising. Who doesn't want free stuff? Of course, there are so many free book promotions running simultaneously that readers can afford to be choosy. 

This week I tried it again as a lark. Nothing's been happening with my published books, but I haven't been promoting them, either. I'm in writing mode, where everything else is on the back burner. So I chose Lies and Love, which has the most ("most" being relative) reviews. Authors are constantly pondering which days are the best for free offerings, but I posit that there are no bests. I simply chose Monday through Friday, because it was Monday and there was no time like the present to start.

I'm not wowed by the response, but at least this time I had a few book grabs ~ eight, to be exact. It's something, and it didn't cost me a penny. 

And despite my so far successful efforts to avoid reading reviews, I noticed that Lies and Love has seven, one five, four fours, and apparently two twos, although the twos have to text, nor does the five. (which is odd, because if you're giving a book a five-star review, why not say something about it?) Over all, not bad. I'm humbled by the text reviews, which tell me that most people are basically nice.

Now to the KENP part of the story...

This month, one person picked up the book of essays I wrote and only got through five pages. I'm pretty philosophical about that book. I published it as a fluke and will eventually take it down, I'm thinking. But hey, those five pages netted me two cents in royalties!

The disappointing news is that another person chose Shadow Song as a free read and only read two pages. That book is pretty damn good. Maybe the opening is slow ~ can't remember.

Bottom line, nothing much works, at least not well. But I don't expect much, either. I'm doing okay with my low expectations.