My Goodreads group pleas seem to have been a bit successful. My inbox shows nine replies ~ one guy (and yes, it's a guy) replied six times, apparently to every post I made, which is weird. I haven't opened any of them yet, but I guess I will be busy sending ARCs, once I get past the dreaded "Where do I send it?" drill. It's uncomfortable asking people to post their email addresses, so I wonder if I should ask them to "friend" me and send me a direct message instead. I don't have a problem with posting my own, since it's not really "me" (it's under my pen name), but I also don't want spammers latching onto it, either. It's also been my experience that spammers request ARCs, too, but I will be more discerning this time around.
I also heard back regarding the IndieView author interview I inquired about. I only asked as a lark, since it's basically an aggregator site that lists a bunch of bloggers who review books. I don't even know what I would get out of answering interview questions, but I'll take a look at the sheet the woman attached to see if it's worth my while. From the few bloggers' sites I looked at, it appears they don't need to be searching out books to review; a lot of them aren't even accepting new submissions. But if something is free to try and the site is vetted, I don't see what harm it can do to participate.
BookSprout continues to be worthless. I check it a couple of times a day, and still no one has claimed my book. At this point I would be shocked if someone did. I've already written the site off as a bad investment.
After MUCH Google searching I finally found my Amazon campaign manager. Amazon's "tutorials" are completely worthless. "First step: Go to Campaign Manager." Okay, where is it? Logically it should be included on one's Bookshelf page, but no. At last I found an answer on the KDP boards. My ad has had 34 impressions and that's it. Nothing. No clicks. I guess on the plus side, I haven't spent any of the money I budgeted for the ad. I'm wondering where the "Amazon ads work wonders!" part comes into play. Granted, I was pretty tired the day I set it up and I probably wasn't thinking clearly. My ad copy isn't good; it doesn't entice anyone to buy. I choose to view it as a learning experience. It is interesting, though, that everyone expects a person to be an expert at something they've never done before. The process was as confusing as *(#@ and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.
My sales report shows 222 pages of my loser essay book (written under a different pen name) was read via KENP. Who would read that whole thing?? But thank you, Anonymous, for my ninety-four cents in royalties! Luckily, they didn't leave a review. (I couldn't resist the temptation to look.) The free promotion I ran for five days for Shadow Song, though? Nothing. Zero.
Overall, it's not all bad news. I have a few ARCs to send out and my Voracious Readers Only promo should start running today or tomorrow. At least I can start to feel a little bit useful.
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