Since I completely struck out with my previous marketing efforts and since I'm currently not writing, I decided to try again.
I signed up for a Voracious Readers Only trial membership. I do get six weeks free, which is almost impossible to believe. (I may have to re-read the fine print, but it does show that my first payment isn't due until July 23.) I chose "unlimited downloads", hoping I'll at least get a few, and I pointed them to my BookSprout product page. I'm completely over sending out my own ARCs, so if there's a way to avoid it, I'm on board. I'm a bit concerned that I didn't get any confirmation from them, but I did get a PayPal payment confirmation (for my upcoming subscription extension), so I hope they're not going to stiff me. I suppose if I don't hear from them soon, I'll have to find a contact link. I went through a lot of work to get Inn Dreams set up, specifically trying to figure out comps. I don't know any stupid comps! With Lies and Love I used TV shows, so this time around I went with Motel Rescue, (re) Motel, and Single White Female (a movie I don't even remember if I ever saw, and I was a bit wary about using that one, since according to Wikipedia the villain is a woman, so maybe I'm giving away the big reveal by including it). I hate when sites ask me hard questions.
Yes, I signed up for July's LibraryThing giveaway. I wasn't going to, but I found that I can use a Google Drive download link, so I didn't need to pay for an additional ARC service.
The signup presented a couple of headache-inducing problems, the worst of which was the comps. Unfortunately, the comps had to be books, and they had to be findable on LT's database. I'll reiterate that I don't read women's fiction (I barely read at all anymore), so how in the hell do I know which books are comparable to mine? I'm guessing none. I mean, if I'm copying what some other author has already written, why even bother?
I went to Amazon and plugged in various search terms: women's fiction suspense, women's fiction danger, women's fiction stalking, women's fiction small town, women's fiction mystery.
HINT: Whatever search term you use, the results will be mostly titles that start with that word, so I ended up with a lot of books with "stalking" in the title and a lot with "danger".
One thing that got on my nerves were the multiple books that had TITLE: BLAH BLAH BLAH BOOK 1. Indie authors, unless you book is part of a series, meaning it continues the previous story, you don't need to number it. I get the psychology behind it; if someone liked book # 1, maybe they'll buy #2, but it makes the title way too long and screams "amateur".
I managed to scratch out three possible books after about half an hour At the end I was barely scanning the descriptions. LT leaves room to enter five, but I clicked submit on the off chance it would accept my three and it did. Thank God.
My other dilemma was which genres to place my book in. Of course women's fiction wasn't a choice. Of course. And "general fiction" doesn't exactly narrow things down. My book isn't a mystery and it isn't suspense, but it certainly has those elements. I hesitated to choose those for fear of misleading entrants, but I didn't know what to do. I rationalized that my book description would help clarify what it is (whatever it is). Sorry, but my book is just a "story". Why do these sites make it so hard for people like me? I also added a line to the book description clearly stating that the book is a novella.
In the end I'm offering 25 copies. Last time I got fourteen winners and only six people bothered to ask for an ARC.
I do have to wait for a confirmation that my book has been accepted. Hopefully they won't be assholes like BookSirens.
I also updated my Amazon book description, when I realized that it was possibly a bit too succinct. Additionally, I updated a new manuscript with a link to provide a review. David Gaughram advises adding a review link, but that's rather impossible until the book is actually published, since how would I know what the link is until I publish it? I'm assuming the link didn't change. If so, ehh. I tried.
I also contacted KDP and asked them to add additional categories to my book, again per David Gaughram. I have no idea if it'll even work, but they don't know me, so I won't need to feel embarrassed.
As far as my over-eager newsletter subscriber who never bothered to respond to my email asking which format she'd like, I emailed her again. It's been three days and while there's definitely the possibility that my original email landed in her spam folder, I'm getting sick of waiting for a response. This is the last time she'll hear from me. I'm not in the business of hassling people.
UPDATE: Just checked and she did respond this time, so I sent a copy on its way.
BookSprout has proven to be a disappointment. No one has claimed my book yet, and I doubt anyone will. I wasn't expecting any results from the other places I asked for readers, but then again, I'm not paying for those sites. I'm disappointed that no one has volunteered via my Goodreads offers, since I got a few with Lies and Love, but maybe the premise just isn't interesting (to anyone but me).
I'm in a holding pattern at present, waiting to get responses from various places. On the plus side, I have a germ of an idea for a new book, but I'm not sure I want to go with it. But a germ of an idea is better than no idea.
Once all these actions have been exhausted, I'm out of options. No one, however, can say I didn't try.
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