What Have I Been Doing?

Somehow I fell down this rabbit hole of book awards, and I've spent the last couple of days mostly trying to figure out which ones are legit and which are scams. Sometimes, but not always, it's easy to tell the difference from viewing their websites, so I'm now relying on trusted sources to tell me, such as ALLI and Reedsy.

Naturally, scammers loves to prey on creative types; we are ripe for believing in impossible dreams. In fact, we practically beg to be scammed (really). That happened to me with music, and though I'm much savvier now, I still have to hold myself back from jumping into a situation that is just too good to be true, with its promises of renown and (negligible) riches.

So, whether by luck or by scouring websites (I didn't run across any recommendation lists until later), I managed to enter five contests that are legitimate, and the good news is, two of them were free. I doubt that I'll be continuing, mainly because most of the legitimate ones' entry fees are outside my price range. The silly thing about this whole process is that my book won't win anything or even be shortlisted, but I suppose just putting it out there is a baby step forward. It makes me feel like a real author. 

There's also a site called Book Award Pro, which I found via a post on Fussy Librarian's site (I find everything in a roundabout way, it seems). This service has three tiers, one of them free. You enter your book details and it will find competitions and reviewers that match. The free tier, which I chose, requires an author to do her own research, but I was doing that anyway. I wasn't offered any relevant competitions this month, but I did find a book reviewer. 

Other than obsessing over this topic, I did a couple of useless things: I reduced my novel's price to ninety-nine cents for three days in order to run a BookBub ad, which was COMPLETELY USELESS. I didn't get one single click. And this is the site that is supposedly the gold standard. 

While I had my price reduced, I purchased an eReader Cafe ad for April 2. And that's the end of the promo cycle. I'm done. 

I'm doing better at social media marketing (sort of). I've been doing a post a day, for some unknown reason, resulting in the usual engagement by people who want to sell their services, but I just want to feel like I'm still in the game, I suppose.

So, even though I'm no longer writing, I haven't completely given up. The thing is, though, is that I'm running out of disposable income, so it's gonna be social media marketing or nothing from now on. (Probably all the better. I've really wasted my money.)

At some point, I'll detail the things that actually work to move a book. It'll be a very short post. If you want to know what doesn't work, click here. 

Regardless of my multitude of failures, I'll keep on keeping on.