This week, commencing Sunday 29th March 2015, I am promoting A Taste of Honey with a Kindle Countdown Deal.

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What does that mean to the buying public?
Although the title of the promotion suggests a countdown, it is the period of the promotion that is counted down – not the item price. The item price starts low and goes back up.

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How does it work?
– The book price is adjusted by the author to be at an accepted minimum price, and that is a minimum set by Amazon; not the author.
– The book will be available at the lowest price for a period of perhaps one, two or three days.
– The price will go up in increments at each stage, until it returns to the original price after the week-long promotion.

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In the case of my books I maintain a low price. I am not a household name, so I depend on honest reviews of my work. It’s better to be judged by others than to make claims for the quality of my creative ability. By the nature of the countdown promotion I have very little space to manoeuvre, but I am able to create two low price points before the title goes back to the regular price.

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How does the promotion benefit the reader, or buying public?
It creates the opportunity for a customer to buy a book at a knockdown price.

It also allows the customer the opportunity to perhaps try a new author without feeling that a lot of money has been invested on the basis of the free sample being interesting.

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How does the promotion benefit the author?
It creates added interest in that particular title, but also the author’s work in general.

If the author has an appealing style then he or she may gain many more fans from the act of giving up a little cash.

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I’ve recently promoted my brand by using a Free promotion for two days, and the book used then was one of my anthologies, Smoke & Mirrors; and other stories. It proved popular in six countries so even though I’ve given away hundreds of copies, I consider that a success.
As I’ve said to colleagues in my day job, ‘I don’t want to be famous with my writing – I want to be successful.’

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Writing a novel is not easy, and taking it beyond that first draft is hard. Each successive draft becomes harder as the author tries to tighten up dialogue, reduce excess word count and strive to produce a well-presented, entertaining read for the end user; the customer, the reader.

The most difficult task facing an independent author is not the writing of the story, or even the editing, re-writes, formatting, presentation or self-publishing – it is the marketing.

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There you have it. That is the single unambiguous reason for me pushing my name and brand at every opportunity.

It’s not about being egotisitical – it is quite simply self-marketing; because the only other person who will market for an author is that author’s readership.

Please note that I didn’t say ‘market free for an author’.

Why not?

The reader has paid hard-earned cash to buy into the brand, so when they are kind enough to write a review, it may be free to the author; but not to the reader.

As always, I thank you for coming by and reading my thoughts. Please leave a comment if you feel so inclined.

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