If You Want to be Read

Clearly,if you want to be read, give your books away.
My book has been out since Feb 19th 2011 and has sold 108 copies.
I bought 105 myself and gave them to whomever I wished.
If you don't need the money, it's a great way to go.
Shelagh is making a big splash with her free book, now too.

And if you did a good job with the free book, you just might encourage your readers to want more, enough to pay you for the privilege.

Ann

Good point, Ann

alice wrote:

Shelagh is making a big splash with her free book, now too.

Yes, I am, Alice. The total downloads has reached 3,674 in less than three days!

That's great , over 1200 per day.

I wonder if anyone remembers when I wanted to give my book away. I checked on internet sites and there were a few unknown places then.
If I remember this right, some of the comments expressed on this message board were that if I thought my work was worth nothing, I should do it. It would look like I was desperate, and other such comments.

I still wanted to do it. I thought it was a good way to go for my unknown status.

I did not do it or even try.

The truth was, I knew not what or how to do it.

It makes me smile to feel that I was, in some small way, not as stupid as I sounded.

God bless our Shelagh.

Love,
Betty







Now, Amazon will let you do it.

Betty,

I am so sorry. Times do change.

Who added the, "Now Amazon will let you do it." to my post?

Love,
Betty

It wasn't me.

Betty Fasig wrote:

Who added the, "Now Amazon will let you do it." to my post?

Love,
Betty

You spooked me out for a moment, Betty! Then I worked out what happened. You have mentioned before how your cursor jumps around. That seems to happen a lot on the 'net these days (the cursor jumps onto ads as you drag it across the screen to type into message boxes -- which is infuriating because the cursor jumps all over the screen!). I guess you typed it in but it disappeared under the posting box, out of sight (mine does the opposite, it jumps back into the text I have already added and I'm typing in and nothing is being added to the last word I typed. Then I see that I'm typing into the already written message. I have to delete this and drag the cursor to the last word to complete the message. The joys of the Internet! So, the answer is, you did.

I am contemplating doing it myself.
What is stopping me is the fact that my book is a younger readers book, adult books seem more sell able in the ebook format.
Electronic readers are not so accessable to the younger readership.

Shelagh have you tried this with Mr Planmaker ?

No, David, I haven't. I thought I would see how this goes and then try Alice's book. I just need a bit more time to see how this works out.

Well it seems to prove a success from where I'm sitting.
Well done again. I am genuinely excited for you!

With my kids book, one of the things I had always pondered was approaching a charity like Great Ormond Street Hospital and offering all the royalties.
I was sure Joshua Bean would approve and be willing to help.
My thinking was that maybe it would sell the book if it was helping a charity. I may yet approach them.
When I was first published I emailed BBC children in need and offered all the royalties to them but they wanted sales figures and projections up front which I did not have as I had only just been published. This put me off a little.
My thinking was that getting the book mentioned on the TV by them would itself generate sales and in turn help the charity.

This seemed a better idea than just giving the book away.
Getting the book sold and generating funds to help a childrens charity is that not good publicity?
But maybe a free book for a limited time could get the snow ball rolling as a start?

Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine was a spectacular failure at raising money for charity (supposed to be for cancer relief and cancer support). I did contact a charity -- Francis House:

http://www.francishouse.org.uk/index.cfm/page/Fundraising

They were trying to raise a miilion pounds to stay open. I offered them all my royalties, but they raised the million and my royalries amounted to nothing at all by the time my expenses (website, promotions etc) had been paid. It would have been dishonest to say that money I donated came from the books proceeds.

My first book Peas," Pills," and Parkinson's didn't generate much either. People don't buy books to help charities.

Well, in all fairness, offering an organization a book and telling them that if they promote it they can keep the royalties they generate is not so much a donation as it is a business transaction. Unless you're James Patterson offering up an already famous book, this is probably more work to the charity than it's worth.

I agree with that LC.
But if the charity is raising awarness itself through TV and has it's own TV show for that purpose it's nothing to them to mention a book.
Besides like Shelagh I was quite willing to publicise it at my own expense anyway.

David,

Me too.

There are simply too many books now.

How does one generate buyers on Amazon?
I have spent a lot of money have great reviews and am nowhere.

That's a good question, Alice. If your book goes free on Amazon, that is not a guarantee that downloads will ensue. You need to be seen in places where readers most likely to want to read your children's book gather. You have given everyone here a free copy, so you need to spend some time in new company. You don't need to talk about your book, but you do need to become better know among folk who would want to read your book.

I guess I needn't worry. The people I want to have it are getting it from me.
The average book sells 100 copies--mine has done that.
I still have more people to give books to.
A lot of relatives and friends.
I do want my my publisher to come out okay on the deal.
After all this is my hobby--not hers.

I gave away three more today.
So now I have bought 108.