Sizzling Summer Sale

Wow! Congratulations Shelagh.

Thanks Abe! It is approximately twenty-four hours since the price change on amazon.com and the number of downloads has just passed the 2,800 mark. Total number of downloads is: 4,235.

ETA: Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine is

#25 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror > Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Action & Adventure

From Belfast to St. Joe and Vision Quest are now in Smashwords premium catalog. Incident was sent back because I somehow managed (don't ask - I don't know) to set the file up with a dark green font.

I fixed it and resubmitted. Hopefully, that was the only problem, and it will be ready soon.

It's family dinner night tonight, but by tomorrow I can maybe get started on getting them on Kindle and Nook.

Ann

Hi Ann,

The process works by adding ALL books to Kindle (it doesn't matter about the number of books on Smashwords or Nook). When all the books are available with pages set up on Amazon, one of the books must be available on Smashwords premium catalogue. This upload to Smashwords should be set at $0.00. As soon as the book is available on Nook, you can copy and paste the URL into the "Tell us about a lower price" link on the page with the same book listed for download on Kindle. Amazon will price match.

The reason that all the books should be available on KDP is because the free book should generate a few sales for the non-free books listed with Amazon (not listed with Smashwords, Nook etc.). Customers who read the free book will search through Amazon's Kindle store to find your other books. They will not go to B&N or Smashwords.

I got that, Shelagh. I am planning to put them all on Kindle. Your earlier advice, as I read it, was to "wait for the ebooks to be accepted into the premium catalog." I got that approval from Smashwords this morning.

Right now. all I have are short stories. The novel is coming along, but won't be ready for at least a couple of months.

Ann

The short stories will work fine. You could upload them as separate stories and as a collection. If readers enjoy the free one, they can buy the collection or buy them one at a time.

That's what I was thinking - about the collection. I am working on a couple more as I work on the novel. Once I have all four, I will set a price for the collection and see if it will sell.

Vision Quest is gaining on Incident at Smashwords. I'm not sure which one should stay free.

Ann

Do you sense that your work is going to be more widely read, and are you excited at the prospect?

Absolutely, Shelagh, and it is a powerful motivator. I am able to maintain a much stronger focus on getting the job done.

Ann

When you upload your short stories to Smashwords, don't check the box that asks you if the short story is part of a series. If you do they will let you know that they prefer the stories be gathered into one book. That's what I finally had to do with the Redneck Rivier series. I had all seven stories uploaded as singles, and when I checked the series box, they asked if I would just upload them as one complete book. That's what I did, but then I uploaded the first in the series, and didn't check the box, and made it a free download. That way perhaps some people might read the free story and want the rest, and will then download the book.



I have all of my stories on Amazon for Kindle, and on Smashwords. I now have four stories on Smashwords, all approved, that are free downloads, but so far Amazon has not price matched any of them. The stories really need to be shown as free on Kindle, because that's still where most of my downloads are coming from.



It's hard to work the system like the guy says it can be worked unless Kindle will match the free price. That seems to be the key.

Hi Don,

The free book has to show up on B&N or iPad. If one of your stories is already showing up on Nook, you could change the price to $0.00 (indirectly by making the book free on Smashwords). It might be quicker than waiting for the free uploads to appear on B&N.

About price matching, I had to wait longer, and send several reminders (URL) about the free book on B&N for MPFM than I did for the two previous free books Amazon offered on Kindle (the books were free for the whole of June: one on Amazon UK and one on Amazon US). The two free books had combined downloads of just over seven thousand.

It is exaclty a week since MPFM was on free offer on Amazon UK and the downloads have reached 1,812. Three days ago, Amazon US offered the book as a free download, and as of this morning, the book has been downloaded 5,284 times. In a week, the total number of downloads (7,096) for both sites is close to the total number of downloads for the two free books on offer throughout June.

Sales of my non-free books are gradually improving. Nothing startling, but a big improvement on the beginning of March-end of May sales.

ETA: I noticed that you have changed the cover for the free book on Smashwords and included the words "Smashwords edition" on the front. For price matching, the covers on B&N and on Amazon should be the same (to be certain that the books are one and the same), and I don't think the cover with "Smashwords Edition" would be appropriate for Amazon. Also, the old Amazon shorts covers with the author on the cover are no longer used. The covers for ebooks are no different to print books (approx 9" x 6" background artwork/photograph, title, author's name).

Shelagh, 9 of the books and/or short stories are already available for the Nook, and 2 of those are already free at Smashwords but not at Nook. And none are free on Kindle.



Everything on Smashwords has been approved for premimum distribution, and the rest should be available for the Nook soon.



If the free download ever gets to Kindle maybe there'll be an increase in downloads.

Don, were you able to use covers from Amazon Shorts? I might be able to do that by resizing them? The cover thing has me stopped....and it seems not an issue for you and Shelagh.

DK, the covers should be oblong (not square) 9" x 6" with your name and the title on a suitable background. This is the cover for Amazon shorts:



This is the cover for KDP (incorporating the above short story):

Actually, DK, I did use the Amazon Shorts covers for the single copies of the Redneck Riviera series, but only on Kindle. I copied them and saved them in a new JPEG (For Kindle, but Smashwords likes PNG) and used them. However, with Smashwords I designed new covers. I used rectangles in portrait mode, added a new title and my name, and then posted the old Amazon covers on that. Works just fine that way.

i'm now trying to figure out a way to save a picture in a high dpi form. For a print book, the image should be set at 300 DPI, and I'm not sure I have a program that can do that. I could reprint everything and scan them at the higher DPI setting, but I still don't know if the quality would be all that much better. Seems to me if you use a photo that was taken at a lower DPI there's not much you can do to up the quality. But I'll keep trying. Shelagh if you have any suggestions...

I resize artwork larger all the time in Photoshop. While you can do this with free photo editing software like Irfanview (irfanview.com), Photoshop enables you to then sharpen the resultant fuzziness with its Unsharp Mask function (which should be called Unsharp Magic, imo). I don't know if the free programs have that.

If you want to email me your file, I can do that for you. It takes about 30 seconds.

Thanks LC. I may take you up on that. I had Photoshop on my notebook but when it crashed I lost it. My son has it so I suppose I'll have to put it back on.I use Publisher and Picture It, and both are pretty good, but neither will clarify a picture that was not of really great quality to start with.



I can scan at great resolution, but in order to do that I have to print everything, and the problem with that is the same. If it's not very good to start with, none of these will help it a lot.



I have a HD camera that I'm now using to take original pictures that I can use on covers, but of course that means I have to go back in and redesign everything. Which I may do.



Thanks for the offer, I certainly appreciate it.



And if any of you haven't read Fire Fell From Heaven, The Wedding Helmet, Slugger, or The Redneck Riviera, all 4 are free downloads from Smashwords. Fire is a bit off the wall, but that's ok, I think.

Sorry, Don. My favorite is still the one about the frost on the roses. I cry just thinking about it. Chokes me up in memory. I think it is one of the best short stories I have read - to evoke emotions in me in such a short piece of writing for a subject totally outside my frame of reference - is major. Wuthering Heights has the same affect on me.

I'd love to see you get some sort of award for that story. Maybe it's just me...

This is my weekend for getting this Smashwords/Kindle process moving with my short stories. I'm going to try Don's idea about the covers. They have just stymied me but I'm re-energized.

This is a jpeg file in 300 dpi. If you download it, Don, you can use it as a template:

I have been reading all of this with great glee and hope. I wish I could put Wooffer's storeis up right now. Wait until November.



Shelagh, you are a marvel, you are.



Love,

Betty

This is a great thread.

I downloaded it, and will actually use it. Thanks Shelagh. I saved my new cover as a PNG, then converted it to JPEG for Kindle, but it lost something in the process.



It will take a few hours for Amazon to update the cover, but look for it.



Don



And yeah, DK, this thread is a good one, is what should actually happen in more threads. Ideas back and forth, help back and forth, all in an effort to help each other.

Shelagh wrote:

This is a jpeg file in 300 dpi. If you download it, Don, you can use it as a template:

Beautiful cover, Shelagh! Fantastic! Did you make it up? It's one of the best!