Category: Independent author angst

Drowning in the Flood of Freebies?

~ Jonna Hawker Turek ~ Leave a comment

When I first entered the world of the independent author in 2011, I read every bit of wisdom I could find about each step of the process, from the first germ of an idea, though outline and character development all the way to marketing techniques.

One bit of advice which appeared frequently was to provide free books to increase your visibility and develop a readership base.

I have followed this advice, holding periodic promotions of free or deeply discounted Kindle versions of my books. In the early years these give-aways usually resulted in an uptick in either sales or reviews of my work.

Independent publishing has become easier every year and websites dedicated to free and discounted digital books have blossomed. With this surge, we may be seeing a saturation effect.

Some readers rarely spend any money on their digital reading and I’ve noticed readers who get books for free can be more critical in their reviews than those who have an investment in enjoying a purchase.

I think we may be entering a time when the book give away has less impact on future sales and it will become necessary to find new, creative ways to get our books noticed by our target audience.

I believe the flood of e-books may begin to ebb as some authors become discouraged and readers become more discerning and once again shop for books based upon quality rather than price-point alone.

In the meantime, it is up to us to come up with those original and creative promotional ideas.

As authors, we create whole worlds inhabited by personalities of our own design, creative promotion can’t be beyond us, can it?

 

Feeding the Creative Muse is Job One

~ Jonna Hawker Turek ~ Leave a comment

I’ve spent the last few weeks concentrating on marketing my published works and the summer bundle, “Under the Italian Sun.”

It has been exciting trying out new promotional processes and I’ve learned a lot.  Mostly I’ve learned to moderate my expectations.

Being pretty new at marketing my books, I’m afraid I expected huge results from these  increased efforts. When I failed to see the anticipated surge in sales and reviews, I began to feel anxiety and disappointment. I didn’t like these feelings,  so I took a deep breath and decided to get back to my work in progress, featuring a small town pastor’s wife on the Oregon Coast.

I introduced Naidenne and Pastor Scott in my book, Seadrift, and became so fond of them I decided to find out what has been happening to them since their marriage.

When I got back to the early chapters of the manuscript it was like a welcome visit with old pals. All my anxiety about sales dropped away as I became fired up to see what would happen next to these dear friends.

My creative juices, which had been growing stagnant during my promotional push, are once more springing alive. The muse is back.

I will need to revisit marketing and promotion again, of course, or I’ll be writing only for myself, but now I know where my priority lies.

 

The joys of networking

~ Jonna Hawker Turek ~ Leave a comment

This summer I have enjoyed collaborating on a Kindle bundle promotion with four incredibly talented and generous authors. For the bundle, entitled “Under the Italian Sun,” we each contributed one cozy mystery novel set in Italy.

The five of us are scattered around the globe and vary in our nationalities, experience, backgrounds, ages and writing styles, yet we are bound together by our love of fiction writing and a desire to see each other succeed.

In working on the bundle promotion we are also promoting each other in our individual projects, because when one is successful it pulls up the rest of us.

The more experienced authors are eager to share their expertise with those of us new to publishing, while we each do what we can to boost awareness of our colleagues’ writing.

Along with the very practical education and the other joys of collaboration I’m experiencing, I have discovered a feeling of responsibility for the other independent authors I am meeting through this project. I want to read and review their works and encourage them in any way I can.

I think I am becoming a real part of the independent author community and I feel very lucky to have been welcomed in.

 

Kindle Unlimited: Friend or Foe?

~ Jonna Hawker Turek ~ Leave a comment

This week Amazon added their Kindle Unlimited subscription service. All KDP Select works are automatically included in the service, although authors are able to opt out, if they choose.

KDP Select has been good to me since I became an independent author. I’ve used the free promotional services and seen an increase in sales and reviews.

Since the roll-out of Kindle Unlimited I have seen articles suggesting this is not a good deal for independents and encouraging us to leave KDP Select and offer our books on a variety of sites, such as Smashwords, Kobo, iBooks, etc.

The main downside to leaving the exclusive KDP Select program would seem to be losing my access to Amazon’s Countdown Deals and free promotions.

I would love to hear from other independent authors on the pros and cons of our options in light of Kindle Unlimited.

For me, and for many others, I suspect,  marketing and promotion is the trickiest part of the adventure of being an independent author.