The Year in Review (vis-à-vis the novel)

30 Dec 2012

The Year in Review (vis-à-vis the novel)

At present, I have sold 4 books and given 61 books away. The first number is certainly short of what I was expecting, and the latter a little bit better than what I thought. Amazingly enough on the day it was free I rose to 75 in Free Kindle Books for Literary Fiction.

I imagine those who have bought it are going to read it, and I would like to think the same is true of at least the majority of those who got it free. For those who do like it, I’d appreciate if you’d write an honest review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. At present no one’s reviewed it, and if I am to take what I read as truth, which is perhaps exceedingly foolish, the more reviews one gets the better the sales.

I had read that people were writing their own reviews, but yesterday I was surprised to discover you could also pay for them. The thing a person discovers. Be assured, I’m going to do neither, so if you read someone declaring me to be the next Émile Zola, the guy/gal is certifiably bonkers, and it definitely wasn’t written by me.

Posted in Fiction, Free Ebook, KDP Select, Novel, Prose, Writing

15 thoughts on “The Year in Review (vis-à-vis the novel)”

Jay Dee on December 30, 2012 at 11:12 am said:

Good luck with getting some reviews. Hope you can see some success in the near future. What have you done in the way of marketing?

LikeLike

Reply ↓
tomsimard on December 30, 2012 at 11:28 am said:

Thanks. I have very modest expectations.

Not too much, to be honest. I’ve posted about the novel on this and my other blog, and given away the book free, which I announced on my blogs, and to a load of websites, where at least in theory they will place it though I think it was only posted on two or three sites. Considering that the majority have certain placement for a fee makes me extremely skeptical that they’d actually post it for free.

In my short venture into the realm of self-publishing, I’ve unfortunately discovered that at every turn one is faced with a way of parting with one’s cash, and I ain’t about to spend a cent. If that’s what it takes to be read, apparently I ain’t going to be read.

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- Jay Dee on December 30, 2012 at 12:03 pm said:
  
  Unfortunately, there are far too many good ways of marketing that cost money. I tend to use Twitter a lot. Ever try Goodreads? Or Indie Author News (http://www.indieauthornews.com/)?
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
tomsimard on December 30, 2012 at 1:55 pm said:

I’m on Goodreads. I’m not sure whether I’ve seen Indie Author News or not, but I’ll check it out. Thanks.

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- tomsimard on December 30, 2012 at 4:00 pm said:
  
  I visited the above site and got the impression they don’t do free promotions.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
  - Jay Dee on January 5, 2013 at 3:30 pm said:
    
    I’d forgotten if they were free or not. But it was worth the try to look.
    
    LikeLike
Brian on December 30, 2012 at 4:01 pm said:

Hi Tom
Ashamed to say I downloaded it for free, and will read it shortly and I will send you my thoughts .
Well done for writing it and publishing it!

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- tomsimard on December 30, 2012 at 4:05 pm said:
  
  Nothing to be ashamed of at all!
  
  If you do like it, it would be great if you’d write a review.
  
  Thanks. I’m pleased with having done it and am trying to get going on the next…
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
Suzanne on January 2, 2013 at 10:21 pm said:

Good luck with your publishing venture. I’m planning on doing the same thing in a few months.
I’ve heard it’s important to self promote. What about Facebook ? I read a newspaper article where a writer send a request for a review to people who blogged about books in her genre (thrillers). It worked and she got promoted on Amazon because of the number of good reviews. Other people use Twitter but there are mixed feelings about this – it takes a lot of time and people get sick of self promotion.
Good luck. I’ll be interested to hear how things go in the new year.

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- tomsimard on January 3, 2013 at 7:50 am said:
  
  Thanks. Good luck with your book as well.
  
  Yes, self promotion is important, but there’s only so much that I can do of it and maintain my sanity. The idea of trying to find people to review my book seems the best choice for me. I don’t particularly care for Facebook and Twitter so I won’t be using any of them but that’s not to say they might not be able to be used effectively.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
Sol Mussons on January 3, 2013 at 12:51 am said:

Got your book and I will begin to read it in a couple of days. I promise to review it.

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- tomsimard on January 3, 2013 at 7:51 am said:
  
  I appreciate it. Hope you like it.
  
  Have you finished The House of Mirth? Thoughts?
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
  - Sol Mussons on January 4, 2013 at 1:22 am said:
    
    I loved it. It is a reversed Jane Austen and so modern for 1905 too!. I liked the minute description of feelings and the portraying of characters, especially the women. Upper class so well depicted, so many nuances. the understated dialogues are superb. harsh woman the Wharton, though. She doesn’ t forgive her characters.
    
    LikeLike
  - tomsimard on January 4, 2013 at 7:55 am said:
    
    Makes me want to search to find something else of hers I haven’t read.
    
    LikeLike
tomsimard on January 4, 2013 at 10:33 am said:

I just checked and saw any number of her books that might be of interest.

All of her books appear to be free on Project Gutenberg:

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/w

I’ll probably end up ordering something though – I’ve yet to read a book on my laptop.

LikeLike

Reply ↓