The main discouragement is that my novel The Last Hotel Room, is not doing well over on Kindle Scout. This is an Amazon popularity contest where those books that get the most nominations are considered for a publishing contract. My book is 22 days into its 30 day voting period and it hasn't garnered enough votes to make it into the Hot & Trending column, which I suspect is what Amazon is really looking for.
Part of the reason I'm not doing well is that I'm truly craptastic at self-promotion. I'm also up against a lot of books in the "Literature and Fiction" category that are actually F/SF/H. There are separate categories for that, but people double tag their books to get more visibility. I can't do that too since my book doesn't fit into those categories. Ah, well!
If I don't win the contest at least the book will be out this month. It's ready to go.
Keep on writing!
15 comments:
I'm sorry to hear that it's not looking good for the Kindle Scout contest. I hope you can see that the book's performance in a contest like that is no reflection on the book's worth. I'm sure it will connect with your readers when you do release it. Keep on plugging. If you need a little boost with your marketing campaign after the release, drop me a line. I love to help promote my IWSG buddies.
Elizabeth Hein - Scribbling in the Storage Room
Elizabeth: Thanks, I might take you up on that!
I think a lot of us creatives are 'craptastic' at self promotion. The creative and business sides of writing feel at such odds with each other that the marketing often is often thought of as the evil twin. Hope things pick up with your Kindle Scout endeavour, but at least you have a back up plan. Carry on carrying on!
angelinetrevena.co.uk/insecure-writers-support-group-that-difficult-second-book
Sorry to hear it isn't going well in the Kindle context :-( Elizabeth makes a good point above about it not being reflective of your book's worth. I'm sure it will do great once you release it. Hang in there.
Well, that stinks. I don't think those type of popularity contests are any reflection of a book's quality. They are especially unfair to authors who aren't big self-promoters.
Sometimes it's all about who can shout the loudest. I mean, if people don't know about your book, how can they read it/vote for it/love it? As much as I hate self promotion, it's a necessary evil.
Bummer it's not doing well. I know a lot voted when I posted about it.
I nominated your book. Can't have one of the IWSG members hanging out there alone. Who knows? Maybe your post will encourage others to vote for your book and that will push it into the next column. Best wishes.
You won by making the effort and reaping a new book to market. I hate marketing myself. I need to date Miley Cyrus to get my name out there for folks to recognize ... ah, but no, there are some prices too steep to pay for success! :-)
You nailed the biggest thing about Kindle Scout; promotion. It's not just about the book, and not focused on the writing. It's about how many faces you can get it in front of, or how many people you can convince to click. I hate to say it but there are groups I'm a part of (mainly lurking to learn self pub in case someday I want to) where people gather up groups to go in and vote. Maybe Kindle wants it that way because clicks = $. Either way, I hope you know that the program seems to be tailored that way and is not at all indicitive of the quality of your book!
Goal, Set, Check! Setting SMART goals
It is unfortunate when books are judged based not on quality, but click ups. I wish you luck and success. Keep pushing.
https://ryanscarty.wordpress.com
I'd heard about Kindle Scout, but I didn't realize it was a voting thing. That sucks. But still, it sounds like you were amazingly productive in Tangier. I hope you figure out a way to keep that going.
Well, it has nothing to do with your awesome writing. We have to soldier on however it goes.
Without promotion most books get lost in the pile of works out there. I'm sorry it's not going well for you, but you have learned an important lesson on what to do next time. :-)
Anna from elements of emaginette
I voted, but can I vote again?
And, I get being craptastic at promotion.
But hey - you're at my blog today!!! I meant to write you an e-mail to let you know, but here's this for starters. I'll tweet it again and again for a few weeks and hope that helps get you a few more hits for the Toxic World series - which I've read all the books for now, so you've got at least one more die hard fan. :)
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