Happy New Year!! I hope you have a happy and healthy 2025. I would say it’s got to be better than last year, but with a stock market crash, bird flu, earthquakes, shortages, and aliens on the horizon that may not be the case. Let’s just go with some well wishes and hope for the best.
I didn’t make any resolutions, I don’t know if it’s the term or the concept I oppose. I prefer to make plans and try to follow through on them, it works better for me.
Time for a report on the Stuff Your Kindle events and the author takeover party.
7,008 downloads for all of my books combined (majority VioleNt, then Force of Corruption, followed by the rest.) I made sales on Force Majeure and Haunted Hunting Camp even though they weren’t included in the events. Also, Origin of Violet had sales even though I offer it free for newsletter subscribers.
VioleNt reached:
#1 U.S. Horror Fiction
#7 Psychological Thrillers
#46 Romantic Suspense
Force of Corruption reached:
#5 Ghost Suspense
As amazing as it is to reach #1 in US Horror Fiction, it’s even more so to reach #46 in Romantic Suspense which is a huge genre and a great honor for me to break the top one hundred. After my previous experience with an SYK (Stuff Your Kindle, remember your abbreviations) event I continued to see residual sales from that point forward. I also saw a sizable up-tick in KENP which is Amazon speak for pages read. It’s how authors get paid for readers actually reading their books on Kindle Unlimited.
Because I feel kind of bad for getting Kindle Unlimited books for free and knowing authors only get paid for page reads, I make an effort to move my Kindle to the very end of every book I read, including any advertising pages because I know the author is getting paid for each and every page read even if it’s just a note thanking their readers in the back of the book.
In addition to making sure I show every single page as read, I make sure to post a review for every book. I always try to find something positive to say even if I’m not thrilled with the read. Just because it’s not up my alley doesn’t make it a bad book. So, I compliment the things I liked and explain the things I don’t so other readers can tell it was me, not necessarily the book. If you recall my previous blog, I also follow my simple book review policies. Most importantly, NEVER EVER put spoilers in your reviews. It ruins the chance of success for the author if you ruin the suspense. If you ever MUST include a spoiler, type, “Spoiler Below” and then use your Slash (/) key and return a bazillion times to hide the spoiler from being in their face when they click on the review. Goodreads has a button to click to alert everyone to spoilers in your review, if you must spoil, use it!
I've read horror tales about authors trashing their competitors by giving bad reviews and spoilers on all the platforms where reviews are posted. Please don’t do this. Not just because it’s a serious dick move, but because it can come back to haunt you and ruin YOUR author career. When readers find out another author has trashed one of their favorites, they can be vicious. They hold a grudge and will tell everyone what you did. I’ve seen it happen, and those bad behaving authors have ended up closing their social media accounts and hiding. If they choose to make a comeback after that, they have to start at square one with a new pen name and if any formerly scorned readers find out it’s still them…they tell everyone, and that pen name gets trashed too.
Just don’t do it, it’s not worth it. There’s no reason to try to crush someone else because there are plenty of readers in every category. Yeah, I know it’s difficult to find them and get your books in front of them, but they exist, and you have an equal chance just like everyone else. So, don’t blow it by being a dick!
I have to say that I've met the nicest people by doing everything I can to help my fellow authors. It’s amazing but you'll find if you’re nice and supportive, others will be nice and supportive in return. Okay, yes that was dripping with sarcasm, but seriously, you reap what you sow! If you want success, do a little sowing for others! The last thing you need is an angry reaper hunting you down disguised as a horde of disgruntled Twilight fans. They carry such sharp pitchforks.
Some other takeaways from SYK-
1. Some people will bag on you for giving your books away. Make sure it’s worth it to you. Think about what you would spend advertising to thousands of readers in your genre. What would it cost for direct interaction with that many readers, knowing they would see your book, read the description, and be interested enough to click on it? What if not a single one of them ever read any pages at all? Decide only after careful consideration.
2. Make sure your book is correctly loaded into the event website and FREE on the dates of the event.
3. Put your genre in your title on Amazon or your distributor. The authors who did the best have theirs set up this way, I’m not among them yet, but I will be. I’m making adjustments to my titles to help readers find my books and decide at a glance.
4. Have an enticing cover, a genre specific cover. Readers judge books by their covers first, then they decide if they want to take the next step and read the blurb. Give your book the best chance at a glance. If your cover doesn’t tell them your genre, you’re doing it wrong.
5. Make sure your book is professionally edited. If a reader chooses your book and loves it, they'll come back for more. If they can’t get past the spelling and grammar errors, they won’t. Most readers who DNF, do so for this reason, next is the writing style doesn’t mesh with their reading style, the story is the next reason either it doesn’t meet genre expectations or it doesn’t engage with them the way they hoped, and last is a trigger they didn’t expect leaves them unable to finish.
6. Ask readers for reviews. Gently remind them you need their review and about ten percent will help you out. How to do this after an event like this? I’m not one hundred percent certain yet, but I plan to post in the groups and social media about SYK reads and “Please support the authors with a review.” I’m also going to deep dive into my Amazon metrics and see if there’s a way to ask those orders for a review. My website is going to ask repeatedly as well. If any of this sticks, I'll let you know. My books are sadly low on reviews and there’s an urban legend that once you reach fifty reviews Amazon will make your books more visible, if they’re mostly good reviews. We all need this!
7. Take photos of your book title in a top spot on the Amazon best seller lists, it’s great for advertising and it can move from one click of the mouse to the next. Document and use those images for later. You can say you’re a best seller, but a picture is worth a thousand words, show them you’re a best seller.
8. Show your appreciation for the hosts of these SYK events. Those folks have worked hard, and they need your thanks! I’m so impressed with the complex websites and filters some of these events boast and our hosts are the ones making sure all of our books show up and sort correctly. Tell them how much their hard work is appreciated.
9. For the love of all things book worthy, make sure your book is free for the event! I know I mentioned this above but it’s so important it needs to be mentioned again. Our hosts reminded us to confirm the dates, confirm free status, and triple check over and over again. Still…there were double digits of books not free! It’s the basis of the event you have to make sure you take care of this, check every day leading up to the big day. Some hosts will boot you FOR LIFE if your books aren’t free for the SYK. Don’t be a lifer!
10. Use the momentum of the event to advertise, chat with new authors and readers you met, and sign up for other events like author takeovers, book signings, and author spotlights. Don’t let the whirlwind of excitement die off without using it to boost you into the next thing. (This is a note to self as much as for you.)
Here’s a quick recap of the Author Takeover party I participated in on the final day of SYK free status of my books. First of all, it was for a small Facebook Group. Don’t look down on smaller groups they can grow into big groups. They’re often run by very kind authors who want to support their colleagues. Not to mention, they also have readers who LIVE to read. You want them to take notice of your books. If a reader absolutely loves your book, they’ll recommend it to everyone. Readers want others to share in their reading pleasure. They want to chat with other readers about what they’ve read. This could be your book.
With that said, let me tell you about this event. The host, author Shalene Marie is lovely, kind, and supportive. The readers in her group were fun and interested in all of the books and authors. I was able to get twenty new people signed up to my newsletter. This is a great increase in one day. I haven’t checked yet how many I gained from the SYK, I'll let you know because I’m going to ask all of my newsletter list to leave a review. It was great fun, and I will do more of them. The giveaway was a success, a lovely author named Elise Ballard was the winner and she is getting a signed copy of all of my books, a $25 gift card, a gorgeous stone skull bracelet valued at $50, and a bunch of swag items. I’m going to have a new giveaway soon. You can subscribe to my newsletter and find out when.
Coming up next for me are a few book signing events this summer, my first foray into this type of in-person event. I will keep you posted. I also have some more podcast type things I’m working on, and I will let you know when one comes up.
As always, thanks for reading and again, Happy New Year!
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