THE GUIDING DWIGHT

The grand experiment continues.  How does a self published writer break through to a national audience, to the Million Kindle Club, to the NY Times best seller list?  A growing number of indy writers have done it.  There is no one secret way that worked for all of them.  It is a combination often of luck, talent and marketing mojo.  Some have broken through by advertising on big sites like Kindle Nation, some have struck gold using the KDP Free Book Giveaway, some are brilliant at networking on countless blogs, some have been blessed by the all-powerful Amazon goddess who gives them special placement on the Amazon site. Today I'm going to share a little success I've experienced using the KDP Free Book Giveaway.  KDP stands for Kindle Direct Publishing and it's the way we set pricing etc for our kindle books.  Initially I priced the kindle of my novel PROSPECT OF MY ARRIVAL at $6.95.  Sales were decent but not great.  I sold maybe 5 books a ...

 Hi Folks. This gorgeous photo is by my friend Mary in New York.  It would be a stunning picture without my book in it with that NY snow and light and the birds.  But with my book in it -- it's stunning. Before I talk about the post-book-launch, I want to ask you out there in Blogland "What is a blog for?"  Of course we'd all like our blogs to be optioned and turned into movies.  But the truth is most of us are lucky if we can even get more than a handful of followers to follow us.  If you write a blog and no one reads it -- does it make a sound (think of the tree falling in an empty forest).  Probably.  A blog without an audience, if nothing else, is a diary to oneself.  And there's value in that.  But if I wanted to write a diary, I wouldn't be on the worldwide web.  I don't just want to be followed, I want to be commented upon, and engaged.  It's lonely out here in the Blogosphere.  And please tell me what you would...