Free Ways to Market Books

Photo by Balázs Kétyi on Unsplash

I sold four Kindle copies of my poetry book for $0.99 this last time, and one other person downloaded and read a KU (Kindle Unlimited) copy. It's not much, but it is still encouraging. The first couple times I tried to give "Un-Clenched Emotion" away for free, there were no takers. Then I gave away 1, then 6, then 70! I tried some Amazon Advertising this time and wasn't very successful, but that's okay, marketing is a learning process!

Photo by Robin Pierre on Unsplash

Of course, I use this blog to market. I'm not sure how successful it is. I do get a lot of traffic that you can see by looking at my counter. I'm not sure how I did it! Just showing up helps. I don't have much interaction, only 4 comments and no subscribers' through blogger, but people are looking and that makes me happy. Then I do have some subscribers on Goodreads that I just found out about. When I post my new blog posts on Facebook, I usually get a consistent 7 or 8 people who look. (My blog has a reports section, that's how I know). I want to thank all of you who do look at my writings! I have over 1000 X (formerly twitter) followers, but I don't get many looks from there. I'm working on being more active on X, there are a lot of authors helping authors on that platform. I'm not sure how many followers that aren't family or people I know on Instagram. It's a big sized number I think, but not so much as X. I don't get that much interaction with Instagram yet either. The Goodreads author program is also free and there are many groups you can participate in. I belong to some and have gotten a few reviews from there. There are a few people who also marked "Un-Clenched Emotion" as want to read. So Goodreads is also a good marketing platform. The cool thing is I don't have to pay anything for these platforms.

Photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash

There's a couple of other of things that aren't costly that I could do to market my book. I could create a separate Facebook page and invite those interested. It seems like so much work though, added to this. And then I could attempt to create a newsletter, but that seems like A Lot of work. You may have noticed, I'm not extremely consistent in simply writing this blog.  It takes awhile for me to come up with a subject to talk about and sometimes I just don't feel like doing it. If I make a newsletter, it's got to be consistent. And then, of course, I have no idea how to get subscribers. So there are a lot of things I do to market my book, and somethings I could be doing but don't.

Sale For Poetry Month

Un-Clenched Emotion, Kindle Edition, will once again be on sale for ninety nine cents (.99) for poetry month. The book normally costs $2.99. Get it by going to this link: https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Natasha-Gruss-ebook/dp/B01LZNVH4Y The sale starts on Monday April 22nd 2024 and will end Monday April 29th 2024. I have not been successful with these sales before, but maybe this time will be better. I wasn't ordinally successful giving my book away for free at first either. However last year, I made the best seller for free books list on Amazon. I have set some advertising up this time which I haven't tried before. Fingers crossed. It's also April, poetry month, and this blog get more traffic this month. Here's one of my poems from the book to give you a taste of what it is like:

YouTube Video of The Sea

Obviously, for poetry month I have been working on marketing. I learned about Amazon Ads. There was a rumor going around on Facebook that a book would get in Amazon's newsletter if it had 50 ratings and over a four star review. I asked Alexa, and she said it was not enough. She pretty much said that it was secret the way Amazon chooses to place books in their newsletter. This stuff is hardly poetic. I have done a lot of work on my next book, Seasons of Sensation. It's still nowhere near complete but is really coming along. That's what I have REALLY done for poetry month. I haven't decided how I am going to publish Seasons of Sensation, whether I'll try a traditional publisher or if I'll publish on my own. I hope that you choose to buy Un-Clenched Emotion this time and decide that you would like to read more of my stuff.

Selling Indie Books

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

First, for those of you are curious, I was once again unsuccessful in selling "Un-Clenched Emotion" for 99 cents. I had made 2 full price sales before that, so not the end of the world. Speaking of selling books, I recently sold to 2 other countries. Usually KDP reports shows how many sales you have a week (or how many Kindle Unlimited pages are read) a month, year etc. So I waited a week to check the reports, and those foreign sales were not on my KDP reports. However, I did get money in my bank account for those sales. All is good. Speaking of making money, for the first time since I published my book in 2016, I was emailed a tax form for the royalties on my book this year. What I made is in the extremely low double digits, but it was still exciting to get that tax form.

Photo by Julian Hochgesang on Unsplash

I do believe in order to make money and more sales, I need to spend something on advertising. Previously I was questioning whether Amazon Ads was worth it. Now, I am pretty sure it is. Many Indie Authors that I am in contact with expressed their success with the program. I really need to take a closer look on how to use these ads. Amazon has a lot of guides. I looked at some of them and find them daunting. I have bought some marketing through other companies in the past. I have to say, never pay for social media shout outs. You can do that yourself for free. Many people on X (Previously twitter) will retweet your post for free, especially if you retweet their posts. Someone once even made an unsolicited post advertising my book on Instagram. You can get Facebook friends to help you too. I really need to make a Facebook page to promote my writing.

Photo by Kendall Scott on Unsplash

I may soon have free advertising through Amazon. It has been said that if you have over 50 reviews of above a certain star rating, Amazon will put your book in their newsletter. I have strong doubts about this. I am not that far away from 50 reviews. My star rating is definitely high enough. I am hoping that I will be pleasantly surprised and get "Un-Clenched Emotion" in a newsletter because of this. For all of those Indie Authors out there, I wish you success in your marketing ventures. For curious readers, please leave reviews for those authors!

Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Another Sale!

I admit I had an alternative motive for posting my poems on social media all week. I am trying to sale my book once again. "Un-Clenched Emotion" is 99 cents on the kindle from Thanksgiving to the 29th, which covers both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The link is: https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Natasha-Gruss-ebook/dp/B01LZNVH4Y

Photo by John Michael Thomson on Unsplash

However, I did think people might like a sample of my work whether they end up buying my book or not.  None of the things I shared do I officially plan to publish, and they are here on this blog. You can find the link to the page on the right under the heading: The Written Poetry of Natasha Gruss McKinley

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Black Sales Days

A bustling crowd makes my head feel like it wants to burst.

Pushing through people is anti-joy,

a few Black Fridays I have bitten my lip and tried it.

A tea kettle for my father and

vague reembrace of a cousin joining me.

It was everything I thought I would hate (except the cousin).

Curious about a drug store,

there weren't too many people there

and the sales were amazing.

Obviously, a discrepancy.

On Cyber Mondays

I can hide from the world

and get those steals

that seem to be greatest

after a day of  Thanks and long weekend.

@Natasha McKinley

Stormy and Sunny Skies

It's been awhile since I wrote a blog post. My life got a bit upset in May.  I managed to try to promote my published poetry book for prime days in July.  It wasn't a success except to let you all know I didn't completely disappear. I struggle with some mental health stuff, which I think we all do. I suppose it's a little cliché that I'm a poet with mental health struggles. It hasn't been all bad as I hope you can tell from my some of my former blog posts. I did stop working on my next poetry book which I am planning on getting back to soon. I have been doing reviews and I have continued to get reviews on "Un-Clenched Emotion". I received the best one the other day.  There are both storms and sunny skies in life. The review says this:

DAUNTLESS-SECRETS OF THE ANDES

5.0 out of 5 stars This Author truly understands nature!

Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2023

Verified Purchase

What a wonderful collection of poems! If you love creation like I do, you will enjoy how the author puts her feelings of appreciation and discovery into words that sound like home. These poems are not only beautiful, but most of them are quite uplifting (except for the middle collection called "Despairing") My favorite begins with the words, "The day I fell in love with night..." We even took her writings to share around a beach campfire and covered the first section titled, "Enjoying". It was a memorable experience for everyone! The last portion, called "Philosophizing" also had some exceptional entries, but the ones I'll always revisit, are those that centered on understanding and appreciating the wonder of nature.

Isn't that awesome!? People read my writings around a beach! That's especially cool since the cover is a
photo of an ocean in Oregon.  I don't know if it's related to some more good news I got: Someone finally bought my book.  'Bought it', so I actually made a couple of dollars instead of a few cents from Kindle Unlimited.  It could be that this person liked my book so much they bought the print copy, or it might be related to yet more good news I received.

"Un-Clenched Emotion" got accepted on the BiblioBoard Library mobile and web platform. This is through Indie Washington, a collection of local indie author books. (An indie author is someone who self published their work). So my book is available to library patrons across the state. I've fantasized about having my book in libraries and now it's a reality. They don't just take any books either, I had to be accepted into this and I am so glad I was. They also gave me the following logo to proudly display on my website:

I'm not sure if they or another library had to purchase my book in order to make it available. A note on the logo:  in case you didn't know, I live in western Washington State, USA. However, I am happy to say "Un-Clenched Emotion" has traveled the world. Thank you for visiting my blog!

Amazon Prime Days and Author Promotion (99 cents, 7/10/23-7/14/23)

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Amazon Prime Days are Tuesday July 11th, and Wednesday July 12th 2023. I decided to try an experiment. I am reducing the price for "Un-Clenched Emotion" from $2.99 to $0.99 on the Kindle!  The book will be on sale the day before Prime Days, Monday 7/10/2023 until the day after, Thursday 7/13/2023. If you haven't found the link yet,  it is: 

https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Natasha-Gruss-ebook/dp/B01LZNVH4Y

I have done this 99cent deal before, but completely failed at it. It doesn't hurt to try again!  To get you interested in my book, I'll show my YouTube Teaser once again:

I believe I failed on the first go around because I am not the best at advertising. When I self published my book with Amazon I naively believed that Amazon would help me advertise....for free. It might be needless to say that I didn't really know what I was doing. I just did it. The final product, the book "Un-Clenched Emotion", turned out great.  Promoting the book didn't turn out so great, and it's still been a struggle, but I learn more everyday. 

Amazon does have a marketing section for authors and an advertising section,  but you have to pay for advertising. I'm always trying to save a penny or two, so I haven't looked into this as much as I should because it looks expensive. I am just making my 99cent sale coincide with Prime Days; instead of buying Prime Day Ads. Another reason I haven't looked more into advertising on Amazon is because I've heard other authors recommend it not be used. Now I'm seeing authors that Do recommend it! Who knows? The same goes for Goodreads Ads.

I have found another free way to advertise "Un-Clenched Emotion". Many book promotion websites offer free author interviews. So I answered a bunch of various questions about myself multiple times. You can't beat free advertising. I believe that the interviews I have posted so far have added traffic to this blog and have enticed some people to download and read my book on Kindle Unlimited. I have 3 interviews published online.  They are at:

Awesome Gang: https://awesomegang.com/natasha-gruss/

Pretty-Hot.com: https://pretty-hot.com/natasha-mckinley/

and

Crave Books: https://cravebooks.com/author/natasha-gruss/interview

Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash

I've wondered for awhile if blog tours worked for selling books. Some of them are pricey. I figured doing these Author Interviews will give me an idea if they will work or not. I also am not sure how well they work for poets.  Book blog tours seem to be geared toward other writing genres. If you're a poet and have gone on a book blog tour, let me know how it worked out for you. Let me know about Goodreads and Amazon paid ads too.

What Is a Wonderful Problem?

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Basically a wonderful problem is something that is overall a good thing, but that you need to do extra things to keep the problem a good thing. It's needing to buy clothes because you lost weight. You have to spend money to keep yourself covered appropriately. You lost weight but it's a hassle to have to spend money because of your weight loss. Unfortunately, that is not my wonderful problem at the moment (it was in the past) My current wonderful problem is that I have too many good reviews for my book now to post!

I just got a good review from Reader's Favorite. They can't post to Amazon because Amazon does not let professional companies to post reviews. I have been waiting for years to get this review, I think since 2016 when I published "Un-Clenched Emotion". It's as follows:

Reviewed by Diana Lopez for Readers' Favorite

Un-Clenched Emotion: A Collection of Poems has original and creative content. Natasha Gruss explores many different topics while maintaining a high level of attention to detail. She conveys her thoughts vividly as she describes the landscape and other elements of nature. She writes about the sea and the sky, expressing appreciation for everything around us. She continues with the topic of despair, where she examines dreams and feelings. She continually alludes to nature, which remains a background theme. Gruss concludes with a section on philosophizing, where she provides her perspective on situations such as the passing of time and facing life. With its inspirational verses, this collection will give you much food for thought.

I wish Un-Clenched Emotion had been longer. I enjoyed all of the poems because Natasha Gruss describes sensations, aromas, and objects concisely, without losing the central message that she is conveying. The language is simple and honest, without pretension, which is why I think everyone will enjoy this collection. Enjoying was my favorite part because it has the most descriptive poems and covers many emotions and situations. By sharing her thoughts, Gruss awakens the reader’s imagination. Her outlook is uplifting as she talks about feeling good and enjoying life, but she doesn't avoid expressing herself on matters such as confusion or loneliness. This is the ideal collection to savor during a peaceful moment.

Photo by Avery Evans on Unsplash

So how did I get so many good and honest reviews? I first started getting reviews from chatting with other authors on Goodreads through the Author Program and Goodreads Groups. Unfortunately, the author's there could only post to Goodreads at first.  You can find my Goodreads reviews at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32320363-un-clenched-emotion and https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32282264-un-clenched-emotion I gave honest reviews to get my own good reviews. Fortunately for me, there is too much to my story in getting book reviews in a blog post. I do want to mention that I was going to post just the 5 star reviews of "Un-Clenched Emotion" on my review page here, but there are too many of those to post.  What a wonderful problem!

If you would like to see my Amazon reviews they are at: https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Collection-Poems/dp/1537725327 and https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LZNVH4Y/  Admittedly, there are not many reviews on the first link (at the moment) which is to the print version of my book. I am still having a hard time selling that. Maybe someday! Like how now the Kindle version of my book is at a good number of reviews. I want to mention these are only the U.S.A. reviews. I also have reviews from Canada, the U.K., and right now one from Australia, Amazon pages.

Photo by Anastasiia Rozumna on Unsplash

There are a couple of shout outs I want to add to this. First to Diabolic Shrimp. This is an Author who offered to do Amazon reviews for a copy of a free book. He gave me my first Amazon review which was 5 stars. It took him a few years to do this. His link is: https://diabolicshrimp.com/the-reef/. Second I want to thank Sandra who runs a wonderful, honest, review site. Authors can upload their books to be reviewed at: https://sandrasbookclub.blogspot.com/2019/09/read-review-program.html You have to review another book in order to get in the program. There is no guarantee that you will get reviewed but I was lucky enough to get a lot of reviews from her program! Sandra also helps run a Secret Santa Exchange group on Facebook. I'll let you look that up on your own if you're interested. Authors are guaranteed to get an Honest (could be 1 star) review from here if they give an honest review to another book first and within half a month's time frame. 

There are many more authors who I have connected with throughout this journey, and I thank them all and apologize for not adding your name and information here.  I want to say I am not doing reviews for anyone right now. Not unless you are on the Facebook Secret Santa or another Facebook group that's by invite only (sorry, I don't have the power to invite for this group.) I will stop rambling now.  I wish for all of you to obtain your own wonderful problems!

Success

 

I am really happy to report that the free promotion I ran for my poetry book, 'Un-Clenched Emotion' was a huge success. So successful in fact, that I made Amazon's Best Seller List for free poetry. I also made the best seller list for free books in 45-Minute Literature & Fiction Short Reads. Check out the following screen shots taken on April 7th, 2023; the first day of this promotion:

It took a lot of work just to give my book away. I have tried running a free promotion a handful of times. Some promotions I didn't manage to give any free books away at all. Then I got listed in freebooksy for the final days of one of my promotions and gave away 6 books.  I was happy about that. I applied with them this time but they did not pick up my book again. However 3 other places did decide to promote my book. They are: It’s Write Now, Armadillo books (under the promoting name Crave Books), and Sandra's Book Club. I am happy to say I did not have to pay any money for these programs to promote my book! So, I'm sure you're wondering how many books I gave away this time. The answer is seventy, 70, and I am still blown away by this success.  I had to take another screen shot just to believe it! Here it is:

If you're wondering, I do not make any money when running these promotions. I did get 3 reviews of my book doing this, and obviously there is still time for other people to review. Even though I didn't make money doing this, I still feel successful. All I wanted was to get my book out there for people to enjoy. Making the Best Seller Lists was not even a goal. I am pleased and proud that it happened. I don't think I'll be running a free promotion for this book again. I do plan on trying a 99 cent promotion next time but it will be awhile yet for that. Amazon only allows authors to run a promotion like this once every 3 months.  

If you're reading this, it's probably likely you downloaded my book. I wanted to thank you for that. I also wanted to let you know my book is ALWAYS free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers. I do get a miniscule amount of money if you download and read it from there. My goal was and is not to make money with this book, my goal is to share it with the world. Thank you for helping me succeed!

Thunderstorm

https://youtu.be/67HAVaT4VZ0

 

What to do for Poetry Month

It is the month of April, and the month of April is poetry month.  There are many things people can do besides write poetry.  Most obviously, they can read poetry.  Of course, you can read the classics like Shakespeare or Dickon's, but you can read current day poets too, (like me).  If you read a poet's work on your kindle, they would appreciate a review or at least a star rating.  All you have to do is click a star.  I decided to read a poetry book for this April.  

This month I decided to read Misha Collins poetry book: "Some Things I Still Can't Tell You."  Misha Collins is not famous for being a poet.  He is famous for playing the character Castielle (an Angel), on the T.V. show Supernatural.  I was very excited when I found out he was into poetry.  I saw him recite some on my Instagram account, thought it was great, and asked my husband for his book for Christmas. My husband got for it me!  Misha Collins is a very good poet, and I am very glad that I have his writing in my possession.

If you are a poet, and are published with Amazon, you can give your book away for free for up to five days.  You won't get any royalties when you do this, but you might spread your work around the world a little more.  I chose to give my book away for 3 days at the beginning this month.  Four people took advantage of the offer.  I may give "Un-Clenched Emotion" more free days in following months.  It is on Kindle Unlimited, so if you have that, it is always free.  I found out that I do get royalties if someone buys my book that way.

Naturally, if you would like to, you can write your own poetry in the month of April.  There are many poetry challenges online where they ask you to write a poem a day for the whole month of April.  I have done this in years past, but did not do a poem a day this year.  I did write a few poems this month, which I plan to submit to publication.  They are speculative poems, poems that follow a fantasy or science fiction theme.  I have a title for the other poetry chapbook, (or perhaps whole book), this time, and some more of this book to put together. The theme for this book is the Seasons. I still have a long way to go to get this finished.

I challenge you to read and/or write poetry this month.  Promote what you have already written, or write a review for an author you have read.

Free Poetry Book “Un-Clenched Emotion” Last Five Days of April 2018, How to Get Kindle App, and Getting Free Books

It’s April – Poetry Month.  In honor of this month I have decided to offer my poetry book “Un-Clenched Emotion” for free on the Kindle.  It will be free for five days, from Thursday April 26^th 2018 to Monday April 30^th 2018. (There’s a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in there as well).  You can get “Un-Clenched Emotion” at http://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Natasha-Gruss-ebook/dp/B01LZNVH4Y/  Normally this poetry book is priced at $2.99 on Amazon.  Unless you have Kindle Unlimited, in which case it is always free.

No Kindle? Get the App for Free 

I want to stress that you don’t need a Kindle to get this, just a smart phone or tablet with the Kindle App, or you can even download it on your computer if you don’t want to use those devices.  The Kindle App is free to download. You can get it on the Google Play Store at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?hl=en&id=com.amazon.kindle or for your Apple Device at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id302584613 and if you decide to go the computer route you can get it at https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/fd/kcp and choose the “Download for PC and Mac” button.

  

Getting Free Books- Not Just “Un-Clenched Emotion”

It costs you nothing, but in order to use the Kindle App you do need an Amazon account. You can get it at https://www.amazon.com/  (but you do not need Prime or Kindle Unlimited).  There are many books listed on Amazon costing 0.00 that you can get at no charge at various times, and sometimes the are always free, (not just Un-Clenched Emotion being free from 4/26/18-4/30/18).  The Kindle App and Amazon account are free, but you do need to add a debit or credit card on Amazon to use it.  Even so, free books truly do cost nothing.  It may be annoying sorting through books on Amazon to see which one’s are free, but you can get e-mailed lists that will tell you which ones are available, (they’re not just poetry books either).  I belong to a few lists, one of which is Bookbub which you can sign up for at https://www.bookbub.com/welcome and I belong to Early Bird Books which you can get at https://earlybirdbooks.com/.  There are so many ways to get free books, I should do a blog post about it later.  I have added links to my whole webpage, so if you're looking for multiple ways to get books you should check out my links section.  Click the following to see the whole blog: https://authornatashagruss.blogspot.com/  I follow some authors by e-mail (goddessfuri@yahoo.com is my email,) and they often list books for no charge, and not always their own.  I follow authors and free book sites on twitter too.  You may also be able to go to your local library and “check-out” digital books.  Ask your librarian how to do this.  If you do pay for Amazon Prime (which I do), they offer a free book once a month as well.  There are many ways to get electronic books that cost nothing.  I encourage you to check it out.

Why I Haven't Promoted Before 

I haven’t done much advertising for the Kindle Version of “Un-Clenched Emotion,” yet I feel that the offer of a free book is a great one.  The reason I haven’t promoted this is because the formatting in the Vertical View didn’t come out right- but now I did it, I fixed it!  Now the book comes out great in both Vertical and Horizatal View, plus I fixed some errors.  I am so happy about being able to fix it!  When "Un-Clenched Emotion,"  wasn't coming out right, it didn't destroy the poetry, it was still okay, but now it's polished! Please read it!

Share and Perhaps Review Please

There is no requirement to get this book free on the last days of April 2018.  I just want people to be able to read my poetry.  It would be awesome if you wrote a review, or at least give it however many stars you feel it is worth.  If you have Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com), you can post a review on there as well if you want to support me. Despite the picture above of the man clicking five stars, I am all for your honest pick of stars.  If you don't want to review the book, I'm happy with just a click of stars.  If you want to write a review, it doesn't have to be much, just something like "I thought it was great.  I recommend this book." Please share this blog post.  There are buttons for Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and more at the bottom of this post.  Press one before or during the last five days of April (and if you’re doing twitter, adding hashtags (#) would be great.  For example: #poetry #freepoetry #freebook)! Thank you.

Celebrating the Little Things

Reflecting on happiness is good for the soul.  It’s hard to do when you are sad, but there are many stories and poems reflecting the emotion of happiness.  Some of my poems do just that.

Happiness in Un-Clenched Emotion

In my book, Un-Clenched Emotion I have organized my poems into three sections.  Because enjoying the little things in life is so important, I labeled the first section of my poems, (you guessed it,): Enjoying.  When down in the dumps, look to read uplifting things.  You may have trouble finding joy being celebrated, but you will see by my book that it is possible to find authors shining light instead of darkness in the world of literature.

Selling My Book

I am happy to announce that I have recently found things to celebrate in my world of writing.  I felt really good when I randomly received money in my bank account from KDP, which meant I sold a copy of Un-Clenched Emotion.  Who I sold it to, I don’t know.  I do know that I recently convinced my boyfriend to buy a copy of my book.  Like he usually does, he found a way to bring me pleasure by asking if I would sign his copy.  Blushing under his praise, I did just that.  Perhaps I only sold one random stranger and my boyfriend my book, but I will always look for the little things to bring me good spirits.  Little things like selling one copy of my book.

Love That I Shared

It’s not just my boyfriend and a random stranger that has received and read Un-Clenched Emotion.  When my best friend was in jail she requested a copy of it to pass the time.  I gladly gave it to her.  She has told me that once she got out of jail she left the book behind, or “donated” it.  I don’t mind that my book went to the occupants of a jail, it actually makes me very happy.  My friend told me that she felt my poetry was very good and deserved to be shared.  I have shared my writing in the world at large as well with the creation of this blog.  After leaving it for months, I was ecstatic to come back to it and find that I had 102 page views.  I have no idea how I got those views.  Was it because I figured out that I needed to click a box on BlogSpot in order to make it searchable?  Was it because I put labels and descriptions on my blog?  Was it because I shared on Facebook that I published a poetry book and a friend shared my post?  Because another friend shared my post on Twitter?  I may never know, but sharing my blog with 102 people is something to celebrate.

Happiness can be in the little things.  In my case I found happiness by being proud that I put a section on “Enjoying” in Un-Clenched Emotion, by selling my book, and by sharing my book and blog with others.  I hope that you can find ways to reflect on happiness too.

Discouragement to Encouragement From "The Princess Bride"

The free book promotion is over.  I'm a little discouraged about publishing this poetry book, because as far as I know it's not getting out there.  I have no way of knowing if anyone choose to take care of this opportunity to get "Un-Clenched Emotion" or not.  The only way I have of knowing is if someone posts a review, and no one has.  It's disheartening that no one has paid money for the book except for me.  Not even my parents. they were hoping I would buy it for them and they don't have a kindle.  I'm still glad I published this book though.

I just finished reading "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman,  Yes, I read it, I didn't just watch the movie, though I have in the past and is one of my favorites.  That's why I got the book.  Anyway, I read a funny, encouraging passage on the poet Browning.  It goes like this:

"Did you know that Robert Browning's first book of poems didn't sell one copy?  True.  Even his mother didn't buy it at her local bookstore.  Have you ever heard anything more humiliating? How would you like to have been Browning and it's your first book and you have these secret hopes that now, now , you'll be somebody.  Established, Important.  And you give it a week before you ask the publisher how things are going, because you don't want to seem pushy or anything.  And then maybe you drop by, and it was probably all very English and understandable in those days, and you're Browning and you chitchat around a bit, before you drop the biggie: "Oh, by the way, any notions yet on how my poems might be doing?'  And then his editor who has been dreading this moment, probably says, "Well, you know how it is with poetry these days; nothing's taking off like it used to, requires a bit of time for the word to get around.' And then finally, somebody had to say it. 'None, Bob, Sorry, Bob, no, we haven't yet had one authenticated sale.  We thought for a bit that Hatchards had a potential buyer down by Piccadilly, but it didn't quite work out,  Sorry, Bob; of course we'll keep you posted in the event of a breakthrough." (Goldman, p. 227-228)

This of course, probably isn't true.  Part of the delight of The Princess Bride is it's funny b,s.  It got me thinking though.  Did Browning not sell his first book of poems? (According to Wikipedia he couldn't get a publisher at 12 so destroyed the book, but that's at twelve years old and who's published a book that young?.)  Knowing that this has happened to a famous poet (even if it happened fictitiously) gives me encouragement.  Sure no one has bought my book yet (that I know of)  But they may in the future,  And it may not be until I'm dead, but that's okay.  I just want people to get enjoyment out of my work, whatever the date may be.  I hope this inspires other struggling authors as well.  Some day you may be famous no matter how far you've gotten in your writing by now!

Celebrate Poetry Month

It's April.  That means it's poetry month!  I have written poems about different times of the month.  April was my second favorite month, because that's when I got to go on vacations in the previous years.  October is my favorite because I love the fall, and that's when I met my true love.  I'm starting to get a liking for March too since that's when my love moved in with me!  April still has it's benefits though.  In the place I live there is a tulip festival every year, so I am surrounded in beauty,  The weather finally gets nicer in April, and it is time to celebrate poetry.  Celebrate poetry month by getting my book, "Un-Clenched" emotion on Create Space or Amazon.

Published My First Book

Hi, I'm author Natasha Gruss I started this blog to promote my first published book, "Un-Clenched Emotion".  Doing this myself, there has been some problems formatting it on the kindle, though it is available on Amazon,  I have a hard copy of my book and that turned out great.  If you want to buy it the link is https://www.createspace.com/6580430   It's more expensive to buy on Create Space then Amazon, but the formatting is worth it.  There are all kinds of poems in this book on all kinds of different subjects.  Some are happy, some are sad (or you might say depressing), and some don't really fit into either of those categories.  These are my favorite poems I wrote through out my entire life,  I believe I should share them with the world.  This is my first published book, In the future I may publish more, we'll see how this one goes first.