Paperback 30% Off!

 

Wow! I've been keeping track of my Amazon book pages, and it's a good thing I did. They decided to list paperwork my book for sale for 30% off. Discount, awesome! It's normally $9.99, but Amazon has decided to only charge you $7. I have no idea how long this is going to last. There is plenty of time to get Un-Clenched Emotion for Christmas present, ships is 2 days! A great idea for a gift. 

Go to https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Collection-Poems/dp/1537725327

PS. I am putting my Kindle book on sale for .99 for one week starting December 9th, 2025. A great self-care gift for you. The sale is in honor of my birthday coming up, and I chose to do this one!

Thunderstorm

https://youtu.be/67HAVaT4VZ0

 

Discovering the Marketing and Promotion of an Author

After the publication of my first poetry book in 2016, I became very discouraged when I didn’t make a sale, or seem to be able to give away my poetry for free.  I stopped writing poetry for a long period of time.  Last month, April 2018, I somehow got motivated to write poetry more.  I didn’t write a poem everyday, yet the month of April was still full of poetry.

Submitting Poems for Publication

I discovered many new things about the publication and marketing of poetry.  Back in March, I had checked out a couple of copies of “Writer’s Digest” and discovered a few publications that would pay poets for their poems if they were accepted.  I made it a goal to write poems that I was proud of and submit them for publication.  I succeeded in this goal and sent out two poems, one each to the publications “Contrary” and “Poetry Magazine.”  I probably won’t know until November if they’ve been accepted, and I don’t have much hope they will be, but I am proud I attempted to at least.  I know there still is a chance. 

I also joined the Goodreads “Poetry!” Group and entered a poem for the May contest.  I was not a finalist, so I will share it now:

If I Saw the Perfect Me

Another Past, an Alternate Dimension.

-Blink- She has everything I ever wanted.

Eyes of Ebony, Shimmering Hair in Shades of Gold,

and Skin like Tanned Cream.

If only I had fallen in Her Footsteps.

Walk softly with pitter pattering feet.

Our destinies tied together.

She thrums to the heartbeat of Her Love.

Eyes everchanging as the Ocean,

Eyebrows: dark drawing perfect curves to Gentle Face.

He is mine here, this dimension, something we share.

My love vibrates to my soul.

For a moment, I stop regretting being Her.

Rubbing dull brown eyes, I see She’s found a Purpose,

while I write resumés that blow away

to crumbling and quitting, never finding purchase,

while I stand precariously, Her Feet Perfected Toenails,

Rooted with Joy.

I hold glittering Fool’s Gold while Hers Sparkling Pure is Solid.

She bites it with Pristine White Teeth, doesn’t distort. 

Biting mine with stained teeth and too small lips, melts to glop.

Her green with Luck, me green with Envy.

I wonder if the Money God is really evil,

or if it’s just a matter of success.

-Blink- We both see an Empty Soul, green with decaying,

wearing poverty as pride. Her eyes also ebony,

but no life there, orbs glinting of malevolence.

Us Others release our benevolent breath,

taking comfort of Our happy dispositions.

Looking at Another’s problems through a looking glass of speculation,

I come to the realization:

It doesn’t matter how magnificent Her life is,

mine could be as the Other; much worse.

Reviews of Poetry

In March or April, I also became an Author on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15863356.Natasha_Gruss).  I’m not sure how I discovered I could do this.  I joined some review groups on Goodreads this April and exchanged reviews of poetry books.  I reviewed and got reviewed by four poets.  I didn’t review them, but I also read more poetry books that were listed for free on Amazon and twitter, just to celebrate poetry month.  I submitted my book, “Un-Clenched Emotion” to be reviewed on other websites as well.

Twitter

I discovered twitter by tweeting my blog posts and promoting my poetry book (@natasha_gruss).  Tweeting, liking, and retweeting things gained me a lot of twitter followers.  If other authors, or poets, (or just interesting people,) followed me, I followed them back.  I did tweet one old haiku of mine, and someone used it as inspiration to make a haiku page on their website.  On twitter, I found a book on marketing and used that for poetry month.

Amazon, KDP Select, and Giveaways

For Marketing, I really examined the Amazon page of my book.  Doing this, I learned that authors were allowed to give away their kindle books for free every 90 days.  I thought I had unsuccessfully done this one time, and that I couldn’t do it again.  I was happy I was wrong.  When I discovered I could give away my poetry book away for free again, I decided I would do that in celebration of poetry month.  To do this, I also figured out how to fix the kindle version of my book. (The formatting didn’t come out right the first time).  It felt good, trying to get my poetry book out there.  I didn’t know when I did my free promotion before that I could find out if I gave away any books.  This time I discovered KDP select makes a marketing graph of how many books were sold or given away.  I was happy six people took advantage of my giveaway.  Amazon’s Author Page (https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01LZE8CKO) also graphs sales rank and author’s rank.  It only ranks sales, not giveaways, so my free book promotion didn’t affect rankings at all.

For the future, I tried to figure out how to help my rankings and studied print book giveaways.  Everyone said Amazon’s print book giveaways weren’t worth it, but Goodreads was.  I bought 6 print books of “Un-Clenched Emotion” (https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Collection-Poems/dp/1537725327/) which I hope to give away in the future.  I also wondered if doing a giveaway of an item, like a coffee pot, would help my Amazon Author ranking, if people were required to follow me as an Amazon Author.  What do you think?  If you could follow me for the chance to win a coffee pot, Edgar Allen Poe mug, dragon stapler, or tea basket; would you do it?  Which thing would you want?

I am proud of all I did in April to celebrate poetry and learn about the marketing of it.  There is still much more work to do.  There are many more discoveries I made on marketing and blogging, but too much to write in one post.  I may write about them in the future.

How to Write Reviews and the Importance of Them

The Importance of Reviews

Authors love to get good reviews.  Reviews of an Authors work should be honest.  If you don’t like something and review it, it might A: encourage the author to improve their work B: make the author realize they might want to take up something other than writing.  A review of a book lets readers know whether they might want to buy a book or not.  Personally, I look at reviews on Amazon if I’m considering a book or not and they are highly influential.  I might find out if the book is a stand alone or not.  I prefer stand alone books.  If there are a slew of one-star reviews, I know not to waste my time with a book.  That being said, some Indie authors (self-published) may not have many reviews and need to get some. 

Working with Goodreads 

I barely have any reviews on my poetry book, but recently I learned how to get some.  I became an author on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/) and joined some groups.  Goodreads is not just for authors, it is also for readers; in fact, it’s more for readers than authors.  That being said, being a Goodreads author has been very beneficial to me.  I belong to two reviewing groups, One is “Authors Needing Reviews” at: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/53280-authors-needing-reviews ; and the other is “Genre Specific Review Groups” at: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/100482-genre-specific-review-groups .  I have done 2 reviews for the Authors group and have gotten 2 in return.  I have agreed to do 2 more for the Genre Group and will get another 2 in return.  Unfortunately, it’s undetermined how many will make it on Amazon, and how many will have to simply stay on the Goodreads site.  Amazon has rules where you must have spent at least $50 to write a review.  They also might not let you review a product if a product is for sale in a different country.  One of the reviews I did was for a lady in the UK and I’m in the USA so it wouldn’t let me post on Amazon.  One review was for another lady in the US and it let me review her book (I spend a lot on Amazon).

How to Do Reviews

If you’ve decided to do reviews, which I recommend, and need to know how to do them, the first thing you should do is read reviews.  Find the ones you like and use them as a guideline to write your own.  There are all kinds of books that need reviewing: fiction books, non-fiction books, and poetry books. Non-fiction and poetry reviews are different from fiction book reviews.  In non-fiction and poetry reviews, you don’t have to worry about spoilers like you do in fiction reviews.  Telling what these books are about, in detail, is desired.  In a fiction book review, you have to leave out some details to avoid spoiling the book.  In all book reviews, talking about the mood an author portrays is a good idea.  Saying what you like about a book is a good idea too.  Reading an explanation of how to do reviews might not be the best style of learning, so I’ll give you links to the reviews that were listed above.  One poetry book review I did was “Unconditional” by T.Renee, and is on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/UNCONDITIONAL-Just-Me-Scattered-Thoughts/dp/1634927761/  under the review title “A Collection of Poems Worth Reading.”  It should be noted that coming up with a title for your review is important, informing interested parties what you will be talking about.  I also posted this same review to her Goodreads page.  The other review I did was for “Moon Petals” by Jessica Ginting, which can’t be found on Amazon, but can be on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38469438-moon-petals without a title, but under Natasha Gruss.  Looking at the other reviews for these books is a good idea too.  The reviews that I have received for my poetry book “Un-Clenched Emotion” can be found on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Collection-Poems/dp/1537725327/ and on my Goodreads Author Page at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32282264-un-clenched-emotion These are examples of Poetry Reviews.

A few more words.  I have agreed to do more reviews for the Goodreads Groups I mentioned above.  Right now, I’m scheduled for 5, so I will not have much time.  I also need to mention a free marketing book that I got over twitter: “The Self-Publishing Tools of Trade Every Author Must Know” by Lama Jabr, which has a lot of links for authors to market their books.  It could have had more information about why each marketing step is important and how too, but the links allowed it so I didn’t have to use search engines for things like finding places that do free reviews, and places I could advertise my free book.  It was all there in one place.  There are many more beneficial links in Jabr’s book, so if you’re an author, I recommend it.  The links for free book sites that I placed on this blog all came from Jabr’s book.  There’s a non-fiction book review example for you!  I hope this helps you want to support authors and review a book. 

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.

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.