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.

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!

Free Ebook For Easter

 

Happy Easter and Happy Poetry Month. To celebrate, I am once again offering my kindle ebook, 'Un-Clenched Emotion', free to everyone! The promotion for this book runs from Friday April 7th, 2023 to April 11th, 2023.  Last time I offered my book for free, I gave away 6 books. I'm not sure if I'll run this promotion again, right now I am not planning on it.  The link for the this is:   https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Natasha-Gruss-ebook/dp/B01LZNVH4Y Of course the link is all over the site. I'm sorry to bombard you, but I want to make it easy for you to get my book!

I don't make any royalties ($) when I give out my book for free.  I do make some pennies when someone downloads and reads my book on Kindle Unlimited. You heard me right, cents, not dollars. I also recieve a few cents a month for being enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited program. When someone actually buys the book, I get a couple of dollars. And my Sales Ranking goes up.  So of course I am always hoping to sale. I haven't sold many copies, but I have sold some. For me, that's reason to celebrate! 

I also believe the reviews I have received for "Un-Clenched Emotion" is reason to celebrate. Right now I have an average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 (out of 25 ratings). That's pretty great! I've received so many honest reviews by belonging to review programs myself. Right now my favorite review program is Sandra's Book Club. It's at: http://sandrasbookclub.blogspot.com/ It is awesome, and if you are an author and decide to join, please mention my name. Anyway, one of my favorite 5 star reviews for my book is as follows:

If you want to know what's inside the book, here are a few of my YouTube teasers:

I hope you seize this opportunity to get my book for free and I hope you enjoy!

About Sonnets

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In the last blog post, I said I would write more about sonnets.  I believe there is something attractive about sonnets, so I write them.  This is how I go about writing a sonnet.  What are sonnets? Basically, a sonnet is a 14 line poem.  There are many different types.  I don't go about limiting myself to one certain type, I do what's going to work best for what I want to write. 

Most of my sonnets contain 3 quatrains, (a paragraph made up of 4 lines,) and 1 couplet, (a paragraph made of 2 lines,) at the end.  Shakespearian Sonnets have an ABAB CDCD EFEF rhyming scheme in the quatrains and an GG rhyming scheme for the couplet.  Many different sonnet types count the syllables in each line.  In the following example of one of my sonnets, "The Discussion", I have used 10 syllables for each line.  When coming up with a sonnet I write a template looking like this:

1. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  A

2. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ B

3. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ A

4. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ B

5. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ C

6. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ D

7. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ C

8. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ D

9. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ E

10. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ F

11. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ E

12. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ F

13. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ G

14 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ G

Each underline, or dash, represents each syllable that I want to use.  A syllable can best be described as a beat of a word, usually indicated by a vowel.  For example, 'frog' is one syllable.  It has one vowel, so the word frog would be written across one part of the line above.  'Discussion' would be 3 syllables indicated by the i, u, and io.  Since it is three syllables, I would write that across 3 parts of the line.  To put 'frog' and 'discussion' together, I would write across 4 parts of the line to look like: frog-dis-cus-sion.  To write one line of the sonnet, I still need to come up with 6 more syllables.  It's not the easiest thing to do, but it is doable. 

Iambic pentameter is also part of a sonnet, and it is also hard to do.  I am not good at iambic pentameter, so I don't do it.  The rules in poetry are meant to be broken!  If you are interested, I found the best description iambic pentameter here: https://classicalpoets.org/2015/12/02/how-to-write-a-sonnet/#/ 

In order to come up with writing rhymes and a subject, I do a free write.  I write all words I can think of and then see if I can put any two together that rhyme, or if a word might inspire a rhyme.  The words can create a guideline of a potential subject.  Sometimes, as in the case below, I come up with the subject first.  For "The Discussion," I wanted to come up with a poem that fit in the category of speculative (relating to fantasy or science fiction).  I thought talking frogs would work for a speculative poem.  I did try to write "The Discussion" for publication, however I do not think it's good enough for that.  I do think it's good, just not that good, so I am sharing it with you for free now.

The Discussion

 

Now it is dusk, we are frogs, we arise.         

Time for our meeting, time for our chatter.                                                                    

When it is colder, we fear our demise.                           

We must discuss an important matter.        

                                                          

Among the dark it is time to discourse.                                                               

Us, waking, nocturnal socializing.            

Like you, we try to discover the source.                                             

Knowledge gleaning, avoid criticizing.                                                                

                                                                       

Our music reverberates among us.             

Ponds, our water, it is disappearing.                                                                   

Asking what can we do, who can we trust?                                                                   

Not understanding, others are jeering.                                                        

                                          

Can you understand the amphibian?                  

Shivering, dying now, to our chagrin. 

                                                              Photo by gary tresize on Unsplash

I encourage you to revel in this beautiful form of poetry, whether you be reading sonnets or writing them.

 

Learning How to Publish and Promote

                                                         

                                                         Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

First, right now, 10/15/22, until the 18th of October, the "U)n-Clenched Emotion," kindle book version, is on sale for 99 cents on Amazon.  It normally costs $2.99.  It's always free on Kindle Unlimited.  If you haven't already found the link on this blog, it's at: https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Natasha-Gruss-ebook/dp/B01LZNVH4Y   This book is authored by Natasha Gruss, which is me,  even though I am now Natasha McKinley.  Amazon does not let people change the name of the author of a published book, which makes sense.

                                              

                                              Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

I found some other interesting things about how I can edit and promote the books I write.  Even after it was published way back in 2016.  I have not yet had my 2 of the same books, (the kindle version and the print edition,) linked.  Hopefully this is in the process of happening.  I thought that I had messed up by not originally linking my books.  Well, I just found out it wasn't my fault.  Author's used to publish their books with Create Space.  That's where I published my print book. Now, you can not publish your books with that.  I had to go into Create Space and transfer the print book to Kindle Direct Publishing, where are where all book versions are published now.  I had published my delightful book when Amazon was making this change, so my linking got lost in the cracks.  I have changed the book descriptions, the subtitles, and the keywords to match.  Hopefully this will get my books linked in a few days; after my promotion ends.

                                            Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

Kindle does not let you price your book at 99 cents all the time.  You have to do a promotion to do that.  You get one count down deal during a promotion period which lasts for a few months.  Hopefully I will be able to do another free promotion for Black Friday/Cyber Monday.  Amazon also added another way to promote my book.  I was able to nominate it for Prime First Reads.  That's where Prime members get to download a free book, out of a list of a limited amount of books, once a month.  I doubt they will choose my book, but it was an easy click to nominate it.  Doing is risk-free.  I hope I have given authors some good information on Publishing and promoting their books.  And if you are not an author, I hope this was still an interesting read.