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!

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.