Been Thinkin' and Tinkerin'

How do I get the Fifty Shades of Grey readers to buy my books?

So, it's time to put the second phase of my self-publishing experiment into action. I gave POSSESSION OBSESSION AND A DIESEL COMPRESSION ENGINE away as a Kindle freebie for one day last month. The aim was to get it onto a few thousand Kindles out there in the hopes that it would yield some reviews, maybe encourage people to take a chance on my other books (published by Blasted Heath and Pulp Press).

Just over 200 copies were downloaded that day. I'm not sure about the knock-on sales effect but I do know that the only review I got came from a reader already familiar with my work (Hi, Katy! You're the best!) so in that respect, the experiment kind of failed.

But I've assessed the damage and come up with a slightly different plan. First of all, I've decided to make use of the sites out there that give shout-outs to Kindle freebies. Some need to be contacted ahead of time so I did that on Monday (I feel so organised). The rest I'll need to hit up on Saturday, the first day of the giveaway. Hopefully that'll draw a little more attention to the book. The fact that it's going to run for two days might improve my odds at getting that download figure in the thousands as well. So basically the same as last time but I've (hopefully) picked a better set of days, extended the freebie time period and told more people.

Well I didn't say it was a great and original plan. Just slightly different.

Whatever the case, I'll report the download figures here early next week.