First short story self published

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  1. #1
    Member Jagunco's Avatar
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    First short story self published

    Hi

    I just self published on amazon and I'm not trying to promote the story. Of course all my friends have said they're interested. I've joined several groups on facebook and I'll probably be making a twitter account to do the same on there.

    Is there anything else I could be doing? Bare in mind I have ZERO budget. I'm not concerned with being the next J K Rowling I would just like a fair few people to read my stuff.

    Cheers

  2. #2
    One possibility is to put a link to it in your signature here, then post a few critiques or join some conversations. Don't know how much that would increase, but all it costs is a little time.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Jagunco View Post
    Hi

    I just self published on amazon and I'm not trying to promote the story. Of course all my friends have said they're interested. I've joined several groups on facebook and I'll probably be making a twitter account to do the same on there.

    Is there anything else I could be doing? Bare in mind I have ZERO budget. I'm not concerned with being the next J K Rowling I would just like a fair few people to read my stuff.

    Cheers
    The general rule of thumb is to have an audience before you self-publish. The way to do that is to submit to periodicals/anthologies and gather readers that way, and also get money with which to finance your efforts. Having already defied Descartes, you've made the road harder to negotiate.
    Buy a Facebook ad. They cost around ten-twenty US and do a decent job, in my experience. Network with people in your genre. Distribute some free copies for reviews/publicity. The general run of self-pubbed books sell less than 100 copies.
    This is an example of why. Be prepared.
    Good luck.





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  4. #4
    Member Jagunco's Avatar
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    I could have sworn I replied to all this but apparently I haven't.

    Thanks for the advice I will alter my signature and forgive my ignorance but I wouldn't know where to start looking for periodicals to write

  5. #5
    Determine what genre your work falls into and then google. There are publishers for almost any sort of written work.





    Test Patterns -- still available!
    Volume 2 -- Creature Features coming 2018!
    Caravans Awry pre-orders -- coming Hallowe'en 2018
    I cover the Chicago Cubs daily. Read all about it!


    "From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it." - Groucho Marx

  6. #6
    What happened do you have any progress?

  7. #7
    If you have zero budget (but time) then the most basic way to market the work is by shamelessly self promoting your work all over the internet. Depending on the topic, find forums and discussion groups to talk up your book, create a following on twitter and facebook, create a web page for your writing that links to Amazon, and publish on B&N & GooglePlay (assuming you are not signed up for Kindle Unlimited).

    Give you an example: one of my books was about stoner redneck preppers who save the world. So I promoted the book in dozens of survivalist, prepper, and stoner forums and sites.

    However, you wanna have most of these resources set up before you actually publish the book/story, otherwise you lose a lot of momentum. See Amazon's code is designed to notice fast rising books and bring them to the top of several lists. So the more books you can sell right away, and the more reviews you can garner right away, the higher you float in the ocean of new crap being published. If you sell 10 books on day 1, it helps you more than if you sell 10 books a month later.

    Also, with amazon there is a lot to be said about linking. While I don't advocate reviewing your own work (only losers post reviews on their own work) there is nothing that says you can't buy a copy of your own. If you have already purchased and reviewed other books then your story is now linked by "people who bought this story also purchased..."

    There is advertising on Amazon as well, but I found the ratio of sales to cost was underwhelming.

    When you write a book, be sure to get on the library lists. For your story try to find groups or interviewers who cover similar content or to whom the story might be newsworthy. Hell, you can even send press releases to your local paper.

    Yes, the secret of cheap marketing is shameless self promotion. It's a lot of work tho.

  8. #8
    All of that I listed is why I typically schedule several days off when I release a book. you don't just publish and sit back; you publish and get busy. Books don't sell themselves, and a short story on Amazon is like a drop in the ocean unless you sell the hell outta it.

  9. #9
    Member Jagunco's Avatar
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    Understood and thanks for the candid write up. I will start putting myself about more.

    You'll note by the way that I have a link to the amazon page below

  10. #10
    Member Jagunco's Avatar
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    Thank you for asking mate sorry its taken a couple days to get back to you. I've used the 5 days free promotion which generated some interest. Alas not many people have bought versions they've had to actually pay for but 30 or so copies are out there.

    I need to spend more time on it really.

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