The Hardest Part of Publishing Isn’t The Writing Process

Two weeks ago I launched a one day promotion called Ronin’s Birthday on Facebook. And leading up to it I was disappointed at the response, or lack of.

You would think that publishing a book would be the hardest part, but no, to me it’s getting the book in front of people and getting them to buy it. Especially when you don’t have the money to use conventional advertising.

But I think I found one thing that helps, and that’s a passion for what you do. How I discovered this is that when I train with my kettlebell I post the workout on my training days and later the results every six weeks. And I have people asking me about it! Three that I know of started training with kettlebells themselves.

Yet when I posted the link to the book trying to get LIKES for the Fan Page or copies sold, barely a tremor in the stats. So you have to love what you do or it feels artificial. First I enrolled Howls From The Wolfpack into the Kindle Lending Library so Amazon Prime Members can borrow it for free, and also allows me to do promotions like book giveaways.

Then I started the Facebook Event Ronin’s Birthday where I would give away free Kindle copies, all I ask for is a Amazon Review.

And I started sharing my favorite parts of the different authors writings on my Profile and the Fan Page along with Twitter. My friends started sharing the event link on their walls but only 16 people said they were “attending” the event, and most were friends. It looked like a flop.

On my birthday I woke up, logged into the Kindle dashboard, 18 copies given away. I had expected that for the total that day. And as the day went on I watched the number climb till it stopped at 147.

A rousing success as far as getting the book out there, but as for reviews, only a few came in. Single digits. What surprised me was how many I gave away! I didn’t know that many were paying attention. But they did, and I’m happy. Thanks to those who got a copy, tell your friends and tell me what you think about it.