A couple of weeks ago I outlined my writing plans for the future. I had returned from holiday all fired up and ready to get my books out there. Well, it’s been a busy couple of weeks since then so I thought I’d share my progress with you.
Free Book Promo – I’ve set the date for 21st August and here is the link that you need to visit to get your free Kindle download www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008IG41DU. Since I set the date I’ve been working very hard on getting the word out. Free book promos do not have the miraculous results they used to have on Amazon so I realise that it’s important to let as many people know about it as possible if it’s to be a success. In addition to that, my readership for “Kids’ Clubs and Organizations – A Comprehensive UK Guide” is UK only, as confirmed by the sub-title. This means that I have to work extra hard on spreading the word as my readership is substantially smaller than that for novels etc., which sell worldwide.
So what have I been doing up to now to publicise the promo?
Well, to start with I’ve notified over 20 websites that advertise free book promotions. I’ve also emailed a couple of sites that specialise in parenting promotions although I’ve not had any response from them to date. A few of the book promotion sites have kindly agreed to feature the book though. Next, I’ve mithered the life out of friends and relatives and asked them to share any posts on their Facebook pages. I was really pleased with the response and send a big thank you to everybody who offered to help.
I’m currently scheduling lots of tweets to book tweeters and parenting groups to try to build up a big buzz in the couple of weeks preceding the promotion. I’ve also joined Facebook groups and Google+ communities that will allow promotional author posts, so I will be adding mine a few days before my promotion. I really need to get more active on Goodreads as well so that I can utilise it to greater advantage. For those of you who are non-authors, Goodreads is a vast writing community with a massive following. Consequently, independent authors are constantly advised that having a presence on the site is an absolute must.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank my lovely author friend Alice Huskisson in advance for showing me the way to manage my free book promo. This will be the first one I’ve done so all the information I found through her blog and her one to one advice have really helped. Alice is the author of the brilliant The Man in a Haystack. If you read and enjoyed Bridget Jones’ Diary then I’m sure you’ll enjoy this book, which logs Alice’s experiences of Internet dating. You can find out more about Alice at: http://alicehuskissonauthor.wordpress.com/.
My Second Parenting Book – As I’ve been so focused on the free book promo and client work, my second book is still 70% complete as it was a couple of weeks ago. However, I have now received information from all but one of the 23 organisations that will be featured in the book. This means that once I get back to writing the book, it shouldn’t take too long to finish. I’m so looking forward to publishing my second book and I’ll update you as we get nearer to publication date. For this parenting book I plan to include colour photographs but I haven’t quite ironed out how that will work in practice so I think there will be fun and games ahead.
My Debut Novel – I originally planned to publish my first novel “Slur” towards the end of 2013, but it may now have to wait until early 2014. It’s difficult to predict at this point as it depends on my client workload and how long it takes to complete my second parenting book. Again, I’ll keep you updated via the blog.
I enjoy receiving feedback from readers of my blog so if you have any questions or comments regarding any of the above, feel free to let me have your comments below. If you’ve enjoyed reading the blog, please let me know by hitting the ‘like’ button.
Heather Burnside Author 
You’re all set for your promo Diane – it’s a huge amount of work preparing for it, eh? Well done, Let’s hope it all pays off for you. I scheduled some tweets for you yesterday to run 14-21 Aug inclusive. Thanks for the shout out! You’re a darlin’ 😉 I wasn’t expecting that. How lovely. All the best with your other plans. Exciting times ahead! Go Diane! 🙂 X
Thanks again Alice for all your support and for scheduling the tweets. I’ve scheduled loads including those addressed to book retweeters and those to parenting tweeters. Tweetdeck seems to have stopped putting most of them on the list though so I may have to try one of the other tweet scheduling sites.
Yes, maybe give Dynamictweets.com a try. It’s not without its own annoyances though and doesn’t have the same ‘wow’ look about it as Tweetdeck but it seems to do more. X
Thank Alice, I’ll give that a whirl. x
It sounds like you have been very pro active Diane. I will be interested to hear how the promotion goes and will make sure I download my own free copy. Goodreads appears to be an incredible resource for writers but like anything needs a lot of time invested in it. Personally I am planning on using goodreads and Google+ more and a little less Twitter.
Thanks Guy, I appreciate your feedback. I’ll let you know the outcome. When I joined Goodreads ages ago I didn’t realize that I had only created a reader profile so I now have an author profile and a link to my blog. I’ve also linked up with a few authors on there. I know that I could do more with Goodreads such as getting involved with various groups but, as you say, iit needs time, and that’s something that indie authors never have enough of, isn.t it? I’d be interested to hear how you get along with Goodreads and Google+.