Saturday, June 22, 2013

Paris Promotion by Margot Justes

For the first time, A Hotel in Paris was offered free on Kindle last weekend. I’ve never been sure if the free promotion works in building name recognition, or even increased long term readership. Do the people that download the book, actually even read it?

I’ve heard pros and cons about that specific promotion, but I took a chance and tried it.  Can’t say if it was or wasn’t successful, it’s too soon to tell. 
 
The only way to gain readers is to increase visibility, and since I’m now an indie author, it’s up to me to figure out how to do it. The Kindle free promotion was a way to try it.

One promotion idea was to post quotes from the book on Twitter and Facebook. Melissa from Author RX asked if I wanted to do it. I readily agreed. She framed the quotes to go along with my heroine who is an artist.  I enjoyed getting the quotes, and had fun relating to them. I think that was a successful strategy.

My little niche market is growing, and I’ve been told by a few people that they love my art world, and they have learned a bit about art. That pleased me more than anything.  I tell anyone who will listen, that art is everywhere we turn, and that it is highly therapeutic.

If nothing else, after the free Kindle promotion, I’m convinced that e-books are growing in popularity at an incredible pace, and that is where my efforts are going to be.

I think price is important too. A reader is more likely  to give a midlist author a chance if the book is priced reasonably, let’s say a dollar, two, or three. Other than formatting costs, there is no additional expense once the book is out; that was a no brainer.

I’m working on additional promotional ideas, and once they’re in place I’ll share them.
So far the process has been interesting, and fun. I love it.

I can tell you now that I’m retired, loving what you do takes the ‘work’ out of it. 

Cheers,
Margot  Justes
A Hotel in Paris
A Hotel in Bath
Hearts & Daggers
Hot Crimes Cool Chicks
www.mjustes.com

3 comments:

Morgan Mandel said...

It's a continuous learning experience to find out what works and what doesn't. And then what worked doesn't and it starts all over again.
Morgan Mandel

Debra St. John said...

E-books are definitely a large part of the market these days.

What a great idea to post quotes from your books on Facebook/Twitter. And the way you did yours sounds like you're really doing a great job with branding for yourself. Very clever!

I might have to try posting some quotes next time a new book comes out.

Margot Justes said...

Morgan,
You're right, we're always learning, and things are always changing.

Deb,
Melissa at AuthorRX recommended the quotes and I really liked the idea.
I'm going to do the same for A Hotel in Bath, and just pop them on Twitter.
Margot
www.mjustes.com