I Guess My New Blurb is Okay (Free Downloads)

I understand the hoarding aspect of free book downloads. Believe me, I understand. When I promoted Inn Dreams through Voracious Readers Only, I got approximately 200 takers for my ARC. Guess how many reviews resulted from that. Right ~ none. People like free books. That doesn't mean they'll read them. 

I get a monthly "First Reads"email from Amazon, entitling me to choose one book for free. Inevitably there is at least one that looks really interesting. I've chosen a book each month for ages. I've yet to read any of them. Why is that? Well, it's not as if I know at the time that I won't ever read the book I'm downloading, but I have books on my Kindle I've actually paid for and specifically chose (not from a list, but deliberately chose), and I want to read those first. That's why I bought them. My "free book" mindset is that someday I'll need something to read, and voila! I'll have a whole slew of unread novels. That's never, ever happened.

So, pulling up my KDP report from yesterday and finding 1,275 free downloads of Running From Herself was nice; definitely nice. If nothing else ever happens with this novel, I'll always have those 1,275 downloads. I have to chuckle, though, when I view this number, then look at my monthly royalties - $7.97. I'm rich! Rich, I tell ya! Just think if I'd sold all those books; I'd have $2,669.00 in royalties. That's kind of a big difference.

Oh, and here's a quirk. When I hovered over my sales graph for the month, I noticed a "minus one". What the heck is that? Well, as it turns out, even Kindle books can be returned, and someone returned mine, from purchasing it the previous month. That kind of hurts my feelings. Did the person really, badly need their two dollars and ninety-nine cents back? Fuck, I've kept things that cost far more money, that I didn't want or didn't work or didn't fit. I wonder if this person is also someone who doesn't leave tips in restaurants, but instead scribbles "helpful hints" for the server on the receipt. What an asshole.

In other promo news, my "KU Reads" promotion from AuthorsXP didn't yield any results, although it's possible that some newsletter subscribers either haven't yet read the newsletter or haven't gotten around to taking any action. The interesting thing I've learned about promos, however, is that going back to the same well never seems to work. My first KU promotion did great; now this one was a dud. I've had this happen with other promos in the past. The first one does at least fairly well, so I book a second one, and nothing. I sure can't afford to keep paying for things that don't work (or even for things that do work).

My vaunted Facebook ad starts running today. I would love to make some actual money for once, but I won't hold my breath on that. Not to sound whiny, but nothing has ever worked out for me in the bookselling game. Even if someone does buy it, they'll probably just return it for a refund.

I'm still sticking with my "time to start moving away" mindset. Once this Facebook ad run finishes up, I won't have any more means for promoting, which is just as well. It's become exhausting. However, I leave you with this (and I'm saving it for posterity, because it will never happen again):

Best Sellers Rank: #129 Free in Kindle Store

• #2 in Coming of Age Fiction (Kindle Store)
• #3 in Contemporary Women's Fiction
• #3 in Contemporary American Fiction

Sure, free downloads don't bestow any moolah on the author, but they're great for bragging rights.