A few weeks ago, I blogged on giveaways on Amazon and Goodreads. For us, Goodreads was an ongoing strategy, but Amazon was completely new. Pamela Fagan Hutchins tried it for her mystery Heaven to Betsy. The promo ran for one week, which was the set period and not something that could be changed. That matches the time […]
Category: Sales
New and Nifty Feature: Author e-mails to Amazon Followers
One of the most serious drawbacks to driving sales on Amazon (in the past) has been that an author can’t directly promote to her Amazon readers. It’s in the best interest of both Amazon and the author that the readers most interested in the author receive information that leads to future sales. Amazon has done its […]
Has the Amazon Ranking “Algorithm” Changed?
Amazon ranks product sales within categories on its website. That includes books. Amazon allows pre-orders (pre-sales) of e-books by both traditionally published and independent authors. In addition, traditional and independent authors both promote their books through non-Amazon sites and sources. A few months ago—April 2, 2015 to be exact—I released Heaven to Betsy. I offered it […]
Online Paperback Giveaways: Amazon versus Goodreads
We’ve long been fans at SkipJack of giving away paperbacks on Goodreads to create impressions on the cover, title, and author, as well as to increase “to-reads” and potentially drive reviews from the winners, but we’ve yet to try the new Amazon Giveaways feature. First, Goodreads. Goodreads allows authors to give away paperback copies of […]
Selective Quality Control Courtesy of KDP?
Interesting. I’d heard people were starting to get threatening emails from Amazon about pulling their books down for spelling errors. I’d even heard some had their books pulled. I just hadn’t received any emails myself. I use multiple layers of professional editing and as a result, my books (not my blog posts; they are not […]
Do Facebook Book Promotion Groups Make Sense?
Yesterday someone innocently posted a question on Facebook about book promotion groups. It triggered an epic rant by me, so I thought I would share it here, and see if it warranted anymore discussion. There, I feel better with that off my chest. What questions, issues, concerns, or rants of your own does this trigger? […]
Kindle-Power Your Direct Email Promotion to Readers
Direct email contact is the most sure way to get in front of potential readers. But how do you achieve it? One way is to build your own list of interested opt-in subscribers that you administer through an online application like Mailchimp or Constant Contact, through your friends and contacts, through your website and blog, […]
Going for Kona Release Day!
Going for Kona Available Everywhere, Now! The latest romantic mystery by Pamela Fagan Hutchins from SkipJack Publishing Capping off a breakout 2014, Pamela announces the release today of Going for Kona, her fourth and latest full length romantic mystery. Going for Kona introduces readers to a new protagonist, Michele Lopez Hanson. When her husband is killed in a hit-and-run bicycling […]
A Big eBook Day in the UK
Readers in the UK had a big day yesterday, but so did authors whose books are available in ebook form to UK readers. There were two big announcements: The first was that Amazon has launch Kindle Unlimited for the UK. UK readers can pay a monthly subscription to read as many eligible books as they […]
Yes! Kindle Pre-Orders on Amazon (Finally)!
Papa Amazon finally came through for the indie authors and let us participate in ebook pre-orders with Big Pub. Nevermind that Nook, Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, and Google Play beat them to it–Amazon got there eventually. One wonders: might this have something to do with the FACT that indies dominate 50% of the top 7000 genre books […]