Planting Acorns

There’s an old saying that I’m sure most people have come across: “Big oak trees from little acorns grow”. It’s a fact of life for most of us in more ways than one, and it has a particular resonance with me because of my hobby as a writer. The seeds of my craft were sown many years ago, and had I been a successful writer from the beginning, it may not have been a hobby but a career. For the last two years I have been producing and posting my blog as well as putting my books on Amazon. My success can be measured in small numbers, but often these can be a joy when they begin to grow, and as my fortunes change in the book world, so the smile on my face grows bigger. Recently I discovered a slightly different approach to marketing and promotion. Nothing drastic or revolutionary: simply a different way to approach it. I gave up on the Amazon Select programme and living in hopes that thousands of Prime members would loan my books and so increase my profile. Although my titles are still enrolled in the programme, I now prefer to buy low cost promotion and enjoy the fruits of that particular labour. Three months running now I have purchased low cost advertising on eReader News Today (ENT), and as a result of that I have seen my sales figures grow. Along the way I have also seen some growth in readers of my blog and an increase in my Twitter followers. Although these figures are not astronomic, in terms of where I was two years ago, I feel I am now in a better place.

One of the encouraging sides of book promotion is of course good reviews. But they can also be notoriously fickle and very damaging. So it’s an absolute joy when I see an unsolicited, five star review for one of my titles. I try very hard not to read my reviews, but I noticed a couple of days ago that HELL’S GATE now had two, five star reviews. My curiosity got the better of me and I sneaked a look. I can’t tell you how humble I felt when I saw what had been written about me and the book. You can check the review out at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008N3MT6E/?tag rather than take my word for it. So you see, I’m feeling quite good about the way things are shaping up. They may not be growing at an enormous rate, but the signs are there. And incidentally, HELL’S GATE is being featured on the kindle boards discovery promotion tomorrow: July 16^th. Wish me luck!