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Those of us in the independent sector of publishing will no doubt know that marketing a new book is akin to burning pound or dollar notes. You do all the promotion, you blog like mad, network like a social prostitute and throw money on great ideas, and all you get as a reward is one measly sale on Amazon.

But the other great thing you notice is that one measly sale makes a significant difference on your chart rating, promoting your book thousands of places up the scale. Many of us will know with the monolithic world of Amazon, that being at the top of your various genre charts is vital to the Mr and Mrs Bloggs of the world seeing your book and considering a purchase. But whilst you are dwindling in the realms of number 100 or even 1000 in the genre not even the most avid book searching geek is going to delve that far to find you.

This week I have attempted a bit of a promotion and it seemed to work in pushing my kindle book ( A Very English Revolution) to the front page of the Political Thriller chart, and that’s with only minimal additional sales (less than 10 I think). Maybe there is a chance that Bloggs will get his wallet out now.

This morning I thought of a great way for all of us to do something similar to help each other.

My idea is to promote our e-books as a collective. I have chosen e-books rather than paper copies because most of us sell e-books a much lower cost so it makes the exercise more viable than paper, although if it’s successful maybe we can consider paper as well.

Here’s the idea.

We create a list of interested authors who all possess a kindle. I can keep a register of interested parties or publish it somewhere, whatever we choose. Each author agrees a promotion day and the others share this on their blogs and social networks. When that day comes around each of us buy and download the book on the same day, therefore boosting that days sales ranking. If there are enough of us doing it then there is a chance of success.

Success breeds success, so if it works for one person then others will follow and each of us will have more of a chance to make front page heaven.  Of course this does require trust in our fellow authors to do the deed, but what can I say? It’s an idea, if it works then we all win. You never know we might be downloading a great book we might otherwise totally bypass.

Interested to know what people think. Please share it around writer sites, as the more people are interested the more we can make this work. People can find me out in the virtual world but otherwise a mail at norristeve@gmail.com will engineer a direct response.

Views: 1753

Comment by Amanda Chambers on January 22, 2012 at 5:59pm

Stacy's post is up. http://wp.me/p26mcl-8o

Comment by Stacy Eaton on January 22, 2012 at 6:17pm

Thank you Amanda - looks great - shared it and tweeted it up!

Comment by Catherine Green on January 22, 2012 at 11:51pm

Evening! I am here, only just, and I have bought your book Stacy and posted links on my pages. I have now added all of the recent author interviews to my blog, and they in turn will be tweeted via Triberr over the next week or so.

I will be quiet for a few days because my husband, daughter and me are off to Somerset for a surprise short holiday as a joint birthday present (Sarah if you can suggest any good tourist places, we are staying in Axbridge) and we have promised to leave the laptop at home and not do any work!

Have a good week everyone xxx

Comment by Sarah Luddington on January 23, 2012 at 10:05am

Axbridge - Cheddar Gorge clearly but the caves are expensive. Then you have Wookey H*** which is just wonderful and a huge inspiration to my underground scenes. Avoid Weston Super Mare unless you like that kind of thing. There are loads of wonderful National Trust places and then there is Exmoor if you want to drive down that far - phone if you want any more information. Oh and Wells is pretty, you are also about 45 minutes away from Glastonbury.

Comment by Steve Norris on January 31, 2012 at 7:30pm

Hi All, Hope you are well

Just  reminder tomorrow we will do the last part of the promotion for CA Lofton

Please purchase

C.A. Lofton African-American Guide to Prosperity

http://www.amazon.com/African-American-Guide-to-Prosperity-ebook/dp...

Comment by Matt T. Schott on January 31, 2012 at 9:06pm

I threw my back while reading Lancelot and the wolf.  I never knew reading was so dangerous.  Ok I'll be purchasing African-American Guide to Proserity tomorrow morning

Comment by Stacy Eaton on January 31, 2012 at 10:24pm

Sounds good!

Comment by Steve Norris on February 1, 2012 at 12:34am

Yes Lancelot is providing top entertainment to me as well....but don't tell Sarah

Comment by Sarah Luddington on February 1, 2012 at 11:40am

Too late! At least you're reading it though. Brave boys. I'll be buying the book today so good luck. (Do I want to know how you put your back out Matt?) ;-))))

Comment by Matt T. Schott on February 1, 2012 at 12:20pm

I did through my back out going to sit down to read your book.  You want to know why only because its funny.  My last electrical job me and another guy were putting 5" rigid pipe 10' in the air, I never had a problem with my back.  I go to sit down in my favorite chair with a Kindle in my hand and POP!  I am better each day then the day before.  I do love the book so far, well its become a love hate thing now because of the back. :-)        I just brought "African American Guide to Prosperity"

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