Exciting times! I’ve just published my very first e-book on 8th June 2018. It’s been quite a journey since receiving the e-pub file from my publisher in October 2017: first I had to set up my author account on Smashwords. That took a while with the whole drama of trying to get a US tax number (check out my blog posts about that here and here). I set up PayPal and dedicated bank accounts. I researched how to market an e-book and discovered that a good strategy is to put it out for pre-order. In this way the orders all go through on a single date and are more likely to boost your sales rankings (which are influenced by number of sales within a 24-hr period). Upon releasing my book on Smashwords for pre-order, I quickly discovered that the format was not suitable for kindles. For that I needed to convert the file into a .mobi file and set up an Amazon account. Upon conversion I was notified of an error – the word “ched” in Chapter 3. Aaargh!
I figured out that this was due to the large letter J interfering with the text in the sentences below causing the word ‘clutched’ to be truncated. I have requested my publisher to fix this time and again, but to no avail. *sigh* So apologies to my readers for that, I hope to get it fixed soon.
I decided to give the pre-order six months to allow me to market it and (hopefully) accumulate heaps of pre-orders. I also wanted to give myself time to finish off the sequel, Tyrelia, so that when all my new fans have finished reading Medar, they won’t have to wait too long for the next book!
In the meantime, I got serious about trying to promote my book. In December I was interviewed by my local newspaper and some local bookshops took my book. In January I launched this website and started blogging. I had some business cards made. I tried to make noise via my author Facebook page and Instagram page.
I watched webinars about how to enhance my book’s success. I researched the Amazon categories and applied to be added to a somewhat obscure category that might give me a chance to earn a ‘best-seller badge’.
And finally, yesterday, the big day arrived. My e-book went live. The pre-orders went out. Eight on one day and two the next. The lowest ranking I achieved was #25 in one category. Oh well, I tried.
Still, the main thing is that my book it out there now. If you read it and like it, please leave a review. After all, word of mouth is the best recommendation.
