Wednesday, February 01, 2012

The Big Kindle Boogie

Today through February 2 (Thursday), Lee Goldberg, Blake Crouch, Scott Nicholson, J. Carson Black, and yours truly are giving away 10 Kindle Fires, $300 in gift cards, making a $500 donation to the local library of one Kindle Fire winner, and releasing the five-book Ultimate Thriller Box Set for free during the event. In addition, 75 ebooks from our collective Amazon catalog will be free on Feb 1 and 2.

Contest is international, no purchase necessary. You can also join the Facebook party at http://www.facebook.com/BigKindleBoogie.

Entries for 10 free Kindle Fires are underway at http://bigkindleboogie.blogspot.com and gift cards are being randomly awarded on Twitter for those who tweet about the Big Kindle Boogie.

Three easy ways to enter:
  • Use the entry counters at http://bigkindleboogie.blogspot.com
  • You can also enter manually by tweeting to be eligible for Kindle Fires and Amazon gift cards: 10 free Kindle Fires. 75 free ebooks. http://bit.ly/xWOoKN #bigkindleboogie RT to enter for a Fire!
  • You can email bigkindleboogie@yahoo.com ONCE PER DAY with "Boogie entry" as subject line

Everything free, everything fun. Good luck and Happy New Year!

Free Kindle Thrillers Feb. 1-2
These Kindle books are scheduled to be free on Amazon Feb. 1-2, but please be sure it says "Kindle price: $0.00" before you click for free. Some of the titles will also be free on Feb. 3 on a case-by-case basis. (U.K. Kindle users, simply replace the "com" in the address with "co.uk" to get the proper link)

Ultimate Thriller Box Set
Konrath, Crouch, Black, Goldberg, Nicholson

LEE GOLDBERG



J CARSON BLACK



BLAKE CROUCH


JA KONRATH


Konrath German Book:

Scott Nicholson


Scott's One-days (Feb. 2 only)

103 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:19 AM

    I thought you said internet promo and promo in general wasn't necessary! This is like MEGA promo! Sheesh.

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  2. Anonymous11:25 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Yeah, they're free IF you pay $79.95!

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  4. Kindle apps are free for phones and computers, Chip. You don't need a Kindle to get free ebooks.

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  5. @Suzanne I'm usually the one accusing people of hypocrisy. :) As far as promotions being not necessary. I think what it means (or at least the way I interpret it) is that you don't need promotions to "create a product." The product must exist first, i.e. a quality book you have written. Then you can promote, advertise, paint a title on you car, whatnot, and it will help you sell more of your product. But none of it is mandatory nor it will create something out of nothing.

    -Pat

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  6. Anonymous12:51 PM

    It just seems like a bit of a slap in the face.

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  7. Joe, I worry:

    Are you sure your finances can handle this?

    Premium beer isn't cheap.

    Todd
    www.ToddTrumpet.com

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  8. WOW!

    Thank you to all you generous authors for the freebies; much appreciated. :-)

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  9. @Suzanne

    Hmm... I don't want to compare myself to Joe who is currently in a league of his own.

    I think my story is very typical at the moment. My book has been out for less than a month. I have been quiet about it, setting up my website, making sure the listing is okay, getting it into as many venues as possible, etc. 7 people found it by themselves and then some friends and relatives bought it too.

    I know this is a very modest number but it's far better than I've expected without any promotion whatsoever.

    The theory is that if I leave it by itself, little by little, slowly, more people will discover it, write reviews, tell their friends, etc.

    The theory is that if you have "a product" - something worth reading - people will find it eventually.

    But I don't want to wait. I'm trying to get mentioned in as many places as possible. I will probably run a giveaway myself soon even though I'm not sure many will take my book for free.

    Will that help me sell more? Perhaps. Or perhaps the result will be the same as if I did nothing at all.

    Nobody knows.

    I think Joe is constantly saying - experiment, experiment, experiment.

    I remember him listing his book for free over Christmas weekend and pondering if he did the right thing. Maybe he did and maybe he did not. There is no way to find out.

    Does it mean that this promotion of his will help him sell more?

    Nope, but it shouldn't hurt, right?

    -Pat

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  10. Mmmmm free books (slobber)...
    Though Joe, I am sorely disappointed that I haven't seen any boogie in the book boogie. I was hoping to see a "dance dance" revolution with you and Barry and company.

    Truth in advertising, dude. Don't make me get all Don Draper on you :)

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  11. Anonymous2:49 PM

    Well why is this promo being advertised on here anyway? I thought this was the writing site which readers don't see.

    Seems like those who've commented saying thanks for the freebies are readers.

    I'm not, I don't have time to read novels as I'm too busy writing them and now apparently I do have tons of promo to do.

    Bollocks.

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  12. "It just seems like a bit of a slap in the face."

    I wish someone would slap me in the face with a free Kindle Fire and 75 free ebooks.

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  13. Thanks Konrath -
    I am really hoping for a Kindle Fire. ;-)

    Cyn

    And thanks to all the generous authors.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous2:58 PM

    Consider yourself slapped in the face by free books, Blake. As for the free Kindle Fire, well, you'll have to see if you win this promo thing now won't you?

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  15. @Suzanne many writers are avid readers - which got them into writing in the first place.

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  16. Anonymous3:01 PM

    @Cyn

    Yep. I used to have a lot more time to read before I became obsessed with writing more instead.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Pardon me, I stand corrected.

    These days, about all I do read on is my kindle.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I thought you said internet promo and promo in general wasn't necessary! This is like MEGA promo!

    Are you sure I said promotion wasn't necessary? Or did I say publicity doesn't work?

    http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2012/01/value-of-publicity.html

    Publicity, such as being mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, or having people tweet about my self-publishing experiments, does not help sales.

    But I don't recall saying promotion doesn't help sales. I once sent a message to my MySpace friends that I was going to Italy and doing some booksignings, and some of them showed up. I send out newsletters, I did a very successful blgo tour for AFRAID that got the ebook onto the Amazon bestseller lists. I visited 1200 bookstores, and credit that as the reason by books are still in print. I've contacted Goodreads friends and gotten hundreds of advance reviews.

    All that works. But even that pales in comparison to what Amazon can do for a book. I've sold a lot of ebooks with very little promotion. That doesn't mean you don't sell more with promotion.

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  19. I thought this was the writing site which readers don't see.

    Are you saying that me posting this here doesn't benefit writers? That showing writers what I'm doing won't help them do something similar?

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  20. I don't have time to read novels as I'm too busy writing them and now apparently I do have tons of promo to do.

    Is someone holding your family hostage forcing you to do these things, Suzanne?

    ReplyDelete
  21. Jason Wilson3:43 PM

    "Paul Andrew Russell said...
    WOW!

    Thank you to all you generous authors for the freebies; much appreciated. :-)"

    Yeah, sure - the authors are doing this for us, the readers. Very generous. This is about sales, sales rankings, and exposure, just as any "sale" would be for any product. I have nothing against it, but please don't post here thanking the overly-generous sellers of a product for putting it on sale as a favor to you...see it for what it is, and pick up the books you like.

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  22. "Yeah, sure - the authors are doing this for us, the readers. Very generous. This is about sales, sales rankings, and exposure, just as any "sale" would be for any product. I have nothing against it, but please don't post here thanking the overly-generous sellers of a product for putting it on sale as a favor to you...see it for what it is, and pick up the books you like."

    I guess if people want to come on here and thank us, they can do that without being subjected to your dark, angry, cynical view of the world. There are motivations beyond the purely monetary and self-serving, and if you haven't tuned into that, I feel sorry for you.

    And it's not on sale. It's FREE

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  23. but please don't post here thanking the overly-generous sellers of a product for putting it on sale as a favor to you...see it for what it is, and pick up the books you like.

    Exactly. I never thank anyone when they give me something for free. Whenever I get something for nothing I secretly think, "That selfish bastard is probably trying to make a living, and he's using me to do it."

    Oh, wait a second. That would be incorrect.

    Actually, when I get stuff for free, I'm always grateful and say thanks. I've been to restaurants and gotten a meal comped, and not only do I thank the manager, I tip the waitress 100% of what the meal should have been.

    Anyway, thanks for your input. ;)

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  24. I don't understand Suzanne Lehuanani at all.

    Joe, Blake, Scott, J. Carson and I giving away free books is a slap in the face to her!? WTF!?

    She's a writer who doesn't have time to read? WTF!?

    And she's a writer who doesn't expect to make any effort to promote her work? WTF!?

    Educate me, Suzanne, because I am lost here.

    How are we offending you by giving away free books?

    How do you expect to learn anything about your craft, or what others are doing in your field, if you don't make time to read?

    And how do you expect anyone to find your books if you don't make any effort at all to promote them in some way?

    Your approach to writing, and the business of writing, seems to be dooming you to failure from the outset.

    Lee

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  25. Suzanne wrote: "Well why is this promo being advertised on here anyway? I thought this was the writing site which readers don't see."

    Gee, last time I checked, this was Joe Konrath's blog. He can write about whatever he wants to. He's got no obligation to you, or anyone else, to stick to any particular topics. I, for one, am anxious to hear all about the time he was abducted by aliens and anally probed.

    Lee

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  26. @Lee and @Joe. I knew it! Where do I sign up to be anally probed? Maybe I'll get Joe's sales. :)

    -Pat

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  27. Great giveaway! :) I posted a link to it on my blog today: http://authorjess.blogspot.com/2012/02/whats-up-wednesday-trip-around.html

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  28. No wonder I'm not selling very many books. This comes down to who has the money again.

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  29. Why can't everybody see this for the scam that it is? Joe and his buddies clearly hope that we LIKE these free books! That's right, those sleazy bastards are giving us books they want us to ENJOY, and then they're hoping we'll want MORE!

    You guys thought nobody would figure this out, huh?

    Screw all of you. I'll download them for free, but I refuse to read them and become a fan.

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  30. #1 - Thank you for the books!
    #2 - Brilliant marketing, kudos to all of you!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Screw all of you. I'll download them for free, but I refuse to read them and become a fan.

    Jeff Strand, you clever bastard. That was so funny you made me think that might translate to your books so now I want to read them all!

    Damn good thing they are free...

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  32. Thanks for the freebies!

    Want to make even more money? Start using Amazon affiliate links whenever you link to your Amazon books.

    Folks get on Amazon and then start buying stuff. All of those purchases count for affiliate $$.

    I made over $60 in December and I started doing it AFTER Christmas. Talk about magic money! https://affiliate-program.amazon.com

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  33. Best of luck with the promo, guys.

    Question for anyone involved with KDP: Have you gotten any sort of statement (1099?) from Amazon for tax purposes yet?

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  34. First, thank you all for the free books!

    Second, come on Suzanne. Hating on other authors is not the way to go. Lift up your fellow peers and applaud them. Learn from them. Now do yourself a favor and read Endurance. I finished it last night and it was CRAAAZY good!

    Thanks again for the FREEEE books!

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  35. I love reading and now, after 20 years of false starts, I'm writing full-time. I haven't stopped reading. I write because I love reading. I am not sure I understand why Suzanne is making an issue of this promotional drive, but I don't see anything wrong with it. One of the things I love about the indie revolution is how, as a community of like-minded people, everyone is so supportive of one another. This is networking at its optimum, plus I am getting a ton of free books. Thanks guys!

    How will it help my writing? By reading as a writer. In my humble and definitely-not-conceited opinion writers never stop learning, and you learn best by reading how other writers write. I consider myself as someone in serious need of writing training for a bunch of reasons, so I am happy to have an excuse to read some more.

    Again, thank you for the free books. It is much appreciated (and I actually mean it because everyone who knows me, knows to buy me a book is to spoil me).

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  36. Screw all of you. I'll download them for free, but I refuse to read them and become a fan.

    You bastard! You broke the code! You can't disclose that private stuff!

    I demand that when your ebooks are free you post them on my blog so that I may disparage you equally!

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  37. Well, if you're going to DEMAND it, my brand new thriller FAINT OF HEART is totally free!

    http://tinyurl.com/7ybfrjs

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  38. This is an absolutely brilliant promo, and I'm loving it. I've retweeted, posted on my FB page, and otherwise sent you five LOVE across the ether.

    Yep, you're the best!

    Now...where's my goddamn Kindle Fire????

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  39. I had to do a double take on the Moses pic...cracked me the f%$k up!

    Suzanne: where the heck is your blog at now? Every week you delete it and start a new one, I can't keep up!

    Best of luck on the promo guys.

    Dave

    Writing Trip

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  40. I for one am extremely grateful to Joe for this blog, and to all the authors for their (latest) token of generosity. Yes, generosity. Yes, Im GRATEFUL.

    Ooooh, they're trying to 'trick' us into buying their work are they...give me a break.

    I've received hours of reading pleasure (from JKonrath and Blake Crouch predominantly, though recently also looking at Scott, et al.). Some of this work I have found and downloaded for free, and I now have the philosophy that I am more than happy to pay for their hard (and excellent) work. This is only fair. It is their work, their profession, what they do. After seeing this blog I surfed to another "kindle' site that had a sponsoring author / book for the day...it looked good, so I bought it, as a sign of support. I have absolutely Zero issue with this. it's business, it's fair. I don't feel manipulated or cheated. I'm paying 3 bucks for a book for Chrissake...! how much more value for money do people want?!

    I wish I (and some of the other published authors on Amazon) had half the creative talent of these guys, I wish them all the success they can get. I have gone back and PAID for much of Blake and Joe's backlist titles on principle, as a show of support - I am yet to read most of these, by the way, but having them on my kindle waiting for me is kinda reassuring...:-). I want them to continue to write, inspire people with this blog, and continue to provide hours of entertainment to their fans (I am certainly one).

    Thanks again for promoting your hard work, I will continue to share it with friends and family...your Aussie fan (and wannabe thriller writer, maybe, some day...)

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  41. WTF a writer that has no time to read? I am shocked. And yes, I take the time to read at the end of my day for enjoyment and to see what is going on in my genre.

    BTW Jeff SECRET SUPER SNEAKY stuff made me laugh. Or was it SECRET SUPER SNARKY!

    Cyn

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  42. Whoa... Weird atmosphere in here tonight. What's with all this rage?

    Amid all the outrage over mentioning your own product on your own blog, no one has pointed out how clever this is. Five big selling authors introducing their fans to each other? Pretty clever, fellas.

    Hey Joe, it's February. Did you eat yet? How skinny are you?

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  43. Took quite a while to download the whole treasure. Thanks. I'm curious to hear the motivation for the mega giveaway. My guess is to make major impact on Amazon algorithms locking the authors in high standing for some time to come. Did it have to be so many books? It'll take me a long time to read even half of em. I had a gluttonous ferver to get them all just because I could - which left me feeling a little dirty afterward. My iPhone weighs 75 ebooks heavier.

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  44. Hi Joe,

    Not to stray too far from the post, but straying too far from the post, I noticed back during your bookstore tour in '06, you said something like you justified it to yourself by promising yourself more fun and family time once you hit the best seller lists. Now that it's happened, though not the way you meant it back then, are you having more fun/family time etc?

    -Curious in Singapore

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  45. Hey Jude - haven't received an Amazon 1099 yet although I'm sure they're in transit. They're pretty good about sending them.

    I'm pretty shocked by the vibe here although I guess I shouldn't be. Because we all know evil capitalists only give back when it's a write-off.

    Are we all really THAT bitter?

    As for writers not reading.... The mind boggles. Writers read. Period.

    "If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write." -Stephen King

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  46. Lee, I’m picking up some of your books because I don’t have any.

    I have a lot of books from Joe and Blake.

    Thank you all for doing this.

    www.VermillionRoadPress.com

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  47. Why is everyone so f@@@ing mad? This is a giveaway. I'M going to take advantage of it...

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  48. Anonymous7:42 AM

    My finger is tired from one-clicking on my iPad, but I had a lot of fun. Had to email my husband though to make sure he wouldn't see all the Amazon order confirmations and have a heart attack.

    Thanks Guys!

    Josie Wade

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  49. OK, I pigged out on everyone...oink.

    Thanks guys.

    www.VermillionRoadPress.com

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  50. Joe,

    Marvellous stuff. Keep it up - we all need lessons in how to promote our work. Scary reactions, tho.

    John

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  51. This is great. Thank you all!

    I hope the promo works.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Anonymous8:01 AM

    P.S. @Jeff Strand I picked up 2 of yours also -- such brilliant observations should be rewarded!

    Josie Wade

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  53. Anonymous8:03 AM

    "Is someone holding your family hostage forcing you to do these things, Suzanne?"

    Actually, I feel like it was your advice that held me hostage. After reading your blog posts I got it into my head that I no longer had time to read books because I should be writing all the time, which I'm trying to do, but life gets in the way.

    I'm also going to have to make the time to promo my work, which I thought you said writing more books helps to do, which I won't have time to do if I'm busy creating promo stuff!

    Do you see what I mean? I'm just confused. I didn't mean to cause a hostile feeling to this thread and I'm sad that you joked so flippantly about my family as we're going through difficult times at the moment.

    Oh well, you aren't to know. And I'm sure readers are very grateful to you and your fellow authors for all the free books.

    I won't bother you with my comments anymore.

    And, David Shutter, sorry I got rid of my blog. I was trying to give myself more writing time by doing so. But now it seems that's another fail on my part as I needed my blog and twitter and facebook for book promo!

    Sheesh. I'm all messed up because of what I read into this blog. Note to self: way off Suz!

    Sorry people.

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  54. Thanks, Selena. Maybe it will come today.

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  55. I'm also going to have to make the time to promo my work, which I thought you said writing more books helps to do, which I won't have time to do if I'm busy creating promo stuff!

    My advice? Spend your time writing the best books you can. That's what will make the difference in the long run, IMHO.

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  56. Just - thank you! For the freebies, for the boogie entry and for all the advice and good humour.

    (A writer who doesn't read? Isn't that a contradiction in terms??)

    ReplyDelete
  57. Anonymous8:54 AM

    Wow. What a generous offering. I am grateful for your promo. Thanks much for the free books and the opportunity to win a kindle fire.

    Scott's 'Disintegration' showed $0.00 on the page, only for Prime members, though. But the buy-now button had $3.28 -- i missed it and bought it but how can i complain? That's a lot of books for $3.28!

    Thanks again. I hope your promo results in tons of new fans and follow-up sales for all of you.

    ReplyDelete
  58. @ Jude re:1099

    I'm not sure how it works, but I haven't received payment yet for the last couple months of '11. Maybe they need to get those numbers together before calculating the tax forms.

    ReplyDelete
  59. In the words of the great, late Chris Farley, "That. Was. AWESOME." Thank you for the free books - I felt like a kid in a candy store downloaded more books at once than I previously had stored on my new Kindle. You guys ROCK!

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  60. Thanks, Stephen. I sent them an email but haven't heard back yet. Not sure what's going on.

    ReplyDelete
  61. Five big selling authors introducing their fans to each other? Pretty clever, fellas.

    Any reader will appreciate that. I've always enjoyed when some authors recommend others they feel their readers would like. And some authors have forum pages for people to recommend other authors.

    For similar reasons, I've sometimes used Amazon's ListMania to find other authors and books that share similarity to ones I like.

    All in all, I think it's a great idea and I hope it's a big success.

    ReplyDelete
  62. Tweeted, blogged and facebooked. And thanks for the free books! This is how it's done, lovelies.

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  63. @Jude, fyi - actually, I just realized I did get my tax forms from Amazon and B&N in yesterdays mail.

    ReplyDelete
  64. Great response from you to the Mediabistro piece on Jamie Raab and higher eBook royalty rates, Joe. Here's the link: http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/j-a-konrath-responds-our-interview-with-jamie-raab_b46413

    ReplyDelete
  65. Jeff

    Thanks for the link to the article, Joe is repeating himself of course, as subtly as a brick to the skull, but still a great read.

    Suz: hope everything works out at home. Don't feel bad, my heads on backwards mostly these days too.

    ReplyDelete
  66. @Stephen

    I remember an author saying that their payment method was accidentally changed to "check" and that is why their Amazon payments were delayed.

    I've received my direct deposit payments on time, so I don't think they are waiting to disburse 2011 income.

    ReplyDelete
  67. Thanks to the authors for giving this reader a bounty of new books to read. I already had many of the Konrath, Crouch and Nicholson books from earlier promotions but made sure I grabbed the freebies from Lee (I really enjoyed The Walk) and J Carson Black, I even picked up a few from Jeff Strand.

    I sent the link to my sister who just e-mailed me back to tell me she was 2 hours behind schedule packing for a trip because she was too busy getting 54 free books. I had previously hooked her on Konrath and Crouch. The first Jack Daniels novel was the first book she put on the Kindle Fire I bought her for Christmas.

    Good luck to everyone trying for the other prizes. I did not register for them because I figured others could benefit more from them than I would. I feel the free books are enough of a prize already.

    And this blog is not just for writers as I check it regularly and I have no inclination to write a book. I just find the whole self-published vs. legacy publishing debate fascinating (plus I learn about cool freebies in the process).

    ReplyDelete
  68. Big thanks from Germany!

    Just picked up a bunch of great books to help me forget about the freezing weather outside. Works nicely.

    By today all of the books on the promotion list were actually priced correctly on Amazon.de. Yesterday there were still some with another price tag. But then again, most of the books were already on my kindle anyway :)

    Curious about the numbers you will come up with after this. I hope you will share them with us.

    Great idea by the way, thanks again for the free books!

    ReplyDelete
  69. I'm wondering if readers will become so accustomed to getting ebooks for free that they'll start hesitating to actually BUY any.I mean, why buy Carson Wilder's UNBORN for $2.99 when, on any given day, you can get a hundred other horror novellas by unknown authors for $0.00?

    This whole freebie thing might end up being the wrong kind of game changer.

    ReplyDelete
  70. This whole freebie thing might end up being the wrong kind of game changer.

    Jude

    Mr. D.W. Smith and Mrs. Rusch couldn't agree with you more. They've blogged repeatedly about it lately (most vocally against KDP select) that indie authors are mindlessly devaluing their work in pursuit of the latest e-marketing trends.

    I'm on the fence about that myself. Have read many, many success stories (or at least solid sales spurts) that started with free marketing.

    Slapping $4.99 or more on your very first outing as an unknown is, I think, silly. Conversely I think never offering anything for free out of principal, when you stand to potentially gain new readership (or make existing fans love you all the more) is equally silly.

    Where do you stand on free promos? Have you done any? Results?

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  71. can't wait for the blog post of the results of this new experiment! Good on you guys for giving it a shot!

    ReplyDelete
  72. Where do you stand on free promos? Have you done any? Results?

    I have done a couple, so I'm as guilty as anyone. But as I look at my own reading queue, I could go a long time without ever having to buy another book. And every day there are more and more enticing freebies there for the clicking.

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  73. @Jude This whole freebie thing might end up being the wrong kind of game changer.

    @David Mr. D.W. Smith and Mrs. Rusch couldn't agree with you more. They've blogged repeatedly about it lately (most vocally against KDP select) that indie authors are mindlessly devaluing their work in pursuit of the latest e-marketing trends.

    I'm on the fence about that myself. Have read many, many success stories (or at least solid sales spurts) that started with free marketing.


    I can kind of see their point. Although there are a number of authors who have provided freebies of their work in the past.

    Kelley Armstrong comes to mind. She built a pretty good following on her website for many years because she would release a free short story sometimes every month, and a few free novellas mixed in. She eventually cut back on that - but I think mainly due to time pressures since she began producing more work and had many deadlines to meet.

    I think some people will mainly just pick up free stuff, just as some will pirate the easily-pirateable ebooks. And probably a small number may see the freebies as a filter to lead them to something they may pay for.

    I'm actually doing a free giveaway right now on Amazon of a story collection. I had planned at one time to offer the stories on my site for free, actually. But when the KDP Select program came out, I decided I would try it out. From what I can tell, the free story collection led at least one person to buy my three books that are related to the story collection. So not like a runaway success. But I'd originally thought of making them free anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Re: Free, Select, and DWS,

    Like most people here, I'm a fan of the DWS blog. He questions the value of Select and free promotions, but he's also said that his mind is still open, pending more info. I had an exchange with him in his comments section that prompted me to finally start talking about the data I've gathered through my own efforts with Select over the last seven weeks or so.

    With only one book, I've had a lot of success with it. I blogged about my results, concerns, and the importance of good branding work (my day job is in brand consulting). It's a long post, but pretty interesting if you want to take a look. www.stephentharper.blogspot.com

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  75. Anonymous6:50 PM

    Seems Suzanne is dealing with her hurt feelings by talking crap about Joe on the Passive Voice:
    http://tinyurl.com/7qwszef

    ReplyDelete
  76. I, for one, am anxious to hear all about the time he was abducted by aliens and anally probed.

    That wasn't aliens. I experimented a lot in college.

    ReplyDelete
  77. Suzanne - I'm sorry you're going through rough times. :( And it can be confusing, all the advice. And it's not easy. It's all time consuming - writing, reading, blogging, promoting. etc etc etc. And it feels even moreso when no one's read your books much yet. Hang in there. Keep writing. Reading, too. Even just half an hour at night before bed (which is when I squeeze it in!)

    You don't need to kill yourself doing this. Take a breath. Prioritize. You'll get there.

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  78. Thank you to all the authors in this promotion! I was hesitant to take advantage of it first, because I'd fully intended on buying some of these books already - but I changed my mind today for two reasons:

    1) This gives me the opportunity to try out their writing and see how I like it (including the authors I'd not heard of before);

    2) This is an experiment of sorts and by not participating in the generosity, I'm possibly skewing the results.

    So I dusted off my Twitter account and did the whole cross-promotion thing before downloading the goodies.

    Thank you again. :3 (Now I just need to make time to read something from each. D: I'm in a writing cycle at the moment.)

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  79. I grabbed a lot of the free books, so thanks. They are all good writers. I got many hours of reading for free.

    I didn't enter the free Kindle Fire thing, though. Having to tweet a bunch of times just rubs me the wrong way -- it makes me feel like I'm shilling.

    I did post a link to the Kindle Boogie site on a popular message board, however, so that the readers of that board could see the free books and grab some. Since I'm a member of that board community, that somehow didn't seem like shilling.

    I wish you guys would have let people enter the contest without having to do promotion for you.

    Anyway, I was glad to get the free books, so thanks.

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  80. Mark,

    You don't have to tweet/shill for a chance to win one of the Kindle Fires. You can go to our blog and simply click one of our Rafflebots.

    http://bigkindleboogie.blogspot.com/

    Lee

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  81. Ok, it's Feb 3, who won?

    Thanks again to all the authors for the free promos! Have enough books to hold me over until next Feb.

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  82. Anonymous1:40 AM

    I just got the boxed set and I thank each of you for your generosity. :)

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  83. Anonymous4:53 AM

    David, I'll put my blog back up when my head isn't so befuddled.

    Selena, thanks for the advice. I was confused and let my frustrations get the better of me in my comments.

    Anonymous, you little shit stirrer. But yeah, Joe commented at me on Passive Voice blog too.

    Joe, I know I said I wasn't going to comment again, and I won't after this, I promise! lol. Just wanted to say sorry for getting confused about your blogging and my comments that seemed "stupid". Your blog has been incredibly helpful to me with ePuplishing advice. So, take care and I'd say good luck but you don't need that anymore! ;)

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  84. Leave it to me to not check the blog until February 3rd! It's the middle of the work week --less surfing time. Oh, well.

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  85. Box set is AWESOME!!! How did put all of that together?

    Sean

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  86. Joe, when are you going to do the last post and result on the 30 Day Beer Diet. It is kind of frustrating to have followed that all month and then have you just drop it with no result.

    Throw us a bone here.

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  87. Lee Goldberg: "You don't have to tweet/shill for a chance to win one of the Kindle Fires. You can go to our blog and simply click one of our Rafflebots."

    Oops, sorry I misunderstood.

    BTW, I really enjoyed Watch Me Die. I hope you revisit those characters.

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  88. Jude Hardin: "I have done a couple, so I'm as guilty as anyone. But as I look at my own reading queue, I could go a long time without ever having to buy another book. And every day there are more and more enticing freebies there for the clicking."

    I wonder about it too. The way I see it every book in Prime will probably be listed at free at some point in the next 90 days.

    Imagine if there's a software tool that lets you tag a title you're interested in that will send you an email alert if the title goes free? All a reader needs to do is exercise a little patience.

    I imagine readers like that would be in the minority, though. Still, I do wonder.

    And don't forget the growing numbers of ebooks at libraries. I haven't used a library in years, but in the past month I've started checking out library ebooks.

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  89. Joe, when are you going to do the last post and result on the 30 Day Beer Diet. It is kind of frustrating to have followed that all month and then have you just drop it with no result.

    Throw us a bone here.


    You think JOE'S diet was hard? Heh. Check out what I had for lunch today on the 29 Day No Beer Diet.

    Keep in mind that I have had NO BEER for three days now. Talk about the mother of all crazy ideas...

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  90. Janne9:31 PM

    Suzanne L. - You have me speechless, but not surprised. I just wonder how you treat puppies if this is how you treat a guy giving you free books. Weird.

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  91. @Janne, you may have missed them for there are a lot of comments here to read through. Suzanne's apologized 2x now. I onw I have a bad day sometimes too. So, just a little head's up for those down here at the end of the comments' road.

    all best Janne.

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  92. Anonymous1:18 PM

    Actually DWS's comments on the free giveaway or discounting seems to mostly be about new writers who give discounts or free stuff away to lure readers in but have no backlists for them to then purchase. From the way I read it, he's still not a fan even if you have a backlist but thinks its more acceptable. Hopefully I'm not mispresenting him.

    Suzanne, I think you missed a lot of his older blogs. I've read the site from the start to current and no where does he say he's against promo's. One paraphrase I believe is he doesn't believe paid publicity is worth it unless the campaign is in the millions like for bestsellers. He still replies to reporters questions and gets free publicity in some papers.

    He always posts his new books and projects on the blog. He often posts new books for friends. He's stated he thinks the blog accounts only for a few % of his sales since most readers don't read this blog its still extra sales he's been recruiting for years.

    This is already almost a year old and things like Kindle Select have change things in the last 3 months but here:
    http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/05/what-works-promo-for-ebooks.html

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  93. Here via Dean Wesley Smith's blog - I downloaded the Newbie's Guide to Publishing for free, then to thank you, bought The List by one-click purchase on my Kindle. :)

    Thanks Joe, for being so generous with your experience and information. You're helping more writers than you know.

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  94. See what happens when I spend the first part of February buried away, proofing and sending two different novels back and forth to my editor. I miss this huge promo.

    I have most (if not all) the books being promoted but this is very generous indeed.

    Suzanne: You don't HAVE to promote but as the authors who have staged this promo are swimming in the money, they can if they want (I know most of them on an acquaintance basis and they are all great people).
    And you not having time to read because you're writing? That's bollocks. I have gotten out two novels so far this year (yeah, 2012)... those two were released in the past couple of weeks. One is over 90k and the other is almost 60k. You know what I do when I am not writing, doing homework for uni, looking after two children under the age of ten and going to the gym four times a week? I am READING. I never stop reading.

    Speaking of, I have a 5 star to leave for Konrath for Fuzzy Navel... on to Cherry Bomb now... ;-)

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  95. Many thanks to the authors who have provided several weeks of great reading material!

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  96. So Joe, are you going to have a wrap-up post about your beer diet? I think a lot of us are curious about how much weight you lost, how your last doctor's visit went, how you have transitioned back to food, etc.

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  97. Was gonna ask about the final results of the beer diet. Would love to hear them as well.

    Just noticed the video bar, hadn't seen the last video with the guy in the taco (or pizza?) suit. Funny shit!

    Made me think about Symbiosis which I just read the other day.

    When you're hungry enough everything, and everyone, tastes like chicken.

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  98. Joshua Simcox4:08 PM

    Sorry things are difficult for you at the moment, Suzanne. You may have expressed yourself with a poor choice of words, but you certainly don't deserve all the hate other posters are sending your way. We're all capable of irrational moments of anger, frustration, resentment, etc. None of us are above that. Just try to hang in there.

    Also, a quick word to all the Franzen bashers: I'm no fan of his, but he is an accomplished, well-respected author with an opinion as valid as anyone's (even if I don't particularly agree with it). Watching him being shit on by so many that have achieved far less in their own writing lives (and no, I'm particularly referring to Joe here) is completely laughable and absurd. Joe once made a comment about armchair quarterbacks that should try throwing a few touchdown passes of their own, and I think that's quite appropriate here.

    And finally, thanks for the free ebooks guys. Much appreciated.

    --Joshua

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  99. On the whole 'is free good?' discussion, I'd like to deliberately mis-quote Gordon Gekko:

    "Free, for lack of a better word, is good. Free is right. Free works. Free clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit."

    The greatest obstacle for any writer is obscurity. Free is the single greatest weapon an unknown writer has in his or her arsenal, assuming all the other bases are covered (decent writing, decent editing, decent cover).

    I say this not because I think I'm right, but because I have real, concrete experience.

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  100. Anonymous3:55 PM

    Thank you very much for your posts regarding self-publishing through technology.
    I was wondering if you could post your thoughts on whether it's a good idea to form a corporation or just do it as an individual and the tax repercussions of each.

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  101. Anonymous9:39 AM

    @Joshua Simcox

    Frantzen's noble track record of publishing deathless prose is not what's at issue here. It's his announcing something that is patently stupid even to the most naive amateur publisher.

    Andy Conway
    Win a paperback copy of LOVERS IN PARIS before midnight tonight (12 Feb 2012)...

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Thanks for the comment! Joe will get back to you eventually. :)