Filed under: Amazon, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction
Well, yesterday’s launch of Communion of Dreams was a great success. Thanks to all who helped to promote the book! Some 500 people have downloaded the Kindle edition so far, several people have ordered the paperback, and I have orders for a number of signed copies of the paperback.
All this has contributed to push the overall ranking of the Kindle edition to #662 at last count (lowest I’ve seen was 641), and #3 in the ‘High Tech’ subcategory of science fiction titles. Pretty amazing.
The free Kindle edition promotion will last through midnight Sunday night. If you haven’t yet had a chance to get your free copy, please make sure you do. And tell others who may find the book of interest – as I said yesterday, word-of-mouth is the best possible advertising and will really help me make a success of this book.
Thanks again, everyone!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, tech, Titan
Well, it’s official:
To ‘launch’ the publication of Communion of Dreams, the Kindle version will be free to download for just three days: January 27 through 29. Of course, you’re welcome to buy it outside of those dates, to get a paperback copy, to get a signed copy, or to even just make a donation in appreciation. The links for all those are there on the side.
I’d really appreciate your help, and ask for it with the following:
- Please just go download the Kindle version during this free period. It’ll cost you nothing. Even if you don’t have a Kindle – you can get the free Kindle app for a wide variety of electronic devices. Just by downloading it you help boost the ranking, and that helps me a lot.
- Tell others about the book and this free offer. Please – word of mouth is far & away the best advertising. Don’t spam people/sites, but if you know anyone who likes speculative/science fiction, please let them know about the book & free offer this weekend. And this goes like triple for any well-known writers/bloggers/personalities you may have a connection to. This would be a *huge* help to me.
- Lastly, wherever possible please “like” or “+1” Communion of Dreams. On the homepage. On Amazon. On Facebook/Twitter/G+/whatever. Each time you do this it helps to boost the ranking in search engines, and so will be a great help in the long run.
And if/when you actually read the book, you’d be willing to write a review or give a ranking on Amazon, that would be very much appreciated. But I want this to be an honest review/ranking – BS doesn’t help.
Thanks – it has been a long haul to get to this point. Now it is a matter of marketing. The next three days are critical, as they could help get enough attention to get the book established. Already today (just about 7 hours after the promotion started) there have been well over 100 downloads of the book and the page rank has jumped to under 5,000. I’d love to give away a thousand books this weekend – help me out.
Cheers, one and all!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction
“A story of love, sacrifice, and honor.
Drama!
Suspense!
Explosions!
This weekend, prepare yourself for the blockbuster of the season:
Communion of Dreams:
The Free Kindle version!“
* * *
OK, here’s the deal: Coming this Friday, we’ll have the new paperback version of Communion of Dreams ready for ordering off the website. And to kick-off the book, I’m going to offer it for *FREE* download in the Kindle version for anyone who wants it. Yeah, anyone. You don’t need to be an Amazon Prime member. You don’t even need to own a Kindle. Just get the free Kindle app for your favorite electronic device, and download the sucker.
Please – help spread the word. I want lots and lots and lots of people to check out the site, get the book, and tell their friends. Make this book insanely popular, please. Well, beyond the 35,000 people who have previously downloaded the .pdf version of it, I mean. But them too, come to think of it.
Also, for those who want them, you can place a pre-order now for a signed paperback copy. Cost is the same as the paperback will be ($11.95), plus enough for me to cover the shipping charges, for a total of $15.00. Yup. Just send me $15 via Paypal to jimd@ballisticsbytheinch.com to get your order in. It’ll probably take about 10 days for you to get your signed copy. But see, that’s part of the reason that you can download the Kindle version for free this weekend – so you can actually read my brilliant prose while you wait to get my even more brilliant signature. Or something like that.
Let’s see . . . plenty of hype . . . I used the word *FREE* . . . there’s something else the marketing guides say . . . oh, yeah, a ‘call to action’:
Act Now for this Limited Time Offer!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science, Science Fiction, Titan
Getting ready for the official ‘launch’ of Communion of Dreams. I should have the proof copy of the paperback in hand tomorrow or the day after, and if it looks good I hope that the launch can come later this week. Have already had some sales of the Kindle version of the book, and some people have already downloaded a ‘loan’ copy under the Amazon Prime program. If you want to dive in, that’s great – but here’s another little secret: I’m going to run a promotion during the official launch whereby *anyone* can download a free copy of the Kindle version. Yup. So you might just wanna wait . . .
And in working to put the various components of all this together, I stumbled across this fun little optical illusion: The Eclipse of Titan. Check it out!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction
{stage whisper} OK, here’s the news.
Communion of Dreams is now available in a Kindle version. I’m waiting for the paperback version to be ready before I make a real effort to promote it. That should happen next week.
But in the meantime, I know a lot of folks have been waiting for the Kindle version. And yeah, it *is* a lot more readable than the old .pdf version was. So you should plunk down the $4.95 for a copy. Definitely. Or, if you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can get it on loan for free – yeah, free.
And that is such a good idea I’m going to steal it. Here’s what I mean . . .
You can really help me out by buying a Kindle version. Seriously, a surge in sales would get people’s attention, and help me out a huge amount. But I’ll make you a deal: if you don’t like it for whatever reason, I’ll refund your money. Of course, I would rather that you liked it, and thought it was cheap cheap cheap at $4.95, and so much so that you went and told all your friends that it is the best book EVER and that they should get a copy. But as a fallback position I’ll refund your purchase if you don’t like it. I mean me, personally – I’ll send you $4.95. You can’t go wrong.
Oh, one more thing . . . anyone who will take the time to write a review of the book will earn my eternal gratitude. Really.
Watch for further news about the paperback edition next week. And maybe some other updates about things before then.
{/stage whisper}
Filed under: Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff
So, thanks for all who weighed in on the cover design question the other day. We’re going to go with a slightly modified version (dropping the “by”) of #7 – this one:
And Lyriel won the drawing for a copy of the printed book.
Now, another question for everyone, and this time I will hold a drawing from those who comments/sends me an email with feedback for a Kindle copy of the book. The question is how I should price the Kindle version?
Here are the choices, and a bit of explanation behind the strategy behind each:
- $7.99. This is a popular price-point for a lot of Science Fiction/Fantasy books, just from casually browsing through that category on Amazon. Yeah, there’s pricier stuff, but it is usually newer books by well-established authors. I am not well-established, and some 35,000 .pdf copies of Communion of Dreams have already been downloaded over the last 5 years. But there is also something to be said for the message of “this is a quality book, you can tell by the price.”
- $4.99. Another popular price-point for the genre. Gets it into the “under five bucks – why not?” category.
- $2.99. Another pretty common price-point, particularly for a lot of much older work or stuff from unknown authors. And at this price perhaps a lot of people who read the .pdf version in the past might say “yeah, I’m willing to pop three bucks for an updated/more Kindle-friendly copy.”
***
***
I could go lower, but that would shift the book into the ‘35% royalty’ category, which is a huge disincentive for me. It also strikes me that this is saying that I don’t value the book highly enough.
So, of those three choices, I would like to know which one you would go for. And if you would like to explain your reasoning, I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
Edited to add: Please get your comments/choices to me by noon Monday.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Art, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff
Take a look at the top of this blog. See that wonderful image of the McBaine Burr Oak by Peter Haigh? I’ve always loved that image, and Peter has been kind enough to grant me use of his image for my blog, for the Communion of Dreams website, and now, for the cover of the book.
So, my wife and I have gone over different cover designs, and have decided that we like the idea of having the image over the entire cover, slightly offset so that all of the trunk of the tree is on the front of the book, with the rest wrapping around. But now I would like your help in deciding the final cover design.
Below you’ll find seven different versions of the cover, titled 1 – 7. Take a look, and let me know in comments how you would rank them, in order, from favorite to least favorite. If you want to offer other thoughts or feedback, that’s OK too. I reserve the right to make the final decision, but I would really appreciate your feedback.
So, here we go:
So, there ya go. Everyone who comments/sends me an email with feedback will be entered into a drawing for a signed copy of the book. Deadline this time tomorrow.
Thanks!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Ballistics, Bipolar, Depression, Failure, Guns, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff
I recently told someone that Communion of Dreams had just been on the verge of publication when the publisher went belly up.
That’s what I hoped happened. I wasn’t exactly sure if it was true.
* * * * * * *
As noted, last year was . . . rough.
I was left hanging by the Publisher Who Shall Not Be Named, who stopped answering my queries about the status of when CoD was going to be out.
In frustration over that, I threw myself into the other projects I had pending. First, the big sequences of BBTI tests. Then getting Her Final Year ready for publication. Then the launch of HFY. Then working on the complete revamp of the BBTI site, and getting *that* launched.
* * * * * * *
Through it all, from one big project to the next, I hoped to strike paydirt. To assuage my frustration over the seeming failure (once again) with Communion of Dreams with success elsewhere.
* * * * * * *
I think Gore Vidal was very insightful:
It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
* * * * * * * *
I recently told someone that Communion of Dreams had just been on the verge of publication when the publisher went belly up.
That’s what I hoped happened. I wasn’t exactly sure if it was true.
Yesterday, with some trepidation, I looked to see whether it was.
Why trepidation? Because if the PWSNBN had gone belly up, then that wasn’t a judgment on the quality of CoD. It wasn’t yet another rejection. Like I said, 2011 was a rough year.
Well, the PWSNBN still exists, in some nominal sense, as they are trying to push a new software product for publishers. But they haven’t published any other books, and seem to only be making a half-hearted effort at supporting the ones they had published previously. So I guess I at least dodged the bullet of having CoD tied up with that mess.
I was a little surprised that I took no real satisfaction in this. Because last year I had a lot of bitterness about the whole thing. Bitterness which spilled over into other areas of my life, as you can plainly see, and at times got wrapped up with my cyclic depression.
Oh, I am completely capable of schadenfreude. It just seems that in this case I am ready to move on.
Got about one-third of the way through proofing the manuscript yesterday. Hope to finish the work today or tomorrow. Still need to do the forward and acknowledgements and so forth. Then it will be ready for a print-proof of the hard copy version.
Yeah, moving on.
Jim Downey
*This, of course.
Filed under: Kindle, Marketing, NPR, Predictions, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff
I mentioned a month ago that I was going to be moving to self-publish Communion of Dreams. I just wanted to note that we’re actually moving to accomplish that goal – I need to do a close read-through of the prepped text for the hardcopy version, and when that is done then my Good Lady Wife will work to create a html version for the Kindle edition. When that is done, then we’ll ‘launch’ the book officially – perhaps even yet this month. We’ll see how everything comes together, and whether the 35,000+ downloads of the pdf version of the book is an indication that people will actually buy a copy of the book or not.
If not? Perhaps I’ll take up writing ‘paranormal romance’…
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 