Filed under: Alzheimer's, Depression, Health, Hospice, Kindle, Marketing, movies, Promotion, Publishing, Society
So, we’re doing another free promotion day for the Kindle edition of Her Final Year.
One thing I realized some time back was that many people just don’t want to think about care-giving. That’s understandable, because there’s a *lot* about care-giving which is stressful, unpleasant, depressing.
But that isn’t all there is. I have said to others that this experience of being a care-provider was the hardest thing I have ever done, but that it also made me a much better person. Why? Well, because of moments like this, from the ‘November: Endgame’ chapter of the book, originally written in November 2007:
After a particularly rough patch of it yesterday morning, I was helping her [Martha Sr] from the toilet to her usual seat in the front room, where she likes to sit and look at magazines. As we transitioned from the wheelchair to her comfy chair, and I got her settled safely there, she looked up at me, her frail thin arms still around my neck, her light brown eyes clear for a moment, and said “thank you, son.”
In the more than twenty years I’ve known her, in the twenty years I have been married to her daughter, she has never once before called me “son.” In fact, since my own parents died almost 40 years ago, no one has called me that. It was a strange word to hear directed my way. And it touched me like no other thanks she has ever offered.
So, don’t be afraid. If you haven’t read the book, go download a copy for free now. And tell your friends and family members about it. This is something which may not be useful right now, but the chances are that it will be relevant at some point in your life. And knowing that you can face that with a measure of joy can make all the difference.
Jim Downey
*Yes, from this.
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Bipolar, Depression, Health, Hospice, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Writing stuff
Cross posted from the Her Final Year blog. For those who are new to my blog, much of the material in the memoir was stuff I wrote here, first, as we were going through the experience of being care-providers for my Mother-in-law. It is *intensely* honest and personal, but that gives it power – showing others what it is like to be a care-giver through the good times and the bad. Many people have found it to be very helpful.
JD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, last Sunday’s free Kindle edition promotion was very successful – we had over 400 downloads, from the US, the UK, and even Italy! If you were one of the people who downloaded the book, we hope you are finding it useful in understanding how we went through the arc of being care providers.
The response was so good that we’re going to do it again this coming Sunday. Yup, anyone will be able to download the Kindle edition of Her Final Year for free. You don’t need a special code. You don’t need to enter any kind of drawing. You don’t even need a Kindle – there is a free Kindle emulator/app for almost all computers/tablets/mobile devices. Just go to the Kindle page for the book, and “buy” it for $0.00.
Please help spread the word – tell friends and family members. Post the info to your Twitter or Facebook accounts. Share it with forums for care-givers. We want to get this book widely disseminated so that it can do more good.
Thank you – it has been very rewarding to hear back from those who have found the book valuable either as care-providers or for understanding what care-providers they know are going through.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Health, Hospice, Kindle, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction
Just wanted to pass along some nuts & bolts stuff.
First, the Kindle promotion yesterday for Her Final Year was quite successful. Total, we had 409 downloads of the memoir, and that breaks down to 385 in the US, 23 in the UK, and one in Italy. Not bad at all – and thanks to all those who were kind enough to help spread the word.
If you missed your chance to download the book for free yesterday, never fear: we’re going to repeat the promotion this coming Sunday!
And here’s a bit of news: I’m going to offer a promotion for a free download of the Kindle edition of Communion of Dreams the weekend of March 31/April 1. And in conjunction with that, I will also have a small contest/drawing for a signed copy of the paperback – watch for details!
Lastly, I want to note another excellent review of Communion of Dreams now up on Amazon. Here’s an excerpt:
As an SF devotee since the 1950’s, I’ve read the best and the worst in the genre. Communion of Dreams definitely ranks among the best. Combining believeable “hard” science with a profound humanism, the story and the characters — especially Seth — engaged me fully from start to finish.
Check out the whole thing.
More later. Probably. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night due to raccoon-chewing-on-the-house problems. So we’ll see.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Health, Kindle, Promotion, Publishing, Society
Cross-posted from the Her Final Year blog.
JD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OK, our first Kindle promotional day is here! That means that *anyone* can download the Kindle edition of Her Final Year for free. You don’t need a special code. You don’t need to enter any kind of drawing. You don’t even need a Kindle – there is a free Kindle emulator/app for almost all computers/tablets/mobile devices. Just go to the Kindle page for the book, and “buy” it for $0.00. Then it is yours to read, or loan, or ignore.
But don’t ignore this opportunity – we’ve already had over 100 downloads in the US, and another dozen in the UK. Be sure to get your copy, and to tell any friends or forums who may need this kind of information/support about the promotion!
Thanks, everyone!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Diane Rehm, Hospice, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing
(Cross-posted from the Her Final Year blog, equally relevant here.)
* * * * * * *
So, as I mentioned the other day, we’re going to have a promotional day this coming Sunday, where anyone can download the Kindle edition of Her Final Year for free. And in that post I asked for your help to get the word out:
So please, help spread the word: tell people that Her Final Year will be free next Sunday, and the Sunday after that. Let’s make sure that everyone you can think of who would benefit from knowing what it was like for us to be care-givers gets a copy of the book. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Post it to any care-giving forums of discussion groups.
And that help would still be very much appreciated, but it isn’t what I am asking for today. Rather, I want to ask you to do me a favor and to contact a public-radio show. All the details are over on my Communion of Dreams blog, but basically I sent copies of Her Final Year and Communion of Dreams (my novel) to the Diane Rehm Show, trying to interest them in perhaps doing a show on the books. Here’s the relevant passage from the letter I sent along with the books:
I understand that Ms. Rehm, and likely the entire staff there, are probably overwhelmed with story suggestions and books to be considered. But I hope that you will find time to take a look at either or both of these books. The matter of care-giving for someone with dementia is extremely important to me, and I would like to see more people aware of the role that men play concerning this. And the novel which I wrote during my time as a care provider tells another story, one of how unexpected discoveries sometimes show us what really matters. I think it is easy to see how these two things may be connected.
They should have received the books yesterday. And here is where you can help: drop them an email, post something to their Facebook page, or send them a Tweet ( @drshow ), and ask them to consider doing a show about the book. That’s it. Just a brief note. If you send a Tweet, use the hashtag #HerFinalYear .
Coming from you – from a variety of sources (who are not the authors) – is much more likely to get their attention. Meaning that just a couple of words from you will make a huge difference. Please.
And thank you.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction
One of those weird little quirks of mine: so far* this month I’ve given away some 5,277 copies of Communion of Dreams. Actually, that doesn’t include another half dozen or so hard copies sent to various reviewer and press outlets. This doesn’t bother me in the slightest – it’s all good promotion, and an investment in the eventual success of my novel.
And yet, the fact that 8 of the people who bought the Kindle edition of the book this month have “returned” the book and had their purchase price refunded, bugs me.
No, it doesn’t make any sense. There is no difference whatsoever between those people just getting a refund, and having not paid for it in the first place. I said it was a weird little quirk, didn’t I? I’m entitled to a few of those.
Jim Downey
*Yeah, so far. Watch this space for announcement of another free Kindle promotion day, coming soon!
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Diane Rehm, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Press, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Society, Writing stuff
Marketing a self-published book is the single biggest hurdle any author faces. Well, perhaps other than all the other hurdles such as writing the book in the first place, competently editing it, getting it put into an attractive format with a nice cover, …
Anyway, marketing is a huge problem. That’s why I did the KDP Select program, with the ability to offer special promotions. It’s why I blog & tweet and generally blow my own horn. It’s why I bug my friends and fans and ask that they help to spread the word. It’s why I leverage any connections I might have into any press outlets. It’s marketing. And you’re never sure what works or what doesn’t.
And I thought I would share one more item I’m trying: direct communication with the Diane Rehm Show. Here’s the text from a letter I am sending them with copies of Communion of Dreams and Her Final Year:
Diane Rehm Show
WAMU 88.5 American University Radio
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016-8082Greetings,
I’ve long been a listener of the Diane Rehm show, and know that Ms. Rehm is a fan of intelligent, thoughtful science/speculative fiction. My recently published novel is generally considered to fall into that genre, and has been generating considerable interest. I am enclosing an article from this past weekend’s local newspaper supporting this claim, and a check of the reviews on Amazon will do likewise.
I am also enclosing a memoir published last year, which deals with another issue I know Ms. Rehm has covered and seems to care about: care-giving for a loved one. In this case it was Alzheimer’s, and the memoir is a joint effort of myself and another man, along with our spouses. We were each care providers for our respective mothers-in-law, a relatively unusual role in our society, but one which is going to become increasingly common (and necessary) in the coming years. The book is based on each of our writings as we went through the multi-year experience, and includes blog posts and email communications.
I understand that Ms. Rehm, and likely the entire staff there, are probably overwhelmed with story suggestions and books to be considered. But I hope that you will find time to take a look at either or both of these books. The matter of care-giving for someone with dementia is extremely important to me, and I would like to see more people aware of the role that men play concerning this. And the novel which I wrote during my time as a care provider tells another story, one of how unexpected discoveries sometimes show us what really matters. I think it is easy to see how these two things may be connected.
Thank you for your time,
James Downey
Will it do *any* good? No idea. Maybe. If you would like to help get them to consider it, post a note on their Facebook page. Send ’em a tweet. Drop them an email through the ‘contact us’ form on their site. It might help.
It might not.
That’s marketing, at least as a small, self-published author.
If you have any other ideas or suggestions, or know other outlets/individuals which might be open to providing coverage, let me know.
Thanks.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, tech
Since Sunday’s big promotion I’ve been hearing from people who have read Communion of Dreams about how much they enjoyed it. Which is incredibly gratifying, and also extremely kind. Thank you, everyone – I do very much appreciate your letting me know what you thought of the novel.
But please, if at all possible, don’t just let me know. Tell your friends. Post it on your Facebook or LiveJournal or G+ status, with a link to the homepage for the book. Mention it in your Twitter feed. Even better, go post a review on Amazon or at least “like” the book there.
I know this is a bit of a pain-in-the-ass. But it can *really* help me out. More people will hear about the book that way. More people will see that others like it. And maybe, just maybe, more people will actually buy the thing. Because while I am perfectly happy to give away promotional copies of the book, the goal is for me to be able to be compensated for the years of my life which are invested in this. I can’t afford the kind of advertising that big publishing houses sink into promoting books by famous people, and making them more famous. But I can ask my friends, and my fans, to just help spread the word.
Thank you!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Press, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction
So, there was this little promotional event yesterday. And a newspaper article.
And things went a little nuts.
If you know me via Facebook or Twitter, you have some idea. For those who don’t, or want to know the final tally: altogether 5,277 people took advantage of the freed Kindle edition promotion. And there were even some regular sales of both the Kindle and paperback editions.
5,277. That’s pretty remarkable. And puts to total number of the finished version of the book out there over 6,000. That’s in about 6 weeks time – and amounts to the average number of people who downloaded the earlier PDF versions of the book in an entire year.
Yeah, I call that success. Stunning, actually.
I’m a bit exhausted by the whole thing, to be honest. Almost like a hangover. So I’ll probably take a break for a day or two, concentrate on getting other things done which I neglected in preparation for the promotion.
But I wanted to let everyone know the results – and to say Thank You to everyone! Oh, and to ask – if you got the book yesterday, and read it, and enjoy it – to please tell your friends, go and rate or like or even review the book on Amazon and anywhere else.
Thanks again.
Jim Downey
Cross posted to the BBTI blog.
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Art, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Press, Promotion, Publishing, Religion, Science Fiction, tech, Writing stuff
Anticipation no more: the day is here, the article posted. Here’s how it starts:
The future, it has been said, is unwritten.
But this really isn’t so, at least to the degree that gifted local writer Jim Downey has penned a vision of what’s to come in his recent science-fiction novel, “Communion of Dreams.”
Downey once occupied space in these very pages as a Tribune arts columnist. His versatile, incisive writing style has been applied to topics that range from handguns to the humanity seen through the creases of Alzheimer’s disease — in September, features writer Jill Renae Hicks detailed the story of “Her Final Year,” a caregiving memoir Downey co-authored with John Bourke. By approaching the fictional worlds of “Communion” with his well-rounded cadre of concerns, Downey was able to draw out themes related to psychology, religion and spirituality, reminding us that no matter how technologically advanced we might become, our future will be a human one.
There’s more, and all of it very positive (to my eyes, at least.) Take a look, share it, comment on it if you’re a subscriber to the Tribune.
But more importantly, take advantage of today’s Free Kindle Edition promotion, and go download the book. Please. Please please please.
You help me out by doing so, both by pushing up the book’s ranking, and by just reading the thing. Because most people really like it, once they get into it. And if you like it, you’ll probably tell your friends. Or maybe “rate” or “like” the book on Amazon or on Facebook. Or maybe even take the time to write a review (there’s a new review just been posted overnight!). All of these things help me, and I very much appreciate it – why I’m willing to offer the book for free.
So, thanks again! Go forth and download!
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 