Filed under: Amazon, Art, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing
Got another very positive review of Communion of Dreams. It goes over a lot of ground, but here’s an excerpt that’ll give you an idea what the author thinks:
One of the things I enjoyed most, as a science fiction fan of many decades, was finding little bits of reference to various other writers, either in a conceptual sense or, sometimes, in a name used or a place mentioned. So many science fiction novels touch on psychology, sociology, scientific and technological progress, philosophy, religion or just sheer adventure. This one has it all, and I do mean *all* of it. My mind was a whirl of ideas and thoughts, all intertwining as I read about the discovery of the artifact, watched different people react based on their perception and frame of reference, and saw their attitudes change over time as more and more was discovered.
Check out the whole thing, along with the other reviews so far, and vote whether the review was helpful to you.
I am very happy to see a positive review, of course, and hope that this helps to spread the word (hint, hint) about the book to others. But I am even more pleased to get the feedback that the book ‘works’ for the reader. That’s always a crap-shoot for any author or artist: you work to produce something (an artifact, if you will) which is then put out there for interpretation by each and every person who encounters it, and at that point it is out of your hands.
So yeah, it is very rewarding to get this kind of reaction. Of course, additional sales and riches would be nice, too . . .
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, ISS, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science, Science Fiction, Space, YouTube
Ah, fun with physics up on the ISS:
Very cool.
Book update: if you ordered a signed copy of Communion of Dreams prior to February first, you should have received it in the last day or two. The next batch of books will be going out the middle of next week – so there is time to get in your order!
Actual sales of the book continue to plug along as well, 3-4 per day. Not stunning, but steady. And I keep hearing from people how much they have enjoyed it – that’s always great, thanks! Please, if you have read the book, go write a review and help spread the word to your friends and any forums you participate in.
Sometime later this month I’ll probably offer another one-day promotion when anyone can download the Kindle edition for free – watch for it!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Kindle, Marketing, Music, Promotion, Psychic abilities, Publishing, Science Fiction
A couple of days ago I wrote about another author’s experience in having his self-published work enrolled in the KDP Select program, which offers authors a chance to promote their Kindle edition book as a free download. If you haven’t read the original post by David Kazzie, I still recommend it, and you can find it here: How Amazon’s KDP Select Saved My Book
His blog post includes this tidbit:
“Now I had heard that the big sales bump for Free-to-Paid came about three days after it came off of Free status, but I didn’t know how accurate that was.”
And he goes on to explore how it actually worked out for him, and how he saw the sales of his book skyrocket.
Yesterday the ‘third day after’ for my promotional push offering Communion of Dreams for free last weekend. And sales did not rise again.
I’m not complaining. I learned things from this promotion, and from reading about Kazzie’s experience. I’ll put those lessons to work in future efforts promoting Communion.
But I am struck by how completely the book fell completely out of everyone’s attention, judging by the sales rank. Currently the Kindle edition is at #39,945 and the paperback edition is at #1,110,942. At one point last weekend it was at #641 overall in the Kindle edition and like #10,000 in the paperback. That’s an impressive plummet back into obscurity.
Will it stay there? No idea. Like I said, I have some ideas on how to handle another promotion, but we’ll see how things actually work out. Certainly I have learned to not trust to hope too much – just enough to keep moving forward. Things will work out however they work out, all we can do is try.
Jim Downey
*Al Stewart’s Nostradamus, of course. Here’s the relevant stanza:
Oh, I had a dream
It seemed I stood alone
And the veil of all the years
Goes sinking from my eyes like a stone
Which ties in to Communion of Dreams in several ways. First, I was a big fan of Stewart when I was young (and have enjoyed his work into adulthood), and really liked his story-telling style. Second, this was very much a metaphor for the creative process in writing the book for me, since in some ways it felt like I was just standing outside of time and watching it unfold into the future. And third, the purported psychic abilities of Nostradamus have always been of interest to me, but just don’t pan out in rigorous scientific testing . . . so I had to find a way to explain that. Which is in the book. And that’s all I’ll say so I don’t spoil any surprises for someone who hasn’t yet finished reading the damned thing. Which, if you have, means you should have an opinion on whether you like it or not, so you should go rate it or write a review of it on Amazon. Right? Right.
Via my friend Wendy, another take on the experience of offering a book for free in conjunction with the KDP Select program:
Good read. This is just Day Two for the end to my promotion, so perhaps I haven’t yet seen the kind of bump in sales I yet might. But this post, and my own experience, has given me some additional ideas about how to schedule and promote the next time I offer Communion of Dreams as a free Kindle download (or Her Final Year, for that matter.)
Oh, and if you have Amazon Prime, and haven’t yet downloaded Communion as a ‘loan’ – please, go do so. Thanks.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction
. . . I’ve been on a three-day bender or something. Such was the heady experience of the ‘launch’ of Communion of Dreams.
Thank you. Together we managed to give away right at 700 copies of the Kindle edition of the book, as well as selling some paperbacks and getting orders for signed copies.
I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I have to consider this to have been a huge success, given the downloads and preliminary feedback about the book.
Now I would ask for two things from all those who got a copy of the Kindle edition: please, please, please tell your friends about the book. Seriously, your recommendation will help immensely.
And closely related to this is helping me out by going to Amazon and rating the book, perhaps even writing a review. Such reviews help others who may hear of the book make an intelligent decision about whether to get it. It doesn’t have to be long – just tell people what you think.
Thank you. Seriously. This has been a very long and difficult road, filled with more than my share of frustrations and disappointments. But you – each and every person who downloaded the book, told others about it – YOU have helped to make the journey worthwhile.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction
Well, the response has been pretty remarkable to the launch of Communion of Dreams. Over 600 copies of the Kindle edition have been downloaded, paperback editions sold, orders placed for signed copies.
And I’ve heard from a number of people who have dived into reading the book. So far, all the reports have been very positive. Here’s one from Jane, posted to her Facebook profile:
OK people. Really. I just spent the better part of the day sucked into Jim Downey’s book. You so need to go download it while it’s free! Great book Jim. Loved it!
And that prompts me to ask for something in this final day of the promotional push: Please, if you’ve read the book (or just part of it) tell your friends what you think.
This is the flip side of just getting the word out. I really appreciate everyone helping me out with the initial news of the book’s availability. But now I would very much appreciate your saying what you think about the book.
Today’s the last day of the free Kindle version promotion. And if you’ve been enjoying the book – if it has given you food for thought, challenged your expectations, or prompted you to consider prior assumptions – then tell others that. Share your joy. It doesn’t cost you anything but a few moments of time and a little effort. You’ll be helping me, and perhaps helping brighten the day for your friends and others who respect your opinion.
Thank you. It’d be fantastic if we can break a thousand downloads before midnight Pacific time tonight. That’s certainly possible – Friday had more than 450 downloads – if you’ll just take a little time to spread the word.
Jim Downey
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
…ain’t that just a hell of a thing:
Yup, that’s me holding the proof copy of the paperback version of Communion of Dreams. As predicted, it’s arrived, looks good, and so we can move forward with setting everything up for people to order their own copy (signed, even!) later this week.
Cool. It’s a real thing. This is even better than with Her Final Year. No mixed emotions today.
Yay!
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
Communion Of Dreams 