This is a post I came across written by author Nicholas C. Rossis on how he went about promoting his self-published books on Amazon. I went through a similar process recently with my self-published novels, The Silk Romance and The Antique Love. In both cases I reached 7,000 downloads, pushing the books into number 2 in a competitive category, adding to my sales, increasing the number of 4 and 5-star reviews and gaining new readers for my other books.
Nicholas explains the process in detail. Here’s a copy of his post. I hope you find it useful!
* * *
This was written as a guest blog post for a great friend of Indie authors, Paul Martin. It was published on his Self Publisher’s Showcase blog on January 24th, 2014, and is my most popular piece ever.
A-Z guide: How both my books reached #1 on Amazon
I’ve been reading contradictory opinions about book marketing and what does and doesn’t work, so I thought I’d share my personal experience on the matter, warts and all….
Click here to read more of Nicholas’s post.
* * *
I hope you found his post useful. Do you often download free books? If so, how do you hear about them? Do you often download free books and then never read them?
If you’re a writer, have you ever run a promotion on Amazon, and how did you go about it?
If you have any comments at all, I’d love to hear from you!
Helena Fairfax 
Thank you so much for sharing! I really appreciate it :)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pleasure, Nicholas. Great post!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations, Helena and Nicholas on your successes!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you so much, Susan! To be honest, it’s fairly easy to reach a high position if you follow the necessary steps :)
LikeLike
Fab read, thanks Nicholas and Helena for sharing. Long may your success continue. :)
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Jane! From your lips… :D
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed I try not to use anyone else’s :)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha ha – good to know :D
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, Jane and Susan!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great topic and lots of info. Thanks, Nicholas. Yes, I’ve tried the giveaway KDP select program. I believed giving away a book would result in all kinds of buzz and I would be selling books by the truckful, but as Nicolas stated, there was nothing like that. I did get some Kindle Unlimited snares, but not much after. I was deflated. I’ve heard a couple of marketing gurus say before the giveaway to raise the price on the book so people think they are getting a great deal. I think that is just not honest. What do you think? Yes, I do download free ebooks, but I never readmost of them.Thanks for sharing Helena.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, JQ!
I, too, think it’s dishonest to change the price in order to hype up the sale.
As for free books, there’s two kinds I download. The ones in genres I don’t read but I download to support the author, and the ones I download because they pique my interest. Guess which ones I end up reading most of the time :)
LikeLike
Hi JQ, it’s a really hard world on Amazon, with so many books competing. All we can do is try our best to make ours stand out. I’ve found – as I think Nicholas mentioned – that it does help to have a few books available. The more the better, in fact, so I keep on writing.
One thing I would suggest is using the Author Marketing Free Kindle Book submission tool. You can find it here: http://authormarketingclub.com/members/submit-your-book/
You can use this tool to get your free book advertised in as many places as you possibly can. You have to tell as many people as possible and get the word out.
The more free downloads the better. Your sales and ranking will go up. They might not go up a lot, but keep on writing and publishing. The more books you have out there, the more opportunities you have of selling.
I’ve tried Nicholas’s advice, and it did make a difference. Not a lot, but enough to make me keep persevering, make me keep writing books, and keep trying. One day we will get there!
Like you, I don’t agree that you should raise the price on the book before going free. I do think you should play around with prices, though, and try and find the one that helps sell the most. I think that’s fair.
Thanks very much for your thoughtful comment, JQ. You write great stories and deserve great sales. I wish you best of luck!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for that honest post, Nicholas – lots to think about. I quite like the countdown on Amazon as a promotion tool occasionally. Thanks for sharing this Helena!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for dropping in, Rosemary!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! I promise to share everything I find out :)
LikeLike
Thanks for sharing, Helena and Nicholas. Very insightful. I’m delighted your books did so well by following the info, Helena.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for dropping in, Gemma. Actually, it’s all down to Exquisite Quills and Rose that my books did well. Rose mentioned a book called Kindle Publishing Made (Stupidly) Easy. I downloaded it and found it a trememdous source of advice. I’m so glad I belong to EQ!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have to check it out. Thanks for that :)
LikeLike