Here’s the situation. Selling one’s art is a hard business. Too many sites are giving away books or if not free almost free at 99 cents. Readers expect that now from indie authors and from traditionally published books close to becoming remainders. Too much free stuff out there so how can one attract a paying readership? Well, first get published by Penguin et.al, be touted as a bestselling author, and get a large advance. For the unknown indie author you become like the Maytag repairman with a big difference. The repairman doesn’t work for free but indie authors do. Oh, there are success stories about how by giving away your work as a loss leader brings a paying readership. It happens…sometimes. Also, I’ve noticed that some indie books have thousands of reviews and even some traditionally published work have thousands of reviews. Of this I am very suspicious. I think you can buy programs or companies that create reviews with bots. But thousands of good reviews do bring some paying customers. And if you buy enough of your own books it can became a best seller. Lots of scams to fake the paying readership.
So what is an indie author like me to do? Face reality and give in. So I took my award-winning book Sunspots off Smashwords and Google and made it exclusive to Amazon KDP Select and I’m giving it away in a five-day promotion. You can download a free copy here:
There have already been 6 downloads on the first morning after months of nothing.
Oh well. A writer needs to be read and luckily my living expanses are covered. So please read Sunspots. I know you’ll enjoy it as can be testified by the really good real reviews.
