In Today’s Journal
* Fiverr Book Promo Pre-Results
* I Might Have an Audio-Book Guy
* Update on the Author Intrusion Book
* Of Interest
Fiverr Book Promo Pre-Results
A few days ago I mentioned I’d be working with a guy from Fiverr to promote Writing Better Fiction. The initial cost (Standard Package) was $55. The last two items in the list below were add-ons that raised my total to $115.
He’d promised to get the week-long promo up by May 8, fourteen days from the date of my request.
Not only did he get the promo up early—it started yesterday and will run through May 6, so 8 days instead of a week—but in my opinion the guy outdid himself. See for yourself at the links below.
Here’s what Joel did for Writing Better Fiction:
- Created a custom .jpg for sharing
- Posted Writing Better Fiction on his website (I’d already verified that he gets over 1000 unique visitors per day to his website.)
- Shared WBF on X
- Shared WBF on his Substack
- Shared WBF on his Pinterest page
- Submitted WBF to Book Detective AI’s knowledge base (ChatGPT) (The AI is available in the official GPT Store.)
- He also listed WBF in the sidebar of his website. WBF will be visible sitewide on joelbooks.com from April 29–May 6, so for 8 days
So from now through the end of May I’ll be checking reports at Amazon and D2D to see whether sales have spiked at all during that period.
If they have, I’ll have Joel work on other projects for me. If not, well, I’ll keep looking. Either way, the $115 I spent was a good investment either in promotion or in a valuable lesson. (grin)
I Might Have an Audio-Book Guy
In addition to the good news above, I also found an excellent audio-book-narrator guy.
Awhile back, Frank Theodat included my short story, “Wes Crowley and the Bank Robbers” in his The Boys’ Book of Western Stories.
I received a note yesterday morning from the narrator who read the story for the audio version of Frank’s book, plus a link to the reading of my particular story.
In my opinion, the guy absolutely nailed it. He seems even to have captured the personalities and the emotions of the various characters in the story.
If you’d like to hear the audio version of “Wes Crowley and the Bank Robbers,” email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com and I’ll send you the link. The reading is slightly over 23 minutes long.
If you decide to listen, please take a moment to let me know your thoughts re the audio version.
The exciting news is that the narrator has agreed in principle to narrate the entire 22-volume Wes Crowley Saga after he’s finished a few other projects already in his queue.
Of course, whether the deal will go ahead depends on cost vs. the return I think I can reasonably expect on my investment (ROI).
A Side Note on Audio Books
Years ago during a seminar when I mentioned publishing my work to “ebooks,” one attendee waved her arm and said vehemently, “I hate ebooks! I will never put my stories in ebooks!”
I only smiled. “That’s certainly your choice. But think for a moment. If you owned a flooring store and you personally only liked brown carpeting, would you sell only brown carpeting?” Then I continued with the seminar.
As a reader, I don’t personally use audio books, but I know many other readers who actually prefer them. So I try not to confuse my personal preferences as a reader with the income streams that are available to me as a writer.
Update on the Author Intrusion Book
As I worked on Chapter One of Author Intrusion: A Writerly Sin over the past few days, it occurred to me that I might decide not to publish this series of posts in book form after all. I thought I’d better let you know that early.
I might only ever publish it here in TNDJ. So again, feel free to print out the posts if you want to. (Only for use by yourself and your significant other, of course. Please respect my copyright.) If you missed the first post, you can find it here.
If you’d like to license the whole thing or any individual post or posts to use as handouts or in a presentation to a writers’ group or other organization, email me for details.
Back soon with Chapter One. Talk with you again then.
Of Interest
Freebies Just a reminder for anyone who wants them.