I WON!! KINDLE SCOUT campaign A STRANGE TWIST OF FATE Part 3

I got an email from the Kindle Scout program! I made it! After 30 days of a campaign where A Strange Twist of Fate continuously stayed on the "Hot and Trending" list, and after 6 more days of consideration, I received notice that Kindle Press. 

It read: 

Dear Debra Erfert,

Congratulations! Our readers have spoken, and your book A Strange Twist of Fate has been selected for publication by the Kindle Press Team. We're excited to be working with you and eager to get started on your upcoming book launch.

I was never so excited about seeing an email in my life. I won something that I'd wanted for such a long time. It was three years ago when a friend first had her campaign. Sariah Wilson wrote a royal princess romance book. I loved it--and nominated it. I watched her journey with Kindle Press. Now she has three more books published through Montlake Romance, an Amazon romance imprint all because of Kindle Scout. 

There are steps I still need to cover, like writing an acknowledgment page to thank all of my beta readers and editor, and a dedication page, and a page listing my other available books, and then a final edit by their people, but these are truly labors of love. 

KINDLE SCOUT -- A STRANGE TWIST OF FATE -- PART TWO

A STRANGE TWIST OF FATE has 6 days left in the campaign, and so far it's been on the "Hot and Trending" list for the past 3 weeks. This hasn't come easy. I've had to do a lot of marketing to stay up there with the other 19 books. From what I've seen, there are 20 books on the "Hot" list at any one time. That list shuffles around depending on how many "page views" they receive each day. The more page views, the closer your book is to the front of the list. This keeps you visible and more likely to get those all important nominations. While I have your attention, I'd appreciate it if you would go HERE and nominate A STRANGE TWIST OF FATE. 😏 

If you want to submit your own book to Kindle Scout, here is the link to their submission page. You need to read the guidelines very carefully and follow each one to the letter.
There are many ways to ask for nominations. This blog is one way. If you don't write one yet, now would be a good time to start! 

Another way is to ask your Facebook friends using an ad like the one you see above. I made this one up myself using an inexpensive program called Swift Publisher 4. The program cost little to download from iTunes and works remarkably well. I was able to learn how to use it with very little effort. Basically, if I can do it so can everyone else! lol. 

Bribery is a wonderful tool to use for getting nominations. I bought a KINDLE PAPERWHITE (an e-reader) for a drawing. I also have a couple of VISA gift cards to make things even sweeter. At the end of my campaign, I'll draw 3 winners, the first being the Kindle winner. This drawing is a great way to lure readers and friends to click on your campaign link. 

Do you Tweet? I make sure at least twice a day I post this to Twitter. This is the example:
Grab your chance to win! https://www.amazon.com/gp/f.html?C=3KRKL8BRA5K9I&K=A2G4XI13MD3UX2&R=3MKVFMK17J9KU&T=C&U=https%3A%2F%2Fkindlescout.amazon.com%2Fp%2F12FKUX4P03PEN%3Fref_%3Dpe_886810_126055510&A=ONRHBJLMHQIG6EGC79DW38LGAHSA&H=ZUIYAUZK7MF70S9K07WPG45MPAGA&ref_=pe_886810_126055510 … tell me at debraerfert@yahoo.com @AuthorShout #amazonbooks #amreading #kindle
Make sure you include the link to your campaing and the ad picture. This will draw attention to your post. 

I also took out a paid Facebook advertisement, setting the budget at $15.00 a day (it's driven my clicks). Go HERE and learn how to advertise with Facebook. This is a little more tricky. You can't use the same ad you used for Twitter and your personal Facebook page. The picture/text ratio is different. You have to have more picture and much less text on the picture. 

For $10.00 (for the whole month of the campaign) I'm using a website called Author Shout. They use some information from your  Kindle Scout campaing to make a few Twitter ads that are posted several times a day. They have a far wider reach (12K followers) than just those who are my followers (650).

Over the past few months, I've actively worked on growing a "subscriber emailing list." I use MailChimp as a host. Its free until you get over a certain limit of subscribers or set up the automated emails. From this site I send automated emails offering a free novella as an incentive to join. There are several awesome websites that offer ways to grow your emailing list. 

My Book Cave is a great site. Go HERE and read what they can do for you as a reader and as an author! 

Another one is InstaFreebie HERE. 

I also have an account with BookFunnel, HERE, a site where readers find your FREE book (I use a novella) and download it when they agree to be added to your newsletter emailing list. I have MailChimp incorporated with InstaFreebie and BookFunnel, which means when they sign up, that email address goes directly to my MailChimp site.

Another interesting way of finding nominations is on Instagram. I linked my Facebook ad to it. I might've done this by accident, but that's okay. I've received several clicks from it. 😆 How about Pinterest? Yep, I have this campaign up there too! 

I hope this helps. I'll write a followup after I find out if my book gets picked up by Kindle Press or if it gets rejected and I indie-publish it! 

Debra

KINDLE SCOUT campaign A STRANGE TWIST of FATE 2017

A couple of years ago a talented author friend, Sariah Wilson, sent out a call for any writer willing to produce a cross-over novella of at least 17,000 words using a character/s or setting from her KINDLE PRESS published THE ROYALS OF MONTERRA. I'd read her book and loved the characters and the story. It's a princess book! I knew I wanted to write a story in her "world" so I  jumped at the chance. Six weeks later, my romantic mystery novella ROYALS OF MONTERRA: IT TAKES A SLEUTH was born. A few months after it was finished, it was published by Kindle Worlds. I had such a great experience I knew I wanted to write my own novel and submit it to KINDLE SCOUT. 

Writing a full-length novel takes longer than a short story, but I was willing to put in the time. Every book starts out with just an idea. A year later, I wrote a romantic mystery novel A STRANGE TWIST OF FATE, and after it went through beta reading, two editors, three proofreaders, and hiring an awesome cover artist, I finally thought it was ready to submit to KINDLE SCOUT and start my own campaign. You can see it HERE.  

It's been a week since the campaign went live, (January 12th through February 10th) and I wanted to share my experiences. 

First off, I want to tell you what you'll be getting into with Kindle Scout. If you haven't heard of it, you need to know that it is "reader-powered publishing for new, never-before-published books. It’s a place where readers help decide if a book gets published." 

What does this mean? Once accepted and your campaign is launched, you'll need to get "nominations." Enough nominations will get your book read by the folks at Kindle Press. You'll need to give them 45 days of exclusivity (not submitting to any other publishers), 30 days of that time is for the campaign and the other 15 days are for them to read part or all of your book.

If your book is selected, "it will be published by Kindle Press and receive 5-year renewable terms, a $1,500 advance, 50% eBook royalty rate, easy rights reversions and featured Amazon marketing." It's that "featured Amazon marketing" I'm excited about.

In PART TWO I'll discuss what I'm doing to get those all important nominations while the campaign is live.