THE Group for Authors! discussion

My ebook novel "Gated" hit the #1 spot on the UK Amzon Free Horror chart during the giveaway weekend and since it has gone back on sale, it has stayed around the top 5 Horror/Thriller Chart and the top 10 Horror Chart. I am desperate for advice as to how to maximise the slight sucess. I am self-published and this is only my third attempt at writing a novel and my first at attempting to write for a more mainstream market. My novel is sitting amongst professional published authors all with budgets for advertising etc. Does anyone have any helpful advice for me to advertise a book that seems to be popular for the moment, I would be immensely grateful for any sugestions.

That is fantastic news Matt, and I admire you for not sitting back on your laurels in this glorious moment. :)

If you aren't already doing it, get a blog service company to set up a blog tour for you (much easier and more effective than trying to set it up yourself, and inexpensive). The tour service firm can use the "#5 on Horror/Thriller Chart" lingo to help entice the more prolific bloggers to invite you to stop by.

Also go on GR, Amazon and whatever other sites you can post your 'author page' on and put that info in as a 'headline' at the top of everything else - toot your own horn - everyone loves a winner!

If you live in a smaller community, you might be able to get the local paper to interview you also.

Matt wrote: "My ebook novel "Gated" hit the #1 spot on the UK Amzon Free Horror chart during the giveaway weekend and since it has gone back on sale, it has stayed around the top 5 Horror/Thriller Chart and the..."

Congrats, Matt! You might want to take a peek at this video on Amazon marketing...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho8WfK... Keep it up! :-)

Thanks guys

Welcome! Need anything else, you know where to look. :-)

Great advice. I'm about to do my first weekend giveaway followed by a blog hop. I will also try these suggestions. Thanks!

Matt wrote: "...Does anyone have any helpful advice for me to advertise a book that seems to be popular for the moment..."

You can also be sure to add the book to your own read shelf plus some custom ones like "horror" "thriller" (as close as goodreads gets to the equivalent of amazon tags on book pages).

Not a big or immediate return because you'll still get buried in with more popular books on those shelves/genres. But, doesn't take an advertising budget. And won't get you in trouble for putting reviews and other marketing in a book description.

Probably too late now, but one good tip is, on the last page of your first book, say: "If you'd like to be notified when this author publishes another book, send an e-mail to XXXXXXXXXX!"

That email address leads to a service you the author have set up to be your mailing list (many companies offer this for a very small fee).. And when you do write the sequel/next part of your 17 book fantasy series, you'll have a lot of sales on the very first day from your eager, notified fans, instead of waiting for the slow dribble of them to discover it!

Matt wrote: "My ebook novel "Gated" hit the #1 spot on the UK Amzon Free Horror chart during the giveaway weekend and since it has gone back on sale, it has stayed around the top 5 Horror/Thriller Chart and the..."
Try askdavid.com. It's a free book promoting service.

Gloria wrote: "Matt wrote: "My ebook novel "Gated" hit the #1 spot on the UK Amzon Free Horror chart during the giveaway weekend and since it has gone back on sale, it has stayed around the top 5 Horror/Thriller ..."

Thanks for the link, just signed up for askdavid.com

Matt wrote: "My ebook novel "Gated" hit the #1 spot on the UK Amzon Free Horror chart during the giveaway weekend and since it has gone back on sale, it has stayed around the top 5 Horror/Thriller Chart and the..."

Congrats Matt. I have just received copies of my self published novel. I will like to try the giveaway thing. Please, when is the next one and how does it work?

The next giveaway is whenever you say it is... These links may be of help:

Giveaway presentation at http://www.slideshare.net/GoodreadsPr...

and signup form http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/new

Shuvom wrote: "Probably too late now, but one good tip is, on the last page of your first book, say: "If you'd like to be notified when this author publishes another book, send an e-mail to XXXXXXXXXX!"

That ema..."

That's a fabulous idea - presumably a link to my blog/website will also help. I haven't published my first novel yet, so I saw this at just the right time, thanks!

Pssst...@Matt. One goodreads member shelved your book as horror. If you want your book to show when members explore "horror" genre, create a "horror" shelf in your own bookshelves and add. Takes a bit for goodreads to catch up everything; but, I believe it only takes a couple of adds to put book in genre.

I'll temporarily shelve as horror to see if genre catches up.

Matt wrote: "My ebook novel "Gated" hit the #1 spot on the UK Amzon Free Horror chart during the giveaway weekend and since it has gone back on sale, it has stayed around the top 5 Horror/Thriller Chart and the..."

That is amazing news matt! wow. congratulations. u give me hope!

Matt wrote: "My ebook novel "Gated" hit the #1 spot on the UK Amzon Free Horror chart during the giveaway weekend and since it has gone back on sale, it has stayed around the top 5 Horror/Thriller Chart and the..."

Fantastic news Matt! I really have no advice I'd be able to give, since I have nowhere near your numbers. So I'll give admiration and support instead. Go Gated!

Thanks a lot for the kind thoughts guys, "Gated" ended up with a high of #4 on the UK Amazon Horror Chart and #2 on the Horror/Thriller Chart.It seems to me that writing a good book is the easy part, getting people to read it seems to require an awful lot of good fortune. I am hoping that this is the first small step in the right direction to gaining some kind of audience. I had recently finished my 4th novel called "Asylum" which is an anthology of horror stories, however a publisher just bought one which means I have to write another to replace it! I have also just passed 30,000 words on my 5th novel called "The Montague Portrait" starting to worry about burnout.

Debbie wrote: "Pssst...@Matt. One goodreads member shelved your book as horror. If you want your book to show when members explore "horror" genre, create a "horror" shelf in your own bookshelves and add. Takes..."

Thanks Debbie, good thought, just done it!

Matt wrote: "Thanks a lot for the kind thoughts guys, "Gated" ended up with a high of #4 on the UK Amazon Horror Chart and #2 on the Horror/Thriller Chart.It seems to me that writing a good book is the easy par..."

"Writing a good book is the easy part"?? *curses* I haven't even gotten to that point yet.

Looking forward to "Asylum" myself, love me some horror shorts.