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My first novel, The Valley Walker, was recently offered for free on Amazon for two days. I didn’t promise a report on the results, but decided to let everyone know how it went anyway. There are lessons to be learned here.

First, though, a little background is in order. Anybody that follows my blog knows that I’m a laissez-faire kinda guy. Take it as it comes and learn along the way.

I wasn’t looking to push out thousands of copies, just enough to get some feedback from readers on what they thought of it. I only have two reviews on Amazon for the book, and I was hoping to boost that number. The only real prep work I did was to announce the giveaway here and on Facebook. During the two days of the promotion, I tweeted it six times.

Other people helped out by reblogging me and tweeting it. My hard drive (that’s my brain) has a lot of bad sectors (fried synapses), so I won’t try to mention everybody. It did mean the world to me to see people being so damn nice. More than once I had to act like I was doing something, just to hide the fact that I was getting misty.

The whole thing had me pretty nervous, so I scheduled a lot of yard work and house cleaning during the two days in an attempt to keep myself  from looking at the stats every ten seconds. That only worked to a limited degree. The bathrooms did get clean, the kitchen floor got scrubbed and the yard does look better, but I really couldn’t keep my nose out of it. I found myself taking breaks that I didn’t need, just for an excuse to bounce over and look at the numbers.

Enough blathering, already. Here are the results:

  • 206 copies were downloaded at Amazon U.S. and India
  • 57 copies were downloaded at Amazon U.K. (Great Britain)
  • 3 copies were downloaded at Amazon D.E. (Germany)
  • 1 copy was downloaded at Amazon E.S. (Spain)
  • It’s been almost two weeks since the promotion and I haven’t got any reviews as a result of it yet.
  •  Sales have not changed.

You can see the lessons here.

  • If you’re looking to push a big number of books out into the world, you have to do a lot more preparation than I did.
  • If you’re looking for reviews, get your work out to as many readers as you can and wait.

I reblogged David McGowan’s post once before, but I’m giving you the link again. >>>> The Definitive Guide to KDP Promotion <<<< David did a ton of legwork on that post, and it’s worth the time to examine it if you’re thinking of doing a KDP Promotion.

Give him a hearty thank you while you’re there. He deserves it.

Did I get what I wanted out of it? Yes and no. It was about the number of downloads I was looking for, but no reviews have come in yet. I guess I have to tell myself the same thing I tell everybody else.

Breathe, Grasshopper.

To those of you that are reading or planning to read The Valley Walker: 

I understand that tastes and preferences differ. If you don’t finish it or don’t like it, I’ll understand. I’m trying to learn from any feedback, and the number of people that finish it and think enough about it to say something… good or bad… is feedback.

Okay? Okay.