September Promotion

The Testing of Archie Rathbone

Free on 1st September 2012

Having enrolled on Amazon's KDP Select programme (it's something to do with Amazon lending ebooks, but please, if you're interested you're better off reading about it on Amazon's site rather than my adding unnecessary information here), I am allowed to run up to five days of promotions during which The Testing of Archie Rathbone can be downloaded free of charge. There have been two previous promotions over the last few months and I've decided to use my final 'free' day on 1st September 2012.

If you haven't already, then please do take advantage of this opportunity. If you don't have a Kindle then there are Kindle Reader apps that allow you to read Kindle ebooks on a number of other devices including phones, PCs iPads and so on.

If you do manage to read my book then I'd love to hear what you thought of it, and perhaps you'd like to write a short (or long) review on Goodreads or on Amazon.

I'm intending to renew my KDP Select membership in September so there may well be further promotions over the following three months. Dates to be decided...

Lead a horse to water...

I've recently created an author page on Facebook (Alex Hunter, Author). Now in case I haven't explained this to you before, despite having had to deal with technology for all of my working life, technology and I are uneasy in each other's company, let alone when trying to work together. As a friend pointed out - there's an obvious irony in that, but as there's little I can do to rectify this seemingly innate intipathy, technology and I will doubtless continue our grudging acquaintance.

I've referred to having read books about how to write before. One of the things that seems to be universally accepted these days is that unless you choose to acquire a literary agent and thereby a publisher (and having made that choice, are successful) the chances of you and your book enjoying any significant success are directly proportional to your skills at, and energy for self-publicity.

Aside from the well-established approaches to marketing your book (public readings, book signings, posters, radio, TV and newspaper interviews, etc) the 'modern' writer must also make full and frantic use of the available social networking sites.

You can (as the proverb states) lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. So, I have been lead to Facebook, and although both hooves and muzzle have been emersed, I'm still feeling hydrophobic, and not in the least bit thirsty. That said, perhaps I'll be surprised - perhaps water is just what I need, and similarly Facebook will be the elixir that will make my book thrive.

In the meantime, the author page is there. We shall see!