I’ve decided to give Amazon’s Kindle book buyers a try with my Amish books. At first, I didn’t think I wanted to take less royalty. Admittedly, I usually take my time to think about a change. Finally, I decided the people that have a Kindle aren’t buying paperback books anyway so why not give this a try. After all it’s one more way to get people to see my name as an author. Once they try my books, readers usually want another one.
I’d already submitted to Kindle the first of my mystery series, Neighbor Watchers, awhile back. This time I added to the Kindle list my western The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary and two of my Amish books – Christmas Traditions-An Amish Love Story, and A Promise Is A Promise-Nurse Hal Among The Amish – book one.
Using the different communities on Amazon is a good way to advertise. I entered posts about my books being [available] in Kindle [format]. Even started new discussions to make sure my posts would be noticed since if the discussions are popular ones, a post can soon get buried. I checked the boxes to let me know if there was a response to my posts. Later in the afternoon, I found three responses. Seems I got in a hurry when I posted. Three people wanted to buy my kindle books already and the link only went to my paperback books. I had to reply to each post that it takes two days for Amazon to get the kindle entries ready so be patient and try again. If there seems to be interest in my books on Kindle I will have to enter one now and then and do the posts just to keep my name noticed.
This morning I was delighted to see I had more posts to answer. One was going to her local library to see if she could get my books. My thought is probably not, but I posted that she can ask. I’ve been told if someone is interested in a book and asks, the library will get it for the patron. Another post was a reader was a comment I’ve heard before. The poster didn’t like the writing style of one of the better known Amish authors because there isn’t enough in the story about the Amish farm life. The stories concentrate too much on the serious and often not a very complimentary problem concerning the Amish. So I left a post that was an excerpt from one of my books A Promise Is A Promise. Nurse Hal is trying to help the Lapp brothers catch some pigs that escaped from their pen. She caught one. The pig squealed. The cry got the attention of the protective sow. She rushed at Nurse Hal to protect her baby. The boys were yelling. The dog was barking. Can you picture the scene? Something similar happened to me once. One of those moments when I was running for the fence that I won’t forget.
What I have tried to do with my Nurse Hal books is concentrate on Nurse Hal’s human faults and her learning about what it takes to be Amish. Dealing with every day life on the farm is part of her experience. As I’ve said before farming experiences are something that’s easy for me to write about since I’ve lived it and still do with our few head of livestock. Writing the books with that in mind, I hope I don’t put the Amish in a bad light. The whole point of the stories for me are to be entertaining and fun with characters that the readers want to continue to get to know.
I joined a website called Book Marketing Network. It’s looks interesting as a helpful place to get author information with many groups to join. The site is used by publishers which might be a good thing. Other businesses are offering to do editing and ghostwriting among other services. Emails have already started so I will pick and choose which members I want to hear from and stop the other emails while I explore the site. I did find a person that does free book reviews by book or PDF. I can send a copy of my book and the review will be on Amazon and B&N. That is the reason that I’m sending one of my Amish books. None of the readers leave a review to let others know how they liked the books. I know they must like my books, because the second one in the Nurse Hal series came out in March and has been selling. I wager that the buyers of my other two Amish books came back for The Rainbow’s End.
This excerpt is a reprint from Fay Risner‘s Booksbyfay blog.