I’m sure if any of you, my readers, have self-published a book (and I bet some of you have), you’ve probably discovered that the process of self-promotion can be difficult, time-consuming, confusing, frustrating, and sometimes downright embarrassing! Creative people often just don’t feel an affinity for marketing strategies, but in today’s world we have to, shall I say, “suck it up.”
All of us authors want people to read our book, obviously. That’s one of the reasons (although not the only reason) I started this blog. And the people who have read my book really seem to like…even love it. I have 29 5-star reviews on Amazon, and some of those wonderful reviews made me see things in my book that I myself hadn’t seen before.
But here’s the bottom line: most people don’t want to pay for a book by an unknown author, no matter how interesting it may look. I’ve been wanting to offer my book for free, but I had my e-book published through BookBaby, and they have a no free book policy. However, about a month ago, a fellow self-published author (thanks, Meg Dendler!) posted that she was offering one of her books for free on Smashwords. I looked into it, and decided to go for it.
So….Getting Down to Brass Tacks – My Adventures in the World of Jazz, Rio, and Beyond is now available at Smashwords in Kindle, e-pub, and PDF formats, or you can just read it on line…for FREE.
Here’s the link:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/397205
OK, I’m gonna take a nap while you all go on over there and snap it up. 🙂
finallygettingdowntobrasstacks 
Well I have mixed feelings here. Free excerpts are one way to spark interest but then there is the old why but the cow Magen the milk is free thing. No matter. I bought mine and have read it on my kindle twice now. Just as great the second time!
On Sunday, January 19, 2014, finallygettingdowntobrasstacks wrote:
> Amy Duncan posted: “I’m sure if any of you, my readers, have > self-published a book (and I bet some of you have), you’ve probably > discovered that the process of self-promotion can be difficult, > time-consuming, confusing, frustrating, and sometimes downright > embarrassing! Crea”
I’ve heard that many authors have really gotten a major kick start by offering their book for free for a period…this won’t be forever, Pam. I’ll take it down from Smashwords when I feel it’s either done the job, or it’s not working. I know one thing for sure, though, there are so many offers for free e-books out there that a lot of people don’t even want to pay 99 cents to read a book by an author they don’t know. This promotion doesn’t apply to the paperback, BTW.
Wow, I can’t believe you read it twice! You’re my hero!
Once is never enough! Or so I’ve heard it said!
😀