Apple Blossoms Freebie Weekend

Yes, the floral Gimme Caps have arrived.  So if you're interested  here ya go.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00870CTWC

 

 

 

 

I expect nothing else from this exercise other than people downloading the book and getting some enjoyment out of the photos.  That's a success for this.  I don't even imagine they'll say "What else has she done?  Not Low Maintenance, I want to read it!"

I think it would make a good gift item.  It's more than a greetings card and takes up less space.

The shock of shocks is that 3 people have actually purchased the buttercup book.  And I did google for a way to remove images from ebooks but apparently there is no easy way.  I would love it if people could extract the images and use them for desktops backgrounds or printable cards.

Since I like doing the photography, I expect I'll do a few more of these and skip the little cookbooks.  I removed the Sweets For Your Sweet from Amazon due to the experience there but it's still available at BN.   Who needs to open the door for so much controversy.  Not I.

I had the opportunity to talk to a kindle tech (not support, a real tech) about a week ago and asked specifically about this book.  It was published in TNR and a review savaged the book for having a font that was unreadable and changed size at will and other nasties.  The tech's bottom line--If you upload the doc in TNR, that's the end of your control.  What bad things happen after that "It looks like a typewriter font!" aren't about you.  So if someone complains, hold your ground.  Go to the mattresses on this issue.  You'll probably have to take it up a level from the normal support in Bangalore because they're just reading from a list of approved responses.  But you'll probably feel better for having defended yourself and your work.

The Apple Blossom Book

Yes, I gathered 12 images together and made an essay of them, too.  I'll put that up as a freebie next month which is not very far away now.

Let's review my experiences with freebies.  They don't work.  I've never seen appreciable sales on other books because something else was free.  I had one review on the Verrine book that said she got it as a freebie.  I have had no other reviews so identified--but I don't seem to excite people to go on and write reviews either.

I'll stick to my belief that most people pick up freebies not because they're particularly interested in *that* book rather they grab books that are free and like squirrels hide them away for a rainy day.  They may never read them.

This is somewhat related to the very nice sales of Not Low Maintenance last spring.  Thousands of copies were sold at 99 cents.  I think it has 14 reviews.  You would think there would be more.  For 99 cents, they could download it with the intention of reading it sometime in the future.  I have books on the Nook that I'll read someday, I can't imagine why I'm so different in that regard from other people.  If the book cost $2.99 or more, I think that's a big incentive to get your money's worth and read the thing.

So I'm saying higher prices probably make better sense/cents all around.

You're probably saying "This woman doesn't make any sense.  She says freebies don't work and she's putting books up for free."

I do write as a professional.  When I gave up being a photographer, I stopped being a professional.  These are photos that for one reason or another aren't appropriate for stock photo sales but they are still attractive and I'd like people to see them.  It doesn't cost me anything to publish them, I already have them in the camera, an investment in a couple hours of formatting is better than playing Boggle.  That's the explanation.