# Kidtastic Children's Book Giveaway (April 5-9, 2015)--Win a New 3DS XL!



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

Teaser:










Promo:










Promo Page:

http://segordon.blogspot.com/2015/04/scott-gordon-and-friends-kidtastic.html

Due to the overwhelming success of the Multi-Author Promo Experiment and positive feedback from the reader community, I am formally announcing the next big children's book giveaway, to be held April 5th, 2015 - April 9th, 2015. I received confirmation from BookBub this afternoon and will be locking up additional promotional services in the next few days. All children's book authors are welcome to participate.

FREE CHILDREN'S BOOKS
[list type=decimal]
[*]Pigtastic by Scott Gordon
[*]The Pig Princess by Angela Muse
[*]Monster Ruzz has to go to the dentist by Sarah Holmlund
[*]Three Wee Peas by Laura Yirak
[*]The Many Nibbles of Mr. Giggles by Laura Yirak
[*]Puppy Come Home by Laura Yirak
[*]How Oakley Lost His Spots by D.C. Swain
[*]How Far Will It Fly?: (My Yellow Kite) by D.C. Swain
[*]How Andrew Got His Spots
[*]Things You Might See on an African Safari: A Counting Journey Through Africa by Louise Lintvelt
[*]Things You Might See Swimming Under the Sea: A colourful underwater adventure by Louse Lintvelt
[*]The Fisherman's Son by Marilyn Peake
[*]Alphabet All-Stars: Animal Flashcards by Scott Gordon
[*]The Snarls: A Hair Combing Story by Becca Price
[*]Sharee by Daria Aran
[*]Curse of the Creeper Part 1: Minecraft Books for Kids (Unofficial) by Daniel Ashley
[*]Ming Li and the Charmed Phoenix by Marina Bonomi
[*]Bheki and the Magic Light by Janet Hurst-Nicholson
[*]Where Do Ghosts Go When They're Not Spooking and Scaring? by Alira Bell
[*]Quick, Quick, I Feel Sick! by Allira Bell
[*]Pumper the Pumpkin by Tiffany Turner
[*]How My Farts Made Me Famous! by Max Hinky
[*]Game On Boys! The PlayStation Play-offs: A Hilarious adventure for children 9-12 with illustrations by Kate Cullen
[*]The Search for the Sheriff's Star: A Lost Bookshop Adventure by Adam Maxwell
[*]Baby Blue by Scott Gordon
[*]Eggtastic by Scott Gordon
[*]Quien Quiere Ser Un Robot por Scott Gordon (Spanish)
[*]Cuori Sani e Felici di Scott Gordon (Bilingual Italian and English)
[/list]
GREAT BOOKS FOR 99 CENTS
[list type=decimal]
[*]My Crazy Pet Frog by Scott Gordon
[*]The Emerald Quest: A Noah Winter Adventure by Renee Pawlish
[*]Cooper's Smile by Jerri Kay Lincoln
[/list]
*Cinisajoy has also graciously offered to review our books!

*The Plan*

Inside, I will include a "Special Gift" page at the end of each of my free books with links to all other free books during the promotion + a "Great Books for 99 Cents" section. I will repeat this information in an e-mail to my mailing list and on my blog. Last but not least, I'll tweet about it and post it on Facebook as well.

Please keep in mind that this promotion is for children's picture books. If you would like to submit a chapter book, that's fine as long as it is a children's book, not young adult, romance or other adult-oriented genres.

*Raffles*

In addition to free downloads, I will also be giving away physical books and more! The grand prize is a 3DS XL + the game of your choice + Amiibo of your choice (see below).

*Schedule*

3/29/15: Send giveaway teaser to mailing list (didn't actually do this, but the teaser has been live on my blog for about 3 weeks)

4/2/15: Send authors the Rafflecopter link (two days late, but it's finally up.

4/3/15 - 4/4/15: Pre-promotional mention of 3DS Raffle with links in books (got behind but caught up by miday 4/4)

4/5/15: The BIG day!

Promotional blitz:

BookBub (scheduled)
BK Nights
*Note: Remind Cinisajoy to download the free books. (Reminded)

4/6/15 - 4/8/15: The free giveaway continues...

4/9/15: Last day of giveaway, the "Special Gift" section gets pulled late Sunday evening.

Late promotional blitz:

BookSends (scheduled)
BK Nights (Fiverr) (scheduled)
ENT through Rennee Pawlish (her backmatter will point to this promotion)

4/10/15: Back to 99 cents + additional advertising by BK Nights to help maintain its ranking (scheduled). Raffle winners announced.

*Twitter Hashtag*

#kidtastic
#kidtasticgiveaway

*Facebook Promotion (Groups and Pages)*

All Things Books
Awesome Free Kindle Books
Children's E-book Club
Free Digital Reads
Free E-books for Kindle, Nook and More
Free Kindle Books
FREE Kindle Books
Free Kindle Books (Updated Daily)
Get Free Ebooks
Kindle Freebies
Kindle Unlimited
Self Publishers and Publishers Advertising Club
With Your Coffee
Free Today on Kindle & Beyond
Scott Gordon Author Page
*If you will be using a Facebook page to promote (aside from your wall), PM me the link and I'll add it to the list.

*What I Need From You*
[list type=decimal]
[*]I would like to keep the free titles a secret this time around. If you'd like to participate, please don't list them here. Just PM me the link to your title, and if you're using Smashwords, I'll also need the coupon code.
[*]The dates your book is free. This is really important since I'll be advertising your books in the backmatter of mine. Changing the backmatter promotion can be a logistical nightmare if something is listed for free and really isn't. Please don't make me pull the ad for your book!
[*]Make sure that the book's artwork is properly credited. Remember, Sarah Holmlund, one of the contributing authors, is also an artist whose work is featured in my books. Imagine how she would feel if she discovered that I didn't mention her. Most likely, she'd tell Amazon and they'd pull my book. That's the last thing I want to happen to you, so if you get your artwork from a free site, _make sure that it's really free_. Even if the artwork is in the public domain, you should credit the artist.
[*]Links to your blog, Amazon author page, Twitter, Facebook page, or any other forms of social media
[*]Please also let me know of any promotional support that you're planning to do (like notify your mailing list, etc.) in case we need to coordinate anything.
[/list]
More to come soon...

*99-cent Section*

I will be adding a 99-cent section to the promotion. It makes sense for an author to offer a free book and another for 99 cents rather than two freebies. An additional promotional page/section will be added, separating it from the freebies section.

*Terms and Prizes*

This raffle is for children 12 or younger and expecting mothers. By submitting your name, you are confirming that you are eligible to the receive a prize if your name is drawn. International children are welcome to participate provided they have a reliable address that can receive packages. Not responsible for items lost in the mail.

And most importantly--NO CHEATING!

Please do not enter more than once or your entry will be invalidated.

Grand Prize

(1) New 3DS XL ($199.99 or less), color of your choice (black or red) +
(1) 3DS game of your choice (up to a $39.99 value) +
(1) Amiibo of your choice (up to a $14.99 value)

Additional Prizes

Win one of Louise Lintvelt's fabulous children's books:


Goodnight, Sleep Tight: What a Wonderful Flight
Sing-Along Construction Song
How Andrew Got His Spots
Entries will be accepted from April 5-9. The drawing will take place on April 10th, and the winners will be announced shortly afterwards.

Children's Book Prizes: I may add additional prizes as the giveaway goes on (Confirmed: Angela Muse, Becca Price, Jan Hurst-Nicholson, _*Louise Lintvelt*_)

*Rafflecopter Embed Code*


```
<a class="rcptr" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/a2dce6051/" rel="nofollow" data-raflid="a2dce6051" data-theme="classic" data-template="" id="rcwidget_szj0ja9g">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="//widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
```
Official entry form: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/a2dce6051/

If there are issues, please let me know.


----------



## Louise Lintvelt (Jan 10, 2015)

I'm in! Will email you the title.

My numbers for the last run: 939 downloads, 4ku borrows and 2 new reviews...pretty awesome. 

Thans again


----------



## DC Swain (Feb 24, 2013)

I'm in - will put out a new release to coincide


----------



## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

I'm in for one free and one 0.99 book. 

I got better numbers and better also-boughts from your promotion than I did from my own bookbub! I'm not getting any buy-through on my other books, though, which is a tad disappointing - I hope it's just delayed a bit. I am seeing something of an uptick on borrows, but not enough to make a real difference.

alas, my latest effort won't be quite ready to be included in this unless I really put the screws on my artists and cover artist.


----------



## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Very cool! I PM'd you.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

Thanks, all!

Here's the second part of Sarah Holmlund's message that I'm sharing with you now:



> I know I have said it like a million times but again - Thank you Scott! You have really done something wonderful for a lot of authors (and all the readers of course). If you are ever doing this again I would really like to participate. It would be fun to have like a special gift to be able to give away to the readers if we do this again. I'm not sure what but _*maybe some coloring pages and desktop wallpapers*_ with images from the books or maybe a video version of the book. _*Maybe we could have a contest where you have to find a special page inside one of the books and get a code. The first one to find the code will win something. That way they have to download the books and the kids hopefully think it's fun to go on a "treasure hunt" to find the code.*_ This would of course require some planning but it could be a lot of fun also.


I love Sarah's treasure hunt idea. I was also thinking of having an art contest or having readers answer a question on a special page towards the end of the book. For instance, in my book A Little Book About You, I could ask, "What makes you special?" with a link to a form on my blog or website. We could share all of the responses and randomly select the winner. (Subjectively picking a winner might take too long.)

As for prizes, it would make the most sense to give away a Kindle Fire, but I don't think that would excite kids as much as a 3DS or Wii U. Is it a bad idea to push the winner towards videogames? They're going to play videogames anyways, regardless of anything we do. But this could be the catalyst that gets them reading.

I'm not sure. So many possibilities...


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

> I'm not a children's author, but as one of the people on this forum who was most recently a child (I'm 23, and still very much 13 at heart), I feel the need to tell you that a 3DS would be the best prize EVER. They're going to play video games anyway, and as games go, the ones for 3DS tend to be a) lacking in mindless violence and b) fun for all ages (up to and including 23...). Also, kids who read a lot tend to be the most avid DS players. I have five cousins who still fall into the 'kid' age bracket; of these, the three who had read all the Harry Potter books by the time they were seven are the ones who play with their DSs (old ones, not 3DSs, and they would all kill for 3DSs) most (and are always super excited to play Mario Kart against me because they know they'll win), and the two who don't have much interest in reading do have DSs lying around somewhere but barely use them. I don't think a kindle fire is a good kiddie prize; a 3DS, however, will have kids going wild.


Fantastic information. Thanks for the response!

There's an all new 3DS that came out last month. One package includes a game (I think it's the Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask) and three Amibo figures. Ugh! Where did I see that?

EDIT: Oh no! This is the one I was thinking of, but it's not available:

http://www.gamestop.com/nintendo-3ds/consoles/nintendo-new-3ds-xl-majoras-mask-complete-zelda-bundle/120653

EDIT #2: I also think we should open this up internationally and avoid making it a U.S. prize.


----------



## 4eyesbooks (Jan 9, 2012)

Emailing my info now.  So excited!  There is also a kids kindle fire, but I do agree that kids love video games as well.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

I'm assuming 4/9 is the 9th of April (it would be 4th of September in many countries   )I'd like to be in again with my chapter books, but I'm in Select so will have to wait 90 days before doing the same books for free, but I do have another children's chapter book I can use, so count me in.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

> I'm assuming 4/9 is the 9th of April (it would be 4th of September in many countries  )I'd like to be in again with my chapter books, but I'm in Select so will have to wait 90 days before doing the same books for free, but I do have another children's chapter book I can use, so count me in.


Oh crap! I totally forgot about that. Yes, It's from April 9th - 13th, 2015. I will be careful not to confuse international customers.

For the grand prize, I think we should do this:

1 New 3DS XL (the model that just got released last month), the color of your choice
1 3DS game of your choice (up to a $39.99 value)
1 Amiibo of your choice (as long as it's available in Amazon's store)

I will pay international shipping costs, so any child in the world can participate.

Also, I don't mind paying for the grand prize. If any of you would like to give away copies of your print books, that would be great. There will also be an Amazon gift card ($25).

EDIT: Oh, yes. I'm trying to get in touch with Michael Yu to see if he would like to be part of the promotion. Angela Muse is also recruiting Laura Yirak for the promotion. Exciting stuff!


----------



## Deke (May 18, 2013)

I don't quite understand.  You will be listing other titles in the back of your book, then  promoting your book via bookbub and other outlets? Is that what you're proposing?


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

> I don't quite understand. You will be listing other titles in the back of your book, then promoting your book via bookbub and other outlets? Is that what you're proposing?


BookBub will be promoting one of my children's picture books on April 9, 2015. The slot is confirmed and good to go. To help other authors take advantage of my traffic, I will be advertising their books in the backmatter of mine. I will also create a blog post that includes their information and promote on Facebook, Twitter and wherever else I can.

To get a better understanding of what we did in our last Multi-Author Promo Experiment, please refer to the following thread:

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,209069.0.html

EDIT: Of course, this time around I'll be giving away prizes.


----------



## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

I'd be happy to donate a print copy of my fairy tale coloring book.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

> I'd be happy to donate a print copy of my fairy tale coloring book.


Great, I'll add you to the list.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

I can donate a print copy of _Leon Chameleon PI and the case of the kidnapped mouse._


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

> I can donate a print copy of Leon Chameleon PI and the case of the kidnapped mouse.


Awesome!


----------



## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

Donald this is so generous of you.  Like many other authors I can't participate - I used my 5 days of free for the last promo.  If you do decide to have $.99 books included, please let us know.  I'd be glad to donate one of each of my paperback children's books.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

A big thank you goes out to Louise Lintvelt, who has generously offered multiple print copies of her books for this promotion!


----------



## reneepawlish (Nov 14, 2011)

Thanks so much for including me, you are so kind and generous to do so!


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

Ok, time for an update!

I went back and forth with Angela Muse and she suggested #kidtasticgiveaway for our Twitter hashtag. I love it. Problem solved! Since one of the books I'll be giving away is Eggtastic, it fits the promotion well.

It also looks like getting my son's school involved in the promotion is a no-go. I talked to the assistant principal, had my information forwarded on to the principal, and then nothing. That's ok, perhaps in the future.

As for the Nintendo 3DS raffle, it looks like I'll use Rafflecopter to draw the winners. I haven't used it before, so I need to put together a test before the entry form goes live.

Speaking of which, I'll add a link to the form at the end of my books along with the backmatter promotion. Anyone who wants to put the link in their books may do so as well. The link will go to the entry form on either my blog or website. I may also add a script ensure that the entry form traffic only comes from certain sources. Still pondering this...

I hope everyone is doing well and is excited about the upcoming promotion.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Sounds good. Let us know what you want us to do.


----------



## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

Could you remind me of which two books I said I'd contrubute? I firget, and I want to make sure to set up thright onrd for the deal.

Becca


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

> Could you remind me of which two books I said I'd contrubute? I firget, and I want to make sure to set up thright onrd for the deal.
> 
> Becca


Just PM'd you.

Also, based on Wayne Stinnett's advice in regard to pre-promotional ranking, I'm thinking of announcing the free books a few days early along with the mention that readers can begin signing up for the raffle with the link provided in the back of each book. Since Kindle Unlimited readers can already download the books for free, I think we'll see a nice bump from the "convenience" early raffle period (you shouldn't lose any sales because of this; quite the opposite). Everyone who would like to place a link to the raffle entry in the back of their books, please let me know (feel free to comment in this thread) and I'll add you to the pre-promotion.


----------



## reneepawlish (Nov 14, 2011)

I'll be glad to add a link to the back of my book.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

Great! I will send the link on 4/5, the Sunday before the promotion.


----------



## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

If you could send me the whole thing, I'll copy/paste it into my mailing list, and I'll also put a link to your blog entry on my web site.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Donald Rump said:


> Great! I will send the link on 4/5, the Sunday before the promotion.


Do you want the links to the books we'll be using in the promotion?


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

> Do you want the links to the books we'll be using in the promotion?


If you've already sent them to me, then no.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Donald Rump said:


> If you've already sent them to me, then no.


I can't use the previous ones because I've used up my Select free days. I'll p.m. you the link to the other book.


----------



## 4eyesbooks (Jan 9, 2012)

I'll add the link to my book for the pre-promotion.  It's getting close to our kidtastic giveaway!


----------



## kccasey (Mar 26, 2015)

I'm new to this group. It came with a recommendation, but I would love to be part of this promotion if at all possible with a free book.
I have a short illustrated chapter book for 8-12 year olds that sounds exactly like this competition. The main plot line revolves around a competition at school with a PlayStation game as the main prize, but in actual fact someone wins a PlayStation in the story. The driving force behind this story was to get young children (in particular, boys) to start to enjoy reading alongside their video games.
How do I send link, through here, or separate email.
thankyou


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

Hey all,

There was a miscommunication between myself and BookBub and the promotion actually runs from April 5th - April 9th. I'm sorry if this messes everyone up. I will revise the lead post and try to contact everyone individually. Again, sorry for the error.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Donald Rump said:


> Hey all,
> 
> There was a miscommunication between myself and BookBub and the promotion actually runs from April 5th - April 9th. I'm sorry if this messes everyone up. I will revise the lead post and try to contact everyone individually. Again, sorry for the error.


For some reason Amazon wouldn't let me set the free date that far ahead, so I haven't done it yet.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

Yeah, I can't officially go in and schedule the promotion in KDP until April 1st. It's quite annoying.


----------



## Mandy (Dec 27, 2009)

Where can I sign up for this newsletter? I've got two children who are dedicated readers and are just starting to add ebooks to their own Kindles. And they LOVE writing reviews!


----------



## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Just following this thread.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

> Where can I sign up for this newsletter? I've got two children who are dedicated readers and are just starting to add ebooks to their own Kindles. And they LOVE writing reviews!


Thanks for the interest.

I will be announcing the free books in this thread and also on my blog, which you can find here:

http://segordon.blogspot.com

Also, here's the link to my mailing list:

http://eepurl.com/TFW3r


----------



## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Thanks so much for mentioning the three books in my series of *The Fisherman's Son* in the back of your book! I'd also be happy to donate a paperback set of all three books in that series, if you're still taking contributions.


----------



## TiffanyTurner (Jun 8, 2009)

I'd love to do another promo. I think I learned from the last one, and I'd like to promote my only picture book. It's in Kindle Select, and might do better since I can use a free promo day. I've set up April 5 through 9 as free days for it. Love to see how it does. I can PM you the info Donald.
-Tiff


----------



## DC Swain (Feb 24, 2013)

Bumping this thread as a reminder to everyone to double check your promo dates (i.e. don't be like me last time )

Good luck to everyone - hoping we see some big numbers


----------



## A.A (Mar 30, 2012)

I'll sign up again 

I'm going to have to try bookbub at some point to promote my kids books. Although, I need to do something about linking them together. I did mine in the comic creator and you can't do links.
I'll need to go and check that I definitely do have those dates available, but am sure I do. I haven't done any freebie promotions for ages with them.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

> I'll sign up again
> 
> I'm going to have to try bookbub at some point to promote my kids books. Although, I need to do something about linking them together. I did mine in the comic creator and you can't do links. I'll need to go and check that I definitely do have those dates available, but am sure I do. I haven't done any freebie promotions for ages with them.


Great!

That is interesting about Comic Creator. I create all of my books from scratch to avoid these types of problems. I also have developed a command line tool called Halcyon that can render the source files for me. Helps cut out about an hour of development time.



> Bumping this thread as a reminder to everyone to double check your promo dates (i.e. don't be like me last time )
> 
> Good luck to everyone - hoping we see some big numbers


This is actually the first time I've screwed up the dates. I'm still not sure how I did it--especially with a promotion of this magnitude--but thank God for BookBub's reminder!



> I'd love to do another promo. I think I learned from the last one, and I'd like to promote my only picture book. It's in Kindle Select, and might do better since I can use a free promo day. I've set up April 5 through 9 as free days for it. Love to see how it does. I can PM you the info Donald.
> -Tiff


Good stuff. I've got you added to the list.

As for the books that authors would like to be raffled off, I'm not sure the best way to do this. Should I say that there are mystery children's books or should I reveal the actual titles that one can win? Should everyone mail their books to me and I'll send them off or should authors mail them directly to the winners? (This can get quite expensive and time consuming depending on the number I receive.) Also, do we want to give away so many prizes or give some of these away for the next promotion? Should we limit the number of children's books that we'll give away for this promotion?

These are some of the questions swirling around my head. Any ideas?


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

What about limiting the number to give away, and then allowing the winners to choose which books they would like? I think it would be easier and quicker if we send the books to the winners instead of doubling the chance of them getting lost in the post by sending to you first.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

KDP still won't let me do the promotion yet. Looks like I will have to wait until about 3rd April in order to do it from 5 - 9th. 

I'll be doing the FREE promotional run on _Bheki and the Magic Light._

I will be offering a print copy of _Leon Chameleon PI and the case of the kidnapped mouse_ as a prize.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

> What about limiting the number to give away, and then allowing the winners to choose which books they would like? I think it would be easier and quicker if we send the books to the winners instead of doubling the chance of them getting lost in the post by sending to you first.


I think this is a great idea!

How many should we give away for this promotion? 5? 10?

Also, I would be happy to reimburse authors for the shipping cost if they're sending the prize directly to the winner.

EDIT: Also, I'm going to build a tool for us so that we can easily render EPUBs and MOBIs and insert our promotions into them. I will purchase a domain and build the interface after this promotion has concluded. I'm planning to use Host Gator for the site:

http://www.hostgator.com/shared-compare


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Donald Rump said:


> I think this is a great idea!
> 
> How many should we give away for this promotion? 5? 10?
> 
> ...


I think five would be a good number. But see what everyone else thinks.


----------



## 4eyesbooks (Jan 9, 2012)

This tool you are talking about sounds cool.  How would it work?  I'm assuming we have to start with a .pdf file or something to get the .mobi file output.  After the issues I just had with Kindle Comic Creator this could be a huge help.


----------



## DC Swain (Feb 24, 2013)

Apologies Donald, some thread hi-jacking about to go on  (but this is REALLY important for kids book authors)



A.A said:


> Although, I need to do something about linking them together. I did mine in the comic creator and you can't do links.


I was having this same issue too, and it was my single biggest gripe about using KCC.

That was until I stumbled onto this little tip on another forum - use the Kindle Kids Book Creator, instead of the Comic Creator.

Import your pages the same way as you would into the CC, but then use the "add text" button to enter where you want your hyperlinks to be. Right click on the box to remove the "pop-up" function. Turn on html view and enter your hyperlink coding.

That probably sounds confusing, so here are the steps I copied from the other forum:

_1 click [Add Text] and enter your text
2 From the View menu check "HTML View"
3 An HTML tab appears next to the "Design" tab
4 click HTML tab
5 Don't Panic but be very careful!
6 find your text in black. Find the specific word(s) you wish to make a link.
7 wrap them in an "a" tag. It will look something like (Click here to view)
8 In the Design view confirm the text is now a blue link.
9 Click Book Preview > Create Book Preview and test your link

If it does not work. Check your href and tag syntax. Or it may be because the text is using the popup feature. Personally I would remove the popup, otherwise it may only work in the popup - a weird experience.

To delete a popup (you can always restore it)
1 right click on the grey number box on the top/left corner of your page text box
2 click "Delete Pop-up" and confirm "yes"
3 now test the link again._

If you have any questions on this - let me know. All picture book authors everywhere need to know how to do this, so we can leverage off of permafrees etc. Since I started using it, I am seeing a big pick up in sales, plus I use bitly links, so I can track how many click throughs I'm getting.

Hope that helps. 

_Disengaging thread hijack_


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

As you know, I'm already using a command line tool to render the source files for my children's books. The need arose after I passed 150 books and needed a way to replace some of the awful legacy code from my earlier works, manage my backmatter ads, and create an easy way to add/remove promotions. The program is written in PHP, so moving it over to a web platform is fairly straightforward. I just need to build the interface and rethink the code (i.e., put the information into a database).

How it works will be like this:

You log in to the system
Create a new book
Fill in all of the relevant fields
Upload your files
Cut and paste any text you have into the dialog boxes (it's also possible to import from a text or Word doc--some coding needs to be done in this regard)
Choose which ads you want to include
Choose the formats that you want to create (right now I'm just creating MOBI and EPUB files)
And render the files

Headache free e-book creation, at least that's the goal.

Basically, I've distilled the most important information that goes into a children's picture book. As long as your templates are set up (they're very simple right now), you can quickly and easily render everything that you need, including Table of Contents (created automatically), content.opf (a pain!) and toc.ncx (less of a pain, but still a pain) files. Basically, I've taken something that's a mild annoyance and made it rather simple and fun.

Once the web interface is created, I can imagine many more uses for it.

Oh, but why are you wasting your time? Should you just use Scrivener?

Scrivener is a great tool, but this is far more specialized, lightweight, and geared towards children's books.


----------



## TiffanyTurner (Jun 8, 2009)

Hi Donald,
I got a PM message that you got my book info. Did I make the cut? Or did I get things to you too late? 
I didn't see my name on the list of authors on your blog. Just curious if I got in or not.
I really wanted to promote my picture book. It could use it.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

> Did I make the cut?


Ha ha.

Yes, I added you to the list.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Is anyone else having a problem scheduling the dates for the promotion? KDP won't let me start until the day before the promotion if I want to use the five days. I've tried it with my other books and there doesn't seem to be a problem - only with Bheki?


----------



## 4eyesbooks (Jan 9, 2012)

I tried the kindle kids book creator when it came out and the result was a larger .mobi file which would not allow me to discount price to $.99.  Has this changed?  Might have to try it again.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Hi Donald,
What is the link to the page with the free books so that we can begin advertising?


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

I'm behind at the moment. Will catch up ASAP!


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Donald Rump said:


> I'm behind at the moment. Will catch up ASAP!


Thanks. I've had to set my free promo for 5-7 th and then will edit it to the 9th. I've contacted KDP to ask why I have this problem.


----------



## TiffanyTurner (Jun 8, 2009)

Donald Rump said:


> Ha ha.
> 
> Yes, I added you to the list.


Cool. I'll start getting things ready to post on the weekend. I have a giveaway going on for my middle grade novel that should wrap up when this starts. Hoping this will boost the picture book giveaway. ;-)


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

Ok, I've got all of the children's books in HTML format and ready to be included in the backmatter of my e-books. I still need to add a few images and test the Rafflecopter promotion, so I'm not quite ready to show off the promotion; however, I will announce our diverse list of titles:










FREE CHILDREN'S BOOKS
[list type=decimal]
[*]Pigtastic by Scott Gordon
[*]Eggtastic by Scott Gordon
[*]The Pig Princess by Angela Muse
[*]Monster Ruzz has to go to the dentist by Sarah Holmlund
[*]Puppy Come Home by Laura Yirak
[*]How Far Will It Fly?: (My Yellow Kite) by D.C. Swain
[*]Things You Might See on an African Safari: A Counting Journey Through Africa by Louise Lintvelt
[*]Things You Might See Swimming Under the Sea: A colourful underwater adventure by Louse Lintvelt
[*]Alphabet All-Stars: Animal Flashcards by Scott Gordon
[*]The Fisherman's Son by Marilyn Peake
[*]The Snarls: A Hair Combing Story by Becca Price
[*]Sharee by Daria Aran
[*]Curse of the Creeper Part 1: Minecraft Books for Kids (Unofficial) by Daniel Ashley
[*]Ming Li and the Charmed Phoenix by Marina Bonomi
[*]Bheki and the Magic Light by Janet Hurst-Nicholson
[*]Where Do Ghosts Go When They're Not Spooking and Scaring? by Alira Bell
[*]Quick, Quick, I Feel Sick! by Allira Bell
[*]Pumper the Pumpkin by Tiffany Turner
[*]How My Farts Made Me Famous! by Max Hinky
[*]Game On Boys! The PlayStation Play-offs: A Hilarious adventure for children 9-12 with illustrations by Kate Cullen
[*]The Search for the Sheriff's Star: A Lost Bookshop Adventure by Adam Maxwell
[*]Quien Quiere Ser Un Robot por Scott Gordon (Spanish)
[*]Cuori Sani e Felici di Scott Gordon (Bilingual Italian and English)
[/list]
GREAT BOOKS FOR 99 CENTS
[list type=decimal]
[*]My Crazy Pet Frog by Scott Gordon
[*]The Emerald Quest: A Noah Winter Adventure by Renee Pawlish
[*]Cooper's Smile by Jerri Kay Lincoln
[/list]

Please note that text link(s) are provided for all authors who have a free book and a 99-cent book. I was thinking of also including this information in the 99-cent section, but the page got ridiculously long, so I included full description and images for only those authors with a 99-cent book but no free books. I also spread my titles throughout the page to ensure that my readers will keep scrolling to the end of the page.

If you submitted a book but do not see it listed, _*contact me immediately!*_

UPDATE: Halcyon just successfully rendered the promo in the children's book. Not long now...

UPDATE #2: Pigtastic and Eggtastic with the new backmatter promotions have been submitted to Amazon. Next, the blog...

UPDATE #3: The blog is up to date. We're good!

URL: http://segordon.blogspot.com/2015/04/scott-gordon-and-friends-kidtastic.html


----------



## reneepawlish (Nov 14, 2011)

I'm sending an email to my list (over 2,000) on Monday, promoting this. Not sure how much it will help, but it's worth a try 
Best of luck to everyone with this promo, and thanks for including me!


----------



## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Hi, Donald,

Two of my books are missing. In addition to *The Fisherman's Son* being free for the promotion, I'm reducing the other two books in the series to 99 cents each. The 99-cent books are:

*The City of the Golden Sun*:
http://www.amazon.com/City-Golden-Sun-Fishermans-Book-ebook/dp/B004U2AGIU/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1428220809&sr=1-6&keywords=marilyn%20peake&tag=viglink20273-20

and

*Return of the Golden Age*:
http://www.amazon.com/Return-Golden-Age-Fishermans-Book-ebook/dp/B004YQCNLK/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Thanks!


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Thanks for the link. I'll start Tweeting and Facebooking as soon as the books show up as free.  Are we using the hashtag #kidtastic ?


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

I've used my Bheki Book Bazaar thread to advertise the promo.

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,112110.0.html

Are we going to change the title of this thread to advertise the promo?


----------



## A.A (Mar 30, 2012)

I'll start promoting once mine go free. I tried to schedule mine late night on the 4th and the earliest date I could have was the 6th. (I'm in Australia.)

I just found a time zone converter site, and midnight on the 5th of April for us (in Sydney) is 10am on the 5th of April in Washington DC: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converted.html?iso=20150406T00&p1=240&p2=263

So hopefully there won't be too much lag as you wouldn't expect people to be up and about downloading kids books very early Easter Sunday morning?


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

> Hi, Donald,
> 
> Two of my books are missing. In addition to The Fisherman's Son being free for the promotion, I'm reducing the other two books in the series to 99 cents each. The 99-cent books are:
> 
> ...


Hi Marliyn. I PM'd you the information as well, but your other books are in there as text links. Please check the product description again.



> Thanks for the link. I'll start Tweeting and Facebooking as soon as the books show up as free.  Are we using the hashtag #kidtastic ?


I had planned on using #kidtasticgiveaway, but perhaps that's too long. We could also use #kidtastic.



> I've used my Bheki Book Bazaar thread to advertise the promo.
> 
> http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,112110.0.html
> 
> Are we going to change the title of this thread to advertise the promo?


That might be a good idea...


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

If anyone is wondering why the promo for my book finishes on the 7th and not the 9th this is the reason.

_The reason why it is not possible to set it up for the dates from April 05th to April 09th it is because the current KDP Select term ends on April 07.

Although the auto-renew option for your KDP Select enrollment is enabled, it will be on April 08 that this will happen, and it takes 24 hours for the system to credit your account with new promotional days.

Once the current period auto-renews, and because promotions need to be scheduled at least 24 hours prior its desired start date, it will be possible to schedule a Free promotion starting on April 10th the earliest._

Might be worth noting for when you schedule a freebie in Select.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Made it to #1 already  

#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Science, Nature & How It Works > Physics


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

Fantastic! And BookBub hasn't even kicked in yet!

I just promoted on the Facebook groups, now on to e-mailing my mailing list... (The work never ends...)

EDIT: E-mail sent to mailing list!

EDIT #2: Ok everyone, it's beginning. Already up to 660 free downloads of Pigtastic!

EDIT #3: Five people have entered the contest, 949 free downloads of Pigtastic!

EDIT #4: Are we all good? If not, please PM me any concerns you have. Communication is key to making this a successful promotion for everyone!

EDIT #5: I'm up to 2,000+ free downloads of Pigtastic already. Is anyone else seeing a bump yet?


----------



## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Good morning.  Bump, bump, bump.  Now I am off to read.


----------



## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

You forgot Heart of Rock for 0.99


Heart of Rock
(ASIN: B00JK532WO)


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

Heart of Rock wasn't forgotten. A text link is provided just under The Snarls.

Please also refer to this snippet a few posts back:



> Please note that text link(s) are provided for all authors who have a free book and a 99-cent book. I was thinking of also including this information in the 99-cent section, but the page got ridiculously long, so I included full description and images for only those authors with a 99-cent book but no free books. I also spread my titles throughout the page to ensure that my readers will keep scrolling to the end of the page.
> 
> If you submitted a book but do not see it listed, _*contact me immediately!*_


----------



## Seleya (Feb 25, 2011)

Got my first download ever from Japan...


----------



## Louise Lintvelt (Jan 10, 2015)

All good here, sent to my mailing list, posted on my facebook page and shared on twitter...have a good feeling about this one. Good luck everyone!


----------



## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

Donald Rump said:


> Heart of Rock wasn't forgotten. A text link is provided just under The Snarls.
> 
> Please also refer to this snippet a few posts back:


Sorry I missed it - I was looking for it in with the other .99 books. Thanks for reassuring me.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

I'm hoping to get my first Amazon review for Bheki. Got a couple on Goodreads, but none on Amazon - and the book was first published by Penguin! 

Hope everyone does well. 

Don't forget to tweet and retweet.


----------



## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Donald Rump said:


> Hi Marliyn. I PM'd you the information as well, but your other books are in there as text links. Please check the product description again.


Thanks so much, Donald! That's awesome!  I'm already seeing free downloads and a few sales on my 99-cent books. Here are my ranks so far for my free book, *The Fisherman's Son*:

*Amazon Best Sellers Rank:* #4,319 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#27 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Science Fiction, Fantasy & Scary Stories > Fantasy & Magic > Sword & Sorcery
#71 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age

Makes me very happy. You're the best!


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

I've managed to hit the top #100 in another category  . Poor Bheki has been ignored in the past, so it's pleasing to see some notice taken - just hope somebody actually reads it! 

#7,056 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Science, Nature & How It Works > Physics
#8 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Children's Nonfiction > Science, Nature & How It Works


----------



## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> I've managed to hit the top #100 in another category . Poor Bheki has been ignored in the past, so it's pleasing to see some notice taken - just hope somebody actually reads it!
> 
> #7,056 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
> #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Science, Nature & How It Works > Physics
> #8 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Children's Nonfiction > Science, Nature & How It Works


Very exciting! I picked up *Bheki and the Magic Light* and a whole lot of other books in the promotion.


----------



## TiffanyTurner (Jun 8, 2009)

Good results so far! Ranked 4,786 in the Free Kindle Store. #1 for children's Halloween books. I'd say this works the best when you are in Kindle Select and can do free days. Have learned my lesson. KDP says I've had 25 downloads so far. What a fabulous Easter surprise!
I'm hoping for some better reviews now to help this book.

And there is still a few more days to go. I love the $0.99 book mention for The Lost Secret of Fairies. Thank you. I also have a giveaway for The Lost Secret of Fairies. Hopefully, the cross promotion will help with both books.


----------



## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Jan,
So sorry.  Had to do some shopping today.  Bheki is not being ignored.


----------



## Seleya (Feb 25, 2011)

Very exciting  :

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,016 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Geography & Cultures > Explore the World > Asia
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Geography & Cultures > Explore the World > Fiction > Asia

Ming Li and the Charmed Phoenix got 30 downloads up to now... fingers crossed hoping for reviews.


----------



## DC Swain (Feb 24, 2013)

Very happy with my downloads so far.

I see Scott #1 and Louise #2 overall in the free Children's Book list - Well done guys


----------



## A.A (Mar 30, 2012)

Can't believe kdp's system for free days. I went to book my free days on the 4th, but KDP would only let me book for the 6th onwards.
It's late afternoon on the 6th in Australia but my books STILL aren't free in the com.au store, and they're STILL not free in the .com store, and I know it's early morning on the 6th in the US.
Unless they're free and I just can't see it because I'm in Australia??


----------



## TiffanyTurner (Jun 8, 2009)

A.A said:


> Can't believe kdp's system for free days. I went to book my free days on the 4th, but KDP would only let me book for the 6th onwards.
> It's late afternoon on the 6th in Australia but my books STILL aren't free in the com.au store, and they're STILL not free in the .com store, and I know it's early morning on the 6th in the US.
> Unless they're free and I just can't see it because I'm in Australia??


I think the system only allows you to make it free a few days in advance. It's in the fine print somewhere. But if you check, it might have a pop up or something that says you have to schedule so much in advance. I'd say make it the first free day closest to the promo that you can.

Right now it's almost midnight in California. So, I'm about ready to go to bed. Hoping that might help for now. *yawn*


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Marilyn Peake said:


> Very exciting! I picked up *Bheki and the Magic Light* and a whole lot of other books in the promotion.


Thanks so much. 
Just checked again this morning and Bheki is a bit higher. Unfortunately I'm sleeping while most of the activity takes place  so I might have missed something. The book is both fiction and non-fiction, so it's a bit awkward to market.

#3,774 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Science, Nature & How It Works > Physics
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Children's Nonfiction > Science, Nature & How It Works


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

cinisajoy said:


> Jan,
> So sorry. Had to do some shopping today. Bheki is not being ignored.


Thanks


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

A.A said:


> Can't believe kdp's system for free days. I went to book my free days on the 4th, but KDP would only let me book for the 6th onwards.
> It's late afternoon on the 6th in Australia but my books STILL aren't free in the com.au store, and they're STILL not free in the .com store, and I know it's early morning on the 6th in the US.
> Unless they're free and I just can't see it because I'm in Australia??


I went to check on the AU site but of course couldn't see the price, but did see someone had left a review complaining that it was supposed to be free. That is such a pity  . 
I also got caught with the Select free days not being available from 5 - 9 th because the 8th is the end of my 90 days and although it's automatic renewal it takes 24 hrs to kick in, so I had to make mine from 5 - 7th.


----------



## A.A (Mar 30, 2012)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> I went to check on the AU site but of course couldn't see the price, but did see someone had left a review complaining that it was supposed to be free. That is such a pity  .
> I also got caught with the Select free days not being available from 5 - 9 th because the 8th is the end of my 90 days and although it's automatic renewal it takes 24 hrs to kick in, so I had to make mine from 5 - 7th.


I'd better hurry up and download yours then, as well as go download all the others.  Mine have gone free now. Am wondering if our change in hours had anything to do with the big delay. Daylight saving ended in my state and the clocks went back an hour. Yes shame about the one-star. It happens all the time that I see a book for free and when I go to the page, it's not free. I just leave without comment. But the reader's comment is still valid on my book. Oh well 

Have just tweeted and paid for a boosted post on facebook.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

> Yes shame about the one-star.


I commented on the one-star and explained the situation. I can delete it if you prefer.



> I see Scott #1 and Louise #2 overall in the free Children's Book list - Well done guys


Thanks. I can't take credit for Louise being at #2, though. She had a BookBub promotion of her own going the day before.



> Ming Li and the Charmed Phoenix got 30 downloads up to now... fingers crossed hoping for reviews.


I'm sure you'll do much better than that by the end of the promotion. BookSends and ENT (through Renee Pawlish) kicks in on the last day.



> Good results so far! Ranked 4,786 in the Free Kindle Store. #1 for children's Halloween books. I'd say this works the best when you are in Kindle Select and can do free days. Have learned my lesson. KDP says I've had 25 downloads so far. What a fabulous Easter surprise!
> I'm hoping for some better reviews now to help this book.
> 
> And there is still a few more days to go. I love the $0.99 book mention for The Lost Secret of Fairies. Thank you. I also have a giveaway for The Lost Secret of Fairies. Hopefully, the cross promotion will help with both books.


It's still early, so there's no telling where this will go. You should see some sales and more downloads, but every book is so different, it's hard to tell. I hope all of us get good reviews out of this, at very least.

BTW, the raffle is up to 70 entries. A bit lower than I projected, but still not bad. This is my first raffle so I'm still learning the ropes.


----------



## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

The Snarls is doing well:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,291 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)

    #6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Humorous
    #8 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Bedtime & Dreaming


but so far no love for Heart of Rock - only a few borrows, no sales.  Oh, well.


----------



## Seleya (Feb 25, 2011)

Out of curiosity, does anyone have downloads from Italy? I promoted the giveaway on my FB and on amazon.it and I wonder.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

Yes, one of each of my books have been downloaded in Italy. My bilingual English/Italian book has the most downloads there, but I'm not surprised.

Out of curiosity, how did you promote on amazon.it?

EDIT: BTW, I love the flags in your signature. That's the ideal way to sell multiple versions of a book.


----------



## Seleya (Feb 25, 2011)

Thank you!

On the kindle forum on .it there's a thread for free books, I posted the links there (with full disclaimer that one of the books was mine).

I love the flag option as well, sadly  don't remember what  did to set it up...


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

I'm seeing tons of our books in the Free Children's Book Top 100

#1 - Pigtastic (Scott Gordon)
#2 - How Andrew Got His Spots (Louise Lintvelt) (*Not from this promotion)
#37 - Things You Might See on an African Safari (Louise Lintvelt)
#50 - Curse of the Creeper, Part 1 (Daniel Ashley)
#56 - Eggtastic (Scott Gordon)
#67 - The Snarls (Becca Price)
#80 - The Fisherman's Son (Marilyn Peake)
#81 - Puppy Come Home (Laura Yirak)
#100 - Monster Ruzz has to go to the dentist (Sarah Holmlund)

There are two books that are free that should be added to this promotion, How Andrew Got His Spots (Louise Lintvelt) and Three Wee Peas (Laura Yirak). Are there any other free books that I might have forgotten?

I'm at work now, but I'll try to add them to the blog this evening.


----------



## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Off to pick up Andrew.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

Thanks, Cinisajoy.

But at the same time, Ugh! Here's another by Laura Yirak that I wasn't aware of that's free today and tomorrow:

http://www.amazon.com/Many-Nibbles-Mister-Gibbles-ebook/dp/B00VGWLN6Q/

EDIT: Here's the traffic that I've been seeing on my blog for the past 24 hours. Should we all be nervous that China is #2?

United States: 346
China: 36
South Africa: 17
Canada: 16
United Kingdom: 12
New Zealand: 8
Australia: 7
Italy: 7
Kenya: 7
Brazil: 2


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Donald Rump said:


> Thanks, Cinisajoy.
> 
> But at the same time, Ugh! Here's another by Laura Yirak that I wasn't aware of that's free today and tomorrow:
> 
> ...


South Africa 17 - great . I've been Facebooking and emailing to friends with grandchildren.


----------



## Louise Lintvelt (Jan 10, 2015)

Donald Rump said:


> BTW, the raffle is up to 70 entries. A bit lower than I projected, but still not bad. This is my first raffle so I'm still learning the ropes.


In previous book promo raffles I have done there was a definite mad rush towards the end, I think some people are superstitious and think that they stand a better chance if they enter towards the end of the raffle.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

> In previous book promo raffles I have done there was a definite mad rush towards the end, I think some people are superstitious and think that they stand a better chance if they enter towards the end of the raffle.


The end of this promotion is going to be VERY interesting, then, since BookSends and ENT kick in on the last day.


----------



## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

A.A said:


> I'd better hurry up and download yours then, as well as go download all the others.  Mine have gone free now. Am wondering if our change in hours had anything to do with the big delay. Daylight saving ended in my state and the clocks went back an hour. Yes shame about the one-star. It happens all the time that I see a book for free and when I go to the page, it's not free. I just leave without comment. But the reader's comment is still valid on my book. Oh well
> 
> Have just tweeted and paid for a boosted post on facebook.


You finally got a review that was owed to you. Sorry it took so long lol.

A A won a what does cin look like contest previously.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

Ok, I spoke with both Laura Yirak and Louise Lintvelt privately and got the end dates for each of their free promotions. I'm also going to set another book to free for tomorrow. If anyone else would like to add a free book this late in the game, just let me know. When I get home tonight, I'll add them to both my blog, the backmatter of the e-books AND send an all-new e-mail to my mailing list.

This second barrage of free books will do well to keep interest alive in our promotion. I may also change up the 99-cent section. We shall see...

It depends on how much time I have...

EDIT: The free book will be Baby Blue.


----------



## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Donald Rump said:


> I'm seeing tons of our books in the Free Children's Book Top 100
> 
> #1 - Pigtastic (Scott Gordon)
> #2 - How Andrew Got His Spots (Louise Lintvelt) (*Not from this promotion)
> ...


This promotion is awesome! Thank you so much for including us!


----------



## DC Swain (Feb 24, 2013)

Donald Rump said:


> Ok, I spoke with both Laura Yirak and Louise Lintvelt privately and got the end dates for each of their free promotions. I'm also going to set another book to free for tomorrow. If anyone else would like to add a free book this late in the game, just let me know. When I get home tonight, I'll add them to both my blog, the backmatter of the e-books AND send an all-new e-mail to my mailing list.
> 
> This second barrage of free books will do well to keep interest alive in our promotion. I may also change up the 99-cent section. We shall see...
> 
> ...


Messaged you with another one Scott


----------



## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Hey if anyone here puts another one free please message me so I can grab it.


----------



## DC Swain (Feb 24, 2013)

cinisajoy said:


> Hey if anyone here puts another one free please message me so I can grab it.


Messaging you now


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

The best review ever (Pigtastic):



> This is the complete review as it appears (http://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2015/04/pigtastic-by-scott-gordon.html) at my blog dedicated to reading, writing (no 'rithmatic!), movies, & TV</a>
> 
> Scott Gordon is a children's author who is well known for porking his nose into other people's funny business, so it's hardly surprising he's come out with this story of a friendly pig in a poking-fun kind of story - and right now 9as of this posting) it's free on Amazon in ebook form.
> 
> ...


UPDATE: Just left a comment imploring the reviewer to check out your books as well!

UDPATE #2: Laura Yirak also mentioned the promotion on her blog:

http://laurayirak.blogspot.com/2015/04/scott-gordon.html

UPDATE #3: I'm falling asleep as I'm doing this, but I just uploaded the e-books with the new backmatter. Now, on to the blog... (Ugh!)

UPDATE #4: Ok, I'm completely dead now. The blog and mailing list have been taken care of. Off to sleep...

UPDATE #5: Another review from that same awesome reviewer:



> This is the complete review as it appears (http://ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2015/04/eggtastic-by-scott-gordon.html) at my blog dedicated to reading, writing (no 'rithmatic!), movies, & TV.
> 
> I'm afraid I'm a bit of a bunny-come-lately with this, since Easter has passed already, but I've made a habit of that this year, so why not? Besides, there's a good excuse for it (as I shall reveal shortly), and today is actually "tastic" day, in case you're not a fan. I'm posting two tastic reviews and since this book is free on Amazon (in ebook form) as of this posting, it's crazy not to hop over there and avail yourself of the opportunity. Yes, I'm egging you on. Just don't rabbit on about it.
> 
> ...


----------



## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Paging Steve W.


----------



## A.A (Mar 30, 2012)

cinisajoy said:


> You finally got a review that was owed to you. Sorry it took so long lol.
> 
> A A won a what does cin look like contest previously.


Thanks so much for that review, Cin  
Teehee on me winning a what-does-Cin-look-like contest


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

Perhaps it's just me, but today seems like an extraordinarily slow day for free downloads. And sales. And borrows. And anything for that matter!


----------



## Seleya (Feb 25, 2011)

Not just you,  today I'm down to 12 downloads overall.


----------



## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Donald Rump said:


> Perhaps it's just me, but today seems like an extraordinarily slow day for free downloads. And sales. And borrows. And anything for that matter!


No sales today; but I've had 86 downloads of my free book today, for a total of 345 downloads of my free book since you started your promotion. I can't thank you enough for this.


----------



## DC Swain (Feb 24, 2013)

Donald Rump said:


> Perhaps it's just me, but today seems like an extraordinarily slow day for free downloads. And sales. And borrows. And anything for that matter!


129 free downloads, 5 sales and 2 borrows today. But then I also have a bknights on my freebie today...

It does seem a little slow 

ETA: Rankings taking a long time to adjust too. But I'm in the top 100 free kids books now - #82


----------



## TiffanyTurner (Jun 8, 2009)

My book "Pumper the Pumpkin" is doing good overall. I have noticed the downloads have been slowing down each day. 48 downloads on Sunday. 29 downloads on Monday. 16 downloads today so far. Total is 89. It's great to see traction happening for a book that is totally not in season. I wasn't sure if people would download a Halloween picture book in April. But they have. So, excited to see I'm #1 in children's books for Halloween. 

I am still hoping to get some nice reviews. I think a lot of people didn't like my illustrations from previous reviews. Yes. I did them myself. And I would like to redo this book's illustrations sometime in the future. But the story is pretty sound. So, waiting to see what happens at the end of the promo.


----------



## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Tiffany I am a bit behind on reviews.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Donald Rump said:


> Perhaps it's just me, but today seems like an extraordinarily slow day for free downloads. And sales. And borrows. And anything for that matter!


My freebie ended on the 7th.
I had 55 downloads on day one, 37 on day two and 20 on day three. Thanks to everyone who downloaded. 
Hope at least some readers actually read the book, and at least one reviews it. Poor Bheki has no reviews other than the original editorial reviews from magazines and newspapers when it was published by Penguin way back in 1996


----------



## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

The Snarls seem to be doing pretty well, but I'm getting no love for Heart of Rock - not even borrows. poor thing.


----------



## TiffanyTurner (Jun 8, 2009)

Just on a side note: While I've got some children's picture book authors' attention, I want to redo my Pumper the Pumpkin story. I know it needs a real artist to do the pictures, and some help with formatting. I'm curious if you all have done it yourself, or have had someone do it for you. It would be nice to make it a CreateSpace book as well. That way I can have it revamped in time for Halloween this season. 

Who's your illustrators? Did you do them yourself? Who did your formatting? The one thing about Createspace, the formatting can be a problem. I'm not trying to highjack the thread, and I can move this later to another topic. But since we've all been in this together, it makes me feel like I've got a children's author family on Kboards. We always emerge when their is a children's book event.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

I'm sorry, everyone, but it feels like this promotion is a failure. It's not from a lack of effort, though.


----------



## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Jan,
Is that a subtle hint?


----------



## Seleya (Feb 25, 2011)

I wouldn't call it a failure, Donald. I have more than 100 downloads, it may be small potatoes for others but with only one book out I call it a success; I hope it will bring in a couple of reviews as well.

Tiffany, the formatting I did myself, the illustrations were literally an in-house matter,  my mother-in-law painted the interior ones, the cover is by my husband (who's a pro), he'll do my next book as well but I had to drag him into children illustration kicking and screaming (whish I was good enough to do my illustrations myself, I'd have quite a few more titles available).


----------



## DC Swain (Feb 24, 2013)

Donald Rump said:


> I'm sorry, everyone, but it feels like this promotion is a failure. It's not from a lack of effort, though.


Doesn't feel like a failure to me either Donald, just slightly smaller than last time.

I had 151 downloads (before my bknights promo kicked in - I've got 416 total downloads between your promo and bknights) and got as high as #47 in the Childrens lists and I'm seeing good sell through to my other stories (except my preorder - I'll call that one a bust)

I've also had 99 downloads already on the second freebie I sent through. So I'm one happy kids author at the moment.

Tiffany - I agree that these threads give us children's authors a place to share ideas etc. I format myself for both KDP (using Kindle Kids Book Creator) and CreateSpace; and use Canva for my covers (after Hugh Howey's recommendation). I use freelancers for my books, usually off elance.com - you do have to be quite picky, but there are quality, reasonably-priced, illustrators on there.


----------



## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Donald Rump said:


> I'm sorry, everyone, but it feels like this promotion is a failure. It's not from a lack of effort, though.


I'm thrilled with the promotion! I feel so incredibly thankful to you for including us in your promotion and for doing what looks like a ton of advertising for it! I used to sell a fair number of my children's books, had them placed in libraries and other great stuff back when they were first published. For years now, these books have been languishing. Since the start of your promotion, there have been 425 downloads of my free book and 7 purchases of my 99-cent books. I'm amazed and delighted by this, especially since I'm just one author included in your BookBub promotion, rather than someone with a BookBub promotion of my own. I've also enjoyed picking up free and 99-cent books by other authors in your promotion. So far, I've read and thoroughly enjoyed a couple of those books and am about to write reviews.


----------



## A.A (Mar 30, 2012)

Donald Rump said:


> I'm sorry, everyone, but it feels like this promotion is a failure. It's not from a lack of effort, though.


Not from my end. My kids books usually sit there doing nothing (which explains me being out of practice with free day scheduling...).
This is an amazing promotion and you're very kind to let us take part in it. 

The kids' picture book market has been made a lot harder by the influx of those using, hmmm how shall I put this, dodgy techniques. Has anyone else noticed? There are people claiming to be NY book editors and teachers but their books are riddled with mistakes and their author photo comes from from a foreign stock image site, Their books are often topping categories but they might have very, very low ratings.

So I think you need a lot of kids books out just to compete. I'd like to get more out there. I've got the stories ready-to-go but find getting the graphics side of it together very time-consuming.


----------



## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

I don't consider this a failure. I got a goodly number of downloads from The Snarls, and a fair number of sales of my other books, and seem to have gotten a couple of new fans. I consider this very successful indeed.

Thank you for all your hard work putting this together. I really appreciate it!


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

A.A said:


> So I think you need a lot of kids books out just to compete. I'd like to get more out there. I've got the stories ready-to-go but find getting the graphics side of it together very time-consuming.


I think the illustrations are often the problem with producing more children's books. I've had a third Leon book ready to publish for about 5 years, but the sales of the first two are not enough to warrant paying for illustrations. The illustrator did a wonderful job on the first ones (they were trad published) and I'd want to use her again. I also had an animation company interested in doing a series and they asked for 20 outlines, which I did. But it came to naught when they couldn't get funding, so they've just been sitting there for several years .

(I was pleased with the downloads I got for Bheki, so I also don't consider this any sort of failure. We should try to coincide a promo with World Children's Book Day next year.)


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

cinisajoy said:


> Jan,
> Is that a subtle hint?


Bheki's very first Amazon review . Thanks Cin  you're the best


----------



## reneepawlish (Nov 14, 2011)

I didn't get a lot of downloads (I'm sure in part because it's a 99 cent book), but I don't consider this a failure. It's eyes on the book, and I appreciate you including me.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

My book went off free on the 7th (because of Select problems) but I've since had a few paid sales, which might be because readers didn't notice that the free period had ended (Donald did mark it in red) so hope I don't get slammed by disappointed readers. However, those few paid sales have taken the book out of total obscurity into the top #100 in three categories (might also be due to the review  )

#99,646 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Science, Nature & How It Works > Physics
#57 in Books > Children's Books > Education & Reference > Science Studies > Physics
#88 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Children's Nonfiction > Science, Nature & How It Works

So the promo has had some good results


----------



## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> Bheki's very first Amazon review . Thanks Cin  you're the best


You're about to receive another review. I read *Bheki and the Magic Light* today. Wow, what a great book! (Why did I not buy this one sooner?!!?) I immediately bought your two *Leon Chameleon P.I.* books. I'm halfway through reading *Leon Chameleon P.I. and the missing canary eggs* and am thoroughly enjoying that one as well.


----------



## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

You will love Leon.


----------



## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

cinisajoy said:


> You will love Leon.


Thanks! I'm really enjoying the book. He's quite a character.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Marilyn Peake said:


> You're about to receive another review. I read *Bheki and the Magic Light* today. Wow, what a great book! (Why did I not buy this one sooner?!!?) I immediately bought your two *Leon Chameleon P.I.* books. I'm halfway through reading *Leon Chameleon P.I. and the missing canary eggs* and am thoroughly enjoying that one as well.


Thank you so much . What a wonderful detailed review. 
So glad you are enjoying Leon. He's the Sherlock Holmes of Pigeon Valley, which is a conservation area close to my home. A local school bought the books as class readers and I met a class in Pigeon Valley and we discussed the story and they saw the Pigeonwood Tree, which is Leon's headquarters (but was eventually felled by lighting  ). 
I made a friend of the ranger who was in charge of looking after the area and he told me about a nest that a Woodland Mouse had made in a drawer in his office, and that gave me the idea for 'the case of the kidnapped mouse' . I had such fun writing the stories, and researching about the animals so they could solve the crimes using their own animal abilities (they are not Disney characters).


----------



## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> Thank you so much . What a wonderful detailed review.
> So glad you are enjoying Leon. He's the Sherlock Holmes of Pigeon Valley, which is a conservation area close to my home. A local school bought the books as class readers and I met a class in Pigeon Valley and we discussed the story and they saw the Pigeonwood Tree, which is Leon's headquarters (but was eventually felled by lighting  ).
> I made a friend of the ranger who was in charge of looking after the area and he told me about a nest that a Woodland Mouse had made in a drawer in his office, and that gave me the idea for 'the case of the kidnapped mouse' . I had such fun writing the stories, and researching about the animals so they could solve the crimes using their own animal abilities (they are not Disney characters).


That's awesome! I love this series and am looking forward to reading *Leon Chameleon P.I. and the case of the kidnapped mouse*. How wonderful to learn that this is set in a real place! I already love how you bring the actual features and behaviors of real-world animals into a very entertaining story. They are definitely not Disney characters.  I think you do for animals and nature what *The Magic School Bus* did for science in general.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

Thanks everyone for participating in the Kidtastic promotion. Numbers were down from last month, but it still looks like we had a respectable promotion. Altogether, I managed to giveaway 20,350 books in all territories and had 167 entries for the raffle. I've looked over the entries and noticed that a few kids entered more than once, so I'll have to clean up the list before I pick the winner.

I hope everyone got something out of this promotion and will continue to keep helping each other to promote.

As for me, I need to build some tools to make this process easier. I will also be studying the KF8 format and will let you know what I find.


----------



## Seleya (Feb 25, 2011)

Thank you, Donald for doing this and having my book in.

I'm quite happy with my downloads, hopefully those will bring in some reviews as well.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Marilyn Peake said:


> That's awesome! I love this series and am looking forward to reading *Leon Chameleon P.I. and the case of the kidnapped mouse*. How wonderful to learn that this is set in a real place! I already love how you bring the actual features and behaviors of real-world animals into a very entertaining story. They are definitely not Disney characters.  I think you do for animals and nature what *The Magic School Bus* did for science in general.


Leon is thrilled to have found some new fans. I haven't seen him for a while because he doesn't like to leave the Pigeonwood tree in case a client comes along wanting him to solve a case. However, I have seen Sergeant Loerie several times hopping about the trees in my garden and calling _kok, kok, kok_ to remind me they are still policing the valley. Although I haven't actually seen Constable Mole I know he is around because there have been some new tunnels and mounds in the garden (I think he is wary of an encounter with my two dogs and a cat  )


----------



## Louise Lintvelt (Jan 10, 2015)

Thanks for the opportunity, my Safari title did very well and reached the top 20 - the only additional promo I added was BKnights and a butterfly slot. This book is published via a distributor so I will only get concrete download numbers by mid May. It seems to me that promos are an unpredictable beast - the only way to fail though is not to try anything at all...


----------



## adammaxwell (Mar 1, 2015)

I just wanted to add my thanks for being included too - I threw a bunch of additional promos at the wall for yesterday, today and tomorrow and so far it's been REALLY positive - my title is currently #5 in Childrens eBooks > Action & Adventure and was downloaded over 300 times yesterday alone.

THANK YOU !!


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

> I just wanted to add my thanks for being included too - I threw a bunch of additional promos at the wall for yesterday, today and tomorrow and so far it's been REALLY positive - my title is currently #5 in Childrens eBooks > Action & Adventure and was downloaded over 300 times yesterday alone.
> 
> THANK YOU !!


You're #46 in the Top 100 Free Children's Books, and #871 overall. Those are stellar numbers!


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

adammaxwell said:


> I just wanted to add my thanks for being included too - I threw a bunch of additional promos at the wall for yesterday, today and tomorrow and so far it's been REALLY positive - my title is currently #5 in Childrens eBooks > Action & Adventure and was downloaded over 300 times yesterday alone.
> 
> THANK YOU !!


Congrats. Well done.


----------



## adammaxwell (Mar 1, 2015)

This book is the first time I've done any marketing so I've got no real point of comparison but I was more than happy! I've not long been a member of kboards and already found some great threads I'm taking notes from.

Really interesting too how different marketing kids' books is to grown-up fiction. I did a BKnights gig on fiverr for 'The Mystery of the Missing Monkey' a few weeks ago and they actually refunded me because no-one clicked!


----------



## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Donald Rump said:


> Thanks everyone for participating in the Kidtastic promotion. Numbers were down from last month, but it still looks like we had a respectable promotion. Altogether, I managed to giveaway 20,350 books in all territories and had 167 entries for the raffle. I've looked over the entries and noticed that a few kids entered more than once, so I'll have to clean up the list before I pick the winner.
> 
> I hope everyone got something out of this promotion and will continue to keep helping each other to promote.
> 
> As for me, I need to build some tools to make this process easier. I will also be studying the KF8 format and will let you know what I find.


Thank you so much for including us in your promotion! As a writer, I truly appreciate the renewed interest in my children's books that happened during the promotion. It was great to see the downloads of my free book and some purchases of my 99-cent books. As a reader, it was fun to discover so many wonderful children's books by fellow KBoarders.


----------



## Donald Rump (Dec 10, 2013)

Ok, I just did the drawing for the prizes. The Grand Prize Winner is Cheryl Stirling (Canada). Additional Children's Book Winners are Steve Smith (U.S.), Mu He (Canada) and Trent Reed (U.S.). I've e-mailed all of the parties and am waiting for their response.

If you know any of the winners, tell them congratulations on my behalf.


----------

