# How I made $40k in 10 days



## nlw759 (Oct 10, 2014)

Since someone asked what my catalyst was on my previous thread about taxes, I figured I'd make a separate post about how I "did it." Now obviously this is not a magic formula that's going to guarantee you money and success, this is simply how I went about releasing my latest book. Some of it's probably luck, or just being at the right place at the right time. *Full disclosure: my book's contemporary romance, which is a very popular genre, so if you write in a terribly obscure genre, I'm not sure how much help this is going to be.

I did a lot of things differently with this book, the main one being that I promoted it BEFORE it was out. I also had a blog tour and sent out ARCs, which netted me about thirty 4 and 5 star reviews on Goodreads in the two weeks leading up to its release, that way it had a nice 4.5 star rating on release day. I also held a giveaway on Goodreads, and I became more active on Facebook. I made "teasers" for the book with stock images of attractive couples in passionate poses and photoshopped quotes from the book that fit those pictures. I even made some steamy GIFs for teasers, but unfortunately you can't post GIFs to Facebook, so I stuck them up on my website and distributed them to blogs to use for the tour.

Facebook can be an invaluable tool to connect with readers, but if you were like me, and didn't really know how to use it for that, I HIGHLY suggest this article: http://selfpublishingteam.com/the-vin-diesel-school-of-facebook/. It's brilliant.

I also had a mailing list of about 100 subscribers, but only about 60% opened the "new release alert" I sent out on release day, and of that 60%, only like 14 of them clicked on any of the buy links. I had 2 people unsubscribe. But, YMMV. I now have over 500 people on my mailing list, and I insert a sign up link at the back of all of my books, as well as on my Facebook page. Mailchimp has a handy Facebook plug-in where it'll appear on the left sidebar, right above my photos. Oh, and probably most importantly, I have an incentive for people to sign up for my mailing list: a bonus scene.

I did not use the pre-order feature on KDP, since I wanted that spike in ranking on release day, and from everything I've read, it sounds like those pre-order sales don't count on release day. It was definitely a gamble, since I didn't even know if I would do well on release day, and I probably could've had a few pre-orders spread out over the month.

Keywords are crucial. So are selecting the right genres. Romance is a HUGE genre, with so many subgenres. You want to pick your main one, and then pick the smallest genre that could still apply to your book, because smaller genre = more visibility. I read a post here on kboards the week before I published (can't find it for the life of me) that says once you start selling in one genre (usually the smaller one), the Amazon algorithms will start working in your favor until it's essentially pushing your book for you. This is absolutely true.

That's everything I've done. Thanks for listening, guys! Kboards has been a great source of info for me over the past 2 years, and I'm glad I finally have the chance to pay it forward. Hope it helped


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## SA_Soule (Sep 8, 2011)

Thank you so much for sharing your marketing info. I have a new book coming out next month and I needed a better plan of attack! LOL Um, I meant promotional ideas. Congrats on your awesome success. ;-)


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## Dolphin (Aug 22, 2013)

Congrats on your awful tax problem! (Wayne et al. were right about feeding the IRS quarterly instead of waiting, incidentally.)

How'd you go about distributing your ARCs? How many did you hand out? Thirty advance reviews is quite, quite impressive.

I like the idea of doing graphic teasers as well. That's a good substitute for photos in your feeds when you work at home in your PJs instead of on a movie set.


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## Cheryl Douglas (Dec 7, 2011)

Great advice and congratulations on your success! Can't wait to hear more.


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## sunnycoast (Sep 10, 2010)

Oh, man, I wish I knew how to work the 'Category' thing. I've got a non-fiction book coming and it could slot into so many categories. 

BTW, congratulations on your success during the last week. I hope it sparks a series just so you can capitalise on it.


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## nlw759 (Oct 10, 2014)

Dolphin said:


> How'd you go about distributing your ARCs? How many did you hand out?


I distributed about 45-50, all through email (either directly to their kindle address, or to their blog/personal email).

I also organized the blog tour myself, instead of paying approx. $300 for a company to do it for me. It's a lot of work, yes, but I really think it's worth it in the end. Here's a great link on how to get started: http://jeffrivera.com/jennifermartinez/


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## over and out (Sep 9, 2011)

Thanks so much for sharing, and I hope this is just the beginning of even greater success to come!


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## Dolphin (Aug 22, 2013)

nlw759 said:


> I distributed about 45-50, all through email (either directly to their kindle address, or to their blog/personal email).


That's a nice rate of reviews! How'd you find those readers?


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## Sharon Eros (Jul 27, 2014)

Wow, that is incredible! Big time congrats on your success and thank you very much for sharing your tips here. You've definitely given me some good stuff to think about.


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## nlw759 (Oct 10, 2014)

Dolphin said:


> That's a nice rate of reviews! How'd you find those readers?


They were all bloggers, first and foremost. And I found a lot of them by looking through reviews on Goodreads for popular books in my genre. Facebook is also a great tool for finding reviewers. For every review site I found, their Facebook page would have DOZENS of similar blogs listed under their "liked by this page" tab.


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## anniejocoby (Aug 11, 2013)

Thanks sooooo much for this! I'm bookmarking it. It makes me understand what is possible, and that's awesome! I'm going to use your tips to find blogs for my own blog tour before releasing my next series. Here's to hoping I can duplicate your success!


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

Congratulations on your success!  And also for sharing this with us.  Totally awesome.  Bookmarking all the sites!


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## Desmond X. Torres (Mar 16, 2013)

What fantastic news! Thanks so much for sharing.

Your open rate is awesome, I hope you know that. 

Your advice is so current; thanks for sharing. Success stories like yours are wonderful to read, and keeping the board updated w/ what has worked for you is your gift (as in paying back or something) to all of us in the community.

So! Now I’m asking for the dish….

I’m asking b/c $40K inside of a month is a whole whack of cash. Let me be honest- I hope it continues for you, okay? 

But right here, right now… what are you gonna do in 60 days when your Amazon (et al) checks come in? Izza car getting replaced? Izza vacy being planned? Are you tellin’ bill collectors to shove off? 

I’m asking b/c tonight, on a Fri nite, my wife and I started pre planning our Christmas vacay in the Caribbean. Based soley on our book income. Which is swell for sure! But what about you? We’ll hit (fingers crossed as we knock on wood) a monthly income of 3-4K. What’s 40 +K like?

Are you planning a vacay? Or are you buying purple toilet paper b/c it matches the room?

What’s the dish? And thanks for the guidance!


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## Navigator (Jul 9, 2014)

Bookmarking for obvious reasons!   And congratulations to you OP for your success!


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## nlw759 (Oct 10, 2014)

Thanks, everyone! It still feels unreal. My husband is astounded and thrilled, but unfortunately it's made going to work very hard for him since he busts his butt 40 hours a week and makes less than $16/hour. It really puts things in perspective for him and now he feels like he's wasting his time. So that sucks. I definitely didn't mean to kill his morale and bruise his ego. He's already talking about quitting work and being a stay-at-home dad so I can write full-time (I watch our 2 toddlers during the day and write when I can), and I'm all for that, but I'd like him to wait at least 3-6 months. This could end tomorrow for all I know, and it's only been 10 days. It's way too early to plan our future on such a short period. I need more data, more sales figures, and that will only come with time.

And Desmond X. Torres, our 5 year wedding anniversary is on New Year's Eve, and I should get my first big paycheck on like December 28th. We're leaving the kids with grandma and going on a short, local honeymoon since we didn't get to have one before


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## coolpixel (Sep 17, 2012)

NLW, congrats and hope the success continues. Is this your first book? And you used no other promotion site other than Peoplereads? All those who reviewed on Goodreads - did they all post the reviews on Amazon on day one? How many reviews did you end up with having on Amazon on day one? And lastly what was he price point of the book.


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## nlw759 (Oct 10, 2014)

ゴジラ said:


> What's your game plan from here?


I originally wrote the book intending for it to be a stand-alone, and it still is, but I have so many readers asking for more that I'm turning it into a series. Each new book will focus on different characters introduced in the first. I think if I tried to write 4 books about the same couple I'd get burned out, and I definitely don't want that.

Other than that, I'm trying to write, write, write. And when it gets time to publish the next one, I'll follow exactly the same steps as I did with this one. If it ain't broken...


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## Guest (Oct 11, 2014)

Congratulations on your successful book!


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Congratulations! That is AMAZING! 

Although, I don't know if that's true about pre-orders. I keep hearing that on the boards, but I did a pre-order, and when my book went live, all the sales showed up in a huge spike on my KDP page, and the book was listed on the bestseller genre lists, right out of the gate -- actually, it wound up on the bestseller genre lists during the pre-order period, before it went live. So, I'm not sure why people are saying that they're not counting.

Thanks for the links and the advice! I love what you did. Very imaginative and cool. BTW, you can save your GIFS as JPGS in photoshop, and then you'll be able to post them on FB.

Definitely keep releasing! Especially if your hubby wants to quit his day job. If you stop releasing, you can drop drastically, income-wise. You don't have to go crazy and release faster than you can edit, but even if you release a new book every 4-6 months, you'll be doing great!


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## EC (Aug 20, 2013)

Excellent thread and congratulations.  

If your husband was aware of the peaks and troughs of the trade he may not be inclined to quit.  It may be an idea to invite him to join KBoards so that he becomes familiar with the many issues that we authors face.


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## Andrei Cherascu (Sep 17, 2014)

nlw759 said:


> I originally wrote the book intending for it to be a stand-alone, and it still is, but I have so many readers asking for more that I'm turning it into a series. Each new book will focus on different characters introduced in the first. I think if I tried to write 4 books about the same couple I'd get burned out, and I definitely don't want that.
> 
> Other than that, I'm trying to write, write, write. And when it gets time to publish the next one, I'll follow exactly the same steps as I did with this one. If it ain't broken...


Awesome post, and very encouraging.  I released Mindguard a little over a month ago and had really no plans of working on a sequel (at least not for a few years). Few people bought my book so far but they all loved it and most of them kept telling me they're waiting for the sequel. Without actively trying to work on it I had the various ideas that were floating around in my head all of a sudden fall into place and I came up with the detailed plot in about 30 seconds. Now I'm working on it at the same time I'm writing my new, unrelated novel. I guess that's where the phrase "by popular demand" would probably fit.


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## funthebear (Sep 26, 2014)

Candy Girl Miranda said:


> Congrats nlw. I just one-clicked your book, my curiousity got the better of me. Your blurb is one of the best ones I have read in a while. You had me hooked with the first paragraph already. Still giggling like crazy.


Yeah, the opening was great.

Might want to edit your first post btw, nlw, if you don't want people connecting this account to your book


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## dragontucker (Jul 18, 2014)

Wow thanks so much!! Such great info here  I cannot freaking wait to get my fantasy novel up and done  How did you list your book on good reads and get reviews coming in though before it was "live" and for sale? I guess if I make a book free thought it doesnt matter anyways this part of the marketing.


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## nightfire (Mar 22, 2012)

Jack; said:


> Yeah, the opening was great.
> 
> Might want to edit your first post btw, nlw, if you don't want people connecting this account to your book


Yup, it didn't take long to find the book, facebook etc. Congrats on doing so great! The stars aligned for you - with a lot of prep work!

EDIT:
Since the OP removed the specific genre from her post I am removing it from mine.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Candy Girl Miranda said:


> Congrats nlw. I just one-clicked your book, my curiousity got the better of me. Your blurb is one of the best ones I have read in a while. You had me hooked with the first paragraph already. Still giggling like crazy.


Now I'm curious! Which book is it? Sounds like it's up my reading alley.


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## Jac1106 (Jan 13, 2012)

NLW759,

Huge congrats!  

Can you give a rough percentage breakdown of your sales, Amazon vs other stores?


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## I&#039;m a Little Teapot (Apr 10, 2014)

Wowza! Congratulations! Wishing you much, much more success!


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## Indecisive (Jun 17, 2013)

Congratulations to you, and huge props for doing all this with two toddlers underfoot. Mine are just getting into the wonderful "school age children" years and I feel like I can think again (kind of). 

A couple of questions: 

1. Are you in Kindle Select/KU or did you "go wide"?
2. How many stops on your blog tour? 

I'm putting together a small blog tour for myself and I'm up to 5 stops, and thinking about leaving it at that. I just can't decide about whether or not to do Select, so I'm wondering what its impact has been for you (whether you're in it or not). 

My book is an epic fantasy, FWIW.


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## Guest (Oct 11, 2014)

How did you price it? $0.99? $2.99? Some other amount?


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## Rachel E. Rice (Jan 4, 2014)

Thanks for sharing. May all your dreams come true.


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## LG Castillo (Jun 28, 2012)

Congratulations!! and thanks for sharing.


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## Dolphin (Aug 22, 2013)

Sophrosyne said:


> BTW, you can save your GIFS as JPGS in photoshop, and then you'll be able to post them on FB.


The great thing about GIFs is that you can include multiple frames so they're animated, which is lost if you switch to a JPG. Alas.


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## Gator (Sep 28, 2012)

Congrats on your success and thanks for sharing the steps that got you there!  Hope you can repeat this success many times over.  Good luck!


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## jimkukral (Oct 31, 2011)

Great story! Thanks for sharing this.


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## Drake (Apr 30, 2014)

EC said:


> Excellent thread and congratulations.
> 
> If your husband was aware of the peaks and troughs of the trade he may not be inclined to quit. It may be an idea to invite him to join KBoards so that he becomes familiar with the many issues that we authors face.


Congratulations on your success! Is there a reason not to reveal the book title so we can read it? There are lots of ups and downs in the KDP world, so tell your husband to keep his day job for awhile, until you've built up enough savings to not worry if your sales drop. Keep writing, you must be doing something right!


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## 72117 (Sep 1, 2013)

Congrats! And thanks for sharing this! I bookmarked this thread.


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## Tara Shuler (Apr 24, 2011)

Your blurb is great. No wonder you're doing so well! That, combined with the cover and your marketing efforts... great job! Very happy for your success.


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## Guest (Oct 11, 2014)

I always recommend sending out tons of ARCs! I have an ARC reviewer list of 150 people who I sent out books to for myself and my clients and it's been a great way to get about 10-20 reviews for each of us!


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## Morgan Jameson (Sep 16, 2014)

nlw759 said:


> Keywords are crucial. So are selecting the right genres. Romance is a HUGE genre, with so many subgenres. You want to pick your main one, and then pick the smallest genre that could still apply to your book, because smaller genre = more visibility. I read a post here on kboards the week before I published (can't find it for the life of me) *that says once you start selling in one genre (usually the smaller one),* the Amazon algorithms will start working in your favor until it's essentially pushing your book for you. This is absolutely true.


So you just put it in one subgenre not multiple spots?


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## Vidya (Feb 14, 2012)

"Your blurb is great."

What IS the blurb? Can you please PM me her blurb if you don’t want to post it here? I'm trying to improve my blurb and I always try to study how successful people made it big.

I understand some people don’t like to post links to their books here for fear of being one-bombed.  Its sad they have to take such precautions but I can see why.

And congrats to the OP on her success!


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

You can find great blurb examples in other threads, but let's keep the hints out of this thread... to respect the author's anonymity. 

FYI, we are discussing in Admin how to handle situations like this, where an author wishes to post sales successes but keep the visibility away from their main KB account. It's a layered issue and it's not as simple as allowing people to have multiple accounts, which has drawbacks and significant overhead on our moderation tasks. 

I've enjoyed this thread and the remarkable success of the author!


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## R. Graystone (Oct 17, 2014)

I just wanted to say thanks to the OP and many of the other posters who have chimed in. The feedback and information shared by you successful self-pubbers is a real boon to those of us still mucking through the trenches. A thousand thanks!


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## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Thanks so much for posting this!  I bookmarked it.  Congratulations on your awesome success and ingenuity in marketing!


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## alex mars (Sep 13, 2013)

congratulations of the success. the facebook/vindisel link was an interesting read.


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## Michelle Lowery (Nov 22, 2014)

Wait, this is your FIRST book?! That's amazing! Congratulations! And thank you for sharing your tactics. Definitely taking notes.


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## heidi_g (Nov 14, 2013)

Congratulations on your success! And thank you to the FB/Vin Diesel link.


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## ChrstnaBergling (Jan 1, 2015)

Congrats! I appreciate the advice!


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## DGS (Sep 25, 2013)

Congratulations. How are you sending the bonus scene to those who sign up for the mailing list?


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## drewavera (Apr 24, 2013)

holy cow, that's awesome


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## Scout (Jun 2, 2014)

Thank you for the Facebook link. I still have no idea how to use FB. It's kinda ridiculous at this point   so I really appreciate the reference.

Good luck in all you do. Here's to your continued success! Cheers.


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## dgrant (Feb 5, 2014)

That is so awesome, and thanks for the sharing your prep work!

For your husband: as one writer's spouse to another, don't feel bad at all. We're busting our butts at time clocks to provide stability on the income and health insurance. Seriously; once we quit and the author's freelance income is all there is, it becomes really, really hard to get loans because banks don't like irregular income (even if it is large.) And insurance is _expensive_. Hang in there, save half of what comes in for the whacking great self-employment taxes, and as much as you can of the rest to build up reserves / pay off debts. When all the debts are paid off, and there's enough in reserves to cope with a car wreck and being in a cast for a while, then she won't need you to punch the time clock. Til then, see you in the commuter's lanes.


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## Guest (Feb 28, 2015)

*Quote:
". . . it becomes really, really hard to get loans because banks don't like irregular income (even if it is large."
*
There is a solution to this problem of irregular income.
If we are making good money by writing, then form a corporation.
Then pay yourself a salary from the corp, backing it up with W2 tax forms.
Now you have a regular income.


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## SaschaIllyvich (Jul 12, 2015)

Thanks for the advice.  I've been following some of this and lurking for a while.  I'm hoping to keep the momentum of my release going for the next few months honestly. 
Between you and Annie.


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

I haven't made $40 in 2 months.


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## Julianna (Jun 28, 2015)

What's the length of your novel?


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## heidi_g (Nov 14, 2013)

nlw759 said:


> I did a lot of things differently with this book, the main one being that I promoted it BEFORE it was out.


I really think pre-promotion can be key, as I've seen it work really well for many authors. It's also very challenging and something I've not mastered! So thank you for sharing this. I'm currently in the midst of writing/publishing a fantasy trilogy. The second book will release on July 30th. I'm planning to use the time between the release date of the second back and the release date of the third and final book, for pre-promotion of the final book. It's a long-range strategy, that I'm hoping will build some slow and steady momentum

BTW, congratulation on your success, that is truly awesome!


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

JanaOnWheels said:


> I haven't made $40 in 5 1/2 years.


ouch


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## UnicornEmily (Jul 2, 2011)

ゴジラ said:


> Stuff that money in your cheek pouches like a hamster and plan plan plan!


That's exactly what I would suggest, too! Actually, if you have any debts, I'd save enough for all the taxes you're going to need to pay, save enough for an additional two/three months of income (in case you lost the revenue tomorrow), and then put all the rest into your debts immediately. The more you can pay off (or even pay down), the more you can have freedom and flexibility.

Do take that honeymoon, though. You deserve it. Even if you didn't have the money, with two toddlers and no honeymoon right after you got married, you clearly deserve it!

And write the next book. 

I hope your husband can quit his day job soon. That will be awesome, awesome, awesome; being a stay-at-home dad is huge.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Just an fyi...The thread is 9 months old and OP hasn't been back since.


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## UnicornEmily (Jul 2, 2011)

Oops, I completely didn't notice that.  You're more observant than me, Monique!

Well, I'm still happy for the OP, anyway.


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## heidi_g (Nov 14, 2013)

Monique said:


> Just an fyi...The thread is 9 months old and OP hasn't been back since.


I didn't notice that either!


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## mica (Jun 19, 2015)

heidi_g said:


> I really think pre-promotion can be key, as I've seen it work really well for many authors. It's also very challenging and something I've not mastered! So thank you for sharing this. I'm currently in the midst of writing/publishing a fantasy trilogy. The second book will release on July 30th. I'm planning to use the time between the release date of the second back and the release date of the third and final book, for pre-promotion of the final book. It's a long-range strategy, that I'm hoping will build some slow and steady momentum
> 
> BTW, congratulation on your success, that is truly awesome!


It's a shame the OP did not continue with this thread.

I agree with what Heidi says here. I mentioned pre-promotion on another thread. It can really help give you a boost at the beginning. I've read about authors like Jasinda Wilder who revealed a chapter of her book and got some good sales. Cover reveals can help sell some books at the beginning, if you have a really good cover.

A good review from a big book blogger can help boost sales at the beginning too.


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## xbhughes (Sep 12, 2016)

TheForeverGirlSeries said:


> I always recommend sending out tons of ARCs! I have an ARC reviewer list of 150 people who I sent out books to for myself and my clients and it's been a great way to get about 10-20 reviews for each of us!


thanks for sharing. where do you send ARCs and how? if you don't mind answering


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## ImaWriter (Aug 12, 2015)

xbhughes said:


> thanks for sharing. where do you send ARCs and how? if you don't mind answering


This thread is 2 years old, so don't be hurt if you don't get an answer.  It looks like the OP hasn't been back since it was posted.


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## BellaJames (Sep 8, 2016)

xbhughes said:


> thanks for sharing. where do you send ARCs and how? if you don't mind answering


It would be such an interesting thread to continue, if the original poster came back.

I used to be on other forums for the shortest time and I got used to searching and finding golden oldie threads.

There is so much information about ARC's on this forum.

I'll point out two or three.

http://www.kboards.com/index.php?topic=229657.0 - _The 3rd comment lists a few places you can use to get ARC readers_

http://www.kboards.com/index.php?topic=230572.0 - This Is How I Get Reviews For My New Releases...

Try goodreads too = 
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/58575-advanced-copies-for-review-book-giveaways


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## xbhughes (Sep 12, 2016)

BellaJames said:


> It would be such an interesting thread to continue, if the original poster came back.
> 
> I used to be on other forums for the shortest time and I got used to searching and finding golden oldie threads.
> 
> ...


that is very nice of you Bella!


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

congrats


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## BellaJames (Sep 8, 2016)

xbhughes said:


> that is very nice of you Bella!


You are welcome. 

You can use the search box above to find more information on arc's and just generally search on google.


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## FFJ (Feb 8, 2016)

BellaJames said:


> It would be such an interesting thread to continue, if the original poster came back.
> 
> I used to be on other forums for the shortest time and I got used to searching and finding golden oldie threads.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the links!


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