# LazySaturdayReads.com is now closed



## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

(Updated: 29 OCT 2017)

The LazySaturdayReads.com project is now closed. Thanks to all who participated on the site while it was open. I'm sorry I wasn't able to make it more valuable for everyone.


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## LeanneWinter CoverDesign (Aug 21, 2015)

Sounds awesome!
Thank you 😀


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## DC Swain (Feb 24, 2013)

Requested my account. Looking forward to this  

If we have more than one children's book on the site, how do we pick which one is in the promo?


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

dcswain said:


> If we have more than one children's book on the site, how do we pick which one is in the promo?


Hmm, good question... I guess at this point let's see what kind of participation we get, maybe it won't be limited to just one per author. It's more important to offer a good selection than to worry about limits. If we get so many that it seems unworkable from the buyer's perspective, then I can look at limiting things to ensure that everyone who wants to can participate.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Oops, newbie mistake, I didn't specify the most important parameter of the promotion, the price. Let's go with 99-cent books this time. (First post updated accordingly.)


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

By 'promo' do you mean we lower our price to 99c for the June 18 -19 promo period, or does the book have to be permanently priced at 99c?


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Signed up.  Thanks for doing this.  

Philip


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> By 'promo' do you mean we lower our price to 99c for the June 18 -19 promo period, or does the book have to be permanently priced at 99c?


Books can be permanently priced at 99 cents or lowered for the promotion. For the latter, it's more effective to do it manually than to use a Kindle Countdown because those aren't supported everywhere, but I'm not ruling them out.

From the reader/buyer perspective, this is a chance to grab a bunch of inexpensive children's books. We don't want to mislead anybody, so we should avoid any "price reduced" or "marked down" language that would apply to all of the books.


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

Crenel said:


> Books can be permanently priced at 99 cents or lowered for the promotion. For the latter, it's more effective to do it manually than to use a Kindle Countdown because those aren't supported everywhere, but I'm not ruling them out.
> 
> From the reader/buyer perspective, this is a chance to grab a bunch of inexpensive children's books. We don't want to mislead anybody, so we should avoid any "price reduced" or "marked down" language that would apply to all of the books.


I've got four children's books, all priced at $2.99. They are only on Amazon and all are in Select/KU. Can I only submit them if I lower the price to 99c?


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> I've got four children's books, all priced at $2.99. They are only on Amazon and all are in Select/KU. Can I only submit them if I lower the price to 99c?


You can add all of them on the site, but to include one or more in the promo you would need to reduce the price of the book(s) in the promo to 99 cents for those two days.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Very nice website and really easy to use.  I've just added 6 books and they are displayed in the list of my books, but only 3 of them show up when browsing the category (Education).  Does it take some time for the books to populate the site?

Philip


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## 88149 (Dec 13, 2015)

What a great idea. I just added my two MG mysteries. Super easy process, you made a great platform for this. I'm looking forward to the promo results because this is a first for me.


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

Crenel said:


> You can add all of them on the site, but to include one or more in the promo you would need to reduce the price of the book(s) in the promo to 99 cents for those two days.


Thanks. I've applied to join and just waiting for confirmation email


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## Jerri Kay Lincoln (Jun 18, 2011)

I just signed up.  Thank you!


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Awesome, I'm glad this is working out well for everyone.  All requested accounts and added books have now been approved (i.e., I'm caught up at the moment).



Philip Gibson said:


> Does it take some time for the books to populate the site?


I did set it up to put all new books in a moderation queue, but I'm thinking about removing that so that new books are added immediately. As long as I continue manually approving user accounts it should probably be all right... I'll think about that a bit more after I've had some coffee.


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

Thanks. I've added my books. Now to set up the 99c promos. Will you be adding genres of children's books, or age ranges?


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> Will you be adding genres of children's books, or age ranges?


I haven't decided yet, it depends on how many books we get in the promo and the variety of genres and age ranges. The site is set up to automatically group books for promos, and it's very flexible (i.e., not limited to the "primary category" structure). It can also display them without groups, or as a mix of grouped and ungrouped (in which case the ungrouped books appear at the top and then groups are shown below that). Once we get closer to the promo dates I will probably experiment with different groupings to see what I think would look best to potential buyers, and I will be very open to suggestions.

Thanks for adding your books, I'm caught up on books and accounts at the moment.


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## Talbot (Jul 14, 2015)

Done! Now I just have to remember to reduce it...

Thanks for the promo op!


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Just to clarify/remind everyone, adding new books to the promo is a two step process. You set up the book on the site first, and then you include the book in the promo.

Setting up the book just makes it available to this promo and all future ones, and also for display on the front page and in the category browser.

Once the book is set up on the site, you can include the book in the promo. This brings it onto the promo page (after I've approved it).

This is a little different compared to how other multi-author promos are run, so when we get closer to the promo dates I will probably reach out to anyone who set up a book but didn't include it in the promo.


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

Crenel said:


> Just to clarify/remind everyone, adding new books to the promo is a two step process. You set up the book on the site first, and then you include the book in the promo.
> 
> Setting up the book just makes it available to this promo and all future ones, and also for display on the front page and in the category browser.
> 
> ...


Thanks. I've set up the 99c promo using the Kindle Countdown Deal. I've done both .com and .uk promos. My books are only available on Amazon.

ETA If you run the countdown for 18-19th it shows as 24 hrs, which is one day. I made my books 18 - 20th, which shows 48 hrs.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Hopefully, you'll post here, or by email, a couple of days before the promo to remind us to reduce our books' prices.

Keep up the good work!

Philip


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## TiffanyTurner (Jun 8, 2009)

Just added my first book in the Crystal Keeper Chronicles to the June promo. Sounds like it will be a great promo for summer reading. The ebook is permadiscount at $0.99.   Nice website by the way.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

TiffanyTurner said:


> Just added my first book in the Crystal Keeper Chronicles to the June promo. Sounds like it will be a great promo for summer reading. The ebook is permadiscount at $0.99.  Nice website by the way.


Thanks! And thanks for adding your book! 

Also, for those who haven't finished (or started) yet, I updated the first post with a link to the promo page and a screen shot of the all-important "step 3" for connecting books to the promo page.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

All right - I've signed up and entered a couple of my books and put BIG HAIRY DEAL (my Bigfoot kids novel) into the promotion.

Looking forward to it already.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Crenel said:


> I updated the first post with a link to the promo page and a screen shot of the all-important "step 3" for connecting books to the promo page.


I see there's a category title (Picture / Beginning Reader Books) there with just one book under it. That wasn't one of the categories we can choose when setting up our books. Had it been, I would have chosen that for my books. Is it something you're still developing?

Philip


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

I've added two books to the promo.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Philip Gibson said:


> I see there's a category title (Picture / Beginning Reader Books) there with just one book under it. That wasn't one of the categories we can choose when setting up our books. Had it been, I would have chosen that for my books. Is it something you're still developing?


That's an example of the grouping feature that we may or may not use, depending on how many books we get in the promo. "Picture / Beginning Reader Books" isn't a category, it's just free-form text in the Promo Book Group field (on the Create Promo Entry form). The page automatically groups books based on matching values in that field. For example, I just updated yours and pasted "Picture / Beginning Reader Books" into that field, so now _All About Animals_ appears under that label.

I'm thinking that we probably won't use the grouping feature if there are 20 or fewer books. In that case I will just clear out those text fields before the promo and all the books will appear together. I think grouping is useful for a large number of books, but would make things too spread out if we don't balance the number of books with the number of groupings.

Speaking of how many books are included, feel free to reach out to other indie children's book authors you know and let them know what we're doing. I say "indie" because I assume others wouldn't have the ability to adjust their pricing for the promo, but if I'm wrong, traditionally-published and small-press-published authors would certainly be welcome. We have almost a dozen books so far, and there's plenty of time to add more.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Excellent.  You're doing a fine job with your site.  I just noticed your site already contains more books than a site I paid $6 to to promote a book tomorrow.  (Why did I do that?)

Philip


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Philip Gibson said:


> Excellent. You're doing a fine job with your site. I just noticed your site already contains more books than a site I paid $6 to to promote a book tomorrow. (Why did I do that?)


Thanks!

I've tossed some money at low-price promos before without getting results, I think it's easy to do when the price is low enough to be an "impulse buy" rather than engaging our critical thinking. That's what I like about these multi-author cross-promotions, we're really only investing some time into them, and sometimes they can lead to a good sales boost.

Right now the promo itself has a dozen books in it. Plenty of room for more!


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## LectorsBooks (Apr 30, 2013)

Sent signup request!


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

LectorsBooks said:


> Sent signup request!


Awesome!  At the moment I'm caught up on new users, books, and promo insertions.

Also, I added a link at the bottom of the promo page to the main site category listing for children's books. What do y'all think? Good idea? Bad? It's easy to remove if the consensus is against it. I figured it would be a way to potentially get more exposure for related books that are on the site but not in the promo, and it's small and at the bottom so it shouldn't pull people out of the promo too easily.


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

Crenel said:


> Awesome!  At the moment I'm caught up on new users, books, and promo insertions.
> 
> Also, I added a link at the bottom of the promo page to the main site category listing for children's books. What do y'all think? Good idea? Bad? It's easy to remove if the consensus is against it. I figured it would be a way to potentially get more exposure for related books that are on the site but not in the promo, and it's small and at the bottom so it shouldn't pull people out of the promo too easily.


I think the link is a good idea, and certainly small enough as it took me a while to find it . 
After I clicked onto the link and browsed the books I couldn't find my way back to the promo page. Is it hidden at the moment? Are you going to have a 'promo' link at the top of the home page? At present you have 'home' 'browse books' and 'for authors'.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> Are you going to have a 'promo' link at the top of the home page? At present you have 'home' 'browse books' and 'for authors'.


I plan to, I figured I would enable that a day or two before the promo (mostly just so I don't forget to do it) and then remove it after the promo is over. My thought is that anybody stumbling onto the site -- admittedly mostly authors for now -- should not find the promo too easily when it's not active, to avoid confusion, etc. When that tab is active, it will probably be between the "Home" and "Browse Books" tabs.

Another new addition: When browsing a category (i.e., not in the promo), books can now be sorted A-Z, Z-A, and random ("shuffle"). Previously it was only A-Z. The interface isn't as attractive as I'd like, but I'm getting there.


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

Crenel said:


> I plan to, I figured I would enable that a day or two before the promo (mostly just so I don't forget to do it) and then remove it after the promo is over. My thought is that anybody stumbling onto the site -- admittedly mostly authors for now -- should not find the promo too easily when it's not active, to avoid confusion, etc. When that tab is active, it will probably be between the "Home" and "Browse Books" tabs.
> 
> Another new addition: When browsing a category (i.e., not in the promo), books can now be sorted A-Z, Z-A, and random ("shuffle"). Previously it was only A-Z. The interface isn't as attractive as I'd like, but I'm getting there.


Thanks. I'll keep the link you sent to the promo page.


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## LectorsBooks (Apr 30, 2013)

Crenel said:


> Awesome!  At the moment I'm caught up on new users, books, and promo insertions.
> 
> Also, I added a link at the bottom of the promo page to the main site category listing for children's books. What do y'all think? Good idea? Bad? It's easy to remove if the consensus is against it. I figured it would be a way to potentially get more exposure for related books that are on the site but not in the promo, and it's small and at the bottom so it shouldn't pull people out of the promo too easily.


Thanks for adding me! Think I got all my book info in now.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

LectorsBooks said:


> Thanks for adding me! Think I got all my book info in now.


Perfect!

For now I've taken out the grouping info, so all books are presented in the same block of covers. If the number of books increases substantially it may be worth splitting things up, but for now I think it probably works better this way. Definitely room (and time) to add more, though!


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## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

I applied for an account.  Thanks!  I noticed you have other categories, like Sci/Fi Fantasy, and Mystery and Thriller.  Will you have future promos for those books as well?


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Pamela said:


> I applied for an account. Thanks! I noticed you have other categories, like Sci/Fi Fantasy, and Mystery and Thriller. Will you have future promos for those books as well?


I haven't decided about promos for the other categories. The site could certainly support it, but there are some pretty solid promos already and I don't want to "compete" with those or water down the effect they have. After I've run this one, I figured I would look around to see if there is a genre that lacks a good multi-author promo. Ideally -- but not necessarily -- it would be something where I have my own title(s). I'm also thinking about doing another children's book promo in August or September, as a back-to-school promo.

The site was mostly set up as a proof of concept, without solid long-term plans. Things have turned out well so far, so that encourages me to not just abandon the site after one promo.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

All right, we're down to less than a week before the promo starts. We currently have 17 books in the promo. Still room for more, of course, and thanks to the flexibility of the site structure I can add books right up to the promo -- or even during it, although joining late misses out on the earlier exposure.

This coming week I will reach out to anyone who added a book to the site but didn't include anything in the promo, to make sure nothing is left out by accident (e.g., from not understanding the process, since it is different compared to other promos).

You're welcome to come up with your own promotional text or graphics to tell people about the promo, but it's also good to have a social-media-ready image that people can use if they don't (or can't) create their own. I'm not much of a graphic designer and turned to Canva to play around a bit, and posted a draft in the forum on the site. I'm not really sold on the design and am very open to alternatives, if someone else would like to create one. (Feel free to also post it there, the site should allow you to upload it as an attachment to your comment.)


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## TiffanyTurner (Jun 8, 2009)

Crenel said:


> All right, we're down to less than a week before the promo starts. We currently have 17 books in the promo. Still room for more, of course, and thanks to the flexibility of the site structure I can add books right up to the promo -- or even during it, although joining late misses out on the earlier exposure.
> 
> This coming week I will reach out to anyone who added a book to the site but didn't include anything in the promo, to make sure nothing is left out by accident (e.g., from not understanding the process, since it is different compared to other promos).
> 
> You're welcome to come up with your own promotional text or graphics to tell people about the promo, but it's also good to have a social-media-ready image that people can use if they don't (or can't) create their own. I'm not much of a graphic designer and turned to Canva to play around a bit, and posted a draft in the forum on the site. I'm not really sold on the design and am very open to alternatives, if someone else would like to create one. (Feel free to also post it there, the site should allow you to upload it as an attachment to your comment.)





Crenel said:


> You're welcome to come up with your own promotional text or graphics to tell people about the promo, but it's also good to have a social-media-ready image that people can use if they don't (or can't) create their own. I'm not much of a graphic designer and turned to Canva to play around a bit, and posted a draft in the forum on the site. I'm not really sold on the design and am very open to alternatives, if someone else would like to create one. (Feel free to also post it there, the site should allow you to upload it as an attachment to your comment.)


Hi Crenel,
I threw together a promo graphic to help with the promo. People are welcome to use it if you think it works. I could only fit some of the covers on, cause 17 is a bit much to get on there. I could fit like 6. But I chose ones that gave an idea of what people can find in the promo. I'll be using it on my blog and sending it out on my social media this weekend. If you think it works, other people are welcome to use it as well.


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## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

Tiffany - thanks.  Such a cute promo picture.  I copied it and will have it ready to post on FB, Twitter and in my newsletter.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

That looks great, Tiffany! Thank you for creating that, it is much more engaging than my weak attempt. If all goes well, I will be able to add that to the site in such a manner that just linking to the promo page on Facebook (and elsewhere) will display that image even though it doesn't appear on the page itself. This should make it much easier to promote the promotion.

I've added the "Summer Reading Promotion" tab to the main site, and removed the note to authors on the promo page (but the link for authors will remain).

To my frustration and annoyance, I had to pull my own book (_Two Boys, Two Planets_) out of the promo... because it's not in KDP Select and when I tried to drop the price manually to 99 cents Amazon wouldn't let me set it below $1.99. My own book, ineligible for the promotion. Great... (And the way the site works, all covers link to Amazon, so I can't just link it to a more flexible retailer.) Oh well, obviously the promotion will go forward without my book and I will be promoting the promo as aggressively as I'd originally planned to do.

*If anyone else runs into the same problem, let me know ASAP.* This should only affect books that are not enrolled in KDP Select and which are large enough that Amazon won't let the book go to 99 cents. (At least, I'm assuming it's a file size issue.)


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## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

Hi Crenel - if you have the book on other sites at higher than 99 cents, Amazon might be price-matching and won't let you have the 99 cent price.  If you can lower the price on other sites fast enough, maybe Amazon will let you reduce the price.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Pamela said:


> Hi Crenel - if you have the book on other sites at higher than 99 cents, Amazon might be price-matching and won't let you have the 99 cent price. If you can lower the price on other sites fast enough, maybe Amazon will let you reduce the price.


That's interesting, I didn't think about price matching being an issue. I've avoided playing along with how Amazon "handles" price matching for permafrees, and I generally keep prices the same everywhere at least for the US market, so I'm not very familiar with their price matching. I guess I can give it a try, thanks!


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## DC Swain (Feb 24, 2013)

If it's not price matching, it may be the file size of your book. Is it image heavy?

I've got a couple of books that I can't price below $1.99 due to the size of the files (even on 35% royalties). KCD deals won't let them go down to 0.99 either.

Good luck - would be a shame to have your own book miss out!!!


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

dcswain said:


> If it's not price matching, it may be the file size of your book. Is it image heavy?
> 
> I've got a couple of books that I can't price below $1.99 due to the size of the files (even on 35% royalties). KCD deals won't let them go down to 0.99 either.


Yeah, it's almost all images, very little text -- basically an early-reader picture book. I didn't realize they would limit the price on a KCD too, that's interesting.

We now have over 20 19* titles in the promo.  I'm going to send out an email to all participants soon. In retrospect I probably should have made joining the mailing list for authors a mandatory thing, just for ease of coordination. Oh well, lessons learned. I'll probably do that for any future promos.

* Lost a couple more to the $1.99 minimum. /sigh/


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## LectorsBooks (Apr 30, 2013)

Crenel said:


> Yeah, it's almost all images, very little text -- basically an early-reader picture book. I didn't realize they would limit the price on a KCD too, that's interesting.
> 
> We now have over 20 19* titles in the promo.  I'm going to send out an email to all participants soon. In retrospect I probably should have made joining the mailing list for authors a mandatory thing, just for ease of coordination. Oh well, lessons learned. I'll probably do that for any future promos.
> 
> * Lost a couple more to the $1.99 minimum. /sigh/


That's so weird - I have a 32 page picture book, full-page illustrations, and as far as I can tell, it's letting me set the KCD price as $0.99. It's entirely possible I've messed something up, but I've checked it a couple of times and it says $0.99. Is it worth a call to see if someone at Amazon can shed some light on it?


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

LectorsBooks said:


> That's so weird - I have a 32 page picture book, full-page illustrations, and as far as I can tell, it's letting me set the KCD price as $0.99. It's entirely possible I've messed something up, but I've checked it a couple of times and it says $0.99. Is it worth a call to see if someone at Amazon can shed some light on it?


I'm guessing it comes down to a just-big-enough difference in file sizes.

There are quite a few factors that can affect the file sizes of illustrations -- compression algorithms, file formats, pixel dimensions, and the visible image content (and how well matched the content is to the compression algorithm). Images that have a lot of white space or large areas of solid color can compress a lot better than more detailed images that use the full frame. The latter describes the result of how my illustrator created the images in my book. When I first published the book in 2010 I used smaller images suitable for devices on the market at that time. The last time I updated this book, though, I went for really large images trying to get the best possible display on newer (and future) higher-resolution devices -- large pixel dimensions, less aggressive compression, etc. I was aware of delivery costs and had those in mind, but was not aware that Amazon might put a higher minimum price on it.

For mine, the "book file size after conversion" information (displayed immediately below the prices on the pricing page) shows it as 3.13MB. I would be interested to know what your after-conversion size is, since you were able to price to 99 cents. My guess is that your after-conversion size is sufficiently smaller to allow the lower pricing. It would be very useful to know what the breakpoint is. Overall, I'm pretty sure I just made trouble for myself by aiming for larger images. Live and learn, as they say! 

I didn't get a chance to try some price-matching magic, in case that made a difference. Too busy this week.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

As I understand it, while we are not able to manually set a price of $0.99 for books with a very large file size (over 3 MB), we are able to set it to $0.99 for the duration of a Countdown promotion.

However, in that case, we still have to bear the delivery costs, which often results in receiving only pennies or even zero royalties on each sale.

Philip


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## LectorsBooks (Apr 30, 2013)

Interesting...my file size is showing as 13704 KB. I wonder if the face that it ended up as 16 "pages" (two page spreads were stuck together because I have a couple of full two-page illustrations) had anything to do with that. Which of course makes my page reads even more abysmal, but oh well. Maybe those folks will all go on to buy the paper version anyways!


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

LectorsBooks said:


> Maybe those folks will all go on to buy the paper version anyways!


That's always my hope -- I think my book is definitely better in print.  I took mine out of KDP Select when they went to the KENPC model, but before that I was often able to see a pretty clear connection between free Kindle download days and increases in print sales, especially in earlier years.


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## Talbot (Jul 14, 2015)

Bump.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

TiffanyTurner said:


> Hi Crenel,
> I threw together a promo graphic to help with the promo. People are welcome to use it if you think it works. I could only fit some of the covers on, cause 17 is a bit much to get on there. I could fit like 6. But I chose ones that gave an idea of what people can find in the promo. I'll be using it on my blog and sending it out on my social media this weekend. If you think it works, other people are welcome to use it as well.


Oh, this is so cute! Thanks for putting this together Tiffany! 

I'll put together a newsletter to share it with my mailing list. Plus post it to my social media.

Rue


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

Do we have a hashtag for this event? Sorry if I missed it. I've used #summerreading but can change it if that doesn’t work.

Rue


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

ruecole said:


> Do we have a hashtag for this event? Sorry if I missed it. I've used #summerreading but can change it if that doesn't work.
> 
> Rue


I didn't mention one earlier, but let's go with that!

I think it hits the right hashtag balance between too unique (no extra visibility) and too common (very limited extra visibility). By hitting a good balance we can maximize the visibility gained.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Looks like we have a couple authors whose books are still at full price, hopefully that is a server timing/synchronization issue. Otherwise it looks good. (If those are not resolved fairly soon, I'll need to remove them.)

My promotion links so far, for giving a little "algorithm love" (like, share, +1, favorite, upvote, retweet, etc.)...

Mainstream...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stuart.whitmore.10/posts/514317875440571
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Crenel/status/744068747846123520
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+StuartWhitmore/posts/dqKtcCSBWXv
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/99CentEBooks/comments/4onpyv/promo_over_15_childrens_ebooks_99_cents_each_june/?ref=share&ref_source=link

Not so mainstream...
Ello: https://ello.co/crenel/post/xcfdy9lywmovo4q1jx_tqa
Diaspora*: https://joindiaspora.com/posts/7512205

I will also be posting to my blog later today, plus I'm sure I'll send at least a couple more Tweets throughout the weekend. If you have links to share, please post them here!


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## Lyndawrites (Aug 7, 2011)

I've posted the ad on my Kindle for Kids FB page and shared it:

https://www.facebook.com/KindleForKids/

Will tweet in a moment.


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## alba_detamble (Aug 31, 2015)

www.facebook.com/AuthorSandraR/posts/896073120520837

www.sandrarandersson.com/2016/06/summer-reading-promo.html

I've liked and hearted and retweeted (both of me!) and will keep tickling the algorithms the best I can all weekend.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

Crenel said:


> Looks like we have a couple authors whose books are still at full price, hopefully that is a server timing/synchronization issue. Otherwise it looks good. (If those are not resolved fairly soon, I'll need to remove them.)
> 
> My promotion links so far, for giving a little "algorithm love" (like, share, +1, favorite, upvote, retweet, etc.)...
> 
> ...


I've shared the Tweet, the Facebook and the G+ this morning. I've got plans to work in the yard this morning - but I'll definitely bounce out some Facebook group postings and a blog post before the end of the day.


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## Jerri Kay Lincoln (Jun 18, 2011)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jerri.lincoln/posts/10209949527394561?pnref=story

Twitter:

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/744189974795288576


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## thenotoriousjed (Aug 15, 2015)

Wish I had found this earlier. My book went on countdown deal yesterday by coincidence. I did share a tweet and a facebook post. Good luck all


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

I'm in from digging in the garden. Had a bath, watched the first part of a good old-fashioned western and snoozed through most of it.

I just hit a mess of Facebook groups this afternoon. Now I need to get dressed and go mow the lawn.

Busy day!

I also threw the original tweet onto the retweet thread here at kboards - so hopefully we'll get a little bit more action.
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,235863.175.html

How are you folks doing for sales so far? I haven't seen much action - but it's early in the weekend yet.


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## LectorsBooks (Apr 30, 2013)

No sales as yet.

Here are my links:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/744266379054850048%5B%2Furl


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

thenotoriousjed said:


> Wish I had found this earlier. My book went on countdown deal yesterday by coincidence. I did share a tweet and a facebook post. Good luck all


If it's 99 cents this weekend, feel free to set it up on the site and include it in the promo. The site is flexible enough to add books at any time. I'll keep an eye out for any new additions and approve them as quickly as possible.



Steve Vernon said:


> How are you folks doing for sales so far? I haven't seen much action - but it's early in the weekend yet.


Another lesson learned this time around -- I should have run all the links through a script to keep track of clicks, instead of literally going direct to Amazon. From what I understand, the Associates stats don't update more than once a day? I am seeing activity (including at least one sale), but the "last updated" time is over 12 hours ago. Anyway, I'll try to rework the code that generates the promo page next time so that clicks can be counted.


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## thenotoriousjed (Aug 15, 2015)

Crenel said:


> If it's 99 cents this weekend, feel free to set it up on the site and include it in the promo. The site is flexible enough to add books at any time. I'll keep an eye out for any new additions and approve them as quickly as possible.


Thanks. I did just add it and it's showed up. Thank you for the opportunity.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

thenotoriousjed said:


> Thanks. I did just add it and it's showed up. Thank you for the opportunity.


My pleasure, I'm glad to have more books included.  You're welcome to add as many other books as you want on the site. I have no idea whether non-promo books will get any attention via the link at the bottom of the promo page, but maybe it's worth a try. I'm definitely looking forward to the stats update from Amazon, which might let me know if that link helped increase exposure for books not in the promo.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Yay! Got a sale already.  Kind of surprising since it's Book 10 in the series.  Hopefully, they'll go back to the start of the series.


Philip


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## LeanneWinter CoverDesign (Aug 21, 2015)

Sorry I'm late! No sales for me yet  but hopefully tomorrow. Will be interested to hear how others went.
I've 'liked' all the FB posts linked above. Here's mine: 
https://www.facebook.com/LeeWinterAuthor/posts/571450159683647

Cheers,
Lee


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

I appreciate everyone helping to promote this, including people who don't have a book in the promo. Y'all are awesome! 

So... nobody said being an indie children's book author would be easy, right? It's still worth promoting this one, but the first day results are not particularly encouraging. On the other hand, this was a first time for me to run one, and hopefully the next one will be even better. (I'm looking at waiting for my next children's book promo until early September, for a back-to-school promo.) On Saturday, I'm seeing about three dozen clicks, and less than five sales. If you weren't one with sales, don't feel bad, you have lots of company. I'm glad that the promo helped boost those who did get sales, but I'm sure we were all hoping for stronger results.

I'm very open to input on how I can do things differently next time. One thing I will do next time is make it an "under $2" event rather than "99 cent" event, to allow for larger e-books (like mine) that can't be priced lower than $1.99. I wasn't the only one caught up by that limitation for the one this weekend. If you have other comments or critiques, let me know (here or privately, whichever you prefer).

One other idea I had, in addition to the back-to-school event, would be a promo specifically oriented around print editions. This would be a "discovery" event rather than a "savings" event (since it's much harder for us to offer print editions at a price that draws attention by itself). I welcome thoughts on that idea too.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Well, the Associates stats pretty much drive me crazy. Now they're showing (I think?) around twice as many sales for Saturday. No sales recorded for Sunday, but maybe that will be updated later too? Who knows... Definitely need a better way to track clicks at least. If you made one or more sales that you think came from the promo, feel free to share.

Assuming I do the back-to-school promo, you won't need to set up your book again if it's already on the site. You'll just need to do the second step of including the book in the promo. Any announcement about that will come later this summer.

Thanks again, everyone, for participating!


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## 88149 (Dec 13, 2015)

Made one sale on Friday from email to a neighbor, who bought The Chumash Circle for her grandson. All the rest of my email list netted zero all three days. Sure, it's disappointing but as we all know, children's ebooks are a hard sell. I think this young man read the book on his granny's Kindle. Wish I could come up with a helpful suggestion, but I'm still puzzling out the market.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

I think I saw about 5-6 ebook sales plus 3 in print from the promo. Not too bad especially since June is a major slump month for me and promos for kids' books don't seem to do as well on the weekends as on weekdays (at least not for me). No idea why!

Hope that helps!

Rue


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Dan Phalen said:


> Sure, it's disappointing but as we all know, children's ebooks are a hard sell.


Definitely can be a hard sell, there are various obstacles to selling children's e-books that don't exist for other books such as novels for older markets. I added a promo for print editions during the winter holiday season, so we'll see if that goes anywhere.



ruecole said:


> I think I saw about 5-6 ebook sales plus 3 in print from the promo. Not too bad especially since June is a major slump month for me and promos for kids' books don't seem to do as well on the weekends as on weekdays (at least not for me). No idea why!


That's great!  And also interesting about weekend vs weekday promotions. I scheduled some more promotions on the site, including two for children's books, and I set them to run on weekdays. Can't hurt to try and see if that offers better results.


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

So sorry I missed doing any promos for this. I sent my computer in for a Windows 10 update and the technician had endless problems with the installation (still not resolved after 12 days, but have got the computer back today while he tries to figure out what is going wrong).


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> So sorry I missed doing any promos for this. I sent my computer in for a Windows 10 update and the technician had endless problems with the installation (still not resolved after 12 days, but have got the computer back today while he tries to figure out what is going wrong).


Sorry to hear that, operating system hassles can be very disruptive. I had related issues crop up last night and it took me almost a day to (hopefully) be back to normal-ish. We'll give you a pass this time. 

I haven't heard much good about Windows 10, and Microsoft didn't do themselves any favors by virtually forcing the upgrade on people. Instead of shaping the conversation around benefits of the upgrade, they allowed the conversation to be about their pushy tactics. I'm going to hold off on that upgrade as long as I can -- ideally permanently. I said the same about XP, and never did upgrade any systems to XP, although I eventually ended up needing to buy new ones with XP and later versions. Anyway, I hope you get it resolved. (Or that you try Linux and find out it meets all your needs...  )


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

Crenel said:


> Sorry to hear that, operating system hassles can be very disruptive. I had related issues crop up last night and it took me almost a day to (hopefully) be back to normal-ish. We'll give you a pass this time.
> 
> I haven't heard much good about Windows 10, and Microsoft didn't do themselves any favors by virtually forcing the upgrade on people. Instead of shaping the conversation around benefits of the upgrade, they allowed the conversation to be about their pushy tactics. I'm going to hold off on that upgrade as long as I can -- ideally permanently. I said the same about XP, and never did upgrade any systems to XP, although I eventually ended up needing to buy new ones with XP and later versions. Anyway, I hope you get it resolved. (Or that you try Linux and find out it meets all your needs...  )


Thanks for the pass 
Yes, very annoying having to make changes at Microsoft's behest when you're quite happy with the system you are already using. I'd like to keep to XP but worry I'll end up with files that won't be compatible with W10 and will have to make the change eventually anyway.


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

I see the next one is for 99 cent novellas, I believe I am going to have one of my books on sale at that time. It's a full length novel not a novella but it will be 99 cents. okay to add?


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

KL_Phelps said:


> I see the next one is for 99 cent novellas, I believe I am going to have one of my books on sale at that time. It's a full length novel not a novella but it will be 99 cents. okay to add?


About how many words is it? I planned to highlight these titles as quick reads for a busy summer, but if it's a fairly short novel then it could be OK. The distinction between "novel" and "novella" is arguable (and somewhat genre-dependent) anyway, but if it's 60K or more then it probably wouldn't be a good fit. OTOH, the odds of anybody actually complaining are probably close to zero, so if it's too long but the promo needs more titles then I could see including it regardless of length.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Apple got a promotion today.  In the past, the only way to include the iBooks link for a book was to put that in the "other retailer" field, and then the book detail page would just show "another retailer" rather than naming Apple directly. That wasn't particularly encouraging to potential buyers wanting to pick up a book via iBooks. Initially I wasn't sure how many people who signed up for my site would have their books available through Apple, since it's not as easy as other platforms. By now, though, I can see that it's common enough that my site should support Apple directly. Today I added a field specifically for Apple iBooks, and then I manually copied the iBooks links from the "other" field to the Apple field for around 20 books I found that needed that update.

Being a manual process there was room for error, so you're welcome to check your book listing(s). As always, you can make edits if you find a problem. It was just a repetitive copy/paste thing, though, so I'm pretty sure I did them all right.

Also, there's plenty of room for new entries in the 99 cent novella promotion for later this month. The price does not need to be marked down, i.e., the novella can always be 99 cents.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

There is still ample time, and lots of room, for more 99-cent novellas for this week's promo. If you haven't already, just create your free account, set up your book(s), and then include your book(s) in the promo.


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## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

Hi Crenel,

I got an email about the upcoming promo, but I'm confused.  Is this one only for children's books?  You said novellas, but didn't specify if other genres are included.  I went to the site, but still don't know what kind of novellas you want for the promotion.  Thanks!


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## 67499 (Feb 4, 2013)

Crenel - This is a clever idea and I'm happy to join!  Just submitted a novella that leads into a series of novels.  I'm anxious to see what kind of impact the promo has on the whole series.  Thank you  for going to so much work.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Pamela said:


> I got an email about the upcoming promo, but I'm confused. Is this one only for children's books? You said novellas, but didn't specify if other genres are included. I went to the site, but still don't know what kind of novellas you want for the promotion. Thanks!


No genre limitation on this month's promo, this is open to anything that can reasonably be called a novella at 99 cents. 



Jeff Tanyard said:


> Technically, it's a novelette, not a novella, but since the goal of the promotion is sort of a generalized "short read," I figured I'd give it a shot and let Stu (or whoever) make the final call.


That should work, I'm not being too picky about length as long as readers will think it's a decent deal for 99 cents. A very short story (like my No Fanfare story, which is under 2000 words) would be too short, but a novelette should be fine.



Steven Hardesty said:


> Crenel - This is a clever idea and I'm happy to join! Just submitted a novella that leads into a series of novels. I'm anxious to see what kind of impact the promo has on the whole series. Thank you  for going to so much work.


Thanks for signing up! Don't forget the second step of attaching the book to the current promo, via the link on the For Authors page. I've connected the main URL -- http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/promo -- to this month's promo, so you can see which books have been activated.


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## Alvina (Oct 19, 2015)

Thank Crenel! Signed up.


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## Abderian (Apr 5, 2012)

I'm glad I spotted this. I didn't receive an email though I signed up a while ago. Was a notification email sent? I've added the site to my list of contacts now and I'll remember to make a note of promos I've entered!


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

All right, I am caught up so far on new writers and new books for the promo.  Also, I experimented with displaying links to non-Amazon retailers, but in the limited time I had I couldn't make it look good enough to use. I will resume working on that later, but it won't be ready for this promo. Of course, those links are still displayed on the book detail page for anyone who browses that part of the site.



Alvina said:


> Thank Crenel! Signed up.


Thanks for adding your book to the site! This one won't work for the novella event this week since your book is nonfiction, but keep an eye on the promo schedule! I am considering doing a nonfiction promo in the near future, since I haven't seen any multi-author promos for nonfiction.



Abderian said:


> I'm glad I spotted this. I didn't receive an email though I signed up a while ago. Was a notification email sent? I've added the site to my list of contacts now and I'll remember to make a note of promos I've entered!


I didn't send email to everyone who participated before, mainly due to the different scope of this promo (novellas regardless of genre, versus children's books before). I just sent one message to those authors who signed up for the mailing list to be advised of upcoming promos, and that message was to let them know I'd switched mailing list providers (to MailChimp) and also to remind/let people know about the novella promo this week. I definitely recommend that authors who are interested in participating in my promos sign up for the mailing list (the link is on the For Authors page), as that will be the most reliable way to stay up-to-date on things, and the list won't be used for anything else.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

A few links to get started...

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stuart.whitmore.10/posts/527664837439208
Google+: Find it* via one of my Collections there: https://plus.google.com/collection/c1xSh
Twitter**: https://twitter.com/Crenel/status/756387647875014657

* The forum auto-censor insisted on replacing part of the G+ link with "[expletive]" -- and wrapping it in URL BBCode didn't get around it.

** I was never able to get Twitter to load the correct image, it either used the outdated image from the children's book promo last month or it didn't show an image at all. It may do the same for you if it is forcing use of a server-cached image from the promo URL. Not sure how to resolve that.

Considering the technical issues, I'd have to say this is not my night.


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## Abderian (Apr 5, 2012)

Crenel said:


> A few links to get started...
> 
> Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stuart.whitmore.10/posts/527664837439208
> Google+: Find it* via one of my Collections there: https://plus.google.com/collection/c1xSh
> ...


I scheduled a tweet on Buffer, and it picked up the image, and so did my direct tweet. https://twitter.com/Infinitebook1/status/756456745845665792 Gah, no, it's picked up the wrong image. But Buffer's got the right one. Odd.


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## UnicornEmily (Jul 2, 2011)

Sent a note to my mailing list.


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## alba_detamble (Aug 31, 2015)

Inconveniently off the grid this weekend, but have been blogging, Liking and re-tweeting everything I've seen.

 Facebook


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/756430539964424192%2F


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## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

Liked and shared everyone's posts.  Got a sale.  Thanks.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Thanks, everyone, for helping get the word out!

I'm still puzzling over how to resolve the problem that Jeff brought up, I might have a fix for that later today. This might lead in to some other improvements, so it might have a silver lining. For now, if anyone mentions to you that they can't see books on the promo page, you can let them know that temporarily disabling or pausing their ad-blocking plugin should allow the covers to appear.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Thanks again, everyone!

A little post-promo analysis...

Sales were made! 
Not a lot of sales were made and not all books sold (e.g., mine didn't).
For what it's worth, books that didn't sell did get more exposure; most or all had clicks to Amazon that did not result in sales.
We had a pretty small group of books included in the promo, which limits the effectiveness. Having a large promo helps everyone in the promo by giving more exposure as well as more value to readers (buyers).
Traffic on the second day (Saturday) was much lower than the first day. I had hoped that having a Friday/Saturday promo would allow higher traffic on the second day than what I've seen (in this and other promos) on Saturday/Sunday promos. Maybe if the promo had more titles included, that might have worked -- or maybe two-day promos will never drive a lot of interest on the second day.
I was not able to fix the ad-blocking issue with code that I trusted in a live/public environment due to limited time to work on it. I will have that resolved before the next promo. It also ties in with better traffic analysis, which will also be addressed before the next promo.
I've updated the first post in this thread with plans for the next promo. There won't be one in August, but in September there will be another one for children's e-books. This is where it will finally pay off efficiency-wise to set up books once and then include them in multiple promos.


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## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

Thanks Crenel - I sold two book - kind of a nice surprise because it's a Valentines Day romance and hasn't sold since February.  I hope you will get more books in the next promotion.


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## Abderian (Apr 5, 2012)

Thanks for your efforts. I didn't make any sales but that book's a hard sell, so I'm not too surprised.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Children's book authors, you're welcome to join the September 7-8 promo. You can list the same book you featured in June or a different one. The more titles people have to choose from the better, so feel free to include more than one if you'd like, just remember that each book needs to be priced under $2.00 on the promo days. Books already on the site can be added to the promo just by using the "include" step (on the For Authors page), i.e., you don't need to add the book to the site again.

To make things a little easier on my side, when you "include" your book in the promo, please remember to use the book title and the promo name in the "Title" field of the "Create Promo Entry" form. This way, when I'm looking at all of the content titles on the site, I can quickly see what is a "book" versus what is a "promo entry." It's not the end of the world if this isn't done, but it speeds up my processes for managing the promo.

Since there are post frequency restrictions here (since this could be considered self-promotion), I set up a thread in a different forum to discuss the promo, and I also highly recommend joining the mailing list for participating authors. Information about these resources is listed on the For Authors page.


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## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

Thanks Crenel, I added two children's books. Pam


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## MarcyB (Feb 10, 2013)

I added my book, Evie and the Volunteers: Animal Shelter, Book 1. Thanks so much!


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Awesome, thanks Pam & Marcy! I'm caught up now on new accounts, new books, and promo entries. It will have the shorter promo URL when the promo is running, but for now the promotion page is visible at its permanent URL: http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/promo/back-to-school-special-childrens-ebooks-under-two-dollars.html

ETA: Also, I'm still working on the technical issues that came up last time, so the promo page currently is just like the earlier ones, but I will have those resolved before the promo goes live.


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## Almost Me (May 15, 2015)

Hi Crenel. Can I join the promo with a permafree kids book or is this just for discounted ones?


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Almost Me said:


> Hi Crenel. Can I join the promo with a permafree kids book or is this just for discounted ones?


Thanks for asking! This promo event will be promoted as "back-to-school children's books under $2" so permafree should be fine. I don't want to emphasize "discount" since some books might be permanently priced under $2 -- which would include permafree -- and buyers should be thinking about getting a low-cost book rather than a book that is lower cost than normal. The main goal is to have a wide variety of titles for potential buyers to choose from, and a large group of actively-promoting authors.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Crenel said:


> Thanks for asking! This promo event will be promoted as "back-to-school children's books under $2" so permafree should be fine. I don't want to emphasize "discount" since some books might be permanently priced under $2 -- which would include permafree -- and buyers should be thinking about getting a low-cost book rather than a book that is lower cost than normal. The main goal is to have a wide variety of titles for potential buyers to choose from, and a large group of actively-promoting authors.


Well put!

Should I be uploading my book or supplying a link somewhere now? I will offer my 3-book collection of graded readers set to free for 5 days during the promo. Is that okay?

Philip


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Philip Gibson said:


> Should I be uploading my book or supplying a link somewhere now? I will offer my 3-book collection of graded readers set to free for 5 days during the promo. Is that okay?


That should be fine. Do you mean this collection? If so, you can go ahead and include it in the promo as soon as you're ready, via the Create Promo Entry form. If what you want to include isn't on the site yet, start with the Create Published Book form. Thanks!


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Crenel said:


> That should be fine. Do you mean this collection? If so, you can go ahead and include it in the promo as soon as you're ready, via the Create Promo Entry form. If what you want to include isn't on the site yet, start with the Create Published Book form. Thanks!


Yes, that's the book I want to include in the promo.

When I clicked on those two links, I received the following:



> That's a Restricted-Area Resource - 403
> 
> The page or other resource you requested is not available to you.


Would it be possible for you to include the book on my behalf?

Thanks,

Philip


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Philip Gibson said:


> When I clicked on those two links, I received the following:


Ah, sorry about that, I should have clarified: Those links will only work if you're logged in. If you need to, you can reset your password. Let me know if you have any problems getting in to your account.


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## Talbot (Jul 14, 2015)

Done! Thanks a bunch.


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## Almost Me (May 15, 2015)

Thanks Crenel! I added my permafree. (Or, at least I think I did. I'm still learning this technology stuff.)


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Crenel said:


> Ah, sorry about that, I should have clarified: Those links will only work if you're logged in. If you need to, you can reset your password. Let me know if you have any problems getting in to your account.


Thanks. Found my password. Logged in and set up the collection to be in the promo. I think. Maybe you could check?

Philip


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Philip Gibson said:


> Maybe you could check?


Yep, that worked fine, thanks!

I'm caught up on all new users, books, and promo entries. For all who have signed on so far, feel free to check the promo page -- http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/promo/back-to-school-special-childrens-ebooks-under-two-dollars.html -- and if you don't see yours, let me know.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

We have a pretty good set already, but more are always welcome. If you haven't listed your children's book yet, this promo is next week, so don't wait! Also, feel free to invite other children's book authors you may know. Let's give potential buyers a great selection and a reason to check back for future promos!


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Technical upgrades should now be complete, resolving the problem with ad blockers and capturing more real-time data about clicks.

My week is going to be unexpectedly busy, so I went ahead and enabled the promo tab on the site, and directed the main promo URL to the current promo: http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/promo We're already getting some clicks on books in the promo, as shown in the click counter in my signature. This might just be participating authors checking their own book links though.

If you're using a Kindle Countdown, don't forget to schedule it. If you're manually adjusting your price, make sure you allow enough time for the modified price to take effect. Since I'm going to be on the road a lot, I went ahead and changed mine today.

I'll try to get a promo graphic out today but those with more artistic skill are welcome to make their own.


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## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

Hi Crenel,

I asked a friend who writes Silly Wilson books to add hers to the promo.  I think she will.  You might get more books in the promo by announcing it on Facebook sites for children's books.  It's hard to promote children's books, so they'd probably be interested.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Pamela said:


> I asked a friend who writes Silly Wilson books to add hers to the promo. I think she will. You might get more books in the promo by announcing it on Facebook sites for children's books. It's hard to promote children's books, so they'd probably be interested.


That would be great, I hope she does. I will keep an eye out as best I can for her account. Ended up needing to be on the road... bad timing. :-/ Reaching out to other authors on Facebook is a good idea. I haven't joined any groups there but will take a look.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Links for sharing, liking, +1'ing, etc.:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Crenel/status/773450246894579712
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stuart.whitmore.10/posts/548191752053183
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+StuartWhitmore/posts/KwqtBr1QXGX

Remember to post your links here too so that others can like/favorite/retweet/etc your posts and increase exposure for everyone.


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## Talbot (Jul 14, 2015)

Crenel said:


> Links for sharing, liking, +1'ing, etc.:
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/Crenel/status/773450246894579712
> Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stuart.whitmore.10/posts/548191752053183
> ...


If you have artwork up for the Facebook promo it's not showing up. Granted, it might be a problem at my end but I just wanted you to know.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Jessie G. Talbot said:


> If you have artwork up for the Facebook promo it's not showing up. Granted, it might be a problem at my end but I just wanted you to know.


I don't see the Facebook ad image either. Just a large white space.

Philip


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

I've added some posts about the promo on Goodreads groups. Hope it brings in some sales.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

I'd sure like to know why the promo image isn't working out, LSR is the only site where I can't seem to get that image to consistently show correctly when linking from sites like Facebook. OTOH the underlying software is a newer version and this is the only site where I recycle a non-canonical URL. On the other hand, you can always post your own content and grab the promo graphics that I created and posted on the IndieAuthorsUnited.com forum thread.


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## alba_detamble (Aug 31, 2015)

https://twitter.com/authorsaralisa/status/773779214386462720

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSandraR/photos/a.870309586430524.1073741828.859532477508235/954282128033269/?type=3&theater


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

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/18233469-back-to-school-under-2-promo


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

I would like to thank all of the authors who participated in the most recent promo. Once again, it was a learning experience. It has taken me much longer to post this follow-up than I intended, but this summer has been filled with unexpected obstacles for me. To a limited extent this affected my participation in this promo, although I did what I could to post it on social networks, etc.

Unfortunately, the overall performance of the promotion was disappointing. Quite a few people visited the page and clicked through (and continue to do so), but to my knowledge no sales were made. If you participated in the promotion and would like to have details about the clicks that were counted from the promotion page, let me know. I can provide you with a CSV file with the click data for your book(s).

Here are some key lessons that I took away from this event:

1. The number of clicks reported by Amazon can't be independently verified and, beyond mere verification, is much lower than my own count based on the new redirection script. According to that script, which counts when people actually click on book covers, about three dozen people clicked through (or attempted to; blocking software might have interfered). The number reported by Amazon was less than half of what the script reported.

2. The value of the promotion page continues after the promotion is over. In fact, the redirection script has counted more clicks after the promotion than there were during the promotion.

3. I probably need to include the promotion graphic directly on the promotion page in order to make it show up when linking to the page, especially when using the recycled main promotion URL. Using the metadata alone seems to confuse the social networks.

4. These multi-author promotions are probably not worth the time unless there is significantly more participation, in both having more authors involved and ensuring that each author who has books in the promotion actively promotes the event. This includes posting links for others to use for liking, up-voting, re-tweeting, and so forth.

5. Related to number four, I am perhaps not the best person to coordinate these efforts. I have not been able to muster a large group of participating authors. I believe the technical functionality of the site is solid, with room for further enhancements, but without people being involved those technical facets are irrelevant.

At this point I am trying to decide whether I'm going to shut the site down, since it has already met its original purpose, or if I'm going to proceed with the promotions that I have on the schedule. Due to "life challenges" this year, I can only allocate so much energy into things that do not directly help to resolve the problems that I am trying to get past (divorce, preparing to move, etc.).

In any event, I do appreciate the efforts of those who participated, and I wish you all well with your books no matter what happens with my site.


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

Children's books do seem to be a difficult sell, so thanks for all the work you put in. It does take a lot of effort doing a promotion and starting threads, Facebooking, Tweeting etc and everyone needs to pitch in. I hope you continue with the website and once your life is back in order you will be able to spend more time on it.


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## Almost Me (May 15, 2015)

It sounds like you're going through a lot right now -- sorry Crenel. Thanks so much for putting this promo together, though. I think if we do something like this again, we should drop the price a little ("under $2 for children's ebooks" isn't going to draw in too many impulse clicks). But I really appreciate you trying! And it was fun. I also agree I need to figure out how to pitch in more for these promos. Sorry it wasn't better this time. Thanks again for including me.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Thanks, all, for your comments. The first promo was the "proof of concept" for running a promo site with Drupal 8. I went with 99-cent children's e-books for that first one, because children's book authors need all the help they can get with marketing, and I thought I'd be able to include my own book. Turned out I couldn't; without reprocessing the artwork in it to reduce the sizes (after having already reprocessed them upward to get the best results on more recent, higher-res hardware), the lowest price Amazon would allow was $1.99. That's why this most recent one was "under $2" instead of even lower, because _this_ time I wanted to make sure my book could be included. I suppose I could've worded it "$1.99 and under" -- probably would've looked better.

Anyway, I'm going to take another swing at it, with (once again) a different focus. For the next promo, I'm going to be searching outside the KBoards community more, although KBoards members are still very welcome to participate if they qualify. I've updated the first post in the thread, but in a nutshell this next one is going to be "by veterans, for veterans" on Veterans Day, specifically US military veterans like myself. I'll be doing what I can through my veteran connections to find other writers -- and if anyone here knows of somebody who is eligible, please let them know.

I still have the print edition children's book promo scheduled for early December, to try for holiday sales. If you're not interested in or eligible for the Veterans Day promo, it's not too early to set up children's books for the December promo. For that, your listing on LazySaturdayReads.com can link to the Kindle edition, but you must also have a print edition available. Any books entered for the promo that do not have a print edition available will not be accepted. If you don't have a print edition yet, you still have time!


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## 67499 (Feb 4, 2013)

Just submitted for the Vets' Day promo and thank you for a great idea!


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Steven Hardesty said:


> Just submitted for the Vets' Day promo and thank you for a great idea!


Awesome, thanks! 

Another thing I should mention, which I don't think I've said since I made this change, is that now I am manually caching book covers on the site. This means a few things:

1. Page loads should go faster for pages with multiple book covers, like the promo pages, because site visitor's browsers can grab more resources from one server instead of calling Amazon's server farm.
2. If you update your cover(s) you should let me know so I can update my manual cache.
3. Ad-blocking software will no longer block the display of covers, at least not based on where the image file is hosted.
4. Book approvals will be a little slower now because of the manual process of grabbing the cover image.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Well, I survived the big storm here... which just fizzled out... so I'm ready to approve more accounts and books for the promo! If you're a US military veteran like me, you can include your books in this 1-day promo, no discount needed.


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## Joseph Malik (Jul 12, 2016)

Sure. I'm in. I just set up an account.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Joseph Malik said:


> Sure. I'm in. I just set up an account.


Thanks! Let me know if you have any questions or problems with adding books to the site or including them in the promo.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

There are a dozen books on the promo page so far. I'd love to see more! I could add more of my own, but I'd rather have more authors to choose from.

If you are, or know of, a US military veteran who is also a published author (trad or indie), the "join the fun" link on the promo page leads to the "for author" page, where there is a link to register on the site.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

There's about one week left... Plenty of time to add new authors and new books, but if you qualify for this promo, don't wait!


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Reminder email finally sent! If you don't get it and believe you're on the list, be sure to check your spam folder. Promotional graphics are available, and you're welcome to use your own if you don't like what I came up with. There are 16 books listed in the promo as of this writing. If you think yours should be on the promo page and it doesn't appear, be sure you completed both steps (add the book to the site, include the book in the promo). If you have any questions, let me know!


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## gmaz135 (Oct 20, 2016)

The next multi-author promotion will be November 11 (only), a Veterans Day promo to help US military veteran indie authors promote their books. This is not a price-based promo; books can be free, discounted, or regular price. The veteran focus is part of my attempt at finding non-genre-specific promotion ideas that allow me to participate and promote my own works along with the works of others.

If you know other veterans who are authors, please tell them about this promotion. I also have a YouTube invitation for it:

Thanks for doing this!


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> Reminder email finally sent! If you don't get it and believe you're on the list, be sure to check your spam folder. Promotional graphics are available, and you're welcome to use your own if you don't like what I came up with. There are 16 books listed in the promo as of this writing. If you think yours should be on the promo page and it doesn't appear, be sure you completed both steps (add the book to the site, include the book in the promo). If you have any questions, let me know!


We are in there. I did get the email and I am working on a blog post which will include the graphic you designed. Wishing all of my fellow veterans/authors 'Bestsellers' on Friday. Happy Veterans' Day to all veterans out there.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

gmaz135 said:


> Thanks for doing this!


My pleasure! I hope I can help my fellow veterans reach new readers, and by looking for participants both in and beyond KBoards I hope to help build more connections between us as writers.

There have already been quite a few clicks on the books in the promo, although no sales yet that I'm aware of. I figure that right now it's mostly just authors checking their own books and taking a peek at others. For those interested in the count, this image is dynamically updated (and also linked to the promo, and temporarily in my signature):



A couple others that might be of interest for the site overall, showing that books there get clicked on even without being in a promo:


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> My pleasure! I hope I can help my fellow veterans reach new readers, and by looking for participants both in and beyond KBoards I hope to help build more connections between us as writers.
> 
> There have already been quite a few clicks on the books in the promo, although no sales yet that I'm aware of. I figure that right now it's mostly just authors checking their own books and taking a peek at others. For those interested in the count, this image is dynamically updated (and also linked to the promo, and temporarily in my signature):
> 
> ...


Some of it may have been me making sure I get the URL correct for the blog post plus a couple of tweet outs via HootSuite in preparation for tomorrow. I was also checking out who all is on there. 

Checklist:

Books on page - check
Blog ready to go live at 2230 hours MST on 10 Nov 2016 - check
Tweet outs set for 0100 and 0300 hours MST on 11 Nov 2016 - check

If there is something I'm missing please let me know.

Oh, good point sstroble... I'll release my blog post now


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

sstroble said:


> It's already Veteran's Day for a lot of the members of U.S. Army in Germany so I posted the promo there:
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/groups/266807076730957/permalink/1154877634590559/


Nice post.

I've released by blog post:

http://cswcllc.weebly.com/blog/showcasing-authors-who-are-usmilitary-veterans-on-veteransday2016

If anyone wishes to share early that's okay by me.


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

sstroble said:


> Sounds good.
> Doing this is bringing back memories of being in West Germany in the 1970s along with about 200,000 other American troops waiting for the Russians and East Germans to come pouring through the Fulda Gap. Was able to visit Berlin on an R&R and Army tour bus took us into East Berlin where I talked to tourists from Poland. Did not realize how good we had it until they started drooling over my cheap Pentax ME-101 35mm camera, something apparently unavailable to them.
> Never dreamed I would live to see the day when the Berlin Wall came down 15 years later.


I suspect many of us have lived through some real life history, even if we weren't in the middle of the action.


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## gmaz135 (Oct 20, 2016)

RE: Lazy Saturday Reads Veterans Day Promo

Blog updated: http://www.georgemazzeo.com/skywriter-blog/book-promo-lazy-saturday-reads
Tweet Released: https://twitter.com/HighFlightPub/status/796850325726568448?lang=en

Thanks for organizing this!


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

gmaz135 said:


> RE: Lazy Saturday Reads Veterans Day Promo
> 
> Blog updated: http://www.georgemazzeo.com/skywriter-blog/book-promo-lazy-saturday-reads
> Tweet Released: https://twitter.com/HighFlightPub/status/796850325726568448?lang=en
> ...


Got your six.

I just posted a tweet:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/796860194793910273


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

sstroble said:


> Never dreamed I would live to see the day when the Berlin Wall came down 15 years later.


No kidding! I was there later, but still was surprised when the wall came down not long after I left. Having been born during the Cold War and spending time in West Germany as both a tourist and stationed there with the USAF, it seemed so unlikely to me that Germany would be reunified -- until it happened.

Thanks, all, for your help in already getting the word out about the promo!


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> No kidding! I was there later, but still was surprised when the wall came down not long after I left. Having been born during the Cold War and spending time in West Germany as both a tourist and stationed there with the USAF, it seemed so unlikely to me that Germany would be reunified -- until it happened.
> 
> Thanks, all, for your help in already getting the word out about the promo!


You're welcome for the help. I just finished getting book covers into Pinterest, some I had to do manually. So if your name or book is misspelled my apologies. You can DM with any corrections and I'll get to them ASAP.

Here's the link:

https://www.pinterest.com/cswclynn/lazy-saturday-reads-veterans-day-2016/


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## 67499 (Feb 4, 2013)

Fired off some tweets before midnight local time to have the promo waiting at dawn to greet those prying open their eyes for coffee and a good read over their cornflakes before work.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Since you're not limited to one book for the promo, anybody else want to include another book to increase the selection for potential buyers? I included one more of mine, and if we can get two more, we'll be up to 20. I could do that with my own but I have enough in already.


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> Since you're not limited to one book for the promo, anybody else want to include another book to increase the selection for potential buyers? I included one more of mine, and if we can get two more, we'll be up to 20. I could do that with my own but I have enough in already.


Added it to Pinterest page.

I did a new tweet that links to my blog page that will stay pinned for the day.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/796971042333925377


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## Jon Stuen-Parker (Jun 26, 2014)

"'Gaga’: The Real ****** Bulger/Irish Mob Story” is co-authored by WWII and Korean War veteran Francis X. "Gaga" Murray. The WWII chapter mentions US soldiers killing hundreds of Japanese civilians. Gaga is a master storyteller. His sing-song voice adheres to a numeric code: any three or more sequential sentences (excluding within parenthesis or quotations) rising in number of words, will rise by at least two words and fall by at least one word (most will fall by two or more words).


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

CSWCLynn said:


> Added it to Pinterest page.


Thanks for doing that -- and sorry for adding to your work! 

Some links so far, I will have at least one more later:

Facebook (page): https://www.facebook.com/StuartWhitmoreAuthor/posts/686496194838608
Facebook (personal): https://www.facebook.com/stuart.whitmore.10/posts/582574228614935
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+StuartWhitmore/posts/BVFu4ygGvgQ?sfc=true
Ello: https://ello.co/crenel/post/cogeadaj1nsz96egeic8uw

I need to spread out my activity on Twitter (so far I've been retweeting), so my Tweet link will need to wait until later in the day.


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## Joseph Malik (Jul 12, 2016)

Dropped the price of _Dragon's Trail_ to $0.99 through the holiday weekend for Veterans' Day. It'll go back up to regular price Tuesday morning at 0001 hrs.


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> Thanks for doing that -- and sorry for adding to your work!
> 
> Some links so far, I will have at least one more later:
> 
> ...


That's not a big deal.

First let me wish those I haven't yet, a very Happy Veterans' Day. I'm honored to be among you this day. I hope that we see some awesome sales through our concentrated efforts. I'll help share where I can in a moment.

Here are a couple of twitters that went out after I went to bed last night:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/796985976300204032
I will work on some Google+ and LinkedIn ones ASAP


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

sstroble said:


> Posted to Clark Air Base group. In the past, they have let other veterans and military brats post about their books. So hopefully, they will let this post remain, at least through today?
> It is a closed group so not sure if the link below will work if you are not a member:
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/groups/2351782796/permalink/10153916660072797/
> ...


Shared what I could of Crenel and SStroble links.

Here's a Google+ link:

https://plus.google.com/+Callsignwreckingcrew/posts/Xmnu8LhcfPF

Here's a LinkedIn URL:

www.linkedin.com/hp/update/6202906825197703169

My blog post made it to my Goodreads page. Maybe if you like or comment on it, it will get to other readers.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4950577.Lynn_Hallbrooks


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

CSWCLynn said:


> Here's a LinkedIn URL:
> 
> www.linkedin.com/hp/update/6202906825197703169
> 
> ...


Ah, good ideas, I always forget to use LinkedIn and Goodreads. 

Here's my not-a-retweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/Crenel/status/797203416510410752



Jeff Tanyard said:


> Good luck, everyone!


Thanks, Jeff!

I've seen some sales come through, but not many yet (and none for my own books). Still time left in the day, though!


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> Ah, good ideas, I always forget to use LinkedIn and Goodreads.
> 
> Here's my not-a-retweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/Crenel/status/797203416510410752
> 
> ...


You're welcome, I didn't think of them until I was almost asleep last night. I really wish one of those thought collectors existed. 

Got you covered.

I just posted another one in hopes of catching someone.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/797228563934171136
No sales on our end but glad others are getting some sales/downloads.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

CSWCLynn said:


> No sales on our end but glad others are getting some sales/downloads.


One nice aspect of this promotion is that even though it is day-specific, there's nothing stopping people from visiting the link at other times, as there is no price point that will expire. I've seen clicks in other promos after they ended, even when they were price-specific. It will be interesting to analyze what happens with this one.

I bought a little advertising on Project Wonderful and picked up some traffic that way -- again not much, but it was all with funds earned from my own ad slots, so there was nothing out-of-pocket. Only wish I'd had more accrued so I could've successfully bid on more visible placements.


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> One nice aspect of this promotion is that even though it is day-specific, there's nothing stopping people from visiting the link at other times, as there is no price point that will expire. I've seen clicks in other promos after they ended, even when they were price-specific. It will be interesting to analyze what happens with this one.
> 
> I bought a little advertising on Project Wonderful and picked up some traffic that way -- again not much, but it was all with funds earned from my own ad slots, so there was nothing out-of-pocket. Only wish I'd had more accrued so I could've successfully bid on more visible placements.


True, not price specific in this case and hopefully we have showcased the books for everyone. Maybe I'll add Lazy Saturday Reads to my usual carousel of tweet outs. It's about time I update that.

I checked and there was one sale on Book 1 so that's cool. Hope others are doing well.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Looks like a few clicks are still coming in, even at this late hour. I will do an after action report, so to speak, Saturday evening or Sunday. I have a funeral to attend in the morning, so I don't want to stay up too late, and that will give more time for stats to be updated anyway.

Thanks again, everyone, for your help directing traffic toward the promo page!


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

I'd like to sign up my children's books, but I can't find the promo page  
I'm wondering if all our efforts will be in vain if we fall prey to the missing page reads


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> I'd like to sign up my children's books, but I can't find the promo page
> I'm wondering if all our efforts will be in vain if we fall prey to the missing page reads


For those who have participated before, the following link will work if you're logged in. It will take you directly to the form (also linked from the For Authors page) to include your books: http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/node/add/promo_entry If that tells you you're not authorized, you just need to log in..

The main focus for the December promo is print editions, and I may even update book links to go directly to the print edition. The missing page reads problem is definitely a concern for any KU borrows that may occur, though.


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

Crenel said:


> For those who have participated before, the following link will work if you're logged in. It will take you directly to the form (also linked from the For Authors page) to include your books: http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/node/add/promo_entry If that tells you you're not authorized, you just need to log in..
> 
> The main focus for the December promo is print editions, and I may even update book links to go directly to the print edition. The missing page reads problem is definitely a concern for any KU borrows that may occur, though.


Thanks. Will upload books later (violent storm and need to switch off!)
ETA have added my Leon books


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

OK, so... here's a follow-up about the Veterans Day feature. Once again, it was decent for exposure -- not great, but better than nothing. With one exception (my short book about accepting Bitcoin for books), all of the books received clicks to Amazon. Also with one exception (the novel I had in the promo), those clicks included traffic on Veterans Day itself. Most books also had clicks on Saturday, and a couple more clicks have come in today. So, in short, the books in the promo did get exposure on Amazon, and if you want specific details (privately) about your click traffic I can provide that. It won't be too exciting, though.

Sales-wise... /sigh/ There were sales, but only a handful. Since this is coming from Amazon's stats and that information is confidential per their TOS, I can't share specifics, but it's also not anything that anyone would be excited about. Once again, the promo was probably just too small to generate solid results. Having more books and more authors involved would presumably have generated more traffic to Amazon and potentially more sales.

Depending on whether the children's book promo in December reaches the minimum number of titles or is canceled instead, the Veterans Day promo will be the last or second-to-last promo on LazySaturdayReads.com, at least for awhile. The site itself will stay online, it doesn't cost extra to keep running until the domain needs to be renewed, and I'll continue to occasionally try to drive traffic in that direction. As mentioned before, books do get clicks through to Amazon via the front page and via the category listings. But other than that, I need to focus on my own writing, as well as "life stuff" that is pretty distracting and tiring right now. I'll look at how things are in the spring and decide if it's worth running more promos on the site.

Thanks again, everyone, for your efforts to promote the event!


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

Thanks for all your hard work. I hope you get the minimum number of books for the children's promo. I've already set mine to free or discounted. The third book isn't eligible for a discount, but should I add it anyway?


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## sstroble (Dec 16, 2013)

Crenel said:


> OK, so... here's a follow-up about the Veterans Day feature. Once again, it was decent for exposure -- not great, but better than nothing. With one exception (my short book about accepting Bitcoin for books), all of the books received clicks to Amazon. Also with one exception (the novel I had in the promo), those clicks included traffic on Veterans Day itself. Most books also had clicks on Saturday, and a couple more clicks have come in today. So, in short, the books in the promo did get exposure on Amazon, and if you want specific details (privately) about your click traffic I can provide that. It won't be too exciting, though.
> 
> Sales-wise... /sigh/ There were sales, but only a handful. Since this is coming from Amazon's stats and that information is confidential per their TOS, I can't share specifics, but it's also not anything that anyone would be excited about. Once again, the promo was probably just too small to generate solid results. Having more books and more authors involved would presumably have generated more traffic to Amazon and potentially more sales.
> 
> ...


Thank you for promoting us. If it's any consolation, have been reading elsewhere how other promos are not bringing very many results. Maybe market is just too saturated now and readers are less likely to click through?


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> OK, so... here's a follow-up about the Veterans Day feature. Once again, it was decent for exposure -- not great, but better than nothing. With one exception (my short book about accepting Bitcoin for books), all of the books received clicks to Amazon. Also with one exception (the novel I had in the promo), those clicks included traffic on Veterans Day itself. Most books also had clicks on Saturday, and a couple more clicks have come in today. So, in short, the books in the promo did get exposure on Amazon, and if you want specific details (privately) about your click traffic I can provide that. It won't be too exciting, though.
> 
> Sales-wise... /sigh/ There were sales, but only a handful. Since this is coming from Amazon's stats and that information is confidential per their TOS, I can't share specifics, but it's also not anything that anyone would be excited about. Once again, the promo was probably just too small to generate solid results. Having more books and more authors involved would presumably have generated more traffic to Amazon and potentially more sales.
> 
> ...


Thanks for all your hard work. I understand what you're saying about the clicks and sales. Sometimes no matter how hard you work things don't work out. Veterans Day in and of itself may have been over-saturated what with lots of Free events and such. We did what we could and we got noticed, those are good things.

Will pass the word on to my author friends who write children's books about your December promotion.

May your 'life stuff' become 'done stuff' and writing get back on track.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Thanks, all. I think things may have been quieter than might otherwise have been the case due to a lot of people still being distracted by the contentious US presidential election outcome. I realized in advance that there might be extra "noise" to be heard through, and that people might have just been less open to promotions at that point, but there was no way to reschedule since it was specific to Veterans Day.



Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> I hope you get the minimum number of books for the children's promo. I've already set mine to free or discounted. The third book isn't eligible for a discount, but should I add it anyway?


Sure, you're welcome to add it. There is no pricing requirement for this one, in fact there's not even a requirement to have a Kindle edition, the core idea was to offer up print books for Christmas (or other holiday) shopping.  The site has almost 60 children's book titles registered, so if most of those have print editions and most of those were included in this event by the authors, we would have a pretty good selection and the biggest promo on the site yet!


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> Thanks, all. I think things may have been quieter than might otherwise have been the case due to a lot of people still being distracted by the contentious US presidential election outcome. I realized in advance that there might be extra "noise" to be heard through, and that people might have just been less open to promotions at that point, but there was no way to reschedule since it was specific to Veterans Day.
> 
> Sure, you're welcome to add it. There is no pricing requirement for this one, in fact there's not even a requirement to have a Kindle edition, the core idea was to offer up print books for Christmas (or other holiday) shopping.  The site has almost 60 children's book titles registered, so if most of those have print editions and most of those were included in this event by the authors, we would have a pretty good selection and the biggest promo on the site yet!


You could be right, I hadn't thought about that.

I'll let them know and give them the link to join your site. I think it is a wonderful idea to get Children's books (actual print books) in the hands of children before the Holidays. No harm in having an even bigger showing than 60 books.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

CSWCLynn said:


> No harm in having an even bigger showing than 60 books.


Definitely! The more the merrier!  Thank you for helping share the word, I'd love to see more authors get involved.


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> Definitely! The more the merrier!  Thank you for helping share the word, I'd love to see more authors get involved.


Cool! I've sent messages to those that I know that write children books and explained the premise and gave them the home page link. The rest is up to them.

If I'm not otherwise engaged I may help with tweet outs and such that weekend.


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## Jerri Kay Lincoln (Jun 18, 2011)

How many can I include in the December print-copy promo?


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Jerri Kay Lincoln said:


> How many can I include in the December print-copy promo?


As many as you want.  It's important to have a lot of authors, for getting the word out, but it's also important to have a lot of books, for selection. The book covers are randomly placed each time the page is loaded, so (generally) multiple books from any one author will be scattered around the page.


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## MinnieC (Feb 19, 2016)

I've requested an account so I can join in with this if that's ok?


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## sstroble (Dec 16, 2013)

CSWCLynn said:


> Veterans Day in and of itself may have been over-saturated what with lots of Free events and such.


True. 
We went to Applebees on the 11th, where I got a free meal. It was packed with vets.
Maybe a promotion where we offered some of our books for free to vets next Veteran's Day would be more successful. If we could get it publicized on sites like the one below, there might be thousands of books given to vets.

http://www.military.com/veterans-day/veterans-day-military-discounts.html


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

MinnieC said:


> I've requested an account so I can join in with this if that's ok?


Absolutely! 



sstroble said:


> Maybe a promotion where we offered some of our books for free to vets next Veteran's Day would be more successful. If we could get it publicized on sites like the one below, there might be thousands of books given to vets.
> 
> http://www.military.com/veterans-day/veterans-day-military-discounts.html


That's a great idea, something to keep in mind for next year. Will add a reminder to my calendar. Not sure how the logistics would work yet, but there is ample time to figure it out!


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## sstroble (Dec 16, 2013)

Crenel said:


> That's a great idea, something to keep in mind for next year. Will add a reminder to my calendar. Not sure how the logistics would work yet, but there is ample time to figure it out!


Thank you for considering it. Have been trying to reach other veterans as readers of my stories for years. If any group deserves freebies as "Thank yous" it's them. Something tells me they would enjoy books written by other vets.


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

sstroble said:


> Thank you for considering it. Have been trying to reach other veterans as readers of my stories for years. If any group deserves freebies as "Thank yous" it's them. Something tells me they would enjoy books written by other vets.


Very good point. They definitely deserve it but logistics of giving to just a Veteran would be a little more difficult online.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

CSWCLynn said:


> They definitely deserve it but logistics of giving to just a Veteran would be a little more difficult online.


That's my thought too. There would be ways to divert honest non-veterans, but I think participating authors would have to accept the possibility that some copies could go to non-veterans who were not honest and were willing to lie about serving just to get a free book.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

I'm caught up on activating accounts and approving new books and promo entries. Right now we're just shy of 20 books. Would love to see more!

Also, I'm working on a new feature on the site that you will be able to use if you want to get more value from the site even when I'm not running a promo on it. It's almost done, more details will be provided when it's ready.


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

Crenel said:


> I'm caught up on activating accounts and approving new books and promo entries. Right now we're just shy of 20 books. Would love to see more!
> 
> Also, I'm working on a new feature on the site that you will be able to use if you want to get more value from the site even when I'm not running a promo on it. It's almost done, more details will be provided when it's ready.


Don't forget to put the link in your posts to make it easy for writers to sign up .


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> Don't forget to put the link in your posts to make it easy for writers to sign up .


Oh, right...  The link is in the first post, but for those who jump to the end I do need to remember to do that.

Creating an account on the site starts here: http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/user/register

Once the account is activated, instructions and links are on the For Authors page: http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/for_authors.html


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

I added Book 1 and Book 10 of my illustrated graded readers for children.  Both books are available in digital and paperback formats.

Philip


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Philip Gibson said:


> I added Book 1 and Book 10 of my illustrated graded readers for children. Both books are available in digital and paperback formats.


Awesome, thanks!

Apparently I neglected before to give the promo page its custom URL, which isn't a problem now but it needed to be done before the promo started. That is done now, the custom URL for it is:

http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/promo/childrens-books-indie-authors-print-editions.html

The short URL still goes to the Veterans Day promo for now, but I will redirect that and enable the menu tab for this promo next week.

If you intended to have a book in the promo and don't see it on that page, check to make sure you completed both steps for each book. Step 1 is to add the book to the site, so it can show up on the front page, in the category listings, and in promos. Step 2 is to "connect" the book to the promo. Links for both steps are on the For Authors page (when you're logged in).


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> Awesome, thanks!
> 
> Apparently I neglected before to give the promo page its custom URL, which isn't a problem now but it needed to be done before the promo started. That is done now, the custom URL for it is:
> 
> ...


I just checked the link and it appears to be working. I see 24 images. I just had a thought that I need to be sure to tell my friends and family about this (when you give the go ahead that it is live to the public) so they can get books for their little ones and relations. Especially those that aren't on FB and/or twitter but do have access to the Internet.


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## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

Thanks Crenel - for all the hard work putting this together - The page looks so cute.  All links work!


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## DC Swain (Feb 24, 2013)

I've added three of my own. Thanks for putting this together


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

All right, so I have FINALLY got off of my big lazy old butt and I've entered a few more books to this service, and a couple to the children's books with print editions promo.

I really have to do something about my innate tendency towards procrastination...sometime or other.


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## sstroble (Dec 16, 2013)

Some great looking covers, the kind that will grab a kid's imagination.  Hope a lot of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents, older siblings, teachers, whoever buys a bunch of your books. Excellent gifts for the kids in their lives.
Merry Christmas.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Thanks, everyone!



Steve Vernon said:


> All right, so I have FINALLY got off of my big lazy old butt and I've entered a few more books to this service, and a couple to the children's books with print editions promo.


Cool, the selection keeps growing!

_Big Hairy Deal_ was already on the system, but the description for the newer entry was longer, so I took the older one offline and enabled the newer one. If that looks good to you, I will delete the older one that is currently not visible to site visitors.

For everyone, there is a link on the For Authors page (when logged in) to a list of all your books on the site, which -- as of an update I just made -- will show whether or not the title is visible to the public. You can click the link for a title and then use the Edit link to update a listing. If any of this does not work as expected, please let me know!


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Looking good!


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> Thanks, everyone!
> 
> Cool, the selection keeps growing!


Woohoo!! Up to 29 images.


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

If inviting other Children's print book authors to the mix don't forget add how Crenel said to get there:



> Creating an account on the site starts here: http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/user/register
> 
> Once the account is activated, instructions and links are on the For Authors page: http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/for_authors.html


FYI: There are currently 31 images on the site and I suspect more to come.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

CSWCLynn said:


> :
> FYI: There are currently 31 images on the site and I suspect more to come.


Yeah, I'm pretty sure more are on the way, since I've recently activated a number of accounts that have not yet come back to post anything. Not all will, but I expect some/most will. The selection is looking great so far, and one of the nice things about the site software and how I've configured it is that I don't have to cut off entries early. I can add books right up to the promo. Should be a good resource to do some holiday shopping for young readers!

I plan on working on a promo image this afternoon, but if anyone wants to make and share one, that would be cool too.


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

I like to read this to the children when I give talks at schools. Perhaps you could include it somewhere on your promo blog. I don't know if you'd need permission, but I think the author would be pleased to see her message spread to as many children as possible.

BOOKS HAVE IT ALL

At home everybody read. My mother, my father and my grandparents. As I looked at their faces bending over their books I noticed that sometimes they smiled, sometimes they looked grave, sometimes they turned the page with excitement, and I wondered what was happening to them while they read. They didn’t seem to hear if I spoke to them and if they eventually did listen to me it was as if they had come back from somewhere. Why didn’t they take me with them? What was in the books? What was that secret they didn’t share with me?
Then I learnt to read. I learnt the secret of the books. That they have everything in them. Not just fairies, goblins, princesses and wicked witches, but you and me too, our joys, our worries, our hopes, our sorrows; good and bad, true and false, nature and the universe – it’s all there in the books. Open your books! Let them share all their secrets with you.

      ~ from the message for 2001 International Children’s Book Day by Eva Janikovszky.


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## LectorsBooks (Apr 30, 2013)

Just added mine!


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

LectorsBooks said:


> Just added mine!


Cool, thanks! We can now say that there are more than three dozen titles to choose from! 

For those who would like to use it, I put together a promo graphic that can be downloaded from this message thread: http://www.indieauthorsunited.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=42 You should be able to get the promo graphic to appear on social media when linking directly to the main URL for the promo -- http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/promo/childrens-books-indie-authors-print-editions.html -- or, hopefully, even when linking to the short URL -- http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/promo -- depending on whether the social site's caching interferes. As always, you're welcome to create and use (and share if you wish) your own promo graphic(s).

There's still time to get more people and more titles into the promo, but my response time will be slower as I have a whole lot I need to accomplish in the next 48-72 hours.  If you're interested and just getting started, go to the promo page and click the "Join the fun" link.

Thanks everyone!


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

I couldn't get the graphic to show on my Facebook Page


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> I couldn't get the graphic to show on my Facebook Page


Was that by linking to the short URL? Or the long one? I did a test on FB (without saving the post) and the first time it showed the Veteran's Day graphic. I closed that and tried again, and the image for this promo showed. I assumed that was a caching issue on FB's servers. For anyone getting the old promo's image, it might be worth doing the same -- close/discard the post in progress and start it a second time, which I think causes FB to re-cache the image. (Lots of guesswork on my part there...)


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

Crenel said:


> Was that by linking to the short URL? Or the long one? I did a test on FB (without saving the post) and the first time it showed the Veteran's Day graphic. I closed that and tried again, and the image for this promo showed. I assumed that was a caching issue on FB's servers. For anyone getting the old promo's image, it might be worth doing the same -- close/discard the post in progress and start it a second time, which I think causes FB to re-cache the image. (Lots of guesswork on my part there...)


I tried all the links several times, but no graphic. Just refreshed and still no graphic.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> I tried all the links several times, but no graphic. Just refreshed and still no graphic.


Okay... I'm not sure why FB gave inconsistent results. However, it looks like something that I thought I'd already done either wasn't done or didn't get saved properly. The metadata on the page has been updated and hopefully that will resolve any further problems.

Sorry for the hassle!


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## MinnieC (Feb 19, 2016)

Just added my book. (Or at least I think I have!)


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

Crenel said:


> Okay... I'm not sure why FB gave inconsistent results. However, it looks like something that I thought I'd already done either wasn't done or didn't get saved properly. The metadata on the page has been updated and hopefully that will resolve any further problems.
> 
> Sorry for the hassle!


Still no luck with the graphic. But I've reached 18 people up to now.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> Still no luck with the graphic. But I've reached 18 people up to now.


Well, that is a puzzle. It could be that your prior attempts before I fixed the metadata somehow blocked success now. I had that happen on Twitter, I was trying to get something to work (again with image loading) and then their system apparently did the opposite and blocked image loading for me on future content from the same domain. Not fun trying to work with these black boxes when they offer little or no support to figure out how to resolve problems.

I'm glad you're reaching people though! Thanks for your efforts on this!


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

Crenel said:


> Well, that is a puzzle. It could be that your prior attempts before I fixed the metadata somehow blocked success now. I had that happen on Twitter, I was trying to get something to work (again with image loading) and then their system apparently did the opposite and blocked image loading for me on future content from the same domain. Not fun trying to work with these black boxes when they offer little or no support to figure out how to resolve problems.
> 
> I'm glad you're reaching people though! Thanks for your efforts on this!


I'll try again on my 'real name' account. ETA It worked on my other account 
I've had two free downloads of the Leon e-book, but no print sales showing up yet. They might take a bit longer.
My ADSL line keeps dropping so I only have a connection for about 5 mins every hour or so , so please forgive me for not being able to do a massive marketing push .


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Sent the reminder email... and then realized that I'd forgotten to edit the direct (long) link to the promo page. I tell my family that I shouldn't be interrupted when I'm working, to avoid making mistakes like that, but was interrupted about 15-20 times while trying to put that email together. And that's what happens.  

The correct permalink is: www.lazysaturdayreads.com/promo/childrens-books-indie-authors-print-editions.html


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Jan Hurst-Nicholson said:


> My ADSL line keeps dropping so I only have a connection for about 5 mins every hour or so , so please forgive me for not being able to do a massive marketing push .


That sounds like my 4G connection when I was camping last summer. Thanks for trying!


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

OK, here are some links for sharing and otherwise giving algorithmic boosts...

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stuart.whitmore.10/posts/596103903928634
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/StuartWhitmoreAuthor/posts/702306596590901
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Crenel/status/806728118249525248
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+StuartWhitmore/posts/V53bsh7D2eh

I'll be on the road a lot Thursday, unfortunately, but I will do what I can to continue promoting it and liking (and so forth) links posted by others. I can also add in books still, as long as the authors are willing to jump in and promote the promotion.


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## Melanie Tomlin (Nov 9, 2015)

Thank goodness for the email reminder. I need to add this to my newsletter that's going out in about 12 hours! Will have to do that when I get home ... already shared and retweeted though. (That was easy to do.)


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## thenotoriousjed (Aug 15, 2015)

Event shared on my Facebook pages and group

https://www.facebook.com/johnedorey/
https://www.facebook.com/thejedsays/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/childrensbooksku/

And on Twitter plus promoted as my copromote boosted post

https://twitter.com/author_jed/status/806871892808335360

Hope to get some traffic.


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> OK, here are some links for sharing and otherwise giving algorithmic boosts...
> 
> Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stuart.whitmore.10/posts/596103903928634
> Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/StuartWhitmoreAuthor/posts/702306596590901
> ...


I'm not sure exactly what is going on but I'm not able to get the links to work. It might require more patience on my part or something wonky is going on with the Internet service at the moment. It has been rather cold lately so that could be the problem. Anyway, I'm going to see if I can get a blog post done and come back later to see if I can share links etc.

This is a great project and I hope everyone is reminding followers that it is about the Print books not the eBooks.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Update: The links are now working for me and I've shared what I could.

Below is a link to my blog post. You can share it directly or share and/or comment from one of the other social media links below it. You can add why you think print books and/or reading to children are great things.

Blog post:
http://cswcllc.weebly.com/blog/why-a-book-is-a-great-way-to-makeamemory-this-holidayseason

Pinned link of my blog post to Lynn Hallbrooks Google+:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+LynnHallbrooks

Pinned link of my blog post to Lynn Hallbrooks LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/hp/update/6212677648846512128

Pinned link of my blog post to @CSWCLynn Twitter link:
https://twitter.com/CSWCLynn/status/806916328095240192

Pinned link of my blog post to @LynnHallbrooks Twitter link:
https://twitter.com/LynnHallbrooks/status/806914550427594752

I'll work on some more links and Pin books to my Pinterest board later.

Meantime, I hope others will provide their links and I'll be happy to re-tweet or share what I can.


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Just a quick update:

I posted a tweet regarding this promotion


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/807004378276175872%5B%2Furl


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Thanks, everyone, for your help with sharing this promo with your online connections. Lynn, you've really gone the extra mile!  Everyone with a book in the promotion benefits from all of the exposure, it is definitely appreciated. I expect shoppers appreciate it as well -- there's a large and fun selection of books for them to choose from!


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

I've re-tweeted where I can (when the ADSL line is actually working  )


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## Jerri Kay Lincoln (Jun 18, 2011)

I posted on Facebook yesterday and today, but I couldn't get the link to work on twitter.  It kept showing the veteran one.  I tried everything and couldn't get it to go.  But today I re-tweeted Lynn's, so thank-you, Lynn.


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Jerri Kay Lincoln said:


> I posted on Facebook yesterday and today, but I couldn't get the link to work on twitter. It kept showing the veteran one. I tried everything and couldn't get it to go. But today I re-tweeted Lynn's, so thank-you, Lynn.


You're very welcome. It was quite interesting getting the Pinterest board up and try not to put the same author's work side by side. If you haven't checked it out yet here's the link:

https://www.pinterest.com/cswclynn/children-print-books-promo-via-lazy-saturday-reads/



Crenel said:


> Thanks, everyone, for your help with sharing this promo with your online connections. Lynn, you've really gone the extra mile!  Everyone with a book in the promotion benefits from all of the exposure, it is definitely appreciated. I expect shoppers appreciate it as well -- there's a large and fun selection of books for them to choose from!


You're welcome very much. I wanted this event to be seen by as many people as possible because I think it is a super idea.

My friend, Crystal, didn't get the word about what to do and where so she just did what she knew to do from other campaigns.

She put out this tweeter link:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/807063502439391232%5B%2Furl
Here is her Facebook Fan Page link (where if you scroll down just a bit you will see the link to LSR:

https://www.facebook.com/CrystalMarcos/

If anyone is interested my blog finally posted on Goodreads. I think it helps out to make a comment, it seems to go to friend's home page and then they might see it when they get into Goodreads for something. Anyway, here's the link:

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/14368596-why-a-book-is-a-great-way-to-makeamemory-this-holidayseason


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Update:

I created a new tweet and pinned it -


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/807344685228376066
Keeping the name out there.

Many thanks to those that have re-tweeted and shared so far. Every little bit helps.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate the help with this last (for now) promo. I hope that the exposure helps participating authors, even if not via sales through this promo then at least for their other books and future sales. We had more clicks through to Amazon than the Veterans Day promo, but fewer sales, demonstrating again the difficulty in cracking a market dominated by decades-old favorites that parents remember from their own childhood and want to share with their kids.

It's time for me to step back from running these promotions and focus on getting through the massive changes coming to my life in 2017. The site will stay online and I will continue to push traffic to it, and I'll still work on improving the category browser. I'm also still working on the new feature I mentioned. So, hopefully, the site will continue to provide value for the time investment of adding books to it.

Have a safe and happy holiday season, and best of luck with your books in the new year!


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

Thanks for all you've done for children's book promotions, and for keeping your site open  .
Have a lovely holiday and all the best for 2017  .


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## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

Thank you Crenel!  - for all your hard work.  We all appreciate what you did to show the wonderful gifts of children's books.


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> Thanks everyone! I really appreciate the help with this last (for now) promo. I hope that the exposure helps participating authors, even if not via sales through this promo then at least for their other books and future sales. We had more clicks through to Amazon than the Veterans Day promo, but fewer sales, demonstrating again the difficulty in cracking a market dominated by decades-old favorites that parents remember from their own childhood and want to share with their kids.
> 
> It's time for me to step back from running these promotions and focus on getting through the massive changes coming to my life in 2017. The site will stay online and I will continue to push traffic to it, and I'll still work on improving the category browser. I'm also still working on the new feature I mentioned. So, hopefully, the site will continue to provide value for the time investment of adding books to it.
> 
> Have a safe and happy holiday season, and best of luck with your books in the new year!


You're most welcome. You may be right about the parents not wanting to break with their favorites. You never know people may come to the website down the road and see something that catches their attention.

My Pinterest Board will stay for as long as I'm around so that could be another source for people to find these wonderful books.

Wishing you and yours all the best this holiday season.


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## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

I sold one Print copy of my Children's Christmas Book.  Thanks again to Crenel.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

I decided to shake off the dust from the site and schedule a new promo, aligned with my own publishing goals for this year even though I don't have a book to include (yet).

The next multi-author promo is scheduled for April 1-2. Entitled "No Foolin', Just 99c Fantasy Novels" it is for fantasy novels priced at 99 cents, whether regularly or marked down for the event. For this promo the focus is on high fantasy/epic fantasy, and the minimum word count is 50,000. You may list more than one book. A minimum of 20 books must be registered for the event by late March, otherwise I will cancel the event to avoid wasting time/effort/reader attention on something that probably would not perform well.

One change from prior promos is that when you list a book you agree that you will be added to a promo-specific mailing list, for coordination only. The list will be deleted after the event.

Another possible change is still pending, and I'm not sure it will be done in time. More details if/when that becomes relevant.

You can log in to, or create, your account to add books to the site and then include them in the promo. If you have any questions, let me know.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Due to lack of interest I decided to cancel the fantasy novel promotion that was scheduled for April. There are no new promotions planned at this time.


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## Author A.C. Salter (Mar 14, 2017)

Done and dusted!

Thank you my friend http://www.kboards.com/Smileys/solo/grin.gif


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Author A.C. Salter said:


> Thank you my friend http://www.kboards.com/Smileys/solo/grin.gif


Thanks for listing your books! 

I have not had much time to work on the site, unfortunately. As I expected, it's been a rough year, with difficult times still ahead. After June I expect I will either be offline semi-permanently or else in a good place to get a lot more work done on the site and my own book projects. Keeping my fingers crossed that it will be the latter!

For now, I have updated the site terms to clarify that it is OK to create multiple accounts if that is needed to maintain pen name identities.


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## Valerie A. (Dec 31, 2016)

A heartfelt thank you for this opportunity!  I hope your circumstances change for the better, and that you have time and energy for what's important to you.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Thank you, Valerie! And thanks for listing a book on the site!

For everyone interested in adding a book, please make sure your ASIN (or 10-digit ISBN without spaces or dashes) is complete and has no extra text or spaces around it. Otherwise I need to edit the data to make things work correctly.

Also, if your book exists in multiple formats, only one will be listed. If Amazon is not showing them together, I highly recommend getting set up on Author Central and asking, via that interface, to have your books connected. This benefits you as well as customers (readers).


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Although I have not been able to develop all of the features on the site that I have planned, there are some new things, and I am starting to put together a new multi-author promotion for early October. Details of the promotion will be posted when I have it pretty much finalized. For now, I'll just point out some new features:

1. If you would like to share a sample of your book directly through the site, you can do that. Just prepare the sample in either ePUB or MOBI format and attach it to your book's listing on the site. (You can find links to all of your existing books via the "For Authors" page.) This is somewhat experimental and may be improved over time, and I am interested in knowing whether you find this useful.

2. If you would like to allow free downloads of your entire book, you can do that too. Just like the option to attach a sample, upload the ePUB or MOBI file of your book to the book's listing on the site. This is also somewhat experimental and I would like to know if you find this useful.

3. There is a new tab, *Newest Additions*, that will display the dozen most recent books added to the site. This isn't something you control, it is just designed to improve visibility of books added to the site.

To demo these changes, I added one sample and one full book (Lesson One: Revolution! and Wolf Block, respectively). When downloads are available for a book, the link will appear just below the link to Amazon.

To add or edit your book listings, the For Authors page is a good place to start: http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/for_authors.html You will need to log in to see the whole page.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

*It's The End of the World (But At Least It's Free)!*

Cross-promo in the works for *October 7/8*, for books that are:

Available for the Kindle (can be wide, but must be on Amazon)
Free (temporarily or permanently) for Kindle on October 7 and 8, 2017
Apocalypse/post-apocalyptic stories
Any length
Minimums apply to this promo to ensure it is not a waste of time. There must be at least 20 books from at least 10 authors by October 4 or the promo will be canceled. (Please pass the word about this promo.) Note that books can be included in the promo even after it begins, the only deadline is the end of the promo itself, although it is rather pointless to add it after the first day since that is when traffic is typically highest. Also be aware that author accounts, book listings, and promo entries involve some manual processing on my part to avoid spam problems, so waiting to the last minute is generally not a good idea.

To get started, create or log in to your account: http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/user/login

The promo page itself is a work in progress, books will appear on it as they are added and approved, and I'll add the promo/header image as soon as I get a chance: http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/promo/end-of-the-world-free.html


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> *It's The End of the World (But At Least It's Free)!*
> 
> Cross-promo in the works for *October 7/8*, for books that are:
> 
> ...


I will pass the word along to some PA authors that I know.


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## baldricko (Mar 14, 2014)

Crenel said:


> *It's The End of the World (But At Least It's Free)!*
> 
> Cross-promo in the works for *October 7/8*, for books that are:
> 
> ...


Thanks for setting this up Crenel.

I'm in! At least I'd like to be. At the moment my membership is pending approval.

I was prompted by Lynn.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

CSWCLynn said:


> I will pass the word along to some PA authors that I know.





baldricko said:


> I'm in! At least I'd like to be. At the moment my membership is pending approval.


Awesome, thank you both!


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## baldricko (Mar 14, 2014)

There's a glitch on the Create Promo Entry page that is stopping me from entering my book.

The 'Book for Promo' button is stuck on the default 'select a value'. I've tried a couple of browsers but I have had no luck.

If it's just me then I wonder what I am doing wrong??


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

baldricko said:


> If it's just me then I wonder what I am doing wrong??


If you've used other cross-promo sites where you have to enter your book info for every promo, my approach can be a little confusing. Basically, follow the numbered steps under "Join a Multi-Author Book Promo" (on the For Authors page), in order. You have to create the book listing on the site, and then add it to the promo. The first step is done only once, the second step can be done for as many promos as you want the book to be in.


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> Awesome, thank you both!


You're welcome.

I'm happy to see that you two met and are working on figuring things out.


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## baldricko (Mar 14, 2014)

Crenel said:


> If you've used other cross-promo sites where you have to enter your book info for every promo, my approach can be a little confusing. Basically, follow the numbered steps under "Join a Multi-Author Book Promo" (on the For Authors page), in order. You have to create the book listing on the site, and then add it to the promo. The first step is done only once, the second step can be done for as many promos as you want the book to be in.


Done it. I have joined the promotion. But now I see its for free books mine is set at 0.99 cents. I haven't as yet had a coffee, so that might help explain why I didn't notice that restriction. My books are on the site and I guess that is something. Thank you for the site, Crenel. All the best with it.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

baldricko said:


> Done it. I have joined the promotion. But now I see its for free books mine is set at 0.99 cents. I haven't as yet had a coffee, so that might help explain why I didn't notice that restriction. My books are on the site and I guess that is something. Thank you for the site, Crenel. All the best with it.


Thanks! I am caught up now, so the promo page now has more books.  I plan to go through all of the books early on the 7th and will remove any that are not free. If you can arrange a couple free download days for that weekend, great! If not, I'll catch it then, or you should be able to delete it yourself in advance (or just let me know the title(s) to remove) if you are sure now that you won't be able to participate.


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## baldricko (Mar 14, 2014)

All done. I deleted it from the promo for free books and then resubmitted it for the site.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

baldricko said:


> All done. I deleted it from the promo for free books and then resubmitted it for the site.


That works, thanks!

There's still time to get books set up for the promo, for those who are interested!


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Not sure why I didn't think of this before, but today I created a Facebook page for Lazy Saturday Reads. My plan is to automate posting to that, so every time I approve a new book on the site it will be posted to Facebook as well. I'm not at that point yet, so I'll be doing this manually at first. I also plan to post to that FB page when the site promos go live.


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> Not sure why I didn't think of this before, but today I created a Facebook page for Lazy Saturday Reads. My plan is to automate posting to that, so every time I approve a new book on the site it will be posted to Facebook as well. I'm not at that point yet, so I'll be doing this manually at first. I also plan to post to that FB page when the site promos go live.


Wonderful idea.


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> That works, thanks!
> 
> There's still time to get books set up for the promo, for those who are interested!


If this is still going on, I will do what I can to help promote it (even though I'm not in it).


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

CSWCLynn said:


> If this is still going on, I will do what I can to help promote it (even though I'm not in it).


Thank you! Technically it's still open for entries, but it is near the end of the cutoff to reach the minimum level of participation and is not even close. Realistically, I expect to have to cancel this promo. I will probably schedule another that is broader in scope but will include post-apocalyptic stories as a subset. With a broader range of possible books, hopefully I can put together a promo that will serve both readers' and writers' needs!


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> Thank you! Technically it's still open for entries, but it is near the end of the cutoff to reach the minimum level of participation and is not even close. Realistically, I expect to have to cancel this promo. I will probably schedule another that is broader in scope but will include post-apocalyptic stories as a subset. With a broader range of possible books, hopefully I can put together a promo that will serve both readers' and writers' needs!


That may work better. One never knows what works and doesn't until it is tried.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

The October 7/8 promo has been canceled due to insufficient participation. I'll be looking at setting up a new one with broader scope (which will still allow all of the books that were added for the now-canceled one), probably to be run in mid-November to help people procrastinate on their NaNoWriMo novels. 

I'm working on a new feature that will allow much more flexible and easy handling of covers, including the ability to update your own cached cover image on the site. I have a fair amount of data entry still to go but I'll get there. Covers now showing on the site are still the ones I have manually cached, but I'll be switching that over as soon as I get the covers attached properly to each book "node" on the site. If anyone wants to speed up that process, you can attach your own cover images now:

1. Get a small cover image (e.g., go to Amazon, right-click on your cover, save the image file where you can find it again)
2. Log in: http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/user/login
3. Look at your list of books: http://www.lazysaturdayreads.com/books-by-member.html
4. Click on the book for which you have the cover image
5. Click the Edit tab
6. Scroll down to the "Cover Image" field and upload the small cover image
7. Add relevant "Alternative text" (e.g., "Cover for My Great Novel")
8. Scroll to the bottom and click the Save button
9. Repeat the above as necessary/desired

When I have everything switched over, this should also allow covers to consistently show correctly when I link to books on the Lazy Saturday Reads page on Facebook and when anybody else links to a book page on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc.


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> The October 7/8 promo has been canceled due to insufficient participation. I'll be looking at setting up a new one with broader scope (which will still allow all of the books that were added for the now-canceled one), probably to be run in mid-November to help people procrastinate on their NaNoWriMo novels.
> 
> I'm working on a new feature that will allow much more flexible and easy handling of covers, including the ability to update your own cached cover image on the site. I have a fair amount of data entry still to go but I'll get there. Covers now showing on the site are still the ones I have manually cached, but I'll be switching that over as soon as I get the covers attached properly to each book "node" on the site. If anyone wants to speed up that process, you can attach your own cover images now:
> 
> ...


I'm sorry to hear that it had to be canceled. Thanks for this information and I'll see what I can do to help you out...provided I get a couple of minutes to do it.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

CSWCLynn said:


> I'm sorry to hear that it had to be canceled. Thanks for this information and I'll see what I can do to help you out...provided I get a couple of minutes to do it.


I appreciate your help! And if you don't get to it, no big deal, I'm working my way through the list. I'm sure there's a faster way to do this... for those more familiar with hacking Drupal internals. It's not rocket science, but learning it _is_ time consuming, and sometimes it's just faster to work harder than work smarter. In this case all of the manually cached covers are named with the ASIN/ISBN which matches a field on the node and I'd need to

[oops...]


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> I appreciate your help! And if you don't get to it, no big deal, I'm working my way through the list. I'm sure there's a faster way to do this... for those more familiar with hacking Drupal internals. It's not rocket science, but learning it _is_ time consuming, and sometimes it's just faster to work harder than work smarter. In this case all of the manually cached covers are named with the ASIN/ISBN which matches a field on the node and I'd need to


You're welcome.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

Crenel said:


> [...]
> In this case all of the manually cached covers are named with the ASIN/ISBN which matches a field on the node and I'd need to


Gee, somebody's a little distracted.  Ah well, it was just technical stuff I had in mind anyway.


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## TheGapBetweenMerlons (Jun 2, 2011)

The cover image storage has now been changed. Authors can update their own book covers on the site by editing a book's listing. While I was working on this I also set the "is permafree" setting for many books, since few or no authors updated their books for that. I also discovered at least one book that I had to delete because it was no longer available on Amazon, a few covers that had changed, and an ASIN that had changed. The data is cleaner now but there may be additional changes that authors should make to their listings.

*New feature:* In an ongoing effort to make the site more interesting to readers and therefore more valuable for authors, I have added a new Author Updates feature. This is for short blog-style content that authors can use to link to their own sites, books, social media, etc. This feature could use a fair amount of refinement but I want to see if people actually start using it before I spend additional time on it.

Links for the Author Updates and other things have been added to the For Authors page.


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## CSWCLynn (Feb 17, 2016)

Crenel said:


> The cover image storage has now been changed. Authors can update their own book covers on the site by editing a book's listing. While I was working on this I also set the "is permafree" setting for many books, since few or no authors updated their books for that. I also discovered at least one book that I had to delete because it was no longer available on Amazon, a few covers that had changed, and an ASIN that had changed. The data is cleaner now but there may be additional changes that authors should make to their listings.
> 
> *New feature:* In an ongoing effort to make the site more interesting to readers and therefore more valuable for authors, I have added a new Author Updates feature. This is for short blog-style content that authors can use to link to their own sites, books, social media, etc. This feature could use a fair amount of refinement but I want to see if people actually start using it before I spend additional time on it.
> 
> Links for the Author Updates and other things have been added to the For Authors page.


I gave the new feature a try. We shall see what happens.


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