Catch-22 With Book Promotion – Miller Mosaic LLC

Book marketing can seem like an endless loop in a “fun house” — no way out.

Why do I say this? Here is one example:

My cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE was free via Amazon’s KDP Select May 2-4. It did rather well, subsequently earning a place below the 10,000 rank in the paid Kindle store, which some people believe is the magic number of keeping the momentum going.

Now to help this momentum I wanted to buy an ad for CAST THE FIRST STONE on one popular Kindle site. But I was unable to do this because at this moment CAST only has four reviews. The minimum for buying an ad on this particular site is eight reviews with an average rating of 4 out of 5.

Thus CAST has been rising in the paid ranks (not a good thing) and will soon lose all the momentum earned from the successful three days of free downloads.

While I understand a site owner setting parameters for accepting ads, it is frustrating because there is no assurance that the minimum requirement of eight ads and an average rating of 4 out of 5 did not all come from the book author’s relatives.

Now I do have the option of creating a paperback for CAST (now only available as a Kindle ebook) and then offering it as part of a Goodreads giveaway. In theory I might get a couple of reviews from the people who win the paperback copies of CAST.

And in the meantime I can hope that some of the people who downloaded CAST for free will like the story and write a good review of the book on Amazon.

Eventually CAST may get enough reviews with a good rating to qualify for an ad on the site I like. Who knows? I can only hope.

Meanwhile, click here to check out cozy mystery CAST THE FIRST STONE on Kindle — complete with three kosher recipes.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.

Click here to visit her Amazon author page at www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller

She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com