Heyyy, Where the Heck Did the Freebie Go?

Here's a very short story about the best intentions...the ebook learning curve...and the occasional need to eat crow.

Supposing we start off with crow and good intentions...





For weeks I've been promising a free event for the reformatted, revised edition of my first ebook, The Vanishing Magic of Snow. Since I've stopped doing giveaways, the event was special in itself. But, equally important, the giveaway allowed readers who'd bought the previous, misformatted edition to replace it with the book done right. Furthermore, I'd done some editing and rewriting, resulting in a better book.



http://tinyurl.com/q5mfrrc

I'd scheduled the event on Amazon for 1/26-1/30...and thought I was ready to go after a few announcements on Twitter and Facebook. I also asked on Authors Electric if anyone could recommend a few free sites on which I should post, since I'd lost my own lists in a computer crash. I received one response advising me to place an ad on AE's own group page. By and large, AE members no longer stage free events.

Clearly, I'd just run head-on into the learning curve. And I needed to learn some new footwork.




Opening lesson: we can't count on everyone to help us with our homework...but that doesn't mean we can't count on anyone--as long as we're willing to carry our end. So, while I dug around online, I contacted a friendly ebook king, Claude Bouchard and asked if he knew anything he might share. Well, CB and I have ReTweeted promotional touts for our books for two years. And he's a noble soul. So he took the time to send a link to a free event site list from another writer's blog.

A quick glance a the list convinced me that I had to postpone my event. I'd need to cull the list to a manageable size since I don't have a month to prepare and since I'm hard at work on a new book. Some sites require listings on the day(s) of the event. Others must be contacted days (or weeks) before. Some listings require considerably more work.

The learning curve, for this challenge, demanded clear knowledge of my chief goal: to reach as many readers as I can with one week's work. My goal is not to 'beat' other writers with my numbers...nor to engage in a steeplejack chart chase with anybody else. My goal is to make this rare, for me, free event as special as I can...my way of saying thanks to those who've supported me--and Hi to those who are new.

I'm not doing this gig for the numbers.



The Gold Rush days resulting from the first free events has passed. Who cares? Let's stage our own, now and then, with free and loving hearts.

The new dates for my free event are:

Monday, February 2-Friday, February 6

And special thanks to Claude Bouchard for being such a prince:





And thanks to Authors Electric, whose members have always been there when they can: