Thursday, December 15, 2016

X is for eXtremely Crazy

Debra has a crazy goal to garner sales for her new release.

It's here! The fifth and final installment in the Holidays at The Corral series hit cyber shelves today. New Year's Eve at The Corral is the shortest of all the books. I definitely planned it that way, and while it would seem that a short book would sell well because of its price (99 cents regular price, on sale at TWRP for 50 cents through Friday), my editor mentioned that books of that length don't really sell well. Plus, I'm not that great at marketing. I used to do blog tours for each of my books, but busy life (and a touch of laziness I'll admit) got me out of that habit.

But I wanted to come up with SOMEthing to help sell these books. So, I came up with a really crazy goal of trying to sell 1,000 copies of this book, using mostly word of mouth. The challenge (as I'm calling it) will officially kick off in January. I'm still figuring out a few details and logistics: how to use Rafflecopter as I've never done it before, finding blogs who will let me guest and post about my promotion, setting up a Facebook event, etc. School is out in two days for Christmas break. I'll be tackling those issues then.

In the mean time, here's the basic idea of what I have planned.

#sellathousand

The Challenge:

When I submitted this story, my editor told me books of this length don't sell well. My immediate thought was how fun it would be to prove her wrong. (In the best way possible!)

Almost immediately an idea began to form. As crazy as it sounds, I decided to challenge myself to sell a thousand copies of this book. Why a thousand, you ask? Simply because a hundred didn't seem like enough (LOL).
For less than the cost of a cup of coffee (and I'm not even talking about one of those fancy frou frou ones) you can help me win this personal challenge. All you have to do is buy a copy of the book. (Passing word of the challenge along to your reader friends would be appreciated, too.)

You might be thinking: What's in this for me? Well, I'll tell you...First, you get to read a great story! You also have the chance to win a some prizes. (And who doesn't love prizes?) If you buy a copy of the book, if you tell a friend (or two or three or ten....you know, like those old commercials: And she told two friends and she told two friends and so on and so on...), if you Tweet about the challenge or post about it on Facebook, or if you leave a comment here, you can earn Rafflecopter entry points. The winner of the Rafflecopter drawing will get a paperback set (autographed of course!) of the original Corral series: This Time for Always, This Can't Be Love, and This Feels Like Home (If you're outside the continental U S of A the set will be digital.) AND digital copies (in the format of your choice) of the first four books in the Holidays at The Corral series (Christmas, Valentine's Day, Fourth of July, and Halloween).

So, what are you waiting for? Go grab a copy of New Year's Eve at The Corral!
TWRP: http://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/all-titles/4728-new-year-s-eve-at-the-corral.html
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MEEI0NN?tag=thewildrosepr-20
B & N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/new-years-eve-at-the-corral-debra-st-john/1124933779?ean=2940156932573

Happy Reading and many, many thanks for participating in my challenge!

P.S. If you can't wait to find out if you've won copies of the holiday books, they are on sale for $0.99 each for the month of January 2017.


So, what do you think? Am I crazy?!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

9 comments:

  1. Not crazy at all.
    I just bought a copy!

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  2. Thanks, Ana. I bought my own copy yesterday as well. I guess that means only 998 copies to go! :)

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  3. This is a great idea! If you put something together for me, I'll put it on my FB and Twitter feeds, etc. for you.

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    1. Thanks, Jen! I'll have the 'official paperwork' together next week. I'll be sure to send something to you.

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  4. Good luck! I'll also put it on FB and Twitter. Also, don't forget to ask for reviews. The more reviews you have, the more likely it is that Amazon will advertise it for you in their emails to customers, and this can lead to more sales.

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    1. Great idea, Paula. Thanks for the suggestion!

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    2. Just don't post until January...I'm not quite ready to go with this yet. :)

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  5. Oh, and there's this blog where you can announce your book http://newreleaseannouncement.blogspot.com/?zx=cf89b4e11d46ad8e and also this FB group you can join to promote https://www.facebook.com/groups/99cbookpromotion/

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    1. Thank you so much!!

      Marketing is definitely one piece of writing I need to up my game on.

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