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June 05, 2008
Getting noticed
Some time ago Amazon invited me to join a "Shorts" programme. This is a programme whereby an author contributes short stories to their sales section which are "e-stories". In other words, stories which are in electronic format and published through their programme. One of the requirements is that you have at least one published book on sale through their site. I joined and submitted several stories - all of which are available on their website - if you can find them.
There are two problems as I see it (Mind you Amazon may see this differently!) the first being that the stories are on sale ONLY to those who live or are based in the US. No one outside the US can buy them. There is no similar point of sale on the UK based website or, indeed, any other. Secondly, when you search for tags Shorts" on Amazon you get a wide range of things, including the article of clothing described by that word. When you do find the stories you find that they actually only list 46 pages of titles and these are in order of popularity starting at those "Rated" 23 or more and diminishing to those rated 7. Who rates them and how is not explained. Any stories rated less than 7 have no chance of being found unless you know the authors name since they don't generally come up on a title search and, of course, have no ISBN. I am sorry to say that my stories don't appear on the 46 pages and probably will not, therefore, ever achieve a rating that would lift them to those giddy heights.
I'm not at all sure why Amazon limit the list of stories like this. I am equally unsure of why the UK and European sites have no equivalent of the "Shorts" programme. Ongoing efforts to get noticed have managed to get a few sales in and I must say a huge thanks to all of those who have helped by posting a link to my book (and coincidentally to the short stories) on their blogs. I recently cracked a milestone in sales of the book and I know that it is down to the word of mouth and many friends I have who have been kind enough to promote it to their friends. Thanks to all of you.
Now the good news, Hallmark Press will be bringing out the sequel "The enemy is within!" within months and that will be accompanied by a marketing campaign. I hope you will all continue to support me in this effort and the enjoy the second book as much as you have the first.
Posted by The Gray Monk at June 5, 2008 01:42 PM
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Comments
Let me know what you want me to do to help out!
Posted by: vw bug at June 9, 2008 11:02 AM