Gotta Love a Sale

I’m a sucker for a great sale. On many occasions I’ve found myself in a trance amidst the shoe sale racks at Macy’s, unaware that I’m not even in the section with my size and trying on shoes I wouldn’t give the time of day if they didn’t have a big red 40% off sticker on the inside. Can you relate? Then there’s the bombardment of email messages about sales. I get them from about ten different retailers every day. Yes, I know I should unsubscribe, but I have an irrational fear of missing out on something slimming, seasonal, and half off! I can easily pretend there wasn’t an email about a similar sale at the same store the day before and the day before that. Instead, I let the many sale alerts pile up in my inbox, convincing myself that despite my overwhelming schedule, I’ll somehow find an hour to slip away and hit every one of them. The end of the day inevitably includes a depressing delete button pity party when I’m forced to admit that not only was there no way I would have had time to shop, but I also didn’t even make it halfway through the to-do list! Wow, writing about this is so cathartic, but also a bit scary. Am I alone in this madness? I hope not. Just for the record, I don’t like shopping itself. What I like (probably way too much) is when a friend or students says, “What a cute top!”

Since this confessional feels so good, on a sale-related note, I must admit that I have a serious problem with coupons and membership punch cards. I cart piles of them around with me at all times. Must have them handy in case I find myself in the vicinity of an establishment where one can be redeemed or have a hole punched through it, leading me one step closer to a free something or other. I try not to think about how saving a dollar here and there might not be worth the embarrassment of making the clerk and everyone in line wait while I sift through the massive pile which is beginning to resemble a deck of cards. I’m surprisingly successful at this frightening denial because the deck is sitting there in my wallet right now, so fat I can’t even zip it up.

This week I had an entirely new experience with sales. I had my very first, very own sale! I put my book Is This All There Is? on sale at 99 cents for two days with the help of a promotion from Ereader News Today and it was a thrill! I’m a complete newbie at selling my own product to begin with so I had no idea what to expect from diving into the great unknown by actually having a sale. And to be honest, at my age, “firsts” are getting harder to come by, so I’ll take them where I can get them, you know?

I didn’t make much money, but more importantly, my sale turned out to be loads of fun, provided valuable lessons and made me feel great. You see, I have this whole world of female author pals online. It’s a tight knit sisterhood of women who generously share everything they learn about writing and selling books and do everything they can to promote one another’s work. It’s beyond inspiring to me. Hopefully some are reading now and know who they are and how much I appreciate them. I learned from these savvy women that there are companies that will promote your book to hundreds of thousands of subscribers (who sign up because they are looking for low price books) if you reduce your price for a short time, usually to 99 cents. The companies that run the promotions are trying to make money themselves of course, so you either pay them up front or they take a cut of what you sold based on clicks to buy that came from their promotion. In the end, you get pennies for each book you sell, but have the chance to get your book into the hands of way more people who will hopefully enjoy it and maybe even spread the word a little. This book promotion thing is definitely a marathon for most of us.

I want to thank Ereader News Today for selecting me for a promotion. They don’t just take anyone – you have to already have  at least ten ratings with a 4/5 average rating. They also don’t promote books that remotely cross the line into erotica, and that had me a bit worried, as you can understand if you’ve read my book. So when I first signed up and didn’t hear back right away, of course my mind went to the bad place of thinking I wasn’t good enough for them. When I got word that I had been selected, and my book promotion would be in just two days, I was ecstatic! Mostly I want to thank Ereader News Today for the fact that I sold 300 ebooks in two days, which is far above and beyond what I was able to sell for the four months I’ve been struggling to peddle the book by myself. I know of other authors who sold way more and also less, so my results are not meant to suggest any kind of average, but given that I’m a new indie author doing all this mostly my own, I’m absolutely tickled with my results. I also happened to stumble upon the fact that my book made it to the top 100 of Amazon best sellers for women’s fiction. It was at number 75 when I accidentally discovered it there and I want to apologize to my entire neighborhood for my squeal of delight! And the great thing about Ereader News Today is that you don’t pay up front. They take a small percentage, only of the sales that can be verified as resulting from their promotion, after the sale. Very, very cool!

By the way, the picture included here is one of me in a favorite dress I purchased on sale for a very special occasion. I got it at an outlet store and it was marked down to about $60.00 from something like $200.00, if I recall correctly. Too bad I had too much fun the second time I wore it and somehow got a pull in it that could not be fixed. My clumsiness is another good reason not to pay full price for high quality items! If you’re wondering why my face is not in the picture, the reason is that I’m trying my best to remain anonymous as more people get my book into their hands. The thing is – I wrote a book about a professor who has an affair with a student, and though it’s fiction, I am a professor in real life. I think you get it. So it’s about work and reputations and compartmentalizing and so much more, but it’s not about you in any way, really. I’ll continue to reveal way too much about myself with complete honesty here, but as far as what my face looks like, you can picture it any way you like. In fact, I’ve always wanted to be a blue-eyed blond, so if you don’t mind indulging me…

I hope you enjoyed my story about sales and I also hope it was helpful for friends who are new authors like me. Now I really must run because I see a new message in my inbox from Banana Republic!

PS – I haven’t changed the price back from 99 cents to 5.99 which I’m supposed to do today. I might forget until tomorrow, so PLEASE pick one up if you haven’t yet and tell friends!!!

Thanks again Ereader News Today! Check them out everyone, not only if you’re an author, but if you love to read and want to find out about great books for very low prices and sometimes even free! http://ereadernewstoday.com

Much love to all of you and thanks for reading,
Patricia