I know that many, like myself, hunt for final Kindle Scout final stats. My campaign ended last night. I honestly don't know what my chances are. I had a rough beginning to my campaign with a bit of a better middle/ending, but I don't know if it will be enough. I still have no idea what these stats even play in the Scout selection process. Usually the books published are ones which have a lot of H&T time, but there have been some which disprove that. In the end, no one but the Scout team knows what will lead a book from campaign to selection. Well,Que Sera, Sera. Hopefully they won't take long in delivering the news. As Tom Petty sang, "The waiting is the hardest part."
Five days left in my campaign before my book goes in for final review and I'll be left in limbo while they decide my fate. I have reached a point of "Que Sera, Sera" about whether or not I'll be selected for publication. I've been stressing for so long that I'm at peace knowing that I have been doing all I can, and will continue to promote, but that ultimately it' up to the Scout team to decide what happens to my book. If it gets selected, I will be ecstatic. If it doesn't I'll probably be a little disheartened for a few days but I won't let it stop me. I'll continue to write, because I love doing it, and I'll continue this series as well. If nothing else, I'll try the dreaded query letter battle again.
With 5 days left my stats are as follows: 133/576 hours in Hot & Trending (about 23%) 1,279 page views I know they're not great numbers, but they're not terrible either. I think that's why I feel like I do about it. As I've said before, I'm not good with self promotion, so I consider my campaign a win either way it turns out. I've been giving it my all, and in the end that's something I can be proud of. In an hour, another Kindle Scout day will pass and I'll have 10 days left to campaign before the dreadful waiting game. My thunderclap went off on the 12th and I have definitely seen an improvement with my stats which is giving me the drive to continue. It's hard sometimes. I went through 11 days straight without any H&T time and dwindling numbers, but I hope this new streak will continue through the rest of my campaign which will raise my H&T time percentages and hopefully get my book viewed by human eyes. Yesterday, I got my first 24hr streak, the day before I had 19 hours, and today (while I don't officially know) there were only a couple of hours I saw where I fell of the radar. Right now, I have 79/432 hours, which isn't good, but it's a vast improvement in the last 2 days alone, and total page views breaking 1,000 (1,002). I'm excited to see my numbers for tomorrow, rather than dreading them, which is a nice feeling to have after being so down about my campaign. There's hope yet!
With my previous series, I played the query game but it never yielded any success. This time, rather than go through that fun time first, I decided to try out the Kindle Scout program because I thought it would be less stressful. Oh how wrong I was. I'm not very good with self-promotion which this platform completely relies on to get noticed. It doesn't matter if I am proud of my book, and everyone I give a copy to tells me that I should publish it. I always have my doubts, especially with my previous experience of being turned down many, many times. I can handle rejection, and criticism, but it does take it's toll after a while and makes me leery about trying again. While I try to tell myself that many successful authors were rejected more than a handful of times before they managed to break into the business and that if I keep at it I will get there. A few days ago I started a thunderclap to try to help my book go viral in an attempt to become more noticed. So here I am, day 12 with 7 days straight without being in H&T and I can't help but feel a little discouraged. I think the main discouragement comes from my friends and family on Facebook and how most don't even acknowledge that I had sent them a message. Some of them have, and offered praise for putting myself out there, nominated me and shared my posts, and for those I am so grateful, but the rest have made me feel like some invisible oddity not worth their time. I'm not mad in the least, but I am grateful for the kindness and support of strangers. My mommy-in-law took over today, scouting out other avenues which I hadn't been able to do. She and my hubby are my rocks. Whenever I feel like just throwing in the towel they pick me up. Doing a grad program, having 3 full-time kids, and trying to market 2 campaigns is exhausting. You Can Help Out By Doing One Of These 2 Things
Like many authors I have spoken with, shameless self promotion is not something I am very good at. I am a polite, reserved, and humble person. You will never hear me say that I am awesome, or that my book is awesome, which is why I often seek non-biased individuals to give me feedback on what I'm working on. If it's something that's just alright, I will just keep for myself or share with my friends/family. I'm fine with that. But, if it's something that I should try to publish, I'll go that direction then.
My university writing teacher told me that I HAVE to get this one published. He said there are rarely any novel ideas out there anymore, just the way that the stories are told are novel. He told me that I had that rare novelty with this book and that I needed to use that to my advantage. I have never received such a push on any of my previous works so I'm taking his advice. I know this book has the potential to be something, if only I can promote myself well enough to get it in front of those who would see its worth and potential. Again, selling myself is not my best feature. I have been through the query slush pile more times than I can count with my previous series (that I eventually decided to self-publish). Going back into trying a more traditional method of publishing is nerve-wracking, mostly because of the impending rejection. Even if you do get picked up, you're bound to get plenty of rejection first to lessen your spirits along the way. Because of this, I decided to start with Kindle Scout, as it seemed less intimidating than tackling the query letter again. It seemed like a good deal. If it gets published on this platform, I'll get a $1,500 advance (not much but better than I'm used to as an Indie), 50% e-book royalties, 20% audio royalties, and Amazon's marketing versus my own. For someone like me, this is is a great offer but trying to make my book stand out a midst the hundreds of other books trying to catch their own break is hard. Here's what I have learned so far:
My stats to date are 35 Hours in H&T and 526 page views at 8 days in. I will continue to post about my campaign so that others may learn from my experience, whether negative or positive. If you would like to check out my campaign and nominate Faezed & Confused for publication here's the link: https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/C686MDLVI41U I just got a very nice email from Amazon letting me know that I can now do pre-orders for ebooks! I got it all set up, but the page will probably not be available until tomorrow. I will post the link when it is. Only the big publishers were able to do this til now. I'm happy to be able to join them Only 18 days left till Royal Upheaval is out
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AuthorJennifer A Marsh ArchivesCategories |