When I started out writing I knew nothing about writing or the industry I was getting involved with.
​It all started out with a challenge I gave myself to write a children's and see if I could get it published. I have learned so much in the seven years since that very first day I sat down to write, Just Batty. Back then, self-publishing still had a bad name. My first publisher was a subsidy-publisher I found on the internet. I looked at traditional publishing. I didn't even know there was such a thing as self-publishing. That's how green I was. The first publisher that liked my work and would publish it is the one I went with. The illustrations were dreadful and there were errors in the text. No wonder self-publishing got a bad name. We have come a long way since then and want to be taken seriously. 
​An article I read,  bit.ly/2rW4eex , 10 questions to ask yourself before choosing a publisher is a must for every writer looking for a publisher.
​Now I read anything I can get my hands on principally about the marketing end of things. 
I learned how to achieve sales through social media, which is huge if you put in the work. When I set up a store on my website I expected the sales to come flooding in. Needless to say I have not had one sale. This week, two years after I set it up I did a little detective work and called the web host to find out if I had made all the connections I needed to have the store up and running. I didn't. After a few minutes and a very patient technician my store was up and ready to receive orders. I waited and still no orders. Today I went and bought one of my own books in my store to see how it worked. It is working but I did call the technician again to ask a couple questions.
​I read an article recently that I will be bring to   my writing group. actually a couple articles. The one I'm bring forward is about how authors grumble about not having any sales but do absolutely nothing about changing it. If your sales are not what you hope for ask your self, "What am I doing to promote and market my books?"
​No one can do it for you. You need to keep up with technology and read as much as you can about the different ways to help yourself.
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​I'll be happy to answer any questions or write about something you are interested in. Leave a comment and I'll answer it.

 
The Kindle global fund is a mystery to most authors.
​Today I worked with a brilliant eighty-four year old gentleman. He can't understand why his really wonderful science books for children are not being snapped up by educators.
​ Dr. Robert Krupp is still teaching college on the internet.    amzn.to/2qr3Pki
​He  has published five books for children ages PK - 12. My seven year old grandson loves the books and has done several of the experiments in them. What child wouldn't like making green slime?
​Bob thought that all his books were already on kindle. In reality only one was. Some how he missed the last step and four of his books were sitting there as drafts.
​We managed to finish publishing all his books on Kindle and now he can proceed to get his share of the kindle Global fund.
​What is the Kindle Global Fund? It's free money from Amazon for every page that is read of your book on kindle.
​You have to send your book out to the world and wait for readers to download the kindle and then read the book. You want to post your book were the readers are. You might have a couple hundred Facebook Friends but you have to find those places that have thousands of readers. Sounds simple right? Not so fast.
​My novel Broken Branches amzn.to/2jy5zFg was a best seller on Amazon kindle with over 650 downloads. The problem is that a down load can just sit there and not get read for ages if at all.
How do I get readers to actually read the book they down load? If anyone out there has an answer please let me know. For all you out there that store all those downloads, get reading and help us struggling authors out.
I don't even have a kindle reader. I still love a real book in my hands.
​By the way I now have a boxed set of my first two books in the Green Lady Inn series.
amzn.to/2oRb2g8

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