And Everything Has Changed

I just read over my blog post from last week.  Boy, have things changed since then.  I don't know what happened in my head, but all of a sudden my thinking process shifted.  Perhaps it stems from launching the next book and getting all my ducks in a row.

This week has been very ducky.

First off, I finally have a real, grown up website.  Find it here at julieleesongnorman.com.  It's basic right now but gets the job done as a landing page of sorts.  Though I've had this blog for a few years, it was time to do something more professional.  I still love this blog even though it hasn't been a runaway success.  It's a place that I've worked out my writing struggles.  We'll see if I continue it as I put more into the website.

Another change, I updated my twitter account.  Can you believe that I had an account since 2009 and only had 6 posts?  I deleted all but one and then posted one tonight.  Now I have two and eight followers.  Yeah, hold back your gasps of amazement at my twitter success.  You can be number nine, find me @julieleesong.

And the biggest change of all, is my thinking about book promotion.  Knitting by Faith was an accidental success.  I don't know how it sold so many copies with absolutely no promotion except to tell my friends and family.  I've no idea how to duplicate that success so I've been googling.  Here's what I've learned:

1. You need at least 5-10 reviews before people will want to read your book, even if it's offered for free
2. Offering a book for free increases sales
3. Promote the free promotion until it kills you
4. Categories are important so choose wisely and change as needed
5. Without good writing and a good book cover the above won't really matter in the end

So, I've been on a learning curve the last few days.  Just when I thought all I had to do was finish the final edit, I'm learning about blog code (or learning how much I don't know), scrambling to put together promotions and setting up social media.

There's another change in how I'm releasing the book.  I will do a free promotion but I'm gathering the reviews needed first.  Next week should be good for that.  So keep an eye out for the book.  Better yet, sign up for my newsletter (oh, I forgot to mention, I have mailchimp now too) and I'll send a message out when it's free.

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