Hi all, today fellow author and blogger Katrina Mountfort is writing about what she has learned from running a Kindle Scout campaign for her new book ‘The Lost Corner’.

The Lost Corner cove_DE176B.jpg[1].jpgKatrina

Running a Kindle Scout campaign – what I’ve learned:

At the beginning of June I decided to have a shot at getting my latest novel published via Kindle Scout. From what I’ve heard, of other people’s experience with Kindle Press, they can sell a lot more of my books than I could manage on my own. I was delighted but shocked when my application was accepted within 12 hours of submission and so, a little unprepared, I started a 30 day campaign to gain as many nominations as possible. It’s been a huge learning curve but a useful one, so I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned so far:

  1. A large proportion of my votes have come from direct traffic to the Kindle Scout site. So my first piece of advice is to polish your submission as much as possible. Make your one line description catchy. Invest in a professional cover. Proofread it again and again.
  2. It’s a marathon not a sprint. My biggest mistake was to use all my big guns at the start of the campaign. Several friends shared it on Facebook all at once. This helped me make a splash and find myself in the ‘hot and trending’ section, but it’s hard to keep up that momentum. If I had the chance to start again, I’d have asked my friends to spread out their shares.
  3. Book bloggers are the nicest people. My work schedule doesn’t allow me to blog regularly so I asked several people whose blogs I follow if they’d feature my campaign. They all said yes and each post has given me some votes. I’ve tried to spread them out so I’m featured in one blog per week of the campaign.
  4. I’ve had mixed success with social media. Facebook has been far and away the best. Twitter has only given me a few page views. Some people have found Bing Bing and Headstarter useful but I haven’t got very far with them yet.
  5. Although I find it excruciating to do so, you have to contact EVERYONE you know.
  6. It’s not just a popularity contest. The point of getting a lot of votes is to get the judges to consider your work at the end. They’re not going to publish a seemingly popular book that will then get a lot of bad reviews so if other books seem to be ‘hot and trending’ more than yours, don’t despair.

If you’ve found this useful I’d be grateful if you could check out my campaign:

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/2KB0W6JT2O5KA

If you like what you see, please nominate me. If it’s accepted, you’ll all get a free electronic copy.

Finally I’d like to thank Stevie for her generosity in letting me post on this blog and wish her luck in her own Kindle Scout campaign for ‘The Porn Detective’! https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/3IQ62RDNCFI3F

About me:

I am a UK-based author, living in York. My philosophy of life is that we only regret the things we don’t try.  When I hit forty, I decided it was time to fulfil my childhood dream of writing a novel. My first three novels, Future Perfect, Forbidden Alliance and Freedom’s Prisoners formed the speculative fiction Blueprint trilogy, and were published by Elsewhen Press. I love music, walking with my two Labradors, travel, wine, daffodils and Parma violets.

Find Katrina on the following web links:

Blog: https://herstoryblogspot.wordpress.com/

Website: http://www.katrinamountfort.com/

Publisher website: http://elsewhen.alnpetepress.co.uk/index.php/catalogue/author/katrina-mountfort/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatrinaMountfortAuthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/curlykats

Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Katrina-Mountfort/e/B00MU1AEA8