1. The swallows are here! 2. Indie author self-promo review for March

First things first….the clocks go forward tonight and the swallows have finally arrived in the skies over Carvoeiro.  Actually, they are house martins (I just checked; these ones don’t have really forked tails, swallows do).  So, after the arrival of the swifts a week ago, summer’s here!  Funy thing about these little supersonic insect harvesters; you hear them before you see them….a symphony of high-pitched squeaks from a cloudless heaven (although today, perversely, it’s raining and cloudy).

Second, a quick review of my book promorion activities in March.  In February, I did the KDP Countdown deal and supported it with a review group activity on Goodreads plus lots of blogging and plenty of tweets.  I also appeared in two local newspapers.  The result was around 80 downloads (most of which were discounted to $0.99 or £0.99) and  a few more reviews although these obviously take time.  Surprisingly, I got downloads of my other 4 novels that I wasn’t actively promoting.

In March, I limited the activity to blogging and twitter with no KDP promotion just to see the effects of the Countdown Promotion.  The result was only 4 downloads, so the message is simple:  Amazon KDP promotions really work.  Regarding reviews, I have 6 on Amazon.co.uk, 4 on Amazon.com and on Goodreads, 4 reviews and 7 ratings.  So, it’s happening.  Slowly.  However, it is still true that I need at least 10 reviews on each website before readers who do not know me will be tempted to download the book.

Go on, have a look!  http://getBook.at/FlightIntoDarkness.

For April, I’m hoping to try Alan Kealey’s Indieauthor News (http://www.indieauthornews.com/) which involves a small cost but has a good reputation.  I’ll let y’all know.