It’s going to be HUGE!
We’re building buzz for a huge Read Tuesday event like Black Friday, but for buying and gifting books, on Tuesday, December 10, 2013.
We have an idea for helping to publicize this event, but we need your help. (You can learn how in a moment.)
There is already much interest and anticipation, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The Read Tuesday event has a huge audience:
- Readers are preparing for the big sale.
- Gift-givers are looking forward to sharing the gift of reading.
- Authors see a golden opportunity to promote their own book sales while waving the Read Tuesday flag.
- It’s also an avenue for small publishers and booksellers to generate more fourth-quarter revenue.
Since indie authors control their own prices and therefore can easily participate, the event should be of great general interest with e-book companies like Kindle Direct Publishing, Smashwords, Apple iBooks, Kobo, Nook, and much more.
So here is the big idea: We need to contact these companies (and more), describe how wonderful this event is shaping up to be, and ask if they can mention Read Tuesday in a newsletter (like the monthly KDP newsletter) or on their websites (it would be a nice fit for Smashwords and many others).
Kathy Steinemann has already contacted Smashwords and suggested that I and others do the same. So give Kathy the credit for this great idea. 🙂
I will be contacting several companies from this list. You can help by also contacting one or more of these companies and placing a request. The more people who contact them, the greater will be their perceived interest in this huge event. There is much interest brewing, and it will be huge. We just need your help to show them.
In addition to describing what Read Tuesday is, why it will interest millions of authors and readers, and why it will benefit these businesses to help spread the word, you can provide a link to the official Read Tuesday website, www.ReadTuesday.com, Twitter site (@ReadTuesday), and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ReadTuesday).
The audience for Read Tuesday is also large enough to interest the media. The more we try to recruit the request of media coverage, the more the media will take notice.
There is also an opportunity here for anyone to write an article about Read Tuesday and get it published. Just imagine the bottom of your article, where it says Your Name, Author of Your Book. It could be a high traffic area relevant to your target audience. (In the absolute worst-case scenario, you can still post the article on your blog or website, so no matter what, your effort won’t be wasted.)
If you get any positive responses from businesses, please share the information here. We can help to spread the word about your success.
If you publish an article or post a video about Read Tuesday (even if it’s on your blog), let us know. We can find a place to post a link, may reblog your post, etc.
If you convince anyone with a big reputation (or have one yourself) to participate on Read Tuesday, please let spread the word. This would help to draw even more interest.
If you persuade any bookstores or small publishers to participate on Read Tuesday, tell them to let us know and we’ll be happy to advertise their participation the Read Tuesday website.
There will also be catalogs to show your participation and to enroll your books. The forms for these are coming soon.
Read Tuesday: It’s going to be HUGE!
Give the gift of reading this holiday season.
The official Read Tuesday website: www.ReadTuesday.com
Learn more about Read Tuesday here: About Read Tuesday
Follow Read Tuesday on Twitter @ReadTuesday
The Read Tuesday FaceBook page: www.facebook.com/ReadTuesday
Authors who would like to participate can learn more about Read Tuesday at Chris McMullen‘s blog: https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/red_tuesday_idea_for_boosting_book_sales/
Chris McMullen, author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers, Vol. 1 (formatting/publishing) and Vol. 2 (packaging/marketing)
chrismcmullen 
That’s a great idea about contacting the companies. Amazon tends to do a lot, but Smashwords would be great. They give you all of the non-Kindle readers, so getting only Smashwords on board opens up all the others to some extent. I can’t figure out where you would contact Amazon about this.
One question I have is that my first two books are .99 cents and going free has yet to work in my favor. So, I’m a little leery about doing those again. The third book will be 2.99, so would it make any sense to have my third book as part of this and not the first two? I’ve been struggling with this since you began.
Yes, I think it’s a great fit for Smashwords. I also think the coordination among indies to produce a large-scale, professional event like this would make for a great story in the KDP newsletter or on Amazon’s website. I used the Contact Us options at KDP and AuthorCentral, hoping at least one would get some attention. (I also made a short search for how to contact Jeff Bezos, but so far all I found was other people with the same question about how to do this. Maybe he doesn’t want to hear from little ol’ me.)
I see no problem with just discounting your third book. It isn’t necessary to discount every book to participate in the program. It’s a tough call though. You’ve probably also played with the idea of making them all $2.99, in which case they could all be on sale. Having one free and the newest discounted is yet another possibility. It could tempt people to take the freebie and buy the newest book now while it’s on sale. But if you haven’t had luck with the freebies, I’d say not to press it. 🙂
I’m still not ready to boost my first book to more than 99 cents. It’s been helping me out a lot. One thing to consider is how long it takes for Amazon to post a price change. I remember when I played with the price of my first book, it took a few hours and then it bounced back to 99 cents for a few days.
Definitely, if I had a series, I would keep the first book at a very low price. 🙂 That’s a good reminder to post about how long it might take for price changes to occur (and it might take extra time if Read Tuesday becomes highly popular). Some authors will also have to check that they can lower their prices to the price they have in mind (if they have pictures, for example, the file size might inhibit 99 cent or $1.99 pricing at Kindle).
If they’re on multiple sales sites, it might take a while too. Each site has its own speed. I didn’t know pictures cause you to price higher. Good to know.