Banking On Readers

When my last book came out, I did my usual promo -- website & blog ads, interviews, book giveaways. Sales were great, so it's a solid plan. But one of my most loyal readers contacted me with a suggestion.

Since she pre-orders my books, and has them all, winning a free copy isn't a big deal to her. She's wonderful about talking me up to her other well-read friendlies, some of whom wind up winning my giveaways :)

But it got me thinking that I could take my advertising budget for a book and instead of only offering books as giveways, I could also offer e-giftcards so readers could buy the book themselves. This way, if they already have the book I'm singing about, they can get a backlist story, or support another author.

It's a little scary to branch out and try something new, but if it works, it's better for me and my reader lovelies.

I'll be giving away a $5 e-giftcard at each of my blog posts this month for either Amazon or B&N or your favorite bookish site. I'll link each post on this blog.

And I'm having my first Twitter contest. Every day for 25 days I'll post a new FOR KICKS Business Travel Tip. Collect them all and at the end email me the list to be entered to win a $25 e-giftcard. That's enough for my entire ebook collection, or a couple of the paperbacks...like PRIVATE SCANDAL, which will be released next month.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter @jennabb to collect the tips (or just collect them from the Twitter feed on the sidebar of this blog if you don't tweet).