Edit: Eat your heart out, Vegeta.
Step One: Write an awesome book. This may sound like a given, but it’s a very difficult thing to do. It takes blood, sweat, tears. Maybe a bit of plasma, depending on your financial situation.
Step Two: Amplify your voice. Connect with readers. Connect with authors. Let their awesomeness rub off on your awesomeness (abstinence in marketing, much like other aspects of life, doesn’t work.)
Step Three: Topple a treadmill at an infamous review site.
Will this miraculous plan work for everyone? Probably not. I mean, getting tossed in a bundle with award-winning, incredible indie talent won’t hurt your chances of pulling off this feat.
As of Sunday morning, over 1000 copies of the Immerse or Die StoryBundle have been sold. (That’s 9000 books in shameless marketing math between the nine amazing books in the bundle.) What started for me as a submission to a reviewer’s website, has turned into by far the best weekend of sales I’ve ever had.
I’ve got a list somewhere, but off the top of my head, Crimson Son has been submitted to over fifty review sites. I’ve paid to enter it in a handful of prestigious contests. I’ve shipped books across the US, South America, Canada and even to Eastern Europe for giveaways and more reviews. I’ve toured blogs, attended conventions, signings, carted my books back and forth to local stores to sell on the shelf, bought swag, made posters, done interviews, chatted in social media – I’ve tried all the things.
My point is, the only way to figure out how to sell books is to get out there and try. There is no shortcut and no single formula is a one-size fits all. Be on the lookout every day for the best way to get your book into reader’s hands. That’s what matters: people enjoying your books.
And those people? They are key to your success in this crazy world of information overload and digital anonymity. So screw all the get-rich-quick seminars, let me do what’s really important:
Friends, family, readers; all of you who put up with my shameless promotion and shenanigans. Who read my early crap and gently (or with a boot to my ass) steered me in the right direction. Who sacrificed your own time, humbly in the shadows or while sharing your own spotlight with little ‘ol me. To all of you, a sincere thank you, and to all the new readers brought in by the Immerse or Die Bundle – I hope you enjoy the book, with your support, there’s a lot more great fiction ahead.
This week:
Guest appearance on Kulture Shocked’s Kulturekast – Where we discuss the finer points of one of the absolute best bad movies ever made, Samurai Cop.
Cover Reveal and contest announcement on Wednesday – The completed cover for my upcoming short story collection, Empty Quiver, and a contest for any of you straddling the fence on this whole bundle-of-badassery from Immerse or Die.
Badass Fiction Alert on Friday – Talking about Laura Maisano’s exciting new release, Schism.
Categories: Author News
RUSS LINTON 
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