KindleFever
If you’ve ever toyed with the idea of publishing a Kindle book but never quite got around to it, Nick Daws’ KindleFever might be just the push you need. KindleFever is a challenge to publish a Kindle e-book in the month of June.
Nick says, “You can either write and publish a Kindle e-book from scratch, or else format and publish an existing work. All types of Kindle book are welcome, including novels, short stories, anthologies, nonfiction books, poetry, and so forth.”
The challenge is being run via the writers’ forum My Writers’ Circle and there will be lots of chat and advice on there for e-publishing newbies. There’s already a useful resources thread on there.
There might also be post-publication benefits from taking part in this challenge. “We hope and intend that everyone taking part in KindleFever will help other participants promote their newly-published books, by reviewing them, “liking” them, tagging them, and so on,” Nick explains. “This should help to ensure that they all have the best possible chance of making it into the Kindle best-seller lists!”
I had the pleasure of meeting Nick Daws on Saturday when he came to talk to Lichfield Writers about e-books. He was very generous with his advice and I think this will be a challenge well worth taking!
It’s free to sign-up – simply register on the forum and scroll down the list of topics to KindleFever.
Lancashire Authors’ Association
Peter Jones has been in touch to tell me that the Lancashire Authors’ Association are keen to welcome new members. Their next meeting is in Lytham on June 1st. Details are here.
But Peter points out that you don’t have to live in Lancashire to join them.
“We have members in various parts of the country and as far afield as Canada and New Zealand,” he says. “We have annual competitions only open to members with prizes plus a trophy.”
They sound a friendly lot and membership is only £15 per year.
Freebie – Last ever chance to get Old Friends for free!
I’ve unchecked the box in Amazon KDP and Old Friends will drop out of KDP Select in a couple of days. For me the benefits of offering books for free don’t seem to be materialising (after my last promo I noticed no rise in sales and only received one review – thank you so much, Carl) and so I’m going to experiment by making the book available on other platforms too (KDP Select requires that the book be exclusive to Amazon).
However, I have got two free days left so I thought I’d give you all a final chance to get it for free on May 21st and May 22nd. In exchange, I’d be most grateful if you could leave a review (doesn’t have to be 5 star – as Nick Daws said at his workshop, books with only 5 star reviews can look a bit dodgy, so even 3 star reviews are OK too).
Old Friends is available on all Amazon sites by searching for ASIN: B00BJIKIBI
Or grab it from Amazon.uk by clicking here or from Amazon.com by clicking here.
Sally Jenkins 
#1 by Nick Daws (@nickdaws) on May 21, 2013 - 10:57 am
Thanks for mentioning KindleFever, Sally. Yes, all your readers (and you) are very welcome to take part. You don’t absolutely have to register on the forum, but obviously you will need to if you want to join in the discussions, ask questions, and so on.
And yes, it was a pleasure to meet you on Saturday too, and thank you for your contributions to the discussion. I could happily talk about e-book writing all day, although as my voice was going after an hour, it’s probably just as well we only had an hour!
#2 by Sally Jenkins on May 21, 2013 - 11:03 am
Thanks for dropping by, Nick. KindleFever sounds a great opportunity for KDP ‘newbies’.
#3 by susanjanejones on May 21, 2013 - 12:20 pm
OOops; I had a coughing fit and pressed the button before typing… I really must get to grips with e.publishing Sally. These links would be helpful. I’ve entered the Lancashire flash fiction competition. You’re right about them being friendly.
#4 by Sally Jenkins on May 21, 2013 - 4:24 pm
Don’t worry about the wrong button, Susan – I’ve deleted your previous comment!
#5 by Wendy Clarke on May 21, 2013 - 1:18 pm
Thank you for the information, Sally.
#6 by Tracy Fells on May 21, 2013 - 2:20 pm
Thanks for sharing about KindleFever Sally – sounds an interesting initiative. And with all the fuss about mag contracts it could soon be the route many short writers take…
#7 by Sally Jenkins on May 21, 2013 - 4:25 pm
That’s a good point, Tracy.
#8 by blogaboutwriting on May 21, 2013 - 3:34 pm
Sally, I’ve downloaded ‘Old Friends’ (sorry I hadn’t done it before! I thought I had). Will definitely leave you a review for this and your other e-books, in due course…!
#9 by Sally Jenkins on May 21, 2013 - 4:25 pm
Thanks, Helen!
#10 by Anne Harvey on May 21, 2013 - 6:53 pm
Another good post, Sally, even if I don’t always take advantage of your suggestions. I don’t know how you think of them!
#11 by Sally Jenkins on May 21, 2013 - 7:26 pm
Thanks, Anne. I probably spend too much time surfing the internet instead of writing!
#12 by carlpeters on May 22, 2013 - 6:25 pm
As ever another great post Sally! You are certainly getting yourself into that writer’s lifestyle, it’ll all come to fruition eventually I’m sure! Oh, and it’s great to see my name in your post too, kinda makes me feel important! I’ve shared it on Facebook too, would do that on twitter but haven’t set an account up yet! We’re all soooooooo busy aren’t we! Keep on writing then, look forward to your next post, story, advice, news, etc…….
#13 by Sally Jenkins on May 23, 2013 - 7:56 am
Thanks, Carl. If only I were in the writer’s lifestyle! Thanks for the Facebook share – I’ve not got around to Twitter either yet. I really must do it sometime.
#14 by parlance on May 23, 2013 - 5:33 am
Thanks for the freebie. I loved the stories and I’ve left a review.
#15 by Sally Jenkins on May 23, 2013 - 8:07 am
Thank you so much, Parlance – my first review on Amazon.com for this book! You are a star for reading it so quickly. Best wishes with your projects.
#16 by parlance on May 23, 2013 - 9:38 am
Sally, I loved the stories. I read them on my iPhone, which is a new experience for me. I meant to get them on my Mac desktop but somehow they appeared on my phone, which was just great. I’ll be looking for more of your stories.
Catherine (parlance)