Andy Holloman – Dad, Writer, Goofball

So, amazing but true, I’m a newbie author.  What a strange, *short* trip its been.  (thanks jerry g.)  If I only knew then what I know now.  (WOW!  This blog post is already promising to include more cliches than anyone can stomach.)  See, this time last year, I received a call from a writer friend I met WAY back in 2005.  She brought my dead notions of being a writer back to life with that call to tell me that she’d get my book published through a small press she was screening MS’s (manuscripts) for here in the Raleigh/Durham area.  So I got busy – edit, re-write, edit, etc. I was so thrilled! Someone wanted my little old book.  I got on the social media train full force.  (I even surpassed my teenage daughter’s “friend count” on FB, no small feat.)

Then there’s my new best friend, Twitter.  Met a bunch of other writers in the same stage as me.  Made a couple dozen “friends” and those friendships have brought me more knowledge regarding the book marketing process than I could have ever gathered without them.  I mean “oodles” and “oodles” of stuff.  And real stuff, you know, the stuff that works.  I ended up publishing my book without a publisher, and the crazy thing about managing the publishing process AND growing my list of writer friends is that all the promotions/marketing/sales stuff is playing out in REAL time for all of us collectively.  Most of us are happy to share our successes, tips and pointers, actual numbers, etc. with each other.  All I can say is – WOW!  Imagine the collective power of embarking on a new venture and having the ability to assess other folks efforts immediately after they implement a strategy.  Un-effing – believable.  Even self-publ. mega star JA Konrath posted his sales numbers from his experiment with the new KDP program that allows writers to offer books for free for a couple of days.

So here we go with another promo for Shades of Gray.  Thanks to the folks at Amazon and thanks to my writer friends, I’m jumping on board the KDP “freebie” thangy and hopefully in the next few days.   Would love, love, love, love to hear from others out there that are test driving this program.  AND ESPECIALLY FROM READERS.  Hit me with a comment, or two, or three.  I love swapping book stories!!!    Mucho merci.