Yesterday was a wild ride. MILK-BLOOD was a featured freebie promo on Bookbub. For those who don't know, Bookbub is the king of subscriber services, where readers sign up to be notified about discount books. For those who do know, Bookbub is, in some ways, the new gatekeeper, deciding which books get promoted with a semi-mysterious, complicated selection process.
Why the hell would I spend thousands of hours writing a book and then give it away? Especially when it was selling pretty damn good already. Well, because I am a moron is probably the top answer.
But there are other reasons.
For one, I write to be read. While I do my best to be professional, I embrace the term Hobbyist. It takes the pressure off and lets me do what I want. I certainly do need to make enough money to have this pay for itself to justify my obsession. If I could do it full time, it would certainly be kick-ass, but then the pressure would be on.
Little money was made yesterday, but my ego was fed (it's a hungry, hungry ego) and attention was gained.
The book was number 1 in its two genres for freebies, and as high as number 6 overall in the known kindle universe. This is in a pool of many thousands of freebies for kindle on amazon at any one day. It also propped up my other horror novel, On the Lips of Children, into the top 100 horror novels and stuck me into the top 100 most popular Horror Authors on Amazon. (This will not last. I'm like the dude sprinting the first mile of a marathon, saying, "Hey, look at me, look at me!" but then fades away as the Mebs and Kara Gouchers and Stephen Kings take over.)
Much of this thanks goes to Kealan Patrick Burke for the fabulous cover. The book is worth a click just for that, but it also represents the current power of Bookbub.
In some ways, services like Bookbub are the new gatekeeper. Just to be accepted by them is difficult. They deny 80% of books that request to be featured, and often deny books that they once accepted. Part of this is their scheduling. Much of it is because even the biggest of publishing houses are using their services.
Buy stock in them if you can. I was thrilled when I was accepted. I paid them $90 to give away my book, and happy with the results. The only type of MBA I can declare to have is Most Bonefaced Author.
Yet, the way amazon algorithms work, the book will now keep popping up on peoples' doorsteps. Its like I have my own door to door Mormon on a mission, saying, "Hello, my name is Elder Mark, and I would like to share with you this most amazing book."
Of course, of the 16,087 who downloaded MILK-BLOOD, there are problems. I certainly lost sales, since some would have bought the book eventually, yet now they will not need to. Some didn't even know what they were clicking, and once they do read the first page, will write a one star review saying how much it sucked.
The majority will not read it, and for them I have this message:
I have infected the pages of the book with a sort of super virus. If the book is not read in its entirety within 6 months, then a mentally ill, heroin addicted, homeless squatter will spring himself from the pages. He will take root in your garage. He will haunt your dreams, hear voices from the ghosts in your house and living inside your own soul. Soon he will want to quiet the voices. The itch will come. He will need some Milk-Blood in his veins. All of this happens without warning. Except this warning. Right here, right now. Time is ticking... tick... tick... tick...
