Mike O'Toole

Well, the last free period wasn't as good as the first one, so, disappointed we sat down and considered the future for Rings of Smoke. I wanted Diane to concentrate on the sequel, so I took the lead in looking at the alternatives. I did a bit more research through LinkedIn and other Blogs, and found that very few e-Publishers were entirely happy about the Kindle Direct Publishing Select Programme as it tied the author down to them alone. I had heard of Smashwords, and although they were not at the top of everyone's list either, I decided to give it a go. What happened next left me wondering if I had made a serious mistake!

I'm in my second 90-day period with KDP Select. Not by choice, I just failed to notify them when the first 90-day period was up that I wanted to cancel and by default you enter into another contract. Having said that, I’m not sure what alternative I would have chosen. I know nothing about Kobo or Smashwords and from what I’ve read I’m not convinced they would be any better for me. Anyway, my experience with KDP Select has not been all bad. During my first free promo period, my wife's book Rings of Smoke was downloaded over 6,000 times. At its peak it was downloading at the rate of 100 per hour, sending it to no.4 in the Free Thriller charts. However, once the free promo was over the downloads dropped back down again. They were more than before, but nothing outstanding. I did get a few good reviews out of it though. Just recently, I had another free promo. This time I really went full out with the publicity, paying to advertise it on several sites, tweeting, Facebo...

The biggest problem facing a new author is getting recognised. You could have the best thriller since The Stand but if nobody has heard of you, you're not going to get many downloads.