It is a new year and I cannot think of a better time in which we can all shake things up a little, especially when it comes to our dreams and goals. Since I first put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard!) and published my first novel, I have been working hard to find ways to get my work out to readers. It turns out that writing a story, getting everything edited, designing and modifying cover artwork, determining a selling price and platform was the easy part. The hardest part is the marketing. There are all sorts of different blog posts and advertisements to be found on the internet, each one claiming to have discovered the "secret" for successfully selling books. Each book marketer assures you that they are the best platform in which to market and sell your novel, and some even come with a satisfaction guarantee (make sure you read the fine print!). The one commonality with each of these advertising sites is that they are only too happy to take your money regardless of whether or not they produce tangible sales results. We are living in an era of disruption, where success comes to those that shake things up. Think of Jeff Bezos and how he has turned the retail world upside-down with Amazon. Think of Elon Musk and Tesla. Think about how eBay, Apple, Uber and Netflix have changed the way consumers shop, travel and find entertainment. Each of these companies have become successful because they disrupted the norm and created a buzz in their respective industries. Amazon opened the door for the indie author by providing a platform for authors to self publish their works. In turn, this has provided the reading public with an unprecedented number of choices. No longer do readers have to go to their local bookstore or library to search for new books to read, they can now find anything and everything online and instantly download an electronic copy. It is instant gratification at its best! Amazon opened the floodgates with this disruptive business model and in the process has allowed many very talented writers to reach previously unreachable readers. However, in doing so, they have also made it very difficult for a new and unknown author to be discovered. There are now literally millions of books available through Amazon which makes getting noticed quite challenging. For most indie authors it is simply not economically feasible to spend hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on an professional marketing campaign for our books. This is a significant disadvantage that an indie author has when compared to authors who are traditionally published, although even traditionally published authors do not have an unlimited marketing budget (unless you are a superstar like Stephen King or J.K. Rowling!). The lack of a 6 or 7 figure marketing budget doesn't mean that we are doomed to fail, it simply means that we have to be more creative in our marketing approach. In short, we need to be disruptive! How do we do this? If you know your target reader audience, and you should, then start thinking about where these people would gather in larger groups. Do you write historical non-fiction? Then visit your local historical society and offer to do a reading of your book. Do you write stories filled with dragons and wizards? Why not consider visiting a medieval fair and set up a table with your books? Indie authors are a creative group. We create people, places and adventures using only our imagination. Coming up with new and disruptive ideas for marketing our books should be second nature to such creative geniuses ;o)

For the past several weeks I have been debating whether or not to pull my books from Amazon's KDP Select program. KDP Select is a program offered by Amazon that pays authors when Amazon Kindle customers "borrow" their e-books. Authors are paid approximately US$0.0045 per page read. Until recently, being enrolled in the KDP Select program has generated a reasonable amount of extra income each month, although it does preclude selling my e-books through other online retailers. I, and many other Indie authors, felt that being locked out of other online retailers for our e-books was an acceptable trade-off for the monthly income. However, over the past few several weeks, the KDP reads, and subsequent income they generate, have pretty much vanished. I am not alone in this situation as I see days of zero page reads appearing on my Amazon KDP reports. Sales have also all but vanished and the author discussion boards are filled with people asking what has happened. Every author sees sales rise and fall over time, but for so many authors to see little or no sales or page reads would indicate that there is possibly a reporting problem. Many authors have posted that they have contacted Amazon to investigate the lack of sales, and all appear to receive the same response: everything is okay on Amazon's end. This may be believable except for the fact that many authors, myself included, are seeing an increase in our books rankings, indicating that sales or e-book borrows have taken place. Maybe October is just a bad month for authors, but with the number of authors reporting anomalies in their sales and page read reports, it seems highly unlikely. With the lack of sales and page reads being generated through Amazon, and the new, VERY expensive advertising model that Amazon recently launched, I think it is time for me to take my e-books "wide" (a term used when authors sell their e-books through multiple online retailers). At this point in time, I have nothing to lose. I have unchecked my Kindle auto-enrollment box on my account, and as soon as my books are clear of my contractual obligations to KDP Select, I will start selling my e-books through other online retailers. I would be interested in hearing from other Indie authors on their recent experiences with KDP Select and what you plan to do.

The advent of social media and online retailers has spawned a new breed of social annoyance - the internet troll. For Indie authors, and anyone that has a public presence, these people can become quite annoying and distracting. The power of these trolls comes from the anonymity of being able to hide behind a screen name, which is mostly untraceable. These internet trolls get their joy from attacking others through online forums, social media and reviews. Why do they do this? There is no one answer to that question, but in my humble opinion, I think jealousy plays a large part in these often malicious attacks against those who seek to live out their dreams. It doesn't seem to matter whether your are an artist, politician, business owner or even someone with an opinion that may differ to more popular opinions. Anyone with an online presence can quickly become the target of one of these trolls. I have seen comments made on various social media pages and websites that make me shake my head and wonder if the person writing these nasty comments would ever have the guts to say the same words to a person face-to-face. Probably not, at least not in the social and business circles in which I move. When I have had a bad experience at a restaurant or another business, I take my complaint directly to the management, usually at the time when the disparaging exchange has taken place. I don't wait until later to vent my frustrations online. If I am unhappy with a product, I will return it. I may offer an online review, but it is always handled in a reasonable and helpful way and never in a wild and uncontrolled rant. Constructive criticism should never be confused with an online attack by a troll. If a review or comment is fair and delivered in a reasonable and humane way, then it should be considered constructive. Someone disagreeing with your point of view, done in a level-headed manner, should also not be confused with the actions of a troll. So how does a public figure deal with these trolls? You don't; you simply ignore their rants and attacks and move on. These trolls get their pleasure from knowing they have upset their target. If they do not get a rise out of you, they will ultimately move on. Never fear that your true supporters will start to believe the ravings of a troll, most people with any common sense can spot trolls quite easily and ignore them. This is not easy to do, but your silence is deafening to those that hide behind their computers and launch attacks against you. Keep following your dreams and whatever you do, do NOT feed the trolls!

My regular readers will know that I have 2 of my 3 novels published in China, in e-book format. Both books have been available for sale through several websites, most notably with Amazon China. The translation and publishing company I worked with to have the translations done was Fiberead. You can read more about how Fiberead works in my earlier blog posts. My first novel was published back in April, and the second novel was published in May. Since my first novel was published, I have visited China twice for business, and have seen a large number of people that had copies of at least the first book (I have been working in China for the past 21 years as part of my 'regular' job). However, until today, I have had zero information supplied by Fiberead about sales that have been registered. The lack of sales information has been a point of annoyance for me for the past month or so. Fiberead delays sales reports by 2 months, according to their staff, yet my sales reports have been delayed by 4 months. This is annoying to me for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to know how well, or how poorly, my books are selling. Contacting Fiberead's support for information has been less than helpful, and they seem to have stock answers and do not appear to put much, if any, effort in finding and providing information to the author. The one good thing is that with Amazon China, like Amazon in other parts of the world, there is a ranking system which will at least provide a hint of a book's sales performance (if the ranking goes up, you are making sales). However, unlike with Amazon in North America or Europe, you are unable to receive a full sales report (at least I cannot obtain this information). My first sales report from Fiberead, which appeared on my account page (I never did receive an actual response from my Fiberead representative), at least indicates some sales have taken place. Based on the amount of income, I would guess that the sales were all made prior to the books being published on Amazon. The Amazon sales have yet to be reported, and if it takes 4 months for those sales to appear, I won't have any information until November or December. Not great, but at least now some sales information is finally coming through.

When I had finished the manuscript for my first novel, Bloodlines: Cove Point Manor, I had several people read and critique my work. There were the usual comments regarding grammar issues, some names which had been switched in error, etc., all normal things that a writer hopes the proof-reading and beta reading will catch. In addition to this 'normal' comments, one of my test readers made the comment that the comprehension level of my writing was 'at an 8th grade level'. The comment was one that initially concerned me, so I decided to do some research on the subject. It turns out that writing at an 8th grade level is not a bad thing as it makes your story easy to read and easy to understand. My famous authors write at no more than a 9th grade reading level which may come as a surprise to many. J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, Hunter S. Thompson, Jane Austen and even Earnest Hemmingway, all right at a grade school level. It appears that my level of writing was not too low and was, in fact, appropriate for my audience. Personally, I read books to be entertained, and when I read for entertainment, I don't want to be challenged by the meaning of words or phrases: I just want to be entertained. Text books are a different matter, but how many of us curl up with a good text book to relax and escape our every day lives? Not me! I do find that the use of overly flowery words, or words which no one really uses in everyday conversation comes across as the author being pretentious. Pretention is a turn-off for me, as it is for many others. If I start reading a story and it comes across as pretentious, I close the book and move on to something else. There are several good websites that you can use to check the readability score of your work, and numerous posts about the subject. The website that I use (at no cost) is https://www.webfx.com/tools/read-able/ You simply copy some of your writing, paste it into the calculator, press a button and voila, it gives you a readability score expressed as a school grade level. It's quick, easy and free. So the next time you sit down to work on your manuscript, remember to keep your writing simple and easy to understand. Your readers will be grateful that you entertained them rather than made them feel like they have just been handed a homework assignment.

This week I was shocked to find out that one of my "bucket list" dreams actually happened: my novel Bloodlines: Cove Point Manor was on the same best sellers list as my favorite author, Stephen King. Not only was my book on the same list, but it was ahead of 2 of his best novels, The Stand and Carrie (also favorites of mine). To add to this accomplishment, another author I like, Anne Rice, had one of her books 2 places ahead of mine. This all happened on Amazon China and was for my paperback version which adds even more authenticity to the accomplishment (at least to me!). When I discovered that my paperback was on the Amazon China best sellers list for horror, it was quite by accident as I didn't even know it was available in China in the English language version. I also didn't even notice that Stephen King and Anne Rice were on the same list until a colleague pointed it out. I think I was in shock just finding my English language paperback was even on a top 100 list, let alone in China. I have read Stephen King's books for years, and have no issue with admitting that I like the way he writes. I have a large personal collection of his books, and even a few first editions that I treasure. I had always hoped to one day be able to write a novel that would appear on a best sellers list, but I did not really expect it to happen, at least this quickly. What does all this mean? To me, being on a best sellers list anywhere in the world means that my writing is being enjoyed by people. Although the ranking is not high (I discovered my book's ranking when it was at #82), and will most likely drop over time, it still gives me a real sense of accomplishment and validation. My first novel was published when I was 50, which many people may think is a bit old to try something new. I say balls to that, and as long as you want to do something, you are never to old to chase your dreams. I would rather fail at trying something that is important to me than to wake up one day facing regrets that I did not even make an attempt to do what I wanted. The fear of failing should never be so strong as to keep you from trying. Not everyone will achieve their goals in life, but those that never at least try are guaranteed to fail 100% of the time!

I got a very nice surprise today when I discovered that my book, Bloodlines: Cove Point Manor, had hit the top 100 list in its genre on Amazon.cn (China). The funny thing is, I do not actively advertise this book, or my other English language books, on Amazon in China. Only my Chinese language e-books are actively marketed in China. My book was sitting at #82, right above Stephen King's novels The Stand and Carrie (two of my favorites, by the way!), and just below Anne Rice's Interview With A Vampire (another favorite). How did this happen? The answer is quite surprising! I spoke with one of my friends in China and she explained that it is common for Chinese readers to order an English language book so that they can compare the English and Chinese versions. The ebook market is tightly regulated in China, as are print books, but only print books which are sold at retail stores in China. Print books that are available online through Amazon are able to be purchased by Chinese citizens, although the delivery time is quite long (6-8 weeks). My friend has personally ordered 10 of my print books for her friends that have read the ebooks. She thinks, based on my ranking, that many more of my Chinese language ebook have also ordered the printed copy. Stephen King is very popular in China, and his book The Shining, is currently #1 in this genre. In fact, Stephen King has 10 books in the top 100 so I'm quite thrilled to be in the company of the King of Horror in having one of my books in the same list as his. Although the royalty per ebook sold in China is quite low, at least compared to North America and Europe, the added benefit of selling printed copies more than offsets the lower initial royalties. As an even bigger bonus, selling enough print books to end up on an Amazon best sellers list, especially one that contains the likes of Stephen King and Anne Rice, is priceless exposure. With over 300 million active ebook readers, China is definitely a market to consider as an indie author. It is not a quick or easy process being published in China, but then again, nothing worthwhile usually is.

Indie authors wear a lot of hats, and for those that enjoy a challenge, writing and publishing as an indie can offer you freedoms that traditional publishing may not. Sure, you have to do most of the work yourself, but you also maintain control over your work. Part of this control involves being able to enter foreign markets and have your book printed in another language. There are a few 'free', or rather 'royalty share' translation companies with which I have become familiar. One of the largest translation services is a company called Babelcube. Bablecube allows authors to advertise their works and then interested translators will contact you with an offer to translate your book into a specific language. When completed, Bablecube places your newly translated foreign language book on Amazon. Sales of the book are split between you, the translator and, of course, Bablecube. For the first sales under $2,000.00, you receive a 30% commission, the translator receives 55% and Bablecube the remaining 15%. I listed my first two novels on Bablecube and got an offer almost immediately to translate the first into Spanish. I accepted the offer, mainly because I was able to verify the translation, which is a VERY important consideration, and a few months later my book was published in Spanish. That was in October, 2017 and to date, I have earned an eye-watering $3.00 in royalties. Hardly worth the effort although I feel badly for the translator as she has not recouped her time for the project. I soon discovered the Bablecube, although the say they market your books on all sorts of different sales platforms, appear to just put the book on websites and hope for the best. I have had zero proof of any marketing efforts being made, and the horrid sales would attest to that fact. I had my second novel listed with them, but recently pulled all books from their site. The other translation service I used was Fiberead, another royalty share platform. My main goal with using Fiberead was to make my books available in China as I have a number of people I know there that wanted to read my books in their native language. The translation process did not involve a lot of time on my part (other than writing the books in the first place!), but it was a horrendously slow process, and the communication throughout the 14 months it took to complete was non-existent. When the two books were finally translated, the approval process to allow publication in China took a very long time (6 months) and once again, I could get no information about what was going on. The books were finally published in China and were put on sale through Amazon. The funny part was, my contact at Fiberead did not even know that one of my books was on sale with Amazon until I told her that it was. My next frustration came with the inability of Fiberead to offer any sort of marketing or promotion of my books, even when I offered to pay to do so. They also just place your books on several websites and then hope the book sells. When the book does sell however, you don't really know. Fiberead's sales reports are at least two months delayed, the reasons for the delay are also not able to be explained to me. Receiving responses that "it takes time" and "be patient" do not sit well with me, especially when I know that Amazon has a good sales reporting system, at least when it is working (that is a story for another blog post!). I do know that my books are selling in China as I see their sales rankings improving, but I have no idea how many books I have sold. I also had zero input in how much the books would be sold for; Fiberead made the sales price decision on their own, with no consultation and no reasons given for the prices (one is reasonably priced, the other one might as well be given away it is so low). I have decided that I will wait and see what sort of interest and sales my books generate in China before I consider having my third novel, or any future novels, translated into the Chinese language. If they sell well, I think I will pay a translator to do the work and then sell as an indie or through a more traditional publisher. The lack of communication and transparency that I have been experiencing is not something I like. If you are not worried about having control over your foreign language marketing efforts, and don't mind being kept in the dark for months at a time, using one of these services may be suitable for you. If however, you are like me and like to have control over marketing efforts rather than just hoping for the best, you might want to consider paying for a translator and then indie publishing your works. I will continue to update my readers as the months go on, but for now I think I will just stick to publishing my future novels in English. If there is really a demand for my work in another language, I think I will find another way to enter the market other than to use these services.

My regular readers will know that I spent a little over a year (14 months, to be exact!) having my first two novels translated from English to Chinese. Both novels, Bloodlines: Cove Point Manor, and Bloodlines: Of Noble Blood, have now been on sale in China for a little over a month. So how are my sales going? I really have no idea, which is part of the frustration in my dealings with the translation/publishing partner I am working with, Fiberead. Before I go any further, I would like to say that I am very familiar with working in China, not necessarily with publishing companies, but I have been working closely with many Chinese firms since 1997. I have also been visiting China several times a year for the past 21 years. I think I have a good handle on working with the Chinese, and I understand that communication can sometimes be a challenge due to both language and cultural barriers. However, I have learned how to effectively work with my Chinese friends, and understand that a little patience goes a long way in building lasting relationships. For those that are unfamiliar with Fiberead, I have written a few other blog posts on their service, so I won't bore regular readers with a rehash of that. Once I finally had both of my books published in China, both in e-book format, I started to market the books to people that I knew who lived in China. The funny thing was, I knew that one of my books had been published on Amazon.cn before my translation team did! Since Amazon has a (pretty) good order and sales reporting system, I expected to be able to receive sales figures from Fiberead immediately. Unfortunately, for some reason that is still unclear to me, Fiberead delays sales reports by 2 months. Amazon.cn seems to operate using the same ranking system as they do in other marketplaces, and my overall book sales rankings are published on their Chinese website. Fiberead does not do ANY marketing, even paid marketing (despite what their website would lead you to believe) and simply publish the translated books on several websites and, I suppose, hope for the best. I watched as my novel, Bloodlines: Of Noble Blood went from #3 on the Chinese best seller list down to #7800. I even had a close associate of mine, who is a Chinese national, contact Fiberead and speak directly to them to see what could be done regarding marketing and reporting. They got the same answer I had received: nothing. I soon began to feel frustrated as I watched my sales rankings drop like a rock. I eventually stopped checking my sales rankings on Amazon.cn daily, and now only check once or twice a week. When I checked this morning, I was pleased to see that Bloodlines: Cove Point Manor had gone from the #12000 rank all the way up to #1931, which means the book is selling, but how many copies of the book have sold? I still have no idea. My other novel, Bloodlines: Of Noble Blood, has also improved in the Amazon rankings, sitting at #6048 today, which would also indicate at least some sales have been made. Fiberead still has no sales information listed for either of my books, and I have no idea if either of the books are selling through their other sales platforms. I won't reach the 2 month anniversary of the books being published in China until September, so in the meantime I will have to wait, and wonder...

My first two novels, Bloodlines: Cove Point Manor and Bloodlines: Of Noble Blood, have officially been published and on sale in China for almost a month. The translation and publishing company I worked with to have the books translated and published is Fiberead (www.fiberead.com). It has been an interesting experience, and one which continues to be "interesting". Communication with both Fiberead and the translation team has been less than stellar throughout the 14 month process. Now that both novels are published and being sold through Amazon China (and, possibly, other Chinese e-tailers), getting any sort of information from Fiberead or the project manager is, well, difficult. For starters, I only happened to discover that my second book was published on Amazon.cn when I clicked on my name beside my first book. To my surprise, up popped my second book, yet I had received no notification that the second book had been approved and published. To make matters worse, my project manager also had no idea, and two weeks after I found the book had been published, she wrote me to tell me it would be published in China "soon - be patient". Not impressive. I publish my English language books with Amazon and find that their online reporting system, while not perfect, does provide valuable and reasonable sales figures. When I enquired with Fiberead as to why my Fiberead account showed zero sales when I had proof of numerous sales (I have a number of friends in China, all of whom were only too happy to send my photos of them with my e-books), I was told that Amazon China is slow to report. I didn't, and still do not, believe that Amazon China operates so differently from all other Amazon worldwide sites that they don't track sales in real-time, or at least within a day or two of confirmed sales. When I pushed Fiberead for a better answer, the one I received was one that stated that they report sales once a month, and may delay up to two months. I find this unacceptable, especially since Fiberead requires a written request from the author to receive payment, which, in turn, can take one or two months to process. My first book's ranking on Amazon changes almost daily (usually increasing in rank), indicating sales are being made. My second book ranked as high as #3 in its genre, which is a popular genre in China, meaning I must be selling a lot of books. Unfortunately I have no way of knowing if I have sold 10 books, 100 books or 100,000 books until Fiberead decides to tell me. Not impressive. Finally, I have asked Fiberead what paid advertising options are available for me to further promote my books in China. I asked this question four days ago, and as of the writing of this blog, I have yet to receive a response. Time will tell if my efforts to sell my books in China will be worthwhile financially, but it looks like this will be an uphill battle to get Fiberead to start communicating quickly and clearly. If clear and quick communication and up to date sales reporting are important to you, make sure you research your translation & publishing partner carefully.

It took over a year, but my first and second novels in the Bloodlines Series have now officially launched in China. Both novels were translated from English to Simplified and Traditional Chinese, and based on the feedback I have received from several people I know who are Chinese, the translations were well done. Bloodlines: Cove Point Manor, was the first novel released in China at the start of July. Sales, at least from what I can tell (more on this issue later!), are steady and the book is doing well. However, the novel is competing in a very competitive genre and the rankings are not as high as that of my second book. Bloodlines: Of Noble Blood, was released 2 weeks ago and is really doing well, ranking as high as #5 in mysteries, and not falling from the top 10 in this genre. Here is a screen shot of the current rankings of this book on Amazon China: 亚马逊热销商品排名: Kindle商店商品里排第5,612名 (查看Kindle商店商品销售排行榜) 第7位 - 图书 > 小说 > 惊悚小说 第35位 - 图书 > 小说 > 当代小说（1949年以后） 第35位 - 图书 > 小说 > 推理小说 Translating these words, the book is ranked #5,612 overall in China for e-books, #7 overall in thrillers, and #35 overall for mysteries and contemporary fiction (defined as published after 1949). It looks like China has an appetite for murder mysteries! In order to have my books translated from English to Chinese, and then made available for sale in China, I teamed up with a translation & publishing company called Fiberead. I found Fiberead after doing some research while in China last year, and despite some concerns, I decided to work with them. Fiberead is similar to a crowd-sourcing site wherein they recruit volunteers to translate books and then share in the royalties from any resulting sales. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain, so I uploaded my novels and soon books #1 and #2 were picked up by the translation teams. The actual translations took only a few months, but getting the books to market, especially in China, took a lot longer. Both translations were completed last Fall, but the Chinese censors only approved both books for sale in late June. It then took several weeks for Fiberead to place both books on Amazon.cn for sale. The one major complaint I have about working with Fiberead is the very poor communication from the project manager and Fiberead itself; requests for information would often go unanswered and require several repeat messages to get a response. Even when I did receive a response, it was often unhelpful. Since both books launched on Amazon.cn, sales information is non-existent. I know that the books are selling as I can track the sales rankings online through Amazon.cn, but I have no idea how many books have actually been sold, nor do I know what the royalty amounts are. Amazon has a very good sales reporting system elsewhere in the world, and I find it difficult to believe that they would not have the same reporting system in China. However, I have been stonewalled by my Fiberead contacts advising me that it will take up to 2 months to report sales figures! Even having a friend of mine, who is Chinese, speak with Fiberead directly, they stuck with this response. Another point of contention for me is Fiberead's marketing efforts. On their website they say that they handle all marketing and promotions, but after having my friend speak with the project manager, this apparently does NOT take place unless I hand over money for marketing efforts. Not impressive. I will continue to try and get Fiberead to respond to my concerns and provide prompt and accurate reporting, not only of sales made and royalties earned, but also details about their marketing efforts. Being well versed in dealing with Chinese firms, I know this will be an uphill battle, but eventually I should get some results. In the meantime I will continue to watch my book rankings via Amazon.cn and hope that my books are well received by the Chinese e-book readers.

I have released two of my three novels as audiobooks this year (still looking for the "right" narrator for novel #3) and while I am pleased with the final product, there is a significant downside to producing an audiobook: marketing it! Audiobook Creation Exchange, aka "ACX", is a great tool for authors and narrators to get together and create an audiobook. ACX also looks after the distribution of the book once it is finished, through their own subscriber based customers on Audible, as well as through Amazon and iTunes. On the surface this all looks great, and for the most part it is, but there is a major pitfall: they offer zero advertising. Unlike Amazon's Kindle Direct program, which allows indie and traditionally published authors to advertise directly to Amazon's Kindle Unlimited subscribers, ACX has no such program. Sure, your book is advertised on the Audible site, but it can quickly get lost in the large number of competing audiobooks. Even other paid advertising sites, like BookBub (which is one of the most effective - and expensive - advertising sites for authors) do not offer an exclusive audiobook advertising platform. This makes things difficult for indie authors such as myself to get the word out that their novels are also available in audio format. Surprisingly no such paid advertising service exists, at least that I have been able to find. Even more surprisingly, neither Audible nor ACX have a pay per click advertising service, yet each are owned by Amazon who makes a significant income from the same service for print and e-books. There is definitely a market for such a service, and the lack of such a service is lamented heavily in online forums. So what is an indie author to do to advertise their audiobooks? For me, it means that I have to try and work mention of my audiobook into my regular advertising whenever possible. This is not the most effective way to advertise - it is always best to target your market carefully, and e-book readers are not generally audiobook listeners - but something is better than nothing. I also make sure to regularly update my social media feeds with mentions of my audiobooks, especially when they rise up in the ranks of their respective genres. It is frustrating to have two very good (IMHO!) audiobooks on the market and minimal ways in which to inform audiobook listeners that they are there and waiting to be enjoyed. Such is the life of an indie author...but I still wouldn't trade it for the world!