So far, I’d say dropping the price of Empire of Chains to $0.99 for the weekend has been a success. Am I getting tons of sales? No. But I have sold more books in the last four days than I have in any other four-day span. I’ve also been doing fairly well in Kindle Unlimited. So far KU has been much better for me and more consistent than actual sales.
I figure that’s to be expected when you’re just starting out. People are more likely to give your book a chance when it’s free or $0.99. I’m hoping that I can start getting more good reviews. As a reader, I often ignore books that don’t have many reviews, so I’m thrilled that at least a few people have tried out Empire of Chains despite its lack of reviews.
Before publishing, I never understood just how hard it is to get reviews. When I look at my KU pages read, it becomes clear that a decent number of people have read the book. Very few of them have left reviews, however. It’s a bit frustrating, but I understand that not all readers want to leave reviews.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with the results so far for Empire of Chains. I’m also working hard on getting The Shadowed Land ready for publication. I’m currently on the third draft. I’m not sure how many drafts it will ultimately have, but I expect it to be ready by mid to late September. I have to fight the urge to be impatient with it. I know that authors often see a surge in purchases when additional books in a series come out.
As it is, I will have a pretty fast and demanding release schedule. I’m pretty sure I can hold to it because I’ve written all the books I plan to release over the next nine months. It’s a matter of revising those books and turning them into the best product possible.
Thankfully, I tend to enjoy editing. I gain a lot of pleasure from taking the potential of the first draft and turning it into a story readers will enjoy by the time I’m done. It can be difficult at times, but it’s worth it in the end.
If you haven’t checked out Empire of Chains yet, please do give it a chance. There are only a few days left of the $0.99 deal. Empire of Chains
Ryan W. Mueller: Fantasy Author 
People on Goodreads seem to be pretty good about leaving reviews if they use the site enough. Is there something you can do to promote the book there that isn’t expensive?
Also, I regularly get emails from Amazon about rating my purchases. Is there an option to do that for people who purchase your book in order to encourage at least more star ratings?
You could also try to entice reviews by offering a drawing for a signed copy or something to that effect. The downside is this only encourages the positive reviews (because I would advise setting it up so they can receive up to two entries – one for a review on Goodreads, one for a review on Amazon) which doesn’t help you as much to develop as a writer or in polishing the other books. It also might not work if not enough readers are following your social media channels (or wherever you advertise the drawing). Just some thoughts that may or may not be very useful.
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