Free Books, what could be better?....

{Nearly...}

Ok, so it's a very scary thing as a writer to give your book away for free.  I mean, it's almost as scary as selling it.  Amazon has this Kindle Select Program you can enroll in, where you can do Promotions, give books away, etc. and I thought, well, why not?!  Why not reach some new readers, give them a free read, and hope they like what they read.

I ran the promotion for five days, I thought 500 downloads was a pretty hefty goal to have met at the end of 5 days, I mean, 100 people a day, well that's more people than I normally reach, but I had decided to set my sights high, reach for the stars and all that jazz! *laughs*

One day one, I logged in a few hours after the promotion began, and there were already nearly 1,000 downloads.  My mouth fell open, my eyes squinted, surely this must be some mistake, how could I have THAT many downloads in just a few hours, I clicked around the page, refreshing, maybe that would give me the correct number, but instead, it shot up 200 more downloads!  "No freaking way!"  I whispered to myself...that's NOT possible.

By the end of the day it was up to 1,700.

By the end of day TWO....2,282 downloaded copies....

At the end of the Five day promotion, there were FIVE THOUSAND, SIX HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE Downloaded copies of 'Dead in a Ditch"...my first born and beloved novel.

I don't know about about you guys, but that seems like A LOT of people!  I mean, holy cow, that's a lot of people that I don't know, from all around the world, who are all holding my blood sweat and tears in their hands....that's a possible 5,699 BAD reviews I could potentially get, or 5,699 GOOD reviews...you just never know.

I was downloaded in India, Australia, France, the UK, Italy, Canada, Japan and Denmark, just to name a few!  Now, just so you know I'm not blowing smoke up your ass and I had my friends download 5,699 free copies just to make me feel good, I know exactly ONE person in Italy the lovely, the beautiful Alexandra, and I believe my friend Leeno is currently in the UK...somewhere...aside from that, I don't have a lot of overseas friends...however, perhaps I now have "overseas readers"...which is kind of the same as friends, because the relationship between a writer and a reader is an intimate one..to be sure!

So I guess this post is just to thank the many strangers who downloaded my novel, making my promotional period a whopping success.  I sincerely hope you enjoy my baby "Dead in a Ditch"...and if you don't, go easy on me in your review on Amazon should you decide to leave one, I don't want to be in the fetal position crying for three days on my couch!  I can take constructive criticism, I just don't take it all that well! *laughs*  And, well, I'll just say it, with the passing of my Grandmother, and the other "setbacks" of this past week, I've cried enough.  I think I met the quota for the rest of 2014 in fact.

So to my new OVERSEAS FRIENDS, and to my new American and Canadian FRIENDS...pleased to meet you!

With Love and Gratitude,

~Heather Lynn Osting~