So what effect does a free promotion have?

Over my three-day promotion, which ended at midnight California time, a total of 1248 books were downloaded. All but 13 from amazon.com, .co.uk, and .de . During the promo, Despite the Angels rose and fell, its highest ranking of free books was #455, which was at 2.15pm Irish time on Sunday. It hit a high point of first place in 'Romance-paranormal-ghosts' for a few hours, and then settled to #3. This was a little mystifying, as there are no ghosts at all in the book!
I decided eventually that someone in Amazon must have seen the phrase 'spirit guides' and latched on to 'spirit'. But of course spirit guides are definitely not ghosts!
The book also got up to 8th position in 'romance-paranormal-angels'.
All that is of no importance really, it is what happens now that is of significance. And sadly, that is not likely to amount to much. The book is at 315,003rd overall in amazon. This is probably about half way up, but it is still totally invisible. It would be similar to your book being stocked by a big bookshop, but left in the storeroom!
People who specifically look for either ghost or angel books may stumble across it, at #204 out of 1399 for ghost, and #128 out of 633 for angels; but looking at the others in those lists (only the covers, admittedly) made me feel they were not attracting the readers who would want and enjoy my kind of angels!
So I have more research to do, to work out where to market it next. if any of you have read "Despite the Angels" and are familiar with Amazon's genre selections, maybe you would be kind and give me your opinion?

A Romance!

My editor tells me I have written a romance! And there I was thinking it would have to go into one of the 'paranormal' genres, and maybe never be seen again. But she says that as the 'spirit guides' (the Angels of the title) don't actually appear to the humans in the story, only to the reader, it isn't paranormal at all, just a romance with an interesting twist.
So a bit of re-writing is needed now, to tune it up, and maybe make it even more romantic...
Will I get "Despite the Angels" out by Christmas?
Trying my best....

The Next Hurdle

"Despite the Angels" took a small step towards publication today - it has gone off by email to 'The Literary Consultancy' (.co.uk) for editing. I am also asking the editor who reads it to suggest its genre. A kind contributor on this blog suggests 'occult' but I'm not sure about that, as I feel occult makes people think of vampires and séances. 'Despite the Angels', despite the angels in it, is very ordinary. I hope that will be one of its strong points.
Also, I would not like it to be seen and read only by people already interested in reincarnation. It is a story suitable for everyone, just as fiction. Terry Pratchett's readers do not have to believe there is a flat world on the back of a turtle out there somewhere, so my readers do not have to believe in past lives...
What genres do you look in to find the books you like?

Hairs on the Back of my Neck

Yesterday I did a past-life regression for a young woman (I'll call her Jill), who saw herself in a life in France and then moving to Africa. She was able to see the date on a newspaper, it was 12th July 1845. She couldn't read the paper, it was in a strange script. She died on that day, her head was cut off during "absolute chaos, everyone is dying". Her attacker was a black man, which at the time I thought was odd as the story seemed to fit North Africa more than the south. She also could tell me the port began with a "J".
This morning I got a phone call -"I'm sorry to ring so early, but I couldn't hold myself in". It was Jill. She told me she had Googled the date, 12.July1845, and found that in the Algerian port of Jijel there was fighting on that day, including attacks by pirates, which probably explains the man from further south.
It is fascinating to have a clear confirmation of a past-life fact, and well done to 'Jill' for seeing the date so clearly! She saw other details well too, for example, they were growing oranges for export.
It encourages me that my two books are set in a real world, where reincarnation happens. Sadly, publishers do not believe in reincarnation, so have trouble with putting my books into a 'genre'.
Can you suggest what genre they might be, when I get them up on Amazon later this year?

A Good Critique

I had a half-hour visit with Chris Binchy (novelist, DunLaoghaire-Rathdown writer-in-residence, and Maeve's nephew) in Stillorgan library yesterday, and it was really encouraging. I had sent him the first nine A4 pages of "Despite the Angels" to comment on.
He liked the writing, and though he had a few minor suggestions about style, there was nothing major, and I agree with all his improvements. He liked the idea of the book, and feels it should be published. In fact he seemed surprised that it has not been taken up already by a conventional publisher. But of course, just now is a terrible time for old-style publishing.
We had a long chat about 'genre' because on Amazon as well as with ordinary publishers you have to be clear what genre your book is. Chris feels this is a pity as writers then write to fit the genre rather than writing the book that they want to write. No trouble with me on that one, I have always been a rebel, and so far it has rarely done me much good!
For me the most exciting thing in the meeting was that Chris thought my book is 'almost literary fiction'. That's not good from a sales point of view, as some people are scared of 'literature'. But for my confidence it's great, a good reflection on the actual writing.
I came out with my writing-energy replenished, and my optimism ratings hugely improved. Many thanks, Chris, and DunL-Rathdown County Council for making these meetings possible.