This is the first day of my Amazon Free day promotion.  I was a bit anxious this morning to see how effective my pre-promotion was.  I had submitted to nearly 20 sites and this book "The coming of dark" had been my most successful.  Not long after I had published the book it had ranked between 4,000 to 5,00 on Amazon for three months.  Unfortunately, it had slipped back quite a bit in the ranking, and it was an older book so I was cautiously optimistic that it would do good.
     I thought about getting up extremely early in the morning to start tweeting about my free book, but then decided I probably wouldn't make much difference.  So, I got up a little after 6 am.  I checked my KDP.   Not a single book was downloaded.  I was disappointed.  I posted my free book on twitter.  After a couple of hours still no downloads.  I went to my book on Amazon to see if my ranking had gone up. Maybe my KDP wasn't recording the downloads for some reason.  To my dismay my book wasn't free. 
      At first I wasn't sure what to do, if anything.  I have had promotions that started a couple of hours later than 12 am.  After a short time I went to my KDP to check my giveaway times.  I couldn't see how they could be wrong.  When I submit books to different sites for a free giveaway I'm very paranoid about giving the wrong dates so I am constantly checking my dates as I contact these sites.  Anyway, when I check on my promotion it is empty, no dates at all.  I was mad and frustrated.  It took me a few minutes to come up with a plan.  I decided to contact Amazon.
     It's not like I could just make a phone call.  The only way I knew to get in touch with them was to go to the "contact" on my KDP.   I knew this could take a while.  I wrote my message and sent it.  The message back to me was that it could take up to 24 hours for a response.  I had to accept that this promotion was a bust.
     A little back story.  A week ago I had contacted Amazon about changing categories listed on my book site on Amazon.  An Amazon representative contacted me via email saying that what I had chosen was a bit unusual and their tech guy would have to check it out to see if he could do it.  He couldn't get to it till Thursday, the day before my giveaway.  Thursday came and another email.  The tech guy couldn't do it for some reason, but he had changed something else I had asked about.
     I had an idea.  I went to Amazon to schedule a giveaway for the next two days, so it wouldn't all be lost.  Next I decided I needed to contact the sites I posted my book to tell them that my book was not free.  I only contacted two because their site said that it was too late to make changes.  Besides the next two days should be okay.
     I got an email from Amazon about three hours after I had sent them a message.  The representative said that she had tried to call me.  She had my old phone number.  She apologized and told me that she had went ahead and started my promotion.  She gave me the link so I could check it out.
     I was astonished!  I hadn't expected Amazon to respond so quickly, especially to actually make a phone call.  I would have expected it if I was Stephen King or James Patterson.  But not me.
     I have new respect for that monster corporation.        

     There are a lot of books out there on how to make a good living as a self-published writer.  Some of them offer some very good advice.  One snippet of advice, however, seems to be prevalent among the majority of the books that I have read.  That is: write more books.  After that there are usually tips on how to write faster.  To some that works just fine.  I tried following that advice, though I was working a 40 plus hour real job and didn’t have a lot of time.  I wrote more, but got sloppy and put out work that I was not proud of.  At the time, I thought my writing was good.  I’m not necessarily talking about grammar and spelling, though I know they are import aspects as well.  I’m talking about the construction of the story itself.
One problem I found when I went back to my books was that I was not meticulous about the details and I think that’s essential.
     In one of my books I had a character carrying a backpack.  A little further in the story the backpack is mysteriously absent.  Some may not have noticed, but I should have.  I have since corrected that.
     In other cases, an explanation for an action, or a scene, is too confusing, or seems too unlikely.  Though my stories are fiction I need write them as if they are true, as if I were on a stand being drilled by a skilled attorney.
     Keeping characters true to their nature can be a problem for me sometimes.  I constantly have to ask myself if my character is responding to a certain situation as is true to their nature.  If not, I need to have a reasonable explanation of why the reaction is not what is expected.  This can take a little time.
     I’m all for a professional editor but I think an author needs to go through their work at least a couple of times before turning it over to an editor.  I have learned over time that this is something I need to do.  I’m looking for the abstract.  Are my characters behaving the way I want them to?  Are they funny?  Are they serious?  What makes them cry?  What makes them angry?  And, what about the plot?  How much should I reveal early on?  How much do I reveal as a surprise?  Do all the situations work together to form a suitable end?  What I’m getting at is that good syntax by itself doesn’t guarantee a good story.  I like what Dean Koontz has said.
 
I don't write a quick draft and then revise; instead, I work slowly page by page, revising and polishing.
     DEAN KOONTZ
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/dean_koontz.html
 
I've got a long list of books I wish I'd never written-and I've kept them all out of print for the past 20 years.
     DEAN KOONTZ
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/dean_koontz.html
 
     What I’ve learned is that I can’t roll out a decent book in just a short time.  I’ve tried it.  For me it doesn’t work.  I’ve decided to concentrate on the quality of the story as best I can and if it takes more time than I would like I’ll just have to live with it.  This is hard for me because I am impatient.  Before I’m even finished one book I’m ready to start on another.
     I would like to say that everything I put out from now on will be best-seller material.  Man, that would be great!  But the truth is I’m still learning.  Don’t count me out, though, I’ve still got my eye on the prize.
 
Thanks for reading
Gary