And so it begins

Well the first two eBooklets are live in the Kindle store, and so far a massive two units have sold (yes, to kind and generous friends) and I’m wondering what I can do to promote them.  It’s for charity, and I know the motifs have appeal because I used to sell them commercially.  Here they are for you to see, the Eye of Horus and Heh, god of Mischief (Chaos).

Spent a while creating a Myspace account last night, added the links and information, and today the account has been deleted.  Apparently a band can promote their gigs, but an author can’t promote her books sold for charity.  How does that equal fair?

The plan is to create one more eBooklet in the ‘Egyptian Collection’ then to produce an actual book using the createspace.com print on demand scheme.  I know most stitchers prefer a printed format.  No matter how I tried to sell in PDF format all those years ago, everyone wanted hard copy and that’s what kept my costs always just above my revenue.  On the sarcastic plus side, at least the tax man got nothing from me.

If I can get a book formatted up and get it on sale, there’s more than just Amazon as an outlet.  There are so many crafting sites out there that might add it to their catalogues.  No stock outlay for them, and that has to be worked out is what cut they might demand.  It is for charity, but I can’t imagine many will sell it for free.

As day three was dawning I was still awake and wondering just what I’ve let myself in for.  I can set up promotional pages here, there and everywhere, but they have to be maintained.  Do I have the energy and dedication for this?  Should I just go back to selling on eBay and refusing to send out charts in print?  The thing I liked about the Kindle method for this was that it’s a much more mutually exclusive sale.  People won’t finish the designs on their Kindle then pass the device on to someone else.  Where it falls down is the crossover between audiences.  People buy a Kindle to read on the move.  How likely are they to have their sewing gear with them in the park or on the plane?

Whatever I decide to do in the long run, I have a whole lot of documents to create and format up.  The third instalment of eBooklets, the real book format, the PDF formats and who knows?  One day I might spend some time on writing!

I do want to raise some money for the MS Society and I’m not up to a challenge trek.  Let the virtual challenge continue…