Friday, February 28, 2014

Read an Ebook Week 2014 Kicks off Sunday

Read an Ebook Week kicks off this Sunday.  Smashwords is again sponsoring the event for the sixth year running.

Thousands of Smashwords authors will offer free and deep-discounted titles starting Sunday March 2 and running through Saturday March 8.

Readers, starting Sunday March 2 Pacific time, the Smashwords catalog of participating titles will appear at https://www.smashwords.com/books/category/1/newest/1


Readers and Authors:  The official Read an Ebook Week hub page is at Smashwords and offers access to banners, buttons and badges you can post on your web site, blog, Facebook and other social media outlets to celebrate your participation in this event.  This page will also feature links to promotional or free catalogs to make it easier for readers to find books.  Currently I have links to the Smashwords RAEW catalog, two great Apple iBooks catalogs (FREE series starters and featured FREE books), Barnes & Noble and Diesel.  I plan to add links to other retailers as well.

Authors:  To enroll your book(s) in the promotion, go to https://www.smashwords.com/dashboard/sitewidePromos or click the "Authors, add your books to the promotion" button on the Smashwords home page.

If you're interested to learn the story behind Read an Ebook Week, read my 2010 interview with Rita Toews at The Huffington Post .  Please note that the prior web address mentioned in the interview, www.ebookweek.com, is now controlled by a squatter and is not associated with this promotion, so please don't link to or promote the old address.  The Smashwords RAEW page at www.smashwords.com/ebookweek is a better option, and has Rita's blessing.

The official Read an Ebook Week Facebook page, operated by Ms. Toews, is at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Read-an-E-Book-Week/193882590629749  Show your support for RAEW by "Liking" it on Facebook.

Authors:  How to Get the Most out of Your Participation

Read an Ebook Week is a collaborative event driven almost entirely by indie authors and their readers.  Here's what you can do to maximize the fun:

  1. Enroll all of your books.  Make it enticing for readers to add all your books to their shopping cart.
  2. Promote your involvement across all your social media outlets.  Have fun!  Download your favorite official RAEW buttons, banners and badges, and like stickers, stick 'em everywhere virtual sun shines - Facebook, Twitter, your web site or blog, Tumblr, wherever you connect with your fans.  Link the images to your Smashwords author page (you'll find the link in your web browser by clicking on "Profile" at Smashwords) so it's easy for readers to add your books to their shopping cart.
  3. Invite your writer friends to enroll in the promotion, and encourage them to promote their books to their fans.  Every author has the ability to draw more readers to the promotional catalog at Smashwords, and the more readers the more sales and downloads for all the participating authors.  In other words, the more authors that participate, the greater the benefits for all the participants.
Have fun!

5 comments:

Ginger Dawn...A Spice Below The Horizon said...

Cripes, I read e-books but I can 't share my reviews on Smashwords unless I buy the book from Smashwords. This is really not fair because I have bought books from Smashwords as a gift to others and I still can post my review of the book. Cripes, Amazon lets you post reviews. So how are you going to know if I read the book? I will read a book a week though!

Ripley King said...

I'm ready for it! I have it up on my blog. I tweeted it, and will continue to do so all week long!

Sharon Ricklin said...

READY SET GO!
All of my e-books will be 50% off this week!
Promo Code is REW50
Books listed below the interview! Thanks for checking them out!
https://www.smashwords.com/interview/ravenlegend

Joleene Naylor said...

Man, it's the time already! This year I am making all five books in my series free, as well as the short story collection. As of 9 am this morning I'd given away over 120... Now we'll see if that translates into sales for the new book coming out in two weeks and/or reviews... ;)

Ripley King said...

I need more advance warning next year! But I'm giving away books!