After listening to Ryan extol the virtues of KDP for so long, I’ve finally decided to try my hand at self-publishing a Kindle book.

Like everyone else, I struggled with questions about what to write about… and doubts that I had the coding/design skills to get it done.

For me, it seemed totally logical to write about something fun, something that made me happy, and that wouldn’t seem like a total waste of time even if I didn’t make a ton of moolah. So what did I choose? Beer.

Why not? Right?

But I didn’t just pick the entire universe of beer… I went for something slightly more niche-y: Homebrewing.

It’s a good guide, not great. Not a masterpiece of any kind — even by my own, admittedly low standards.

It’s called Brew Great Beer, and it’s designed to be a quick start guide to brewing beer in your home (yes, folks, fully legal in all 50 states!). Yes, it could definitely use more supplemental photos, recipes, etc. I plan to add a bunch of material in the 2nd Edition.

But enough about the book itself, which was formatted using Pubstar… (you might recognize the cover template from CoverLover).

The Important Part

The true magic of digital publishing is the infinite promotional possibilities. That’s what I’m going to explore here in this series of posts. I’m going to do my best to sell a bazillion copies of this book… and I’m going to share my results with you as I go along.

Here are a few of the ways I plan to go about it:

KDP Selects - So, in keeping with our own Kindle publishing best practices, I’m going to offer my book for FREE in order to get reviews/downloads… So please don’t pay money for it. I’ll let you know when it’s available for free download.

Free Digital Reads – FDR is a high-traffic site that recommends free ebook downloads (mostly Kindle books) to thousands and thousands of content-hungry users. Authors can submit their own descriptions and schedule their free promotional periods.

Pixel of Ink - Pixel of Ink is yet another, even more popular, free ebook site. It gets a ton of traffic, but also an avalanche of author submissions. With that said, I’m not expecting a generous outpouring of support from Pixel, but we’ll see, won’t we?

Ganxy - I really like Ganxy as a promotional tool, because it allows you to create nice showcases for your work, including buy buttons for all the major platforms. It works with ebooks, music, and other digital media — Ganxy even allows you to upload your content and sell it directly.

If you have any kick-butt promotional ideas that you want me to try with Brew Great Beer, please leave a comment!

Click here for [Part 2] and here for [Part 3]