Monday, June 8, 2015

The Press Release That Never Was (and Yes, Virginia, There’s a Coupon)

My 5th OUT OF MY MIND short story collection was ePublished last Friday, June 5th. As those of you who’ve been paying attention know, I am not very good at the marketing side of this publishing business, and in these days of eBooks and Indie publishing, it is more important than ever for authors to take control of publishing tasks that at one time were (foolishly?) left to the traditional publishers.
So I was reading Mark Coker’s The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide, and one of the things he suggests is to write a press release, he suggests that you try the free services first (especially when you don’t have any income to justify the expense), and he lists a couple. I wrote my press release and waited until a couple of days before Yet Still Even More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND was to be published to try submitting the press release.
The first service requires that you have an email that is obviously for a company (with its own domain.)  I don’t have anything like that, so I couldn’t join.
It turns out that the second service is NOT free (my fault – I misinterpreted what I read); it costs a minimum of $300 to join, and goes up from there depending on how much you want to do with your membership. Sorry, but Author William Mangieri doesn’t have any justification for that kind of expense – maybe someday, but today is not that day.
So here I am, with a press release that’s all dressed up with no place to go, so rather than waste it, I thought it might be good for some of you to see as a sample (AND THEN it will also still serve its original marketing purpose), so here it is, submitted for your approval (sorry, Rod Serling):


Yet Still Even More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND Comes Available June 5th

William Mangieri’s 5th Collection of Speculative Fiction Short Stories Available and Discounted for a Limited Time

Dallas, TX June 5, 2015 – Dallas speculative fiction author William Mangieri has published Yet Still Even More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND, the fifth of his “Out of My Mind” short story collections.
For a limited time (Friday, June 5  through Sunday, June 21) an electronic
book version of Yet Still Even More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND, normally priced at $5.99, will be available to the public for 50% off at Smashwords.com at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/548456?ref=NoTimeToThink  by using coupon code XW25A.
The collection includes the following stories: “Mutiny on the Star-Bound”, “Reconcilable Differences”, “New Antiques”, “Dead End Jobs”, “The Re-Entanglement of Grant Decker”, and “Anti-Social”, through which William poses a variety of questions: What is human? Is our memory reliable? What about the past? What comes after? Can we have it all? Will anyone even notice? The stories are also available as separate ePublications online through various retail sellers, including Smashwords at: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink
About Smashwords
Founded in 2008, Smashwords is the leading distributor of self-published ebooks. More than
60,000 authors, small presses and literary agents around the world publish over 200,000
ebooks through Smashwords. Smashwords makes ebook publishing fast, free and easy.
Smashwords distributes to major online retailers such as the Apple iBookstore, Barnes &
Noble, Sony, Kobo, Baker & Taylor Blio, Page Foundry and the Diesel eBook Store.
Smashwords is based in Los Gatos, California, and can be reached on the web at
http://www.smashwords.com. Visit the official Smashwords blog at
http://blog.smashwords.com/
About William Mangieri
Originally from Massachusetts, William Mangieri has lived in the Dallas area well over half his life, so feels he can legitimately claim to be a naturalized Texan. By day he works as an IT Project Manager and exorcises his creative demons by publishing a quarterly newsletter. He has always been interested in writing, but finally started setting time aside for it eight years ago. He writes mostly science fiction, fantasy and light horror, although he also has a detective series. To date he has ePublished 46 short stories and 6 collections (the collections are also available in paperback through CreateSpace at https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE)
Contact:
William Mangieri
author dot firstname dot lastname at gmail.com
###
Like it says, my 5th collection of speculative short fiction (Yet Still Even More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND) available with a coupon on Smashwords. (Just saying…) Here’s the link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/548456?ref=NoTimeToThink
Use coupon code XW25A to save 50% off the list price at check out on smashwords. The coupon is good through Sunday, June 21st. Enjoy!
<<<>>> 
William Mangieri’s writing can be found in many places, including:
Connect with him, go to “William Mangieri’s Writing Page” on Facebook (and LIKE and FOLLOW), at: http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink

Or on his Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6893616.William_Mangieri
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