Editor’s Note: It’s an honor to share the Kindle Nation Daily platform with Stacey Cochran. Not only is Stacey a distinguished novelist in his own right, but he has gone far beyond the call of duty in helping other fine writers to create connections with readers in the Kindle community and beyond. Also, let me hasted to add that Stacey led off his post with a very gracious, but totally unecessary, statement of personal appreciation. Since I didn’t want him to bury the lead, I took the liberty of moving it to the end of the post. –S.W.
 

by Stacey Cochran, author of CLAWS 2 
Does anyone doubt that the eBook revolution is here?

Last summer 2009, I published my novel CLAWS on Amazon Kindle. I had no idea at the time that I was embarking on a career breakthrough. For five years prior to summer ’09, I had been self-publishing via POD a series of novels and short stories. None of those sold well.

So I had no expectations that my Kindle books would do any better.

To date, I have had close to 40,000 Kindle downloads of my books. While the vast majority of these were for a freebie, I’ve managed to sell in the neighborhood of 10,000 copies of my books.

Again, does anyone doubt that the eBook revolution is here?

This summer I am embarking on a two-month Blog Tour to help promote my new thriller CLAWS 2.
A Blog Tour is the ultimate poor man’s way to promote his book. I love it. It completely fits in with my populist proletariat vision for entertainment. It’s extremely difficult to get mainstream media attention from traditional sources like national news, television, newspaper, radio without a major push from a major publisher, but a Blog Tour is a proactive way to help spread the word.

A Blog Tour gives the power to the author (or potentially indie filmmaker, musician, artist, etc.) to get “out on the road” and market and promote his/her work. It puts the power in the hands of folks like Windwalker, like Bufo Calvin, like Misty Baker, RJ Keller, Becky Sutton, Dawson Vosburg, Elisa Lorello, Kipp Poe Speicher, Zoe Winters, Scott Nicholson, the list goes on and on. It gives these folks the power to disseminate what is going on in the new world of eBook publishing and entertainment.

It is deeply satisfying to not be told no, but there’s more at stake here than me. We are part of a movement that is reconfiguring how traditional publishing finds new authors, publishes, distributes, and prices books. How cool is that?

I feel like I’m part of a revolution that says 1) we will not pay excessively high prices for books, that are 2) too formulaic, cookie cutter, and thus demeaning to audiences, and that 3) says we will not support a business model that is top-down, rather than grassroots up.

Any structure that puts all of its weight at its highest level is doomed to collapse… or it must reinvent itself. And I think this is what we’re seeing today.

So a Blog Tour represents to me a healthy, democratic entrepreneurial action. And every time you host an independent author on your blog or write a review (good or bad), you’re taking a stand that puts the power of your voice front and center.

I need two things, which is why I’m here today: 1) Blogs that are willing to host me on this Blog Tour, and 2) Reviews (good or bad) of my Kindle books.

If you would like to host me on my Blog Tour the next couple of months, drop me a line at http://staceycochran.com

If you would like to write a review or buy my eBooks, visit me on Amazon.com

As self-promoting as these two goals are, at its core they’re pure freedom in action. They’re a little man (me) taking a stand. It’s me saying that the voice of the people is what matters most. Not Big money. Not Big Power.

Viva la revolution!

We the people. We the people.

Say it out loud.

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Stacey Cochran is the author of CLAWS, The Colorado Sequence, Amber Page, The Kiribati Test, and now CLAWS 2. Visit him on the web at http://staceycochran.com.