R. Shannon's Blog
October 18, 2025
Coloring Page – Halloween Rag Doll Witch
Click above or here to download an 8.5" x 11"
coloring page from Google Drive
Click here to purchase at Amazon
Free Download for a Limited Time
Click here to download from Amazon
Click here to download from Bookfunnel.
John Walsh is a successful funeral director with a loving family but he has a weakness for other women. The modern world thinks cheating is a victimless crime, but is it?
Click here to download a free copy for a limited time.
Click on the graphic of my books and you will be brought to a page on my website where you can read a sample of my books in your browser. It's much easier than downloading samples from Amazon.
Check back often as I give away books all the time.
Poster Art – Halloween – Door Poster
Click above or here to download an 11" x 17" Halloween Digital Door Poster.
Print out on cardstock and hang on your front door! Strong enough to last from year to year.
Click here to purchase at Amazon
Free Download for a Limited Time
Click here to download from Amazon
Click here to download from Bookfunnel.
John Walsh is a successful funeral director with a loving family but he has a weakness for other women. The modern world thinks cheating is a victimless crime, but is it?
Click here to download a free copy for a limited time.
Click on the graphic of my books and you will be brought to a page on my website where you can read a sample of my books in your browser. It's much easier than downloading samples from Amazon.
Check back often as I give away books all the time.
Coloring Page – Happy Halloween – Manga Style
Click above to download a 8.5" x 11"
image document from Google Drive
Click here to purchase at Amazon
Free Download for a Limited Time
Click here to download from Amazon
Click here to download from Bookfunnel.
John Walsh is a successful funeral director with a loving family but he has a weakness for other women. The modern world thinks cheating is a victimless crime, but is it?
Click here to download a free copy for a limited time.
Click on the graphic of my books and you will be brought to a page on my website where you can read a sample of my books in your browser. It's much easier than downloading samples from Amazon.
Check back often as I give away books all the time.
October 16, 2025
Is There a Need for a New Catholic Ministry?
I have heard that many, many tech workers have been let go due to AI. I am looking to start a new Catholic Ministry to help these people. First I need to find out if there is a need to get jobs for enough Catholic men or women.
I am thinking of either employment agency and/or online business to offer tech services, websites, database services, etc. This is not a come on to make money. This is meant to test the waters to see if there are any Catholics who have been caught up in this recent purge.
If you are Catholic and have been let go of some other type of work, I welcome you to also fill out the form as “helping to get employed” is the nature of the ministry.
[contact-form-7]
October 11, 2025
Halloween Spooky Bookmarks – Free Download
Click above to download an 8.5″ x 10.5″ high resolution sheet.
Print out on cardstock and cut out. Sweet bookmarks for you’re favorite Halloween reads or gothic stories. Or use them as gift tags or party favors.
October 3, 2025
Coloring Page – The Reading Buddy
Click here to download a high resolution .png from Google Drive
Check out my new Brainstorming Workbook!
Click here to purchase at Amazon
Free Download for a Limited Time
Click here to download from Amazon
Click here to download from Bookfunnel.
John Walsh is a successful funeral director with a loving family but he has a weakness for other women. The modern world thinks cheating is a victimless crime, but is it?
Click here to download a free copy for a limited time.
Click on the graphic of my books and you will be brought to a page on my website where you can read a sample of my books in your browser. It's much easier than downloading samples from Amazon.
Check back often as I give away books all the time.
September 19, 2025
Downloadable Bookmarks – Autumn Reading Themed
Click here or above and you can download a PDF of the Autumn Reading Themed bookmarks. Passing a simple bookmark is a way to let someone special know you are thinking of them. Use them as giveaways at craft shows. Insert them into your giveaway books. Let one hang from the bow on a birthday gift. They are the perfect Tiny Gift for All Occasions.
September 16, 2025
Pre-Orders – Tapping into Amazon’s Algorithms
Every author knows what a great feeling it is to publish your first book. Even when publishing additional books, it's still a great feeling of accomplishment. However, once any book is published, it's then time for an author to turn their attention to marketing the book. This is where it can get a little tricky.
Jumping around on social mediaMost authors I know are generally shy, camera shy, quiet, reserved, or not comfortable jumping around on social media to create buzz about their book. I know exactly how they feel.
Once you do focus on book marketing, every author is always looking for book events, holidays, new ideas, or reasons to create a marketing campaign around. By opting to list the book as a pre-order, this becomes an event in the life cycle of the book. It's an event that can cover one month of time and present several opportunities to talk about it as a marketing approach. It can also be included as a pre-order in an author's weekly or monthly newsletter.
Another advantage of a pre-order on Amazon, you can list the price higher than it will be once it is released. While at this price on pre-order, any Advanced Reader Campaign will be seen as a better deal to get for free in exchange for a review when the book is released. Lowering prices after a product loses it's shiny and new status is very common in the world of marketing.
By setting the Release date a month away -- or more, you can offer a free download on giveaway websites like Bookfunnel or StoryOrigin. Then after the release, you can email these readers and ask for a review.
Amazon will send an email around to people who are following you on your author page. I have included a picture of the upper email so you can see it.
Another marketing promotion can revolve around an invitation to follow you on Amazon or AuthorCentral. You can include this invitation when you announce your Pre-Order or you can even do this campaign before your book is up for pre-order. Those more-seasoned authors will know what I mean by creating opportunities to post about your book that is a slightly different angle than here's my book with a link to purchase it. That marketing approach gets old very fast.
The more followers you accumulate, the broader the pre-order and new release campaign will get. I actually found the Amazon count for my followers which I was shocked to see. If I had to guess how many I had before seeing this number, I would have guessed maybe 40 -- with my eyes closed and fingers crossed. I missed out on this hidden marketing opportunity for the first years of my self-publishing and marketing efforts, so learn from my mistake!
I use a Note to Reader page at the back of all of my books. On this page, I thank the reader for choosing my book to read and also a link to a questionnaire if they want to give me additional feedback. I also include my email in case anyone wants to contact me about the book or for any other reason.
I will be adding a request to follow me on Amazon with a link to my author page, so readers can follow me if they choose to.
TIP FOR THE NEWBIES: When you are scrounging around for another reason to build a marketing campaign around, take a screen shot of your author page and the follow button, with a post about following you to hear about your upcoming book releases. This can be used over and over again right before you get ready to release a new book.
The target of Amazon's email is the author's followers. Everything else involved in who Amazon chooses to notify about the release of your book is proprietary, so no one can say. There is more marketing tip for you as the author that I go into below.
ANOTHER FREEBIE FROM AMAZON:
Above is another screen shot from the email about my new release. This shows three other authors that Amazon includes in an Customers also bought items by with similar authors' names. This information is a HUGE giveaway to you as an author. This information comes from the Amazon algorithms and you can be sure these are the best authors that match your new release.
I would suggest that you follow these authors to see if you can learn anything from how they market to their readers using Amazon. I have followed my three authors and I'll make another blog post if I find any other ways to use this feature at Amazon.
ONE MORE SLIGHTLY-OFF-TOPIC TIP: The names of these similar authors can be valuable when running Amazon ads. I use a tool called Publisher Rocket, which is a paid tool, and they offer this kind of information. With a new release, Amazon is giving you this information for free!
I hope this helps new and seasoned authors alike. Check back to my website often as I do post weekly.
Click here to download a free copy
Click here to purchase at Amazon.com
Click here to download from Amazon
Click here to download from Bookfunnel.
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Pre-Orders – Tapping into Amazon’s algorithms
Every author knows what a great feeling it is to publish your first book. Even when publishing additional books, it's still a great feeling of accomplishment. However, once any book is published, it's then time for an author to turn their attention to marketing the book. This is where it can get a little tricky.
Jumping around on social mediaMost authors I know are generally shy, camera shy, quiet, reserved, or not comfortable jumping around on social media to create buzz about their book. I know exactly how they feel.
Once you do focus on book marketing, every author is always looking for book events, holidays, new ideas, or reasons to create a marketing campaign around. By opting to list the book as a pre-order, this becomes an event in the life cycle of the book. It's an event that can cover one month of time and present several opportunities to talk about it as a marketing approach. It can also be included as a pre-order in an author's weekly or monthly newsletter.
Another advantage of a pre-order on Amazon, you can list the price higher than it will be once it is released. While at this price on pre-order, any Advanced Reader Campaign will be seen as a better deal to get for free in exchange for a review when the book is released. Lowering prices after a product loses it's shiny and new status is very common in the world of marketing.
By setting the Release date a month away -- or more, you can offer a free download on giveaway websites like Bookfunnel or StoryOrigin. Then after the release, you can email these readers and ask for a review.
Amazon will send an email around to people who are following you on your author page. I have included a picture of the upper email so you can see it.
Another marketing promotion can be about following you on Amazon, or AuthorCentral at Amazon for this very reason. The more followers you get, the easier a new release will be. This suggestion can be added to the Note to Reader page at the end of the actual ebook, with a link to your Author page. And when you are scrounging around for another reason to build a marketing campaign around, an invitation to follow you on Amazon is a legitimate reason to post with a snapshot of your page with a link to follow you.
The target of Amazon's email is to your followers. Everything else involved in who Amazon chooses to notify about the release of your book is proprietary, so no one can say.
ANOTHER FREEBIE FROM AMAZON:
I have included all the content of the Amazon New Release email above. Amazon includes authors that your customers or followers have also followed or bought books from. For anyone who hasn't confronted the expense of professional marketing, this is a HUGE giveaway.
I would suggest that you also follow these authors to see if you can learn anything from how they market to their readers.
Knowing who the similar authors to you are is very helpful when it's time to run Amazon ads. So follow the authors so you know their names and books because you can add them into a manual Amazon ad campaign.
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September 14, 2025
Author Blogging – Everything You Need to Know
How to Start BloggingChoose a blogging platform. There are many different blogging platforms available, such as WordPress, Blogger, and Tumblr. You can even use Substack as a website and/or a blogging platform.Choose a domain name and web hosting provider. Your domain name is your website's address, and your web hosting provider is the company that stores your website's files.Install your blogging software. Once you have chosen a blogging platform, you will need to install the software on your web hosting account.Create your blog's appearance. You can customize the appearance of your blog by choosing a theme and adding widgets.Start writing blog posts!What to Blog About?Blog about topics that you are passionate about.
Blog about topics that you are knowledgeable about.Blog about topics that are relevant to your target audience.Blog about topics that are timely and interesting.Blog about topics that are visually appealing.How Often Should You Blog?
There is no right or wrong answer to this question. The frequency at which you blog will depend on your own personal preferences and goals.
If you are just starting out, it may be helpful to blog several times a week. This will help you to build an audience and establish a regular presence online.Once you have established a following, you can gradually reduce the frequency of your blog posts.How to Promote Your Blog
Share your blog posts on social media.Guest blog on other websites.Submit your blog posts to directories and search engines.Run email marketing campaigns.Attend industry events and conferences.Network with other writers and bloggers.Post articles that can help fellow readers or writers.Offer giveaways in order to get emails to grown a newsletter.How to Monetize Your BlogThere are a number of ways to monetize your blog, such as:
Displaying ads for 3rd partiesSelling products or services on your blog: Tshirts, mugs, hats, etc.Charging for access to premium contentCreating affiliate marketing partnershipsIf you are not enrolled in Kindle Select, sell eBooks, Paperbacks & Hardcovers from your website.Tips for Successful Blogging
Be consistent. The key to success with blogging is to be consistent with your posting schedule.Be original. Don't just copy and paste content from other websites. Write your own unique content that will engage your readers.Be social. Share your blog posts on social media and interact with your readers.Decide ahead of time how much you want to let your hair down. If you give your viewership and readership a behind the scenes look at authoring -- or whatever it is you do -- this can be more popular than a series of dry informational blogs. But there are various degrees of revelation and levels of intimacy. Think hard before you choose your level of exposure.Be patient. It takes time to build a successful blog. Don't get discouraged if you don't see results overnight.IN CONCLUSION:Having a website is a commitment. However, it can start out as a showplace for your books and be nothing more until you reach a point where you have things and interests to share about.
Decide ahead of time that you won't use building a website or establishing a web presence on another platform (Instagram, WordPress, or Substack) as a battering rod on yourself. Decide ahead of time that this will enhance what you are presently doing, but it won't add to your "to do list," at least not until writing a blog post and peppering it with images, graphics and/or clickable links becomes second nature.
Be sure to check back to ReadFirstChaper.com often. I do post new book releases, new how-to articles for fellow writers, free giveaways, and more!
Click here for Series at Amazon
Click here to download from Bookfunnel.com
John Walsh is a successful funeral director with a loving family but he has a weakness for other women. The modern world thinks cheating is a victimless crime, but is it?
Click here to download a free copy for a limited time.
Check out my YouTube ChannelCHECK OUT MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
https://www.youtube.com/@Regina-readfirstchapter
Click here to see the entire
Newport Vampire Stories Series
Click here to download a free copy
Click here to purchase at Amazon.com
Learn to make 3D Book Covers
from a simple template
