I’ve had a bit of a theory, and as of yet I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be true. Here it is: since getting a Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas (previously I was reading all my eBooks on the Kindle app for the iPhone which was perfectly fine, but the Paperwhite with its e-ink screen is SO much better to allow for restful sleep/rested eyes when reading in bed, plus the bigger screen obviously allows for less swiping) I’ve been buying a lot more books than before from the Kindle store.

(Right, here’s where it gets mildly complicated, so keep up.)

However, after seeing my own books occasionally popping up in the ‘customers who bought this also bought’ section of other books that I’VE bought (I always buy a copy or two of my own books on free listing days; doesn’t hurt) I got to thinking thusly: “If I buy my OWN book…then buy someone ELSE’S book…surely therefore there’s a good chance that people who see the other books listing might have MY book come up in the ‘customers who bought this also bought’ section for that book.”

If you followed that, the thinking makes sense at least, right?

If that’s true, then it’s a beautiful win/win situation; you read new books, and potentially promote your own book in the process (providing you’ve bought your own book before.) In other news, the free listing of TBRP1 was a total failure. First time that’s happened. Very worrying, as the free listings were always the thing I banked on to get the books (and thus my work in general) out there. I hope this is just a one-off, and that something in the The Black Room’s tags or listing is causing it to be a specific no-show, but this could spell disaster, and the end of a literary dream…