AKA, that one time a hashtag turned me into a best-selling author for a few days.

Thanks to a Twitter hashtag, some supportive online friends, and the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select free book promotion, Front Row appeared on multiple best seller lists on Amazon! And it was awesome. Even though I didn’t make a cent.

Here’s how it all came to be:

On Tuesday, I noticed a couple people I follow on Twitter were using the hashtag #bandbooksweek. I was like, band books? I wrote a book about a band! It turns out the hashtag was a play on #bannedbooksweek except you combine a band name with the name of the book. My two submissions were Hanson and Gretel and Emma-nem. I know. So clever…

Anyway, I figured obviously the people using the hashtag were music fans, so I jumped on KDP Select and created a 4-day free book offer for anyone who saw my tweet to take advantage of. I didn’t want to spam anyone, so I sent out four tweets about it in a 24-hour period, and then I promoted it on my other social networks as well.

For the duration of the promotion, I checked my stats a bit obsessively and was absolutely giddy as I saw my units sold numbers go up and my rank numbers go down. I topped out in the Women’s New Adult & College Fiction category at #21! I also made the Top 100 Kindle Free books in the Women’s Romance Fiction and Contemporary Women’s Fiction categories and stayed there the last three days my book was free.

If my husband wasn’t so proud of me, I would’ve been insufferable that first night, referring to myself as a “best-selling author.” Such as, “How does it feel to be married to a best-selling author?” Or, “Get off my pillow, pooch, don’t you know I’m a best-selling author?” Thankfully, I got much more humble after some sleep.

When the promotion ended, I went back to the obscurity of the paid list with my rank numbers back in the thousands. But it was so fun while it lasted, and I can’t wait until it happens again (fingers and toes crossed!). Next time, hopefully I’ll have more books to offer, too. That’s the goal!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to every one of my readers, new and old! You make my day.