Friday, April 4, 2014

Kindle's Author Central Adds Your Blog's RSS Feed


June Gallant, a writer friend in Canada, suggested a neat idea for using Facebook to promote my books, but because I have yet to use social media, with help from Internet Writing Workshop members, Sue Ellis, Paul Fein, Diane Diekman, and Hans Tammemagi, the idea evolved into a blog with an RSS feed to my Kindle Author's Page.

Titled, "Bygone Montanans; a Montana Research Opportunity", the following was originally published at North Palouse Washington eNewscast:
 
To the merely curious or those of you who are interested in researching family history, Bygone Montanans, a new blog, has opened doors to the past. The blog's goal is to help readers locate their lineage, discover what motivated their ancestors, and learn how they lived their lives. - All is told in their own words in BEHIND THESE MOUNTAINS, Vols. I, II, & III.  However, there is no need to purchase a book to take advantage of the opportunity to find someone, because the books are free here.

Up to 20 indexed names will be published on the blog at a time, at frequent intervals, along with an excerpt and a photograph if available.

The books recognize hundreds of people who passed through, prospected, explored, labored, or homesteaded in or around the Clark's Fork and Bull River valleys in western Sanders County, Montana, between the 1860s and early 1930s.

Although original softcover editions of the trilogy are out of print, revised Kindle editions, available at Amazon.com, encompass the lives of hundreds of people and have nearly a thousand historical photographs depicting life in western Montana, and are easily searchable. 

The free Behind These Mountains website includes a link to each volume, in addition to archives and labels that make it easy to jump to chapters. Or, simply begin at Introduction and then click the link at the end of each chapter that takes you to the next chapter. The website archives [but not the Kindle editions] have a link to a list of alphabetically indexed surnames found in each volume.

So suit yourself, but I hope you'll visit Bygone Montanans often, and share with friends and acquaintances. If you find anyone with family ties, please leave a comment, contact information, and share a memory to grow your family tree!

Stop by, make yourselves at home, and stay a while. You might connect with a cousin you never knew existed, or find a long lost branch of the family.END

Perhaps this will spark a similar idea that will work for you. Focus your blog on what readers will get from your book, and put an RSS feed to the blog on your Kindle Direct Publishing Author's page.