I Am Neither a Pimp Nor a Whore, But I Market My Book

So the blog world from indie writers has hit a hot button issue and even poor The Passive Voice Guy is not immune to the fire and hate spewing forth.

The spark to ignite this wildfire of nastiness? KDP Select. As someone who has been on BOTH sides of the fence, maybe I can help make a little peace.

FIRST, ON MARKETING

On a few comments and blogs lately I've seen writers who Tweet their book likened to "pimps." Apparently, I am "pimpin' my book." Momma needs a new pair of shoes!

This is utterly ridiculous. If you write a book, and publish it, you are not a whore OR a pimp to ask people to read it. You did that JUST by publishing. You put your words out there for whatever reason: to entertain, to educate, to share, to thrill, etc. It's seems rather self-centered to consider your motives to be higher or lower than another writer's noble intentions.

Me? I wrote CANCELLED to educate through fiction. Sex outside of marriage is still a big decision, even in our modern-everything-goes-society (and I'm not trying to be hypocritical, I had sex before marriage but I knew and prepared for the risks). Also, the only time a father can get custody of their child is if the mother is seriously flawed. I don't agree with that system. I know too many mothers that suck, plain and simple. There is no hard and fast rule you can make about how "good" someone makes as a parent based on their gender.

But I digress. I do not appreciate being labeled a "spammer" or a "pimp" because I tweet my book link and a tag line once every few hours. I'd rather get a link to a writer's book than a link to yet ANOTHER blog post on why indie authors need to edit. I like to RT book links because it helps any of my followers who read find new titles to consume. Authors who don't like other authors who do this, there's a very easy solution. Unfollow. And don't expect the rest of us to RT your links. We're only strong when we work together, not against each other.

SECOND, AMAZON IS EVIL

Greedy? Out to make a profit? Yes. Evil? Meh, I can't go that far. KDP Select isn't going to kill Barnes and Noble. Barnes and Noble's failure to ACT is going to kill Barnes and Noble. And it sucks, because I love my Nook. But when Barnes and Noble gives me these results for the keyword "CANCELLED":

1. Cancelled (my paperback)
2. Noise Cancelling Headphones
3. Noise Cancelling Headphones
4. Noise Cancelling Headphones
5. Noise Cancelling Headphones
6. Cancelled (the nook book out for more than a month before the paperback and astronomically more sales)

It's clear to me they don't get it...yet. I have been to the site many, many times, I'm even logged in as ME, a person who has BOUGHT Cancelled the Nook book. I have NEVER purchased headphones. It's pretty safe to assume I'm looking for a book I've already bought to gift to someone (another behavior on the site I had done before).

There's a book I had to read before I started college called "Who Moved My Cheese?" It's about cheese (success) being moved and the difference between a mouse (business man) who sits still hoping the cheese will move back to it's original position and another mouse (business man) who chases that cheese everywhere it goes, (arguably picking up crumbs as he goes). At the time, I was pissed off my first "college" textbook read like a damn children's book. Now, 12 years later, I GET IT.

In this industry, the cheese is moving every couple of months. First, you have to make sure it has indeed moved. I did not jump on the KDP Select Bandwagon at first. I waited nearly 2 months. I wanted to see the strengths and weaknesses. I guessed at some of them, and I (and others) were right about some things, wrong about others.

Drawbacks

• It's not a magic bullet for everyone. There is a LOT involved with "going free" and most it has to do with the day you pick. Accidentally pick a day you didn't know 5 Mega Selling Authors were going to make their collection free, jam up the system, and oh yeah Amazon decides to change the whole site screwing up rankings and sales reporting? Ouch. Bad luck. Pick a random Monday at the end of the month as a test day, assuming you won't get anything like the results reported because it's too late, that was just the After-Christmas rush and race up the free charts? Cool. Good luck. 
• You are stuck for 90 days with Amazon as your sole partner to find the cheese. 
• Anything new that comes on another sales channel you don't have the flexibility to respond to. 
• Write or wrong.. other authors will be upset. (Pun intended). There will be jealousy, feelings that you've "picked a side" and a little us vs. them.
• Higher rate of returns.

Benefits

• Higher rate of returns. Wait, how is this both? Easy. Because that $0.00 stays bigger than the other price points on the KDP Select books, you get more reader who do that one-click thinking it's free. If they aren't Prime and borrowing, obviously it purchases the book on the credit card required on the Kindle account. Ca-ching. Now once the mistake is realized, there are readers who return the book. But I bet there are just as many who go "Oh, it was $2.99, not free. Oh well," because calling and cancelling the order/getting a refund for less than $5 is considered not worth their time nor do they want to admit they made a mistake. Same marketing type thinking that makes prices end in .99. Consumers think in the lower number... $2.99 registers a closer to $2 that one penny shy of $3.
• Going free to gain exposure and the sales that come AFTER that.

I've seen some writings about how any author who makes "best seller" lists after going free shouldn't count because you didn't best sell anything, you gave away for free. I agreed with this BEFORE I went free. I also erroneously thought Amazon was moving these FREE books right into the best seller lists based on their FREE downloads. They are not. 

I had 8,250 downloads of CANCELLED in 24 hours. I don't consider that best selling, even though I made it to #12 on the Free Fiction Chart and #3 on the Free Contemporary Fiction Chart. I DO consider that a Top Downloaded Title, as I beat out over 70,000 other books.

After you go free, Amazon dumps you right back where you were in the sales ranking before you went free. For me that was #249,000 something. The difference? You are now an Also Bought for the books that were next to you. So you are now part of a loose team of books, that just had amazing exposure, branded together. As they see sales, you see sales, and vice-versa. This is why it takes a few days for sales to really ramp up because some books may not come off Free status when yours does etc.

To make the best-seller status AFTER you go free, you still have to make the physical paid sales on that day. Last night, I made it to #1238 in Paid Kindle and #74 on the Women's Fiction Best Seller list. I had over 100 sales in 24 hours (might be more, KDP is screwed up). I'm not a mega-seller. But CANCELLED is a best-selling Women's Fiction book. 

Yeah, but you only got those sales because you went free....

And others only got their best selling status because their publisher pasted the book cover on every bus, subway, and taxi in major cities. Or after buying a $250-$500 advertisement on a reader blog. I didn't trick any readers into buying my book. I didn't tell them it was going to bring them fame or fortune. I didn't hold a gun to their heads as they nervously clicked "Buy Now." I participated in a marketing campaign that gave away my book for free. I even got my first 1-star review for my trouble! :) 

Giving away a free sample is as old as commerce itself. I chose to use KDP Select to see what it could do for exposure to my first book a month and a half before my next book comes out. I don't regret it, and I wouldn't have regretted it if I only had that 21 sales I received on the first day after. Before KDP Select, I was convincing one reader at a time to buy my book, with the highest month's sales ever recorded at 28 on Amazon. I don't have hundreds of dollars to spend on marketing, right now, but I can give 90 days of exclusivity. I may not be in a position to do that next year when I have a larger following on multiple devices. Being in business is all about leveraging what assets you have at the right moment, and that's not always money. 

So let's all remember we are in this to get our books read. One of the best ways to have that happen is convincing readers to buy the book. And to do that, readers have to know the book exists. So as long as the marketing is positive and ethical, I won't begrudge your attempts to rise above the din, and I'll cheer you along the way! We all have to write, publish, and promote the best ways we can. That's what this indie hokey-pokey is all about.

A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby. CANCELLED is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble 


WIP: STONE. Can Melanie Stone let her mother back into her life and kick out the creep trying to worm his way in? March 2012.

My KDP Select Team (Other Books)

I know, "Elizabeth, when are you going to shut up about this KDP Select thing?" Soon. I promise. But I need to explain something I haven't seen explained ANYWHERE else. Let me introduce to you, my KDP Select Team:



See those books were next to me on the many Free charts that I was on. I was only free for a day, many of these titles ARE JUST now coming off free. And why are they on my "team?"

Because if you look at their listings, my book is on the first few pages of their Also Boughts. So for the next few days, when someone clicks on the books above, my book will be right underneath with "Customers who Bought This Also Bought...."

And this is why I ran my "Test" Now that I know how the algorithm works (and I knew vaguely before this, but this is very specific) I can use it to my advantage. Next time I go free, every book next to me on that chart will be tweeted by me as much as I can to encourage readers to buy it for "Free" as well if they've bought my book. Why? Because where you rank on the Also Bought pages depends on how many readers who bough one book also bought your book. This time, I'm only on the first page of two books' Also Boughts. I was also only free for one day. Most of these books have been free for at least 2-3 days.

I did think, but didn't behave like this, when I was free and sharing a few links of other books that are free "Aren't I just helping my competition? After all, if readers get their book, I'll bump me down in the rankings." NO. I mean, yes, that can happen, but remember those free rankings DO NOT just shuffle over to paid. Your goals while you are free are:

1. Get as many people as possible to download your book.
2. Get as many people as possible to download other books in your genre so you are "connected" to them when you all go back to paid as an Also Bought.
3. Try not to wear out your computer's refresh button.

So I hope that adds a little more illumination on this whole "go free" business. It's not a magic bullet, as clearly I am not #1 on the paid charts or anything, but it is a strong method of getting your book linked to other books in the Also Bought category.

A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby. CANCELLED is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble 


WIP: STONE. Can Melanie Stone let her mother back into her life and kick out the creep trying to worm his way in? March 2012.

#ROW80 Another In a Long Line of "I Screwed Up."

"Step right up, folks. This here's the rootin-in-tootin'est most AMAZONing ride we got!"

"How many tickets, sir?"

"Why just 90 tickets, there, young lady. You think you're strong enough to take on this here roller coaster."

::gulp:: "I. . . I'll do my best, sir."

::Maniacal laughter ending in a sneer.:: "Hold on tight, lovely....MWAHAHAHA."

On Monday, I took a spin on the FREE Rollercoaster Ride Amazon offers to indie writers called KDP Select's Free Day. :) Cancelled by the way, is now a Top Ten Downloaded Ebook. Here's how the ride went for me:

Got about halfway up the first hill, and I can't see the top. It just keep climbing! The rollercoaster didn't stop until my little ebook car reached #3 on the Contemporary Fiction free charts and #12 on the Free Fiction charts. Holy crap, the Amazon theme park stretches further than the eye can see! (I ended up with 8,250 downloads in 24 hours).

The Rock Bottom

Then WHOOOOOOOOOOOOSH. You hit rock bottom. And I panicked. You see, the rhetoric has been (from the complainers) "They go free, race up the charts, and then they're just right up on the best seller list. It's not fair!" I misinterpreted that. You see, there is no sideways "Everyday I'm Shufflin'" to the paid side of things. Nope. Amazon drops you right where you were BEFORE you went free (#249,227 for me). You have to climb your way back up! THAT'S why authors are saying they have "best-selling" status after going free (assuming they do). 

I tried out a higher price, $4.99, thinking it might help set me apart once the book came off free. Nah. It's sinking like a stone. I sold 20 copies yesterday (31 but 11 were returned), and made it as high as #4,760. That is still phenomenal. Highest I've ever been before that was #12,000 something, that was after selling 18 books at $.99 as part of a book launch in November. But I'm an indie, I can right a ship as it's listing.... I just lowered my price to $2.99. 

So, 8,000 downloads later, I'm feeling awesome! No I didn't have runaway sales success right after, but I sold more than 3 times what I had the entire month in one day. (I only had 6 sales in January before going free). 

#ROW80

I wasn't as productive, what with the roller coaster and all that. I did however work on my reader site, got the original first chapter back up as an extra. Also, I am getting WAAAAAY better at putting on my OWN oxygen mask before helping others. Because I do so many other things; formatting ebooks, helping with websites, etc. I managed to not stress myself out by remembering that *I* have to come first. A sick, frazzled Elizabeth Ann West helps no one.

So I am still at only 5,000 words on STONE. But don't worry, unless I can't make great progress before next week, I'm not panicking. It's written, it just really needs to be typed. 

I also need to finish those signed ebooks. 

I have two files to format. (one in my possession half way done, one on its way possibly, next week). 

And best of all, that roller coaster ride gave me a confidence that is going to help carry me through this tumultuous year of writing and publishing. Maybe I won't be a best seller this year, but I managed to beat out over 69,988 other free fiction books on Monday, and that's something!

UPDATE: Just got my first 1-star review. I'm very surprised. I thought I would be way more upset, but I'm not. I almost find it funny, as horrible as that sounds. I'm a little intrigued that it lifts some pretty unique phrasing from a 4/5 Black Dresses review I got on Chick Lit Is the New Black that I tweeted out while I was free. The first problem was the ending for the reader, but it's pretty clear in the reviews and product description it's not a formula romance. And the reviewer has no other reviews. If it's a real reader, I feel bad that they didn't like it, but it wasn't a craft issue, so there's nothing I can really do about it. The reader just didn't like the story line.

I got another 5 star review from another reader who made me laugh. I got bonus points for a MC carrying the "idiot's ball" not to just move the plot forward, but out of "human, understandable motives."

So going free brought a ton of firsts, and man do I feel awesome about it. I just wish I didn't have to go exclusive for 90 days with Amazon to gain this amount of experience in 48 hours.

A robotics engineer asks his business partnerI to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby. CANCELLED is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble 


WIP: STONE. Can Melanie Stone let her mother back into her life and kick out the creep trying to worm his way in? March 2012.


Don't forget, I have many, many friends who are also part of a Round of Words in 80 Days. Please make sure you visit their blogs and give them some comment love!

An Experiment Gone Horribly RIGHT

In math class, we had these word problems about objects rising and then at what point does the object stop rising and begin to fall, where will the object be a t= some random number?

I sucked at those.

Yesterday, I made CANCELLED free on Kindle through the KDP Select program. I don't know if I caught a magical Monday of no competition or if the planets and stars aligned, but what I do know is that thing took off like a rocket!

I woke up, giddy, at 6 AM with my husband. I checked my "sales" had 250. I was ecstatic. Saw that I was ranked #11,309 out of #70,000. I thought to myself, "Yay, I might make it into somewhere between #1,000 and #2,000 FREE" That was my hope.

9 hours later, I cracked the Top #100 FREE by making it to #89. I was "selling" free books at about a rate of 4.5 per minute.

It is now 12:19 AM, there are 3 more hours of my "free" status. I am:
#32 in FREE KINDLE.
#17 in Free fiction.
#8 in Free Romance.
#5 in Free Contemporary Romance.
#4 in FREE in Contemporary Fiction.

How in the heck am I doing best in Contemporary Fiction?

The more startling aspect I learned from going free is just how big Amazon really is. Before this, I sold my 6 little books each month for the last two months and thought "Wow, I'm really lucky to have those sales." NOW I realize that thing is a behemoth once it gets going! I'm watching my "sales" jump 10-17 books every minute I refresh the page. Who are the 17 people who downloaded my book last minute? How on earth are there 10 more doing it this minute?

Sorry. I'm now #28 in Kindle Free (which also includes apps). Oh, and #15 in Free Fiction. 12:36 AM.

So now I know I wasn't a speck before, I was a speck on a speck. Possibly even a speck on a speck on a speck.

How did I do this?


First of all, I, didn't. Others did. I was listed on The-Cheap.net's Kindle streams, Pixel of Ink's Facebook streams, a few Chicklit blogs and Facebook streams, and who knows where else. I don't even know. I didn't plan ANY OF THIS. I put out on Facebook last night I was going free, talked with a few readers who got a signed ebook last month, and set up my tweets to tweet my book link as free once per hour from 4 AM to 11 AM.

The tweets helped get the ball rolling, but it was mostly other authors tweeting me. Having the tweets scheduled helped authors just click and RT. That certainly helped, but it's not where the lion's share came from....

When Readers Take It Personally


Reading is a very personal act. What we like, what we don't like reflects who we are as a person. Books we like we want to brag about. THIS is what catapulted me to the top.

I know you all have heard, probably a little too much, how I signed ebooks for readers. I know. However, it was two readers who received early copies, and NOOK owners mind you, that took it as a personal mission to make me a best-downloaded Kindle author in one day. How personal?

They sent me personal messages on Facebook of status reports all day long--messages telling me where they posted the links, who they told, who they got to share the link, and updated ME on my rankings. Seriously. I ended up with an army and I thought this was just a drill! I need to share something here for authors, and please don't go to Facebook and go after the two readers who helped me (a few have already tried). They aren't master marketers or even interested in marketing other books, they just wanted to help me because they cared about my book (not saying they won't care about your book, they have to read it first, and they aren't interested in being professional bloggers or reviewers, they're happy being readers).

So here's what you will all find fascinating. One of the readers took charge and informed me that she talked to the admin at Pixel of Ink and got permission to share my book on their Facebook wall. I chuckled and said "You did what? How? Do you have any idea what that means?" Of course she thought I meant she had stepped on toes. I had to reassure her, no, I was just shocked. THERE'S A WAITING LIST FOR PIXEL OF INK.... if you're an author, or if you know someone. If you're an author, you have to submit first (totally understand, agree 100% with that system, it's self-promotion). But readers truly have the power to walk right up that bouncer and say "Can I get in the club" and the velvet rope just unclicks in a split second.

I could sit here and say maybe I underestimated my own goodwill with others, maybe this would have happened if I had gone free last week. I don't think so. Certainly being someone few dislike in this industry helps, but I don't think it was me. I really think a handful of readers that wanted to see the book they enjoyed get "kudos" they thought it deserved is what happened January 30, 2012. It wasn't about me. It was about them. It was about social networking at it's most basic function, "Look at me, I like this, it's wonderful, therefore I'm wonderful." And I'm not saying that to belittle those readers who supported me. Not at all. I'd give them a kidney if they needed it! I'm saying that all of the broadcasting, tweeting, poking, prodding, begging, and and pleading isn't what propelled my book. It was a few people who wanted their network of friends to see that they had a book they liked, and they were going to make it a success. And I am 100% amazed at their magical abilities!

I think having a strong cover helped, and having a high overall rating caught people's attention as my book was free. But the real catalyst that caused this chain reaction was that I happened to make reading special for a few readers. Maybe through my writing, maybe through my personality, maybe both! I don't know exactly what I did, but I'm going to keep doing it!

There's 2 hours left in the promo. I've had such fun today. I've been truly touched at how many people came out of the woodwork to support me, some authors I haven't had a chance to pow-wow with in months! I can feel in my gut this is a big turning point for me as an author. This changes my perspective on many, many issues. I feel wiser. I feel more aware of my little role in this great big publishing machine.

I don't know if I'm ready mentally to read all of the reviews that will come in. I don't know if I'm morally ready to look at the sales that are going to come as my book falls back down the charts. I do know I'm ready to write that next book and get it into the hands it belongs in. A reader's.

A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby. CANCELLED is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble 


WIP: STONE. Can Melanie Stone let her mother back into her life and kick out the creep trying to worm his way in? March 2012.

Going Free KDP Select

I was ranked #222,100 last night when I went to bed. I had sold 6 copies of CANCELLED this month.

This morning, I woke up 6 AM and I had 250 downloads. By 7:15, it was 300. At 7:54 AM I made it to 402 downloads. And now it's 8:33 AM and I'm at 544 downloads.

8:35 AM, 550 downloads.

At 7:30 Am I was ranked 11,309 in Free Kindle.

I will update as the day continues.

UPDATE:
As of 12:45 PM EST. 1600 downloads.

#16 on the contemporary fiction charts (yes, I'm beating the free sample of James Patterson!)

I couldn't have done this without all of my friends and other authors helping tweet the book out. I can not believe it! We'll see how fast I sink like a stone, but I'm a Best-downloading author (not quite bestselling yet, but one day). 

A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby. CANCELLED is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble 


WIP: STONE. Can Melanie Stone let her mother back into her life and kick out the creep trying to worm his way in? March 2012.

#ROW80 Excited to Write Again

First off, I took the plunge. CANCELLED is temporarily exclusive to Amazon as part of the KDP Select Program. I am going FREE 2/10 and 2/11, just in time for a great romantic weekend read, love from HIS point of view.

I will go free again April 1, 2012. That's when Kindle will get STONE. But wait, isn't STONE coming out in March? Yep. Only on Nook. That's right. I love BOTH of my children, lol.

I will definitely need help getting the word out from my friends when I go free. And if anyone else is going free before then, let me know. I will gladly Tweet my heart out.

SIGNED EBOOKS
I have handwritten all 150 notes and scanned them into the computer. At the time I am writing this last night, I am up 90 of them cropped to the correct size. Today I will make all of the ebooks and send them out. Monkey off my back. But I AM loving the reader response.

STONE
I am not quite on time word count wise. But I have a kick-ass outline that is 5 pages and scribbled on in every nook and cranny. :) Besides, I finished Chapter 1 and got it off to a few Omega Reader eyes. Good news is the flavor is there, they want to read more. Only 10 more Chapters to write and STONE is done. Yes, it's 11 Chapters long. I really like this novella format. Cancelled is often described as "packing a punch" and a "quick enjoyable read." Well, STONE packs a 12 gauge.

My story question is: Can Melanie Stone let her mother back into her life and kick out the creep trying to worm his way in?

One liner: A single mom with a Joan Jett attitude kicks a creep out of her life. With a shotgun.
AND a teaser:
There's NO TRESPASSING in Melanie Stone's life.

Long description:

A single mom for her son's entire seven years of life, Melanie Stone has done just fine on her own, thank you very much. But her recently retired mother has other plans, friends know what's best for her career, and a first date in years turns out to be a complete psycho! Melanie's carefully crafted life is slipping through her fingers and she's ready for people to start listening. Even if takes pulling a 12-gauge shotgun for her to be heard, there's NO TRESPASSING in Melanie Stone's life.

Can Melanie Stone let her mother back into her life and kick out the creep who has wormed his way in? Find out in STONE.

And this is probably my favorite part of the story... my dedication. You see STONE touches on the way abusive relationships develop, inch by controlling inch.

Dedication:

Physical and emotional abuse is a very serious issue and today's modern relationships are not immune. Abusive situations don't usually occur all at once, it's a gradual slide into completely unacceptable behavior. By keeping everyone aware of the warning signs, we can help stop the vicious cycles from ripping apart more families.

STONE is for every man and woman who has said, “No. I will not be treated this way.” I am astounded by your courage, and thankful you defied the statistics. And for the abusers who get help to break the cycle before it comes to charges, I am proud of you, too.

Finally, to the two people in my life that protected themselves when they had to, you are my heroines. I love you both very, very much.

WEDNESDAY:
Stay tuned for Wednesday as I hope to have a complete signup for my ebook cruise in March. It's a special event blog site I'm creating where authors are going to highlight their books' settings as a "virtual cruise" for readers. There will be interactive activities and best of all, partnerships with some great reader blogs.  

A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby. CANCELLED is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble 


WIP: STONE. Can Melanie Stone let her mother back into her life and kick out the creep trying to worm his way in? March 2012. Don't Forget My #ROW80 Friends!!! Please Pay Them a Visit and Leave Some Comment Love.

KDP Select Analysis REDUX

Regular followers of this blog know I have 0 problems admitting when I was wrong. This is another one of those posts. Maybe not so much as wrong, but re-evaluating my thinking as the data has come in. And no, it's not the line of thinking you might anticipate.

My gut reaction to KDP Select back when the monkey wrench was thrown into the publishing world was that I was firmly on the fence and therefore erring on the caution. I am changing that position.

First, my next book, STONE, a novella, is coming out in March. Also, my POD of CANCELLED was picked up by Barnes and Noble and is the first result when someone searches Cancelled on BN.com. It doesn't link to my Nook book at all, as the publishers are different.

The plan:
I am going to announce in mid-February that Cancelled is coming off the Nook site temporarily on March 17th, but will be back at the end of June. Meanwhile, the print version of Cancelled will remain available on Barnes and Noble and lower the price of the print version as low as I can (I should be able to get it down to about $7.90-$8.95 depending on if BN keeps giving a $1 off like it is right now). I will be 100% upfront about it, and let my Nook fans know that this is just a promotion I am trying out.

However, STONE will release on all channels on release day, both Kindle and Nook. So I'm giving Nook readers a heads up that if they want to get Cancelled, do so before the middle of March, and I'm making sure my new release goes out to everyone at the same time. This way I'm not playing favorites.

I will make Cancelled free for two days when STONE comes out, again after Mother's Day, and finally at the end of the 90 days exclusivity with PAST DUE comes out in June. This way I maximize the "exclusivity" requirement to its fullest extent.

After this, I will have all books available on all channels for awhile. SERVED comes out in September and I will probably put CANCELLED on sale for $.99 for 30 days in celebration of that release.

If this experiment goes well, and depending on if I lose the reviews I have for Cancelled on Nook by moving it to off sale on BN, but I don't think I will, I will consider putting either STONE or PAST DUE into KDP Select for Christmas time. I think it will be PAST DUE as the sequel to that is scheduled for March, so I could do the same kind of thing, make PAST DUE free around the time of the release of the sequel.

All of my ebook files will be modified to advertise the other books as books come out.

So that's the plan. Feel free to weigh in and I'd love to hear what other authors think. I think there is no denying that using the free days on KDP Select bumps you up, and I want to do that when I have more than one book available for readers to read. The twist here is that the assumption has been we have to put our new releases on Kindle first, and I'm working around that. Worst thing I lose is the 4 reviews I have on Barnes and Noble at the moment.

So here's the goal, and I have to make it here before any of the above can happen. One step at a time.

A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby. CANCELLED is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.  WIP: STONE A single mom with a Joan Jett attitude kicks a creep out of her life, with a shot gun.

#ROW80 Back in the Saddle

So after an ambitious To Conquer list earlier today, I thought a quick recap of what I accomplished might be helpful. You see, this blog is for other authors, but I also use it to chronicle my journey. If I'm ever uninspired, all I have to do is read a few early posts and see how far I've come. I just have very far still to go.

First, I AM BACK IN THE SADDLE!

STONE is outlined, with dates and times, and the storylines are strong. I began writing on it again tonight and the main character shared something I didn't know. Well, I knew she was estranged from her biological father, and that he's going to give her a significant amount of money for her birthday that her and her mother are collectively unhappy about. What I didn't know was WHY the father felt guilty enough to overkill his adult daughter's birthday.

And then I put my main character, Melanie Stone in a hospital and she wigged the f* out in the waiting room. Memories of spiral fracture and bruises.

I had no idea. And I feel a little looney tunes saying that I feel sickened that my fictional father figure in my story could hurt his little girl like that. To me, these people are real. Well, as real as memories of people I know in real life could be (no, these characters are not based on real life people, though).

I can see now this story is going to be hard, but it has to be told. On top of the subject matter (which was always going to be somewhat heavy given that she has a manipulative, controlling creep she has to kick out of her life), the schedule is rough. I want to finish the rough draft of about 50,000 words in 28 days. I know!

But, one of the mistakes I made with my last book was NOT believing in myself to make a deadline. Yes, I missed my deadline for the first draft, but that was more because I knew I HAD ample padding in the timeline before publishing. I beat my publishing date by almost 2 weeks. And that first draft deadline? I jammed out 18,000 words in four days to kill it.

To be clear, I am not sacrificing quality for quantity. I AM ramping up my production to match my  personal skill set, including professional procrastinator. You see, I have enormous front end time. Some authors just GO and see where the story takes them. I can't. I can't write more than a couple thousand words before I have to pause and plan everything out. I have 5 pages of outline and notes for STONE, down to bits of dialogue. I have a very strong non-fiction background. I am your "Have outline, will write" girl. Even if the outline is just 2-3 ideas, I ALWAYS pre-write.

Now, do I know everything? Not quite. The above example is a great illustration. You see, as I was outlining, I put in "Stone's birthday, Dad gives her $500" and then I bring it up in a scene later on when Stone and her mother have lunch. I KNEW it was important, that Dad felt guilty about something. I didn't think it was sexual abuse, originally I thought it was being a child-support dead beat. But that didn't quite fit either, so I didn't write it down (err. type, I type my notes). It wasn't until I put Melanie at the hospital in the fourth scene of the book that I instantly knew she wan't okay. She was agitated. It's almost like if I could feel a ghost presence, that's how it felt.

Next thing I knew, it was "what are those particular types of fractures that mean child abuse?" Looked it up, saw a picture, and ugh. Killed me as a mom.

So, what did get done today? Well, I signed 20 more notes. I have 24 scanned and cropped. I need to scan in 20 more and crop them. Then I can make the 44 ebooks and send them out. That will bring me to 92 ebooks total signed and delivered. Only 57 more to go (assuming no one else signs up for my newsletter in January). In the future, I'm going to still sign ebooks, but only on certain days I think.

I wrote 1400 words on STONE. The total now sits at nearly 5K.

And that's where things are and I am going to bed. :)

A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby. CANCELLED is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.  WIPs: STONE (March 2012), PAST DUE (June 2012), SERVED the sequel to CANCELLED (September 2012).

#ROW80 Just Keep Swimmin'

Not every race has a great start.

I've stumbled a little out of the starting block, but I'm getting my stride. This week:

• Featured on 3 different blogs as part of my ebook signing tour. In all Honesty (about how honesty and frankness make you vulnerable, but be honest anyway) on Words from the Heart, A fun piece on My Mess in Texas about the first time I met my inlaws (you'll laugh) on Going Crazy, Wanna Go?, and another humor piece on Zen Cherry about I Need the Royalties to Pay My Parents Back (for all stuff I destroyed as a kid). 
• Finished outline for STONE completely. Only have 2,500 words though written. Tick tock, March is coming soon.
• Formatted an ebook and have two more orders in next two weeks.
• Wrote and scanned 20 handwritten notes for my signed ebooks. Only 60+ more to go. Need to put those ebooks together today and send them out.
• Made trailer for CANCELLED. It's so much fun!

In my personal life, we are potty training my two-and-a-half year old. I have a timer set for every 20 minutes to get her on the potty. I have no earthly idea how I'm going to write around that, but I'm gonna! :) It just might have to be blitzkrieg #wordmongering = ten minutes writing, ten minutes off.

To conquer list for today:

• I need to send out the 24 ebooks I have hand written notes for
• I need to send out my newsletter today, apologizing for the delay in getting the signed ebook to everyone and have a link to a free download of CANCELLED while they wait.
• Write the tech article for my newsletter (I think I'm going to cover free office productivity software, sideloading to the Kindle using the whispernet email addy, and how on Nook, when you gift a book to a friend, if they aren't jazzed about it, they can convert it to a Nook gift card for same amount of money)
• Get 4,000 words written on STONE
• Write blog post for the LAST STOP on my blog tour

Good thing I cleaned my house yesterday! LOL.

A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby. CANCELLED is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.  WIP: SERVED Two never married parents fight over their toddler's upbringing and moving on with their lives, without each other;(status: outlining)

PLEASE LEAVE COMMENT LOVE TO MY OTHER #ROW80 FRIENDS. WE ARE AUTHORS WORKING HARD ON OUR GOALS FOR 80 DAYS AND LIFTING EACH OTHER UP ALONG THE WAY!!!