Friday, April 29, 2011

YA Indie Spotlight: Debi Faulkner

Hi Everyone!

For this YA Indie Spotlight, I'm pleased to introduce Debi Faulkner. Debi is the author of Summoning, a YA historical paranormal novel. 



SUMMARY
Summoning is based on a “true” Irish witch story in which an evil vicar sells not only his soul but also that of his young servant girl, Meredith, to the devil. After learning the dark craft herself, Meredith finds herself trapped in the demon's shadow when she is accused of witchcraft. It is up to her to find the light and save herself – and those she loves – from the deal.

RATING: PG (No cussing/swearing in the book, but there is implied thematic violence and a "sell your soul to the devil" theme.)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A native Detroiter by birth, I left the Motor City in 2001 for the Netherlands with my husband (a chiropractor) and my small children. In December of 2003, we moved again, this time to Ireland. While there, I took part in a mentorship program with the Irish author, Lia Mills, who helped me in making the transition from poetry to prose and from writing verses in poems to writing chapters in novels.

In August 2006, we relocated yet again to the Netherlands. Now, if only I was fluent in Dutch . . .

The upside of this nomadic lifestyle is that I have much more time than I would have had in the states to spend with my writing.

(Spotlight hijack: That must be the secret! My writing time is hiding out in the Netherlands!!)

Summoning can be purchased for Kindle.

The reviews for this story are strong, and it is priced at $2.99.

KK

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Amazon Algorithms/Ranking Matters


This world of indie publishing is new and uncharted territory for me (and many of us), so I spend a lot of time tracking sales and trends, trying to figure out what works (and what doesn't). 

Much like traditional publishing, there's no one "key" to success, but there is a magical word that appears frequently on Kindle Boards: algorithms. 

According to www.yourdictionary.com, an algorithm is "any systematic method of solving a certain kind of problem" and "the repetitive calculations used in finding the greatest common divisor of two numbers." What does this mean? I have no idea. I'm a humanities major, and the only numbers I'm interested in right now are sales-related, and only if they're increasing. :)

What I do know is that the Amazon algorithms are a powerful thing, and they can make or break an indie writer. I have no idea how it's all set up: sales play a role, rankings play a role, I think product tags play a role, reviews play a role. . . . 

There are still a few days left in April, so I'm not ready to post final numbers or thoughts, yet, but this month was a perfect example of what happens when the algorithms kick in, and Amazon starts promoting you.

This list just represents Cross My Heart Sales for US Kindle during part of the month of April:

DATE
Copies
Sold
1
6
2
4
3
6
4
9
5
6
6
10
7
10
8
9
10
11
8
9
14
12

At this point, I broke the #10,000 ranking on Amazon, and hit the Hot New Releases List and the YA Love and Romance Bestseller List.

DATE
Copies
Sold
12
20
13
14
14
25
15
27
16
22
17
24
18
24
19
20
21
22
24
25
24
41

April 22 was a Friday, and it was the start of the Easter holiday weekend. By this point, I'd broken the #2,000 ranking at Amazon, and hit the "regular" (overall) books Teens/Love and Romance Bestseller List.

DATE
Copies
Sold
23
44
24
50
25
54



At this point, I hit the overall Children's eBooks Bestseller List.

Obviously, ranking matters. Similar to the way the "rich get richer," sales beget sales. The lower my ranking, the more "Customers Who Bought" lists Cross My Heart appeared on. The more books I sold, the closer to the beginning of those lists I appeared. I didn't even see 30 books a day. I jumped straight from the 20s to the 40s.

These numbers show that there's a steady, incremental increase in sales.

I also noticed that I'll get a surge of sales (two or three at one time), and then it will go dry for about an hour.

I'm wondering (and this is 100% speculation) if the Amazon algorithms are designed to push you out into the world slowly, and keep you there. It's almost as if it pushes/recommends me at certain times of the day to see if I can continue the pattern/sustain sales. 

Otherwise, why wouldn't I have 10 sales one day and 50 the next? Why do I build over the weekend and maintain the sales through the week? You would think that sales would be more sporadic than this, but no: there is a slow and steady build here. 

I don't know what this means, or if this trend will continue. I'm hoping (fingers crossed) it does. I'm obviously not speaking for every writer in this industry. . . . These are just my personal observations.

At any rate, you want to break #10,000 on Amazon. I noticed the surge around #7000-8000, so this could be the "sweet spot" that gets you noticed. 

KK

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

YA Indie Spotlight: Sybil Nelson


Hi Everyone!

Today, Sybil Nelson is on the blog! Sybil is promoting her YA novel The Queen Bee of Bridgeton.

(post hijack! I LOVE this cover!)

Summary

When fifteen-year-old Sonya Garrison is accepted into the prestigious Bridgeton Academy, she soon discovers that rich girls are just as dangerous as the thugs in her home of Venton Heights. Maybe more so. After catching the eye of the star white basketball player and unwittingly becoming the most popular girl in school, she earns the hatred of the three most ruthless and vindictive girls at Bridgeton. Can she defeat the reigning high school royalty? Or will they succeed in ruining her lifelong dream of becoming a world class dancer? 

Rating: PG-13 

About the Author 

Sybil has always had a love of books and writing. During her school years, she'd choose a different author each summer and devour their complete works.  Riding public transportation from her low-income housing, she always dedicated Wednesdays to her library pursuits. 

Sybil also spent her time jotting down poems and stories in her beloved notebooks. She even won a full scholarship to Washington and Lee University for one of her essays. Though her scholarship was for journalism, she soon lost confidence in her writing and ended up changing her major from English and Journalism to Mathematics and Music Theory.

During the years after college, while working as a math teacher at Georgetown Day School, Sybil never lost her love of words. She continued to devour novels in her free time. In all of her reading, however, she began to notice that the novels she enjoyed most never contained any black female characters. This observation bothered her. 

After years noticing the role models (or lack thereof) for black girls in the media, Sybil finally decided to pick up a pen and do something about it. While working as a math teacher at Ashley Hall School in Charleston, South Carolina, and finishing her master's thesis at the College of Charelston, she began writing stories poems and novels that featured strong black women. She now attends the Medical University of South Carolina pursuing her Ph.D. in Biostatistics. She continues to write and, to date, has written ten complete novels. 

The Queen Bee of Bridgeton can be purchased for 


and


The reviews look stellar and it is priced at $2.99. Sybil has several other titles available as well. You can visit her websites for both Sybil Nelson and Leslie DuBois.


I hope you'll check her out!
KK

Monday, April 25, 2011

Weekend Update!

I've already reported that Cross My Heart was hitting some of the subcategory Amazon Bestseller lists. Well, this weekend I've been bouncing on and off the actual children's ebooks bestseller list (no subcategory). I haven't been able to push past #90 yet (that I've seen), but this morning I'm sitting at #92.



The rest of my rankings look like this:


It was an awesome weekend, actually. There were some rumblings that maybe sales would be down because of the Easter weekend, but that didn't seem to hurt Cross My Heart sales, so I'm interested to know how others fared this week.

In the meantime, a huge thank you to everyone who's purchased a copy and left a ranking/review. You guys are the ones putting me on and keeping me on these lists, so it's all you!

In other news, I'm working on something new. It's still in the first draft stages, but I should have more information to report soon. :) 

KK